Globus Toolkit

CoG JGlobus 1.8.0 released

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 11:54:59 -0600

We are happy to announce CoG JGlobus 1.8.0. For details, please take a look at http://dev.globus.org/wiki/CoG_jglobus and the release page at http://dev.globus.org/wiki/CoG_JGlobus_1.8.0.

As always, changes are documented in CHANGES.TXT, http://tinyurl.com/y9xv3ga, and bug fixes include the following:

normalizing email address in DNs for signing policy
full certificate verification in org.globus.gsi.GlobusCredential.verify():
http://bugzilla.globus.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=6870
GridFTP remote hang detection:
https://bugzilla.mcs.anl.gov/globus/show_bug.cgi?id=6883
configurable refresh interval for CRL loading:
https://bugzilla.mcs.anl.gov/globus/show_bug.cgi?id=6891

Thanks to all those who contributed features and fixes, and for the support of CoG JGlobus.

The CoG JGlobus Project Committers

Google Summer of Code� projects developed by Globus students featured on Google Open Source blog

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 11:47:37 -0600

The Globus Alliance participated in this year's Google Summer of Code, a program that offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source projects, and received funding for ten students. The interesting work done by our Google Summer of Code students is featured in this post on the Google Open Source Blog:

http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2009/12/rocking-grid-globus-alliances-second.html

Important information on Globus events and plans

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:52:49 -0500

Dear Colleagues:

Earlier this year we requested input to help us shape our plans for Globus' future. (http://www.mail-archive.com/gt-user@lists.globus.org/msg00927.html). Since then we have been listening, discussing, exploring alternatives, and finally making decisions about our future efforts in Globus. This email is a long-overdue follow-up to that previous note, summarizing our plans.

Note that this mail describes plans only for those portions of Globus led primarily by U Chicago, Argonne, and USC/ISI. The Globus community is larger than just these institutions, with substantial contributions from many individuals and organizations based on many distinct project and funding priorities. Our plans highlighted here includes much input from these contributors, but do not speak for those individuals and organizations.

A) EVENTS

We are planning several events in the coming months where Globus' future (and present) can be further explained, discussed, and refined, including:

* SC'09 (http://sc09.supercomputing.org/), November 15-20, Portland, Oregon, USA: Please come visit us at the Argonne National Laboratory booth.

* Viva Globus, December 16 at Argonne (near Chicago, Illinois, USA): It has been a while since our last "Viva Globus" contributors meeting. We will revive this meeting series on December 16. More information will be forthcoming soon. This meeting is intended for substantial contributors to the Globus software, as an opportunity to update each other on our respective activities, discuss future plans and collaborations, and make decisions regarding community governance and processes. Of particular focus at this next Viva Globus will be discussions and decisions regarding the future of the Globus Alliance governance.

* GlobusWorld, March 2-4 at Argonne (near Chicago Illinois, USA): This latest installment of the GlobusWorld user conference series will be focused on users of the Globus software, including talks and tutorials on using new (and old) Globus software, and presentations and discussions by Globus users on their experiences. More information about this conference will become available starting at SC'09.

B) DECISIONS

The following points summarize the decisions that we have made over the past 6 months during the re-evaluation process:

1. Of paramount importance is improving the quality of the Globus software and the service we provide to Globus users. We will continue to maintain and support the existing Globus Toolkit version 4.x (GT4) software as long as demand exists and funding allows, minimally through the end of the CDIGS project in December 2010. And in all changes and enhancements we are making to Globus going forward, we are placing a strong emphasis on issues related to helping our community migrate forward.

2. We have made some long-overdue, difficult decisions about some of the more problematic portions of Globus, including:

2.a. There have been long struggles and confusion over the GRAM2 vs. GRAM4 components. We have resolved these problems by re-investing in, fixing, and enhancing GRAM2. This new version, called GRAM5, is fully backward compatible with GRAM2 (with two minor exceptions*), but solves its scalability issues and adds numerous frequently requested features. It is currently in alpha testing by several major users, who are using it with existing GT4 Java jGlobus/COG clients, C clients, and Condor-G. It will be released soon as part of GT5. We will continue to support GRAM4 at least through December 2010 (perhaps longer, depending upon demand and funding), but have begun to assist GRAM4 users in migrating to GRAM5. If you are an existing GRAM4 user and would like to discuss migration issues to GRAM5, please contact us. For a more complete description of the GRAM5 alpha release, see http://dev.globus.org/wiki/GRAM/GRAM5. We welcome additional testing and bug reports on this GRAM5 alpha release.

(*The two exceptions to GRAM5's backward compatibility with GRAM2 are: (i) no support for MPICH-G/MPIG job rendezvous; and (ii) GRAM5 stages out stdout/err at the end of the job rather than streaming them out while the job runs.)

2.b. The Reliable File Transfer (RFT) service has been of considerable interest to many Globus users, but in practice has suffered from difficulties in both use and operation. We have decided to replace the RFT functionality with a new Globus.org service, described below.

2.c. GT4 Java Core is based heavily on obsolete technology (Apache Axis 1.x) and standards (WSRF), yet nonetheless continues to provide tremendous value-add to Web Services-based Grid builders, particularly in the area of security and stateful resource management. With the urging of, and in partnership with, some of our large Java Core users such as the caGrid team at Ohio State University, we have begun the Globus Crux effort to update our Java Web Services stack to newer technologies (e.g., Apache CXF), while preserving and enhancing our core value-add security capabilities as a plug-in to CXF and allowing for WSRF protocol compatibility. We expect to release an alpha version of Crux by the end of 2009. See http://confluence.globus.org/display/whi/Crux+for+GT+Developers for details.

2.d. While MDS is applicable to a broad range of monitoring and discovery tasks, in practice its predominant use has been to build service registries/catalogs for TeraGrid, caBIG, and BIRN, with limited adoption for systems monitoring in a few other communities. Since MDS4 is intimately intertwined with GT4 Java Core, it would require a substantial reimplementation effort to update it to Crux. Meanwhile, the state of monitoring tools has evolved considerably since MDS4 was first conceived, with the widespread adoption of highly capable, open source monitoring tools such as Nagios. Therefore we have begun work on a more focused effort to design and implement next generation service registry capabilities using Crux, which we are calling our Integrated Information Services (IIS) effort. This IIS effort is still in the requirements gathering phase, with no releases planned until sometime in 2010. We recommend that monitoring needs be met using other tools such as Nagios.

3. Development continues unabated for the other components of the Globus Toolkit (e.g., GridFTP, RLS, Myproxy, GSI-OpenSSH, etc) and the many other active dev.globus components (http://dev.globus.org).

4. We plan to release Globus Toolkit version 5 (GT5) in late 2009, as recently announced (http://www.mail-archive.com/gt-user@lists.globus.org/msg01311.html). Like previous versions of GT, this version will continue to offer a collection of tools that Grid builders can use to create a wide variety of Grid solutions for specific communities. GT5 will include GridFTP, GRAM5, RSL, Myproxy, GSI-OpenSSH, and the relevant underlying C libraries such as GSSAPI, XIO, C Core, etc. Note that GT5 will not include Java Core. Instead, we will continue to support GT4 Java Core, and will work with our users to migrate GT4 Java Core services to Crux when it becomes available.

5. Globus Toolkit version 5.2, targeted for Q1 2010, will focus on repackaging the GT5 components into independent component releases that leverage OS-native packaging approaches (e.g., RPM), with assistance from other groups (e.g., KnowARC) who have already blazed this trail. Subsequent GT releases in the remainder of 2010 will focus primarily on usability and reliability, along with features required by Globus.org. The repackaging effort will not impact backward compatibility with GT 5.0. We expect GT 5.2 clients and services to be fully compatible with GT 5.0.

C) THE GLOBUS.ORG ONLINE SERVICE

We are creating a new Globus.org online, hosted service (i.e., Software-as-a-Service), to provide higher-level, end-to-end Grid capabilities, targeted to end users, as well as Grid builders looking for more complete solutions to build upon. Initial functionality of Globus.org will focus on replacing and enhancing the RFT functionality of reliable, high-performance, fire-and-forget data transfer, but over time will grow to include more “collective layer” functionality (as described in the “Anatomy of the Grid” paper 1]). We plan to debut and demonstrate Globus.org at SC'09 next month. We will begin operating a beta version of this service in November 2009 to a limited set of initial users, with a substantial ramp-up starting in early 2010.

During the remaining 14 months of the CDIGS project, we intend to focus more resources toward Grid data management problems. We have seen tremendous growth in GridFTP usage over the past 2 years. Through a combination of usability and packaging improvements to GridFTP, along with the introduction of end-to-end Grid data management capabilities in Globus.org, we intend to substantially increase the value and resulting usage of the Globus data management software.

D) NEW LEADERSHIP

We are pleased to welcome returning and new leadership to our Globus team. Steve Tuecke, who was the Globus lead architect for its first 10 years before leaving five years ago to start a company, returned to the University of Chicago in January 2009, and has resumed both technical and project leadership for our Globus activities. Additionally, the University of Chicago recruited Paul Dave’ to a new Director of User Services position in August 2009, with a mandate of dramatically improving the quality and methods by which we provide services to Globus users, including support, consulting and operations. We have also re-organized our software development team and processes, with the introduction of widely adopted Agile Scrum development practices.

We are excited about this re-invogoration of the Globus software and community, and the increasing value the Globus community can bring to the many multi-institutional scientific and biomedical communities whose need for robust Grid computing middleware continues to grow unabated.

Viva Globus!

The Globus Team

[1] “The Anatomy of the Grid: Enabling Scalable Virtual Organizations,” Ian Foster, Carl Kesselman, Steven Tuecke. International Journal of Supercomputer Applications, 15(3), 2001.

CoG JGlobus 1.7.0 Release

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:27:51 -0500

We are happy to announce CoG JGlobus 1.7.0. This release includes bug fixes, contribution for improvement of delegation with GSI SSL and some feature additions to the MyProxy Client. For details, please take a look at http://dev.globus.org/wiki/CoG_jglobus and release page at http://dev.globus.org/wiki/CoG_JGlobus_1.7.0

As always, changes are documented in CHANGES.TXT, http://tinyurl.com/n65jhb and bug fixes include:

Change MyProxy key length from 512 to 1024
Support trust root provisioning in myproxy jglobus client
org.globus.util.ConfigUtil.java doesn't recognize FreeBSD
grid-proxy-init -valid differs between COG and GT
Allow no authorization with delegation as a configurable option
support fail-over to a list of myproxy-server hosts
Streamline version number updates
jglobus signing_policy checking should be case insensitive
Bootstrap of trust fails with 1.7 RC3

Thanks to all those who contributed features and fixes, and for the support of CoG JGlobus.

The CoG JGlobus Project Committers

Spider, the world's biggest Lustre file system at ORNL's LCF is accessible via GridFTP

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:24:25 -0500

Ultimately, it will connect to all of ORNL's existing and future supercomputing platforms as well as off-site platforms across the country via GridFTP (a protocol that transports large data files), making data files accessible from any site in the system.

To learn more, read the article here:
http://www.hpcwire.com/features/Spider-Up-and-Spinning-Connections-to-All-Computing-Platforms-at-ORNL-50398972.html

KnowARC Project Brings Grids to Debian

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:02:04 -0500

The KnowARC project brings Globus packages to Debian Linux, paving the way for many Grid projects to be included in the popular distribution. Read the article here:

http://www.hpcwire.com/topic/middleware/KnowARC-Project-Brings-Grids-to-Debian-50368972.html

Nimbus in the news

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:27:46 -0500

"The open-source Nimbus software lets scientists and businesses summon supercomputers on demand and on the cheap. And the collective experience of years in the high-performance computing field feeds back into the development of next-generation systems that will dwarf today�s supercomputers in speed and efficiency."

For more, see Supercomputing from clusters to clouds

Google Summer of Code^TM 2009 accepted students announced

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:51:22 -0500

The list of student proposals accepted for participation in Google Summer of Code^TM were announced today. Google Summer of Code is a program that offers students a $4,500 stipend to write code for various open source projects over a three month period. The Globus Alliance is participating as a mentoring organization for the second year in a row and will receive funding for eleven students. This year, the Globus Alliance received many excellent proposals, and choosing the top eleven was challenging. Congratulations to our selected students for proposing such top-notch summer projects!

Multiple Cluster support for Nimbus
by Adam Bishop
Mentored by Ian Gable.

Distribution of computing jobs among different clouds (Nimbus, AWS)
by Jan-Philip Gehrcke
Mentored by Kate Keahey.

Performance characterization of GridFTP on 10+ Gigabit networks using hosts with 10 Gigabit network interface cards
by Jamie Hegarty
Mentored by Raj Kettimuthu.

Develop a new 'sync' feature for the GridFTP client, globus-url-copy.
by Shruti Jain
Mentored by Mike Link.

Globus XIO Checksum Driver
by Mattias Lidman
Mentored by Joe Bester.

A Taverna plug-in for constructing CQL queries to caGrid cancer research data services
by Monika Machunik
Mentored by Wei Tan.

GridWay + GoogleMaps web interface
by Carlos Martin
Mentored by Alejandro Lorca.

Scheduling Algorithms for Swift
by Jonathan Roelofs
Mentored by Ben Clifford.

Develop a GUI for GridWay
by Srini Vasan
Mentored by Jos� Luis V�zquez-Poletti.

AJAX web interface for Globus Toolkit services
by Fugang Wang
Mentored by Tom Howe.

PSK Globus XIO driver
by Melissa Weaver
Mentored by John Bresnahan.

Release of caGrid version 1.3

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:54:48 -0500

On behalf of the entire caGrid team, I am pleased to announce the release of caGrid version 1.3. All release artifacts can be accessed at https://cabig.nci.nih.gov/workspaces/Architecture/caGrid

Some key enhancements for the release include:

Continuous Integration: caGrid 1.3 enhances support for the latest releases (version 4.1.1) of the caCORE Software Development Kit (SDK) and Common Security Module (CSM). caGrid and the caCORE SDK now share a common code base for CQL. In addition, caGrid 1.3 supports the most recent web services containers in the NCI CBIIT Technology Stack (Tomcat 5.5.27 and JBoss 4.0.5).
Data Services: Significant enhancements to the Federated Query Processor (FQP), allowing a single, semantic query to execute across multiple caGrid services and return a single result set. FQP now supports WS-Notification, querying secure grid services via the caGrid Credential Delegation Service (CDS), configurable query execution parameters to allow only partial results to be returned, and out-of-band results using the caGrid Transfer Service and WS-Enumeration.
Introduce Toolkit: The Introduce Toolkit has a number of security-related enhancements, adding fine-grain control over authorization using CSM and Grid Grouper. Introduce also includes service updaters, allowing service developers to easily update-to and leverage caGrid 1.3.
Metadata Services: The Mobius Global Model Exchange (GME) has been entirely rewritten for caGrid 1.3 to support the Semantic requirements of caBIG� software developers. The caGrid-developed caDSR grid service, based on the caCORE 3.1 API, has been deprecated, It has been replaced by the caDSR 4.0 data service (maintained by the caDSR team), and a new caGrid Metadata Model Service (MMS), whose purpose is creation and semantic annotation of caGrid metadata models using caDSR-derived data.
Security: Enhancements to the GAARDS infrastructure include support for multiple authentication profiles, including one-time passwords. Trusted Identity Providers can now be discovered programmatically, allowing full realization of federated authentication use cases. Auditing support has also been added to Dorian, giving systems administrators the degree of control they have requested.
Taverna Workflow: Orchestration of caGrid services is supported in this release though joint development with the Taverna project. The caGrid plug-in for the Taverna 2.0 workbench allows development of workflows using their rich user interface.

Feel free to contact me or Larry Brem <LAWRENCE.M.BREM@saic.com> if you have questions or suggestions.

Nimbus helps scientists run high energy physics experiments

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:40:13 -0500

A novel system is enabling high energy physicists at CERN in Switzerland, to make production runs that integrate their existing pool of distributed computers with dynamic resources in "science clouds." The work was presented at the 17th annual conference on Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics, held in Prague, Czech Republic, March 21-27.

The integration was achieved by leveraging two mechanisms: the Nimbus Context Broker, developed by computer scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago, and a portable software environment developed at CERN.

Scientists working on A Large Ion Collider Experiment, also known as the ALICE collaboration, are conducting heavy ion simulations at CERN. They have been developing and debugging compute jobs on a collection of internationally distributed resources, managed by a scheduler called AliEn.

Since researchers can always use additional resources, the question arose, How can one integrate a cloud's dynamically provisioned resources into an existing infrastructure such as the ALICE pool of computers, and still ensure that the various AliEn services have the same deployment-specific information? Artem Harutyunyan, sponsored by the Google Summer of Code to work on the Nimbus project, made this question the focus of his investigation. The first challenge was to develop a virtual machine that would support ALICE production computations.

"Fortunately, the CernVM project had developed a way to provide virtual machines that can be used as a base supporting the production environment for all four experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN � including ALICE," said Harutyunyan, a graduate student at State Engineering University of Armenia and member of Yerevan Physics Institute ALICE group. "Otherwise, developing an environment for production physics runs would be a complex and demanding task."

The CernVM technology was originally started with the intent of supplying portable development environments that scientists could run on their laptops and desktops. A variety of virtual image formats are now supported, including the Xen images used by the Amazon EC2 as well as Science Clouds. The challenge for Harutyunyan was to find a way to deploy these images so that they would dynamically and securely register with the AliEn scheduler and thus join the ALICE resource pool.

Here the Nimbus Context Broker came into play. The broker allows a user to securely provide context-specific information to a virtual machine deployed on remote resources. It places minimal compatibility requirements on the cloud provider and can orchestrate information exchange across many providers.

"Commercial cloud providers such as EC2 allow users to deploy groups of unconnected virtual machines, whereas scientists typically need a ready-to-use cluster whose nodes share a common configuration and security context. The Nimbus Context Broker bridges that gap," said Kate Keahey, a computer scientist at Argonne and head of the Nimbus project.

Integration of the Nimbus Context Broker with the CernVM technology has proved a success. The new system dynamically deploys a virtual machine on the Nimbus cloud at the University of Chicago, which then joins the ALICE computer pool so that jobs can be scheduled on it. Moreover, with the addition of a queue sensor that deploys and terminates virtual machines based on demand, the researchers can experiment with ways to balance the cost of the additional resources against the need for them as evidenced by jobs in a queue.

According to Keahey, one of the most exciting achievements of the project was the fact that the work was accomplished by integrating cloud computing into the existing mechanisms. "We didn't need to change the users' perception of the system," Keahey said.

###

For more information on the CERNVM, please visit: http://cernvm.cern.ch

For more information on the Nimbus, please visit: http://workspace.globus.org

The U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.

Contact: Eleanor Taylor
etaylor@anl.gov
630-252-5510
DOE/Argonne National Laboratory

Globus selected as a Google Summer of Code 2009 mentoring organization

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:30:20 -0500

The Globus Alliance has been selected as a Google Summer of Code^TM 2009 mentoring organization. Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is a program that offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source projects. Google works with several open source, free software, and technology-related groups to identify and fund several projects over a three month period. Historically, the program has brought together nearly 2,500 students with over 180 open source projects to create millions of lines of code. The program, which kicked off in 2005, is now in its fifth year.

If you are a student and would be interested in participating in GSoC with Globus as your mentoring organization, please take a look at our GSoC Ideas page. This page lists projects that Globus has proposed for GSoC, but it is not a closed list. If you have an idea for a cool project that uses or extends Globus technologies, please take a look at our list of Globus GSoC mentors and contact the one who most closely matches your interests. Take into account that student proposals must be submitted by April 3rd through the GSoC web application.

If you have any questions about our participation in GSoC, please contact the Globus GSoC administrators.

International Summer School on Grid Computing 2009, Sophia Antipolis, Nice, France

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 11:05:55 -0600

The School will provide an in-depth introduction to Grid technologies that underpin e-Infrastructure and Cyberinfrastructure. It will present a conceptual framework to enhance each student's ability to work in this rapidly advancing field. Reports from world leaders in deploying and exploiting Grids will complement lectures from research leaders shaping future e-Infrastructure. Hands-on laboratory exercises will give participants experience with widely used Grid middleware.

For more information, go to www.issgc.org.

MyProxy passes independent vulnerability assessment

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 11:46:33 -0600

Some great news about MyProxy:

With more than 200 deployments worldwide, NCSA's MyProxy is a core security service in many of today's grid computing infrastructures, including TeraGrid, Enabling Grids for E-sciencE, Earth System Grid, Fusion Grid, and LHC Computing Grid. Today, all of those communities can sleep easier knowing that MyProxy has undergone an independent security evaluation that found no major vulnerabilities.

To read the whole article, go to: http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/News/09/0223MyProxypasses.html

GridFTP GUI now available for versions of GT 4.0+

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 11:26:43 -0600

The GridFTP team is happy to announce a GridFTP GUI now available for versions 4.0, 4.2, and above. For more information and a Flash demo, please see:

http://www.globus.org/toolkit/docs/latest-stable/data/gridftp/user/#id2547848

Looking back on the development of the LHC grid [iSGTW 1/14/2009]

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:47:21 -0600

Transcript of Les Robertson's speech about how grid computing enabled the LHC.

"Consequently, we decided to implement a distributed system as a computational grid, based on the ideas of two scientists working in the United States, Ian Foster and Carl Kesselman. Together, these two had developed a concept which allowed computing centers to inter-connect in a very general way, integrating their separate resources to offer a single virtual computing service."

You can find the article here.

User Perspectives Report Available

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 18:27:10 -0600

We are happy to announce the report, Perspectives on Distributed Computing: Thirty People, Four User Types, and the Distributed Computing User Experience, is available for download. This report chronicles and analyzes the responses of thirty users to questions about using the Globus Toolkit - starting with summaries of results and conclusions but also including very detailed appendices and even transcripts of the interviews. Very interesting information for those involved in distributed computing:

http://www.mcs.anl.gov/~childers/perspectives/

Globus GSoC projects featured on Google Open Source blog

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 18:11:05 -0600

Globus' projects for last year's Google Summer of Code (GSoC) are featured on the Google Open Source blog. The posting describes all the interesting work our GSoC students did last summer:

http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2009/01/globus-alliances-first-google-summer-of.html

IWSGC'09 - Call for Participants

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:12:07 -0600

International Winter School in Grid Computing 2009

http://www.iceage-eu.org/iwsgc09/

PLEASE forward this information to your colleagues who might be interested.

Overview

The 2nd International Winter School in Grid Computing (IWSGC'09) will bring together world experts and enthusiastic students. It will be delivered fully online: participants will be able to attend the School without losing time and money on traveling. It will examine the conceptual and practical underpinnings of today's grids. Experts will provide exciting practical exercises, discuss the challenges of building and sustaining e-Infrastructure, report its rapid influence on the way we research, design and make decisions. They will share their vision of the developments and challenges ahead. Comparable in commitment and scope with the famous International Summer School in Grid Computing (ISSGC), the International Winter School in Grid Computing provides a unique online educational opportunity.

Rigorous both in admission requirements and expected work commitment, IWSGC retains the majority of learner benefits from ISSGC while offering a high degree of flexibility. Re-used Summer School materials will tackle the principles, technologies, experiences and methods of using Grids. They will also review the research perspectives and report recent significant successes. Opportunities will be available for online practical exercises. The work will be both challenging and rewarding. Extensive Forum and Chat discussions as well as live events will support the curriculum and help students to form lasting friendships and enhance collaborative research.

To support the hands-on laboratory sessions, the GILDA grid will host widely used middleware. This testbed will provide a rich environment for hands-on learning and experimentation. Exercises and team work will encourage students to learn by using this testbed. Students will be fired up with enthusiasm, equipped with practical skills and will leave the course with many shared experiences, new friends and a new capacity for research into and using advanced distributed computing systems. The target audience will include enthusiastic and ambitious young researchers who expect to use or develop grids in their research. We look forward to greeting participants from virtually every continent, from any country. Applications are invited from researchers who have recently started (or are about to start) working on Grid projects. Students may be planning to pioneer or enable new forms of e-Infrastructure, engage in fundamental distributed systems research or to develop new methods in any discipline that depends on the emerging capabilities of e-Infrastructure.

Applications

In all previous incarnations of the Summer School, and last year's Winter School, the level of applications has been of an extremely high standard and we have received more applications than places available. Selection for the Winter School is therefore competitive based on the information supplied on the application form and by an applicant's referee. We expect to accept between 25 and 30 students. We will be looking for students with commitment and enthusiasm for Grid research and development. We will expect competence and experience in some aspects of software development, distributed systems, computational systems, data systems and Grid applications. Most students will establish their credentials from academic qualifications, but some will base this on experience. We also welcome as participants educators who are planning to teach Grid computing. The Winter School will be conducted in English, so participants are expected to be comfortable using spoken and written English. We expect participants from computer science, computational science and any application discipline. The School will assume that students have diverse backgrounds and will build on that diversity.

Important Dates

24th November 2008: Applications open
12th January 2009: Applications closed

Best regards,

IWSGC09 Programme Committee
School Website: http://www.iceage-eu.org/iwsgc09/
E-mail: IWSGC@lists.nesc.ac.uk

Nimbus eScience 2008 talk

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:22:36 -0600

How to make a virtual cluster with one click: Kate will talk about our work on automated virtual cluster deployment at the eScience conference on Thursday, December 11th at 1:30 pm.

Our virtual cluster deployment tools have been used to create production virtual clusters for scientific applications on EC2 as well as the Science Clouds for the past year.

And speaking of Science Clouds and virtual clusters: Mauricio Tsugawa will talk about CloudBLAST and Ewa Deelman will talk about Montage virtual clusters.

Science Cloud Available at Purdue University for TeraGrid users

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:20:50 -0600

The Wispy compute cloud at Purdue University is available. For more information, see http://www.rcac.purdue.edu/teragrid/resources/#wispy.

Article describes GT4-based data mining grid [IEEE Computer Society]

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:46:39 -0600

From "Digging Deep into the Data Mine with DataMiningGrid" published by the IEEE Computer Society:

As modern data mining applications increase in complexity, so too do their demands for resources. Grid computing is one of several emerging networked computing paradigms promising to meet the requirements of heterogeneous, large-scale, and distributed data mining applications. Despite this promise, there are still too many issues to be resolved before grid technology is commonly applied to large-scale data mining tasks. To address some of these issues, the authors developed the DataMiningGrid system. It integrates a diverse set of programs and application scenarios within a single framework, and features scalability, flexible extensibility, sophisticated support for relevant standards and different users.

You can download the article here: http://www.globus.org/toolkit/news/StankovskiEtAlIEEEIC.pdf.

Globus Toolkit 4.2.1 Now Available

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:52:22 -0500

On behalf of the Globus Toolkit development team I am pleased to announce that a new stable release of the Globus Toolkit is now available. New users are encouraged to use the 4.2.1 release. Existing users of GT4.0.x may wish to evaluate the new software while maintaining their existing installations; due to the specification upgrade, the webservices in 4.2.1 are incompatible with the 4.0.x series.

Relevant 4.2.1 links:

Thanks for your support of Globus software!

Highlights of this release include:

C GSI now has better handling of server identity processing: http://bugzilla.globus.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=6331
XACML authorization callout added: http://www.globus.org/toolkit/docs/4.2/4.2.1/security/wsaajava/pdp/wsaajava-pdp-XACMLAuthzCallout.html
Improved GRAM4 Audit Logging: http://www.globus.org/toolkit/docs/4.2/4.2.1/rn/#gram4-changessummary
Merged in many VDT patches: http://bugzilla.globus.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=6192
JPA Persistence support: http://bugzilla.globus.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=5616
JNDI Configuration improvements: http://bugzilla.globus.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=6306

CoG JGlobus 1.6.0 Release

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:49:14 -0500

We're happy to announce CoG JGlobus 1.6.0. This is mostly a bug fix release. For details, please take a look at http://dev.globus.org/wiki/CoG_JGlobus_1.6.0

Our plan is to try to synchronize JGlobus releases with Globus Toolkit releases. So if everything goes according to the plan, this will be used in the upcoming Globus Toolkit 4.2.1 release.

Please enjoy and thanks for using our software.

The CoG JGlobus Project Committers

Advisories RSS Feeds Available

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:04:12 -0500

You can now subscribe to RSS feeds for advisories to supported versions of the Globus Toolkit.

Just go to the Advisories page:

http://www.globus.org/toolkit/advisories.html

select either of the supported versions from the drop-down list (default is GT 4.2) and scroll down to find the orange XML button.

Nimbus TP2.0 released

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:22:16 -0500

See the announcement for details.

Globus Toolkit 4.0.8 Now Available

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:37:19 -0500

GT 4.0.8 is recommended for all users. It was released because of a number of advisory updates to 4.0.7. The advisories updates contained in this release are:

globus_gsi_callback-0.33
globus_gatekeeper-3.2
globus_rls_server-4.7
globus_wsrf_rft_service_java-0.39
globus_java_ws_core-1.26
globus_gridftp_server_control-0.21
globus_java_ws_core-1.25
gsiopenssh-4.3

Details of the advisories are available at http://www.globus.org/toolkit/advisories.html?version=4.0. New users are encouraged to start with the 4.0.8 release, as other bugs were also fixed.

CoG JGlobus 1.5.0 release

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:51:25 -0500

We are happy to announce the release of next stable version of CoG JGlobus. Version 1.5.0 of the software is available for download from http://dev.globus.org/wiki/CoG_JGlobus_1.5.0.

The release includes many bug fixes and improvements since the last official version. Some of the new features include:

Support for signing policy enforcement during certificate validation.
RFC 3820 complaint proxy supported by default. All legacy proxy types continue to be supported.
Authorization mechanism that defaults to self authorization if host authorization fails.
Better support for GridFTP servers with multiple DNS entries
GridFTP API support for pipelining. A performance improvement for the "Lots of Small Files" problem.
Support for retrieving the last GridFTP reply (useful for finding the contents of the initial reply from the server)

The release follows the recently established CoG JGlobus Release guidelines (http://dev.globus.org/wiki/CoG_jglobus/Release_Process) and includes CoG JGlobus Feature Extensions.

Thanks,
CoG JGlobus Project Committers

GridWay 5.4 is available for download.

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:07:17 -0500

Release Notes and Download: http://www.gridway.org/doku.php?id=software:download
Documentation: http://www.gridway.org/doku.php?id=documentation:howto

New workspace service release enabled "one-click" virtual clusters, enabled for use on science clouds

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 13:55:24 -0500

The main new feature provided in this release is the ability to deploy "one-click" virtual clusters -- a much awaited release of the contextualization functions allowing users to create self-configurable virtual clusters on the fly. The new feature comes with improvements to the ensemble service and image compression facilities that extend the range of deployment scenarios in which it can be used. We would like to thank all the heroic users who tried out the feature before this release -- your feedback (and enthusiasm) allowed us to improve the code and tweak the docs (and kept us going ;-)

In addition, the release contains support for configuring the number of vcpus (virtual "cores") with which VMs are deployed, various client enhancements, usability improvements, and bug fixes.

You can download the new release from:

http://workspace.globus.org/downloads/index.html

The full changelog can be found at:

http://workspace.globus.org/vm/TP1.3.3/index.html#changelog

The release has been installed on the science clouds which means that -- if you have not done so already -- you can create your own virtual cluster in minutes! Check out the instructions at:

http://workspace.globus.org/clouds/clusters.html

Watch out for the next installment, many cool new features are coming up and we hope to send something out before Labor Day ;-)

The Workspace Team

New stable release 4.2.0 now available for download!

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:05:10 -0500

On behalf of the Globus Toolkit development team I am pleased to announce that a new stable release of the Globus Toolkit is now available. GT4.2.0 contains an upgrade to the web services specifications used by the toolkit as well as new features in all services. New users are encouraged to use the 4.2.0 release. Existing users may wish to evaluate the new software while maintaining their existing installations; due to the specification upgrade, the webservices are incompatible with the 4.0.x series. Details on the spec upgrade are available in the release notes.

Relevant 4.2.0 links:

Release notes: http://www.globus.org/toolkit/docs/4.2/4.2.0/rn/release_notes.html
Software: http://www.globus.org/toolkit/downloads/4.2.0/
Documentation: http://www.globus.org/toolkit/docs/4.2/4.2.0/

Thanks for your support of Globus software!

Charles

New features!

Persistent HTTP/S connection support in Java WS Core
Dynamic deployment support in Java WS Core
JBOSS 4.0.x support in Java WS Core
An implementation of WS-ServiceGroup added to C WS Core
C command-line tools for WSRF operations
Support for GetResourceProperties and QueryResourceProperties in the Delegation Service
Added support for the OGSA-AuthZ Authorization Service to CAS
Server-side attribute-based authorization framework enhancements
Support for a pluggable Policy Decision Point (PDP) designed to minimize common authorization errors
Enhanced security descriptor framework
A Web service interface for the Replica Location Service (RLS)
Improved support for multiple TriggerRules in the Trigger Service
Improved configuration interface for the Trigger Service
Java API to assist in creating resource properties from external information sources
A new resource manager (RM) adapter API in GRAM4

GridFTP moves your data and your news [iSGTW - 2 July 2008]

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:19:37 -0500

Article about GridFTP's use in production grids and new features for 4.2.0:

http://www.isgtw.org/?pid=1001209

GridShib for Globus Toolkit v0.6.0

Mon, 05 May 2008 14:01:13 -0500

Today, it is with great pleasure that the GridShib Project announces the immediate release of GridShib for Globus Toolkit v0.6.0. This release culminates a 20-month effort to bring SAML-based attribute push to X.509-based Grids.

GridShib for Globus Toolkit (GT) is an implementation of a Grid Service Provider, an entity much like a SAML Service Provider but for Grids. A Grid Service Provider consumes X.509-bound SAML tokens, a new type of security token that enables attributed-based authorization in X.509-based Grids.

Most everything you need to know about GridShib for GT is on this web page:
http://gridshib.globus.org/docs/gridshib-gt-0.6.0/readme.html

On this readme page, you will find more detailed information about the GridShib for GT software as well as links to downloads and documentation.

A major advance in this version of GridShib for GT is support for the TeraGrid Science Gateway use case where an intermediary makes a grid request on behalf of a browser user. The Gateway binds a SAML token to an X.509 proxy certificate and makes a request to a gridshib-enabled web service. On the service side, GridShib for GT consumes the SAML token and makes an access control decision based on the security information in the token.

As a SAML-consuming software component, GridShib for GT complements the previously released GridShib SAML Tools and GridShib Certification Authority (CA), which are SAML-producing software components. These three components together enable attribute-based authorization in X.509-based Grids. See the Quick Start for step-by-step instructions that show how to use GridShib for GT v0.6, GridShib SAML Tools v0.3, and GridShib CA v0.5.1 together on Windows and UNIX systems:
http://gridshib.globus.org/docs/gridshib/quick-start.html

For links to all GridShib software downloads and additional documentation, visit the GridShib Downloads page:
http://gridshib.globus.org/download.html

Funding for GridShib software has been provided by the NSF NMI program and the NSF TeraGrid program.

Tom Scavo
For the entire GridShib Team

Last chance to register for Open Source Grid and Cluster Conference

Thu, 01 May 2008 12:10:56 -0500

Due to popular demand from procrastinators, we have extended until Monday, May 5 the advance registration deadline for the Open Source Grid and Cluster Conference.

If you haven't registered, now is the time to do so to get the off-site registration rate of $490.

If you haven't decided to come, take a look at http://www.opensourcegridcluster.org to see the outstanding content we've assembled, and take the plunge.

Google Summer of Code 2008 accepted students announced

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:46:05 -0500

Google announced on April 21st the list of accepted students in the Summer of Code 2008 program. The Globus Alliance was allocated ten students who will be working on projects spanning a variety of technology areas.

Diagnostic Administrator Interface Framework
by Karl Norby
Mentored by Charles Bacon.

Implementing a KVM backend to the Globus workspace service
by Michael Fenn
Mentored by Kate Keahey.

Development of dynamic resource trading service for Virtual Workspaces
by Artem Harutyunyan
Mentored by Tim Freeman.

Integration of GridFTP with Freeloader storage system
by Hesam Ghasemi
Mentored by Rajkumar Kettimuthu.

SAML Holder-of-Key Authentication for HTTP Single Sign-On in GridShib
by Joana Matos Fonseca da Trindade
Mentored by Tom Scavo.

gRavi UX
by Marcus Westin
Mentored by Ravi K Madduri.

XIO Compression Driver
by Mattias Lidman
Mentored by John Bresnahan.

Credential Translation Service
by Mehran Ahsant
Mentored by Rachana Ananthakrishnan.

Type Checking and Inference for SwiftScript
by Milena Nikolic
Mentored by Ben Clifford.

Enabling market-based scheduling on OpenNebula and its integration with the Globus Workspace Service
by William Voorsluys
Mentored by Borja Sotomayor.

Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is a program that offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source projects. Google works with several open source, free software, and technology-related groups to identify and fund several projects over a three month period. Historically, the program has brought together over 1,500 students with over 130 open source projects to create millions of lines of code. This year, the program welcomes 1,125 student participants (selected from over 7,000 applications) and 175 Free and Open Source Projects.

Call for Papers for the UK e-Science AHM2008

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:03:45 -0500

'Crossing Boundaries: Computational Science, E-Science and Global E- Infrastructures'

8th - 11th September 2008 in Edinburgh, Scotland

Submission Deadline: 1st May 2008

General Information

This is the principal e-Science meeting in the UK and brings together researchers from all disciplines, computer scientists and developers to meet and exchange ideas. The meeting is in its seventh year and normally attracts between 500 and 600 participants. The theme for this year's meeting is Crossing Boundaries: Computational Science, E-Science and Global E-Infrastructures.

The appointment of Professor Peter Coveney (UCL) as Programme Chair heralds a new approach. This year, for the first time, key papers will be published in two back-to-back editions of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A in the early part of 2009, with the title Crossing Boundaries: Computational Science, E-Science and Global E- Infrastructures. One of the central aims of this year's meeting is to promote the domain-specific applications aspects of e-Science, as well as building bridges between the three communities of the theme title.

The general format of the meeting will include cross-community symposia (kicked off by invited key speakers) and workshops. The workshops are being championed by Programme Committee members in what are considered to be key areas of e-Science that need to be addressed, rather than by a call for workshops as has been done in the past.There will also be opportunities to present 20 minute talks.

Proposed Workshops

The proposed workshops include:

Delivering Grid Services - the role of Central Computing Services
Infrastructure Provision for 'Grids': Infrastructure for Users
Software Development for Scientific Applications: current and future perspectives
Information Assurance for the Grid: Crossing Boundaries between Stakeholders
e-Science Applications in Computational Science: Advancing Research Across Scales
Interactive e-Science to Support Creativity and Intuition in Research
HPC Grids of Continental Scope
Computational Biomedicine
The Global Data Centric View

We are therefore calling for abstract submissions for:

General papers which are not particularly attached to a workshop
AND
Workshop papers related to the above workshops.

Further details about the workshops and important information about the submission and review process, including guidelines for authors can be found at: http://www.allhands.org.uk/2008/programme/call.cfm.

Inquiries

Please address any inquiries about abstract submission to: admin [at] allhands [dot] org [dot] uk

10 reasons to attend Open Source Grid and Cluster Conference

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:04:43 -0500

The following message is from Ian Foster:

Dear Globus Colleagues:

I assembled a list of 10 reasons why you should attend the Open Source Grid and Cluster Conference, to be held in Oakland May 12-16 (www.opensourcegridcluster.org).

Globus program is fantastic, including tutorials, advanced technical presentations, contributed talks, and community events on every aspect of Globus.
Gobs of other material on Sun Grid Engine and Rocks, and other open source grid and cluster software.
Gathering: A great opportunity to meet colleagues, peers, collaborators from the grid and cluster community. The only grid meeting in the US the rest of this year--the next two OGFs are in Spain (June) and Singapore (September).
GT4.2: You'll get to learn about the exciting new features in Globus Toolkit 4.2. New execution, data, security, information, virtualization, and core services.
Gratification (immediate) as you get to provide your input on future directions for Globus, Sun Grid Engine, Rocks, and other open source systems--and maybe sign up to contribute to those developments.
Grid solutions: You'll get to meet the people using Globus to build enterprise grid solutions in projects like caBIG, TeraGrid, Earth System Grid, MEDICUS, and LIGO, and learn about solution tools like Introduce, MPI-G, Swift, Taverna, and UniCluster.
Gurus: You get to grill the Globus gurus--or, if you prefer, show off your own Globus guru status.
Great price: $490 registration is substantially cheaper than OGF or HPDC, for example, and the hotel rate is reasonable ($149).
Gorgeous location: Oakland is easy to get to -- SFO (with easy BART train ride), Oakland, and San Jose airports also nearby. Just a 10 minute train ride to downtown San Francisco. A lovely time to be in the Bay Area.
Gorilla and guerilla free: None of the corporate marketing talks that diluted the last GridWorld conference--apart from two sponsor talks, this is pure tech, and highly useful tech at that.

We look forward to seeing you in Oakland!

Regards -- Ian.

caBIG helps crack human genome [ComputerWorld, 3/2008]

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:50:36 -0500

Research grid could lead to improved drug research and safer clinical trials for cancer patients -- and soon for other diseases. For more information, see http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1494114795.

Registration is now open for Open Source Grid and Cluster Conference

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:19:08 -0500

Registration is now open for:

OPEN SOURCE GRID & CLUSTER CONFERENCE 2008

Featuring: GlobusWorld, Grid Engine Workshop, Rocks Cluster Workshop

May 13 - 15, 2008 in Oakland, California http://www.OpenSourceGridCluster.org

At the 2008 Open Source Grid & Cluster Conference, current and potential users, administrators, and developers of open source grid and cluster software in research and industry from around the globe will join together to experience three-days of innovative programming including tracks dedicated to Globus (GlobusWorld), Grid Engine (Grid Engine Workshop), and Rocks (Rocks Cluster Workshop, sessions addressing related open source grid and cluster software, and presentations on cross-cutting material focused on end-user applications and grid and cluster operations. With a combination of in-depth tutorials, user experiences, technical architecture reviews, discussions of future directions, and much more, there will be something for everyone at this unique event.

Join in the March Madness - register by March 31 and receive the early bird registration rate of $390 for three full days of outstanding programming.

Do you have a presentation you would like to share with participants of the Open Source Grid & Cluster Conference? We are still accepting Calls for Participation through March 21, 2008.

Visit http://www.OpenSourceGridCluster.org for more information, to register or to submit an abstract to the Call for Participation.

We look forward to seeing you in Oakland!

This conference is sponsored by Sun Microsystems, Univa UD and the Computation Institute.

Globus Toolkit 4.0.7 Now Available

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:50:07 -0500

On behalf of the Globus Toolkit development team we are pleased to announce that a new incremental release of GT4 is now available for download. GT 4.0.7 is recommended for all users. It was released because of bug 5910, a potential RFT data corruption bug. The bug affected only GT 4.0.6, and users of GT 4.0.6 can apply the update package from http://www.globus.org/toolkit/advisories.html. New users are encouraged to start with the 4.0.7 release, as other bugs were also fixed as listed in the release notes.

Relevant 4.0.7 links:

Release notes: http://www.globus.org/toolkit/releasenotes/4.0.7/
Software: http://www.globus.org/toolkit/downloads/4.0.7/
Documentation: http://www.globus.org/toolkit/docs/4.0/

Thanks for your support of Globus software!

Globus selected as a Google Summer of Code 2008 mentoring organization

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:18:08 -0500

The Globus Alliance has been selected as a Google Summer of Code 2008 mentoring organization. Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is a program that offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source projects. Google works with several open source, free software, and technology-related groups to identify and fund several projects over a three month period. Historically, the program has brought together over 1,500 students with over 130 open source projects to create millions of lines of code. The program, which kicked off in 2005, is now in its fourth year.

If you are a student and would be interested in participating in GSoC with Globus as your mentoring organization, please take a look at our GSoC Ideas page. This page lists projects that Globus has proposed for GSoC, but it is not a closed list. If you have an idea for a cool project that uses or extends Globus technologies, please take a look at our list of Globus GSoC mentors and contact the one which most closely matches your interests. Take into account that student proposals must be submitted by March 31st and that you must meet Google's student eligibility criteria.

If you have any questions about our participation in GSoC, please contact the Globus GSoC administrators.

ISSGC08: Applications Open Now

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:58:28 -0600

The sixth in the highly successful series of International Summer Schools on Grid Computing will be held at the Hotel Fured Conference and Congress Centre of Balatonfured, Hungary, from 6th to 18th July 2008.

The School will include lectures, discussions, laboratory sessions, tutorials and group work delivered by leading authorities in the fields of advanced grid technology, applications of e-Science and distributed systems research. Reports from world leaders in deploying and exploiting Grids will complement lectures from research leaders shaping future e-Infrastructure.

Hands-on laboratory exercises will give students experience with widely used Grid middleware. The school will conclude with an integrating practical that will enable students, working in teams, to bring together all they have learnt on an extended exercise that simulates collaborative research using e-Infrastructures. Indeed during the school, participants will meet like-minded students from many parts of the world, working in many disciplines, and form valuable long-term working relationships.

We invite applications from enthusiastic and ambitious researchers who have recently started or are about to start working on Grid projects. Students may come from any country. We expect participants from computer science, computational science and any application discipline. The School will assume that students have diverse backgrounds and build on that diversity. However, in order to fully participate in the practical exercises you should be a confident programmer who will have fulfilled certain prerequisites.

To find further details visit the web site at: http://www.issgc.org.

Call for Participation: Open Source Grid & Cluster Conference

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:01:34 -0600

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION IS NOW LIVE

OPEN SOURCE GRID & CLUSTER CONFERENCE 2008

Featuring: GlobusWorld, Grid Engine Workshop, Rocks Cluster Workshop

Join Users, Administrators, and Developers of Open Source Grid and Cluster Software from across the Globe at this unique event

Open Source Grid & Cluster Conference 2008
May 12-16, 2008
Oakland Marriott
Oakland, California

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: March 21, 2008

Whether you are a Grid or Cluster expert with technical advice to share, or a leader with visions for the future of open source Grid and Cluster computing in research or industry, the Open Source Grid & Cluster Conference is the premier event for delivering your message to the Grid and Cluster community. In past years, hundreds of Grid and Cluster professionals from research and industry have attended individual events such as GlobusWorld, the Grid Engine Workshop, and Rocks-a-Palooza to discuss Grid and Cluster adoption issues, to receive training and exchange information related to these widely used Grid and Cluster software systems. This year the Globus, Grid Engine, and Rocks communities are joining forces to create the most comprehensive event on open source Grid and Cluster computing to date.

The Open Source Grid & Cluster Conference program will offer a wide variety of conference sessions, mini-symposiums, panel discussions, workshops, and tutorials. Speaking opportunities range from highly technical research, development, and deployment presentations to targeted panels on commercial and research adoption considerations. The Open Source Grid & Cluster Conference will run parallel tracks, some focused on Globus, Grid Engine, and Rocks community-specific topics, and others focused on cross-cutting and other open source Grid and Cluster software technologies and uses.

Key Dates and Deadlines

Abstract submission deadline - March 21, 2008
Acceptance notification - April 15, 2008
Presentation Slides Due - April 30, 2008

Speaking Topics

Submissions should be centered on the theme of uses and implementation of Open Source Software for Grid and Cluster Computing.

All proposals should be submitted online at
http://www.OpenSourceGridCluster.org/CFP.html.

Questions should be sent to program@OpenSourceGridCluster.org.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Abstract Guidelines

All submissions must include an abstract of no more than 500 words, and a brief bio for each presenter. Abstracts should be written so as to be self-contained and to provide the technical substance required for the program committee to evaluate the session's contribution to the Open Source Grid and Cluster community.

Please indicate whether the proposed session is specific to just one of Globus, Grid Engine, or Rocks.

If the presentation was given at another conference, then the name, date, and location of the event must be noted in the submission.

Abstracts should be submitted in plain text format either as an attachment or in the main body of the e-mail.

Abstracts and bios for accepted submissions will be published on the Open Source Grid & Cluster Conference website and in other conference material as the description of the session. Presentation slides may be published on the Conference website and distributed with conference material.

Presentations

Presentation proposals may be submitted for individual time slots of thirty minutes. Please be sure to allow ten minutes for Q&A within this allotted time. Individual presentations will be grouped with similar topic presentations to fill an entire session.

Build Your Own Session

Participants are invited to organize their own, complete, ninety-minute session, including but not limited to the following categories. The submission must include an agenda, and the names and associations of all participants.

Panel Session / Mini-Symposium

These sessions will enable conference attendees to learn from a group of experts on a particular topic. The session organizer may deliver an opening talk to set the context for the remainder of the session. Panelists will then give presentations designed to stimulate audience participation, on their preferably diverse opinions, experiences or expertise regarding the theme of the session. At least ten minutes should be reserved at the end for questions from the audience.

Birds-of-a-Feather (BOF) Sessions

These sessions will allow conference attendees to discuss focused subject areas. The session may include presentations and open discussion. Session organizers will be responsible for moderating these sessions and reporting on their outcomes.

Workshops and Tutorials

Ample room is available for half-day and full-day pre-conference (Monday) and post-conference (Friday) workshops and tutorials. Workshops may include topical meetings with open registration or community/group meetings with restricted attendance.

Tutorials may be on any topic related to the Open Source Grid and Cluster theme of the conference. Submissions must include preferred and minimum acceptable room size, and preferred and acceptable times. An extra nominal fee may be required of attendees or the organizer to cover additional costs such as A/V and food.

All proposals should be submitted online at
http://www.OpenSourceGridCluster.org/CFP.html.

Questions should be sent to program@OpenSourceGridCluster.org.

GridShib SAML Tools v0.3.0 Final Release

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 12:45:48 -0600

We are pleased to announce GridShib SAML Tools v0.3.0, the final release in the v0.3.0 development cycle:

http://gridshib.globus.org/docs/gridshib-saml-tools-0.3.0/readme.html
http://gridshib.globus.org/download.html#saml-tools

The GridShib SAML Tools are a suite of standalone client tools that issue SAML assertions and optionally bind these assertions to X.509 proxy certificates. To try out the software before downloading, visit our online demo:
https://computer.ncsa.uiuc.edu/gst-demo/

The GridShib SAML Tools require only Java 1.4 (or later) and Ant 1.6 (or later). Proxy certificates issued by the SAML Tools are compatible with GridShib for Globus Toolkit v0.6.0 Alpha (or later).

There have been significant changes in this version of the GridShib SAML Tools since the previous release:
http://gridshib.globus.org/docs/gridshib-saml-tools-0.3.0/CHANGES.txt

Important new features of GridShib SAML Tools v0.3.0 include:

enhanced command-line interface
new command-line options for the SAML Assertion Issuer Tool, including the option to output a DER-encoded ASN.1 structure
new X.509 Binding Tool, to bind arbitrary content to a non-critical extension of an X.509 proxy certificate
new SAML Security Info Tool, for examining the contents of X.509-bound SAML tokens
expanded Java API, for producing and consuming SAML assertions and X.509 proxy certificates
support for the TeraGrid Science Gateway Use Case

This development cycle was largely driven by the TeraGrid Science Gateway Use Case:
http://gridshib.globus.org/docs/gridshib-saml-tools-0.3.0/teragrid/readme.html

Science Gateways use the SAML Tools to enable auditing, incident response, and access control in Globus-based grids.

To learn more about this and other use cases, visit the "About GridShib" page:
http://gridshib.globus.org/about.html

While the GridShib SAML Tools produce X.509-bound SAML tokens, the complementary software component GridShib for Globus Toolkit consumes them. The latter is scheduled for release later this month or early next. See the roadmap on the GridShib home page for the latest updates.

Tom Scavo
For the GridShib Team

Science Cloud Available at the University of Chicago

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 12:39:59 -0600

From Kate Keahey:

On behalf of the workspace team, I am happy to announce the availability of a science cloud at the University of Chicago. The cloud provides compute capability in the form of Xen virtual machines (VMs) that are deployed on physical nodes of the University of Chicago TeraPort cluster using the workspace service. The cloud is available for members of the scientific community: to obtain access you will need to provide a justification (a few sentences explaining your science project).

To find out more go to:
http://workspace.globus.org/clouds/

The cloud is currently deployed on a modest allocation of resources as a beta project. We welcome comments, feedback, and bug reports. Information about the workspace project, software downloads, documentation and instructions on how to join the workspace-user mailing list for support questions can be found at:
http://workspace.globus.org.

Georgetown University Grid School (GTGS'08) -- Call for Participation

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:05:57 -0600

Note: Please pass on this announcement to any science departments in 2 and 4-year universities, research groups and labs, and any other parties who might be interested.

JOIN US for an exciting 3-day course in large-scale and high-performance grid computing to take place April 15-17, 2008, at Georgetown University, Washington D.C.

The Open Science Grid (OSG), a major national grid infrastructure, provides scientists with more than 70 production sites offering over 20,000 CPUs and 4 Petabytes of storage to advance their research. This organization includes members from particle and nuclear physics, astrophysics, bioinformatics, gravitational-wave science and computer science collaborations, all contributing to the development of the OSG and benefiting from advances in grid technology. Applications in other areas of science, such as mathematics, medical imaging and nanotechnology can also gain from the interactions with OSG through its partnership with local and regional grids or their communities' use of the Virtual Data Toolkit software stack.

We invite you to learn more about grid and high throughput computing and its implications in various research areas through this intensive OSG course that introduces the techniques of grid and distributed computing for science and engineering with hands-on training in the use of large-scale grid computing resources.

The workshop will focus on enabling the use of OSG and TeraGrid cyberinfrastructure to perform large-scale computations and data-intensive processing in different application domains. Participants will learn how to use grids of thousands of processors and will be able to continue to use these resources for their research after the course completion.

The workshop will cover:

Overview of distributed computing concepts and tools
Concepts, tools, and techniques of grid computing
Discovering and using grid resources
Grid scheduling and distributed data management
Techniques for workflow and collaboration

We will also offer a half-a-day module on grid site installation.

Target audience:
Undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, educators and professionals in engineering, computer science, or any scientific, data-or computing-intensive discipline may apply.

Prerequisites:
Applicants should have at least intermediate programming skills (one to two semesters experience in C/C++, Java, Perl, and/or Python) and hands-on experience with UNIX / Linux in a networked environment.

Important deadlines:

Application Deadline: March 14, 2008 -- now OPEN
Notification Deadline: March 27, 2008
Registration Deadline: April 3, 2008

For more information and to apply, please visit www.opensciencegrid.org/workshop You can also contact us at gtgs08@opensciencegrid.org. **********************************************************************

Open Source Grid and Cluster Conference

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 13:02:05 -0600

From Ian Foster:

Mark your calendar:

OPEN SOURCE GRID & CLUSTER CONFERENCE 2008

Featuring: GlobusWorld, Grid Engine Workshop, Rocks Cluster Workshop

Join Users, Administrators, and Developers of Open Source Grid and Cluster Software from across the globe at this unique event.

Open Source Grid & Cluster Conference 2008
May 12-16, 2008
Marriott City Center
Oakland, California, USA

For more information visit www.OpenSourceGridCluster.org

At the 2008 Open Source Grid & Cluster Conference, current and potential users, administrators, and developers of open source grid and cluster software in research and industry can:

Learn the latest best practices for using, managing and building grids and clusters
Hear the experiences of real users in a wide range of commercial, research, educational, and biomedical environments.
Meet the developers responsible for leading open source grid and cluster software.
Interact with others facing and addressing challenges similar to your own.

Sponsored in part by Univa UD and Sun Microsystems, the program will include tracks dedicated to Globus (GlobusWorld), Grid Engine (Grid Engine Workshop), and Rocks (Rocks Cluster Workshop). Other sessions will cover related open source grid and cluster software, and present cross-cutting material focused on end-user applications and grid and cluster operations. With a combination of in-depth tutorials, user experiences, technical architecture reviews, discussions of future directions, and much more, there will be something for everyone at this unique event.

We are also still accepting conference sponsors. Information about these opportunities is posted on our web site.

Call For Participation coming soon.

We look forward to seeing you in Oakland!

Workspace Release 1.3.1

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:40:17 -0600

The following message is from Kate Keahey:

On behalf of the workspace team, I am happy to announce the TP 1.3.1 release of the Workspace Service. You can download the new release from:
http://workspace.globus.org/downloads/index.html

The main new feature in this release is the implementation of the workspace pilot which provides non-invasive adaptations to batch schedulers (such as PBS) enabling sites to run virtual machines alongside jobs. The details of this approach are described in:
http://workspace.globus.org/papers/workspace-pilot-paper-submitted.pdf

In addition, the release also contains the ensemble service that allows clients to create ensembles of heterogeneous virtual machines to be deployed and managed together, improvements to the client, and several bug fixes. The complete changelog can be found at:
http://workspace.globus.org/vm/TP1.3.1/index.html#changelog

We welcome comments, feedback, and bug reports. Information about the project, software downloads, documentation and instructions on how to join the workspace-user mailing list for support questions can be found at:
http://workspace.globus.org

Happy Valentine's Day!

The Workspace Team

Globus used in more cutting edge HIV simulations

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 11:51:18 -0600

Globus-relevent aspects of Peter Coveney's project utilizing TACC and the Lonestar system:

The binding affinity calculator (BAC) automates much of the common workflow that the scientist or clinician must perform in order to set up and perform a set of simulations investigating the efficacy of HIV drugs for an individual patient. The BAC is built on top of the AHE platform, a web services environment designed to hide the complexity of application launching from the scientific end user of the grid. The AHE makes use of Globus Toolkit versions 2 and 4 for job submission, and GridFTP for data transfer between resources.

A typical study using the BAC consisting of seven drugs and six substrates requires 42 separate workflows to be executed. Each workflow consists of around 10 separate simulations submitted through Globus GRAM to run 10 ns of simulation using the NAMD molecular dynamics code, meaning a total of 420 separate jobs are submitted. Each nano second takes between 6-7 hours of wall time when run on 32 processors. The separate workflows generate around 14 GB of data each which is transferred back from the compute machine using GridFTP, meaning in total around 588GB of data are generated and transferred for each study that uses the BAC.

Read the whole article here.

Globus Toolkit 4.0.6 Now Available for Download

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 11:25:09 -0600

The Globus Toolkit development team is pleased to announce that a new incremental release of GT4 is now available for download. Users who wish to receive the latest bug fixes are encouraged to install this release. Users of WS GRAM and RFT in particular can benefit from this release (see Release Notes). The list of bugs fixed by this release is available in the release notes below.

Relevant 4.0.6 links:

Release notes: http://www.globus.org/toolkit/releasenotes/4.0.6/
Software: http://www.globus.org/toolkit/downloads/4.0.6/
Documentation: http://www.globus.org/toolkit/docs/4.0/

Thanks for your support of Globus software!

New Development Release (5.3) of the GridWay Meta-scheduler

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 11:03:26 -0600

The GridWay Project is pleased to announce that a new development release (5.3) of the GridWay meta-scheduler is available for download under the terms of the Apache License, Version 2.0. The new version enhances end-user functionality providing Perl, Python and Ruby DRMAA bindings and DAGman support. For more information, see: gridway.org.

Globus Toolkit

CoG JGlobus 1.8.0 released

Google Summer of Code� projects developed by Globus students featured on Google Open Source blog

Important information on Globus events and plans

CoG JGlobus 1.7.0 Release

Spider, the world's biggest Lustre file system at ORNL's LCF is accessible via GridFTP

KnowARC Project Brings Grids to Debian

Nimbus in the news

Google Summer of CodeTM 2009 accepted students announced

Release of caGrid version 1.3

Nimbus helps scientists run high energy physics experiments

Globus selected as a Google Summer of Code 2009 mentoring organization

International Summer School on Grid Computing 2009, Sophia Antipolis, Nice, France

MyProxy passes independent vulnerability assessment

GridFTP GUI now available for versions of GT 4.0+

Looking back on the development of the LHC grid [iSGTW 1/14/2009]

User Perspectives Report Available

Globus GSoC projects featured on Google Open Source blog

IWSGC'09 - Call for Participants

Overview

Applications

Important Dates

Nimbus eScience 2008 talk

Science Cloud Available at Purdue University for TeraGrid users

Article describes GT4-based data mining grid [IEEE Computer Society]

Globus Toolkit 4.2.1 Now Available

CoG JGlobus 1.6.0 Release

Advisories RSS Feeds Available

Nimbus TP2.0 released

Globus Toolkit 4.0.8 Now Available

CoG JGlobus 1.5.0 release

GridWay 5.4 is available for download.

New workspace service release enabled "one-click" virtual clusters, enabled for use on science clouds

New stable release 4.2.0 now available for download!

GridFTP moves your data and your news [iSGTW - 2 July 2008]

GridShib for Globus Toolkit v0.6.0

Last chance to register for Open Source Grid and Cluster Conference

Google Summer of Code 2008 accepted students announced

Call for Papers for the UK e-Science AHM2008

'Crossing Boundaries: Computational Science, E-Science and Global E- Infrastructures'

General Information

Proposed Workshops

Inquiries

10 reasons to attend Open Source Grid and Cluster Conference

caBIG helps crack human genome [ComputerWorld, 3/2008]

Registration is now open for Open Source Grid and Cluster Conference

Globus Toolkit 4.0.7 Now Available

Globus selected as a Google Summer of Code 2008 mentoring organization

ISSGC08: Applications Open Now

Call for Participation: Open Source Grid & Cluster Conference

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION IS NOW LIVE

Key Dates and Deadlines

Speaking Topics

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Abstract Guidelines

Presentations

Build Your Own Session

Panel Session / Mini-Symposium

Birds-of-a-Feather (BOF) Sessions

Workshops and Tutorials

GridShib SAML Tools v0.3.0 Final Release

Science Cloud Available at the University of Chicago

Georgetown University Grid School (GTGS'08) -- Call for Participation

Open Source Grid and Cluster Conference

Workspace Release 1.3.1

Globus used in more cutting edge HIV simulations

Globus Toolkit 4.0.6 Now Available for Download

New Development Release (5.3) of the GridWay Meta-scheduler

Google Summer of Code^TM 2009 accepted students announced