GridPP3: NorthGrid tier-2 hardware and support at Sheffield

GridPP3：谢菲尔德的 NorthGrid 第 2 层硬件和支持

• 批准号: ST/E502472/1
• 负责人: Daniel Tovey
• 金额: $ 1.81万
• 依托单位: University of Sheffield
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2008 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ST%2FE502472%2F1
• 关键词: GridPP3; NorthGrid; tier; hardware; support

'The Grid' is the next leap in computer interconnectivity. The Internet and the World Wide Web are increasingly an integral part of people's lives, helping the world share information and transfer data quickly and easily. In the same way as we now share files and facts over the global network of computers, in the future the Grid will let us share other things, such as processing power and storage space. The Grid is a practical solution to the problems of storing and processing the large quantities of data that will be produced by industry and the scientific communities over the next decade. Particle physicists are waiting for 2007 when a new particle accelerator opens in the world's largest particle physics laboratory, CERN. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will be the most powerful instrument ever built to investigate fundamental physics. Once this is fully functional the amount of data being produced will be massive. All this will be too much for one institution to handle so they need to share resources i.e. to use distributed computing. The Grid is built on the same Internet infrastructure as the web, but uses different tools. Middleware is one of these tools. In a stand alone computer the resources allocated to each job are managed by the operating system e.g. Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac OS X. Middleware is like the operating system of a Grid, allowing users to access resources without searching for them manually. GridPP has developed middleware for the Grid, in collaboration with other international projects. Due to GridPP's open source policy, the middleware can evolve and be improved by the people who use it. Distributed computing has been available to scientists for some time but, in general, the use of different sites has to be negotiated by each scientist individually. They need a separate account on each system and jobs have to be submitted and results collected back by hand. Current distributed computing means the user has a lot of work to do to get their results. This is where the idea of Grid computing comes in. Middleware lets users simply submit jobs to the Grid without having to know where the data is or where the jobs will run. The software can run the job where the data is, or move the data to where there is CPU power available. Using the Grid and middleware, all the user has to do is submit a job and pick up the results. Acting as the gatekeeper and matchmaker for the Grid, middleware monitors the Grid, decides where to send computing jobs, manages users, data and storage. It will check the identity of the user through the use of digital certificates. A digital certificate is a file stored securely on a user's computer which allows the Grid to correctly identify a user. The certificates are given to a user by the Certification Authority, with numerous steps to ensure the person applying is who they say they are. The middleware automatically extracts the users' identity from their digital certificate and uses this to log them in. This means users don't have to remember user names and passwords to log onto the Grid, they're automatically logged on using their Grid certificate. After this seamless identification process the middleware will find the most convenient and efficient places for the job to be run and organise efficient access to the relevant scientific data. It deals with authentication to the different sites being used, runs the jobs, keeps track of progress, lets the user know when the work is complete and transfers the result back

“网格”是计算机互连的下一个飞跃。互联网和万维网日益成为人们生活中不可或缺的一部分，帮助世界快速、轻松地共享信息和传输数据。就像我们现在通过全球计算机网络共享文件和事实一样，未来网格将让我们共享其他东西，例如处理能力和存储空间。网格是解决存储和处理未来十年工业和科学界将产生的大量数据问题的实用解决方案。粒子物理学家正在等待 2007 年世界上最大的粒子物理实验室 CERN 启用新的粒子加速器。大型强子对撞机（LHC）将成为有史以来用于研究基础物理的最强大的仪器。一旦它完全发挥作用，产生的数据量将是巨大的。所有这些对于一个机构来说都难以处理，因此他们需要共享资源，即使用分布式计算。网格与 Web 建立在相同的互联网基础设施上，但使用不同的工具。中间件就是这些工具之一。在独立计算机中，分配给每个作业的资源由操作系统管理，例如Windows、Linux、Unix、Mac OS X。中间件就像网格的操作系统，允许用户访问资源而无需手动搜索它们。 GridPP 与其他国际项目合作，为网格开发了中间件。由于 GridPP 的开源政策，中间件可以由使用它的人发展和改进。科学家使用分布式计算已有一段时间了，但一般来说，不同站点的使用必须由每位科学家单独协商。他们需要在每个系统上有一个单独的帐户，并且必须手动提交作业并收集结果。当前的分布式计算意味着用户需要做很多工作才能获得结果。这就是网格计算理念的由来。中间件让用户只需向网格提交作业，而无需知道数据在哪里或作业将在哪里运行。该软件可以在数据所在的地方运行作业，或者将数据移动到有可用 CPU 能力的地方。使用网格和中间件，用户所要做的就是提交作业并获取结果。中间件充当网格的看门人和媒人，监视网格，决定将计算作业发送到哪里，管理用户、数据和存储。它将通过使用数字证书来检查用户的身份。数字证书是安全存储在用户计算机上的文件，它允许网格正确识别用户。证书由证书颁发机构颁发给用户，并采取许多步骤来确保申请者的真实身份。中间件会自动从用户的数字证书中提取用户的身份，并使用该身份进行登录。这意味着用户无需记住用户名和密码即可登录到 Grid，他们会使用其 Grid 证书自动登录。在这个无缝识别过程之后，中间件将找到最方便、最高效的工作运行位置，并组织对相关科学数据的有效访问。它处理对正在使用的不同站点的身份验证、运行作业、跟踪进度、让用户知道工作何时完成并将结果传回