SCI: TeraGrid Resource Partners

可扩展太尺度设施（ETF）是NSF大规模网络基础设施发展的下一个阶段，用于实现高端计算研究。ETF使研究人员能够通过利用九个资源合作伙伴的集成资源，数据收集，仪器和可视化功能来解决最具挑战性的计算问题。 2004年10月1日，ETF结束了为期三年的构建工作，以创建这个分布式环境，称为TeraGrid（TG），我们现在进入生产运营阶段。TeraGrid资源合作伙伴包括： 芝加哥大学/阿贡国家实验室、加州大学圣地亚哥分校的圣地亚哥超级计算机中心、德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校的德克萨斯高级计算中心、伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳尚潘分校、印第安纳州大学、普渡大学、橡树岭国家实验室和匹兹堡超级计算中心于2004年10月19日向NSF提交了一份单独的提案，用于TeraGrid网格基础设施组（GIG）[1]。 在UC/ANL的Charlie Catlett的指导下，GIG将负责协调TeraGrid的开发活动，并将合同分包给合作伙伴。 资源合作伙伴将分别与NSF签订独立协议，但将与GIG密切合作，以实现TeraGrid的愿景。该提案概述了我们在芝加哥大学的计划，即作为资源合作伙伴（RP）参与TeraGrid团队，为不断扩大的用户社区提供对该计算科学设施的持续访问。 本建议书涵盖2004年11月1日至2009年10月31日期间。芝加哥大学提议为TeraGrid操作和进一步开发可视化和数据分析资源（VDAR）。我们的愿景是基于这样一个想法，即许多TeraGrid用户将从访问由UC资源合作伙伴运营的TeraGrid硬件上托管的一组专门设计和支持的可视化和分析服务中获得物质利益。这些服务将通过Web和网格服务接口提供，使最终用户（以及支持最终用户的用户）能够将它们包含在现有应用程序中或通过基于Web的门户或其他基于客户端的工具直接使用它们[2，3]。 我们的目标是让用户将可视化和分析工具作为其生产工作流程的一部分。 一个重要的设计考虑因素是，虽然计算中心通常具有大规模和高端的可视化基础设施，TeraGrid最终用户通常无法访问这些资源。 因此，服务交付的主要设计点需要通过TeraGrid资源和最终用户桌面之间的适度网络基础设施来瞄准普通用户。其他大型NSF中心（NCSA、SDSC、PSC）都以精选服务、咨询和通用软件包部署的形式向其用户群提供可视化服务。VDAR的目标是覆盖更大的社区，降低进入门槛，并通过Web/网格服务公开应用程序来支持用户和开发人员。已部署的TG硬件已配置为支持交互式使用以及批处理计算。 我们在本提案中概述了一项计划，即在未来五年内部署一系列功能日益强大的可视化和分析工具，并为那些需要分析或可视化大规模数据集的用户提供专业化的支持服务，特别是那些超出其本地计算环境能力的数据集。 VDAR的主要使用模式是基于这样的理念：用户能够按需保留可视化和计算资源，以支持交互式分析和可视化会话。 这些服务还将支持批量使用，用于渲染大型电影或用于图像或报告的非交互式计算。

The Extensible Terascale Facility (ETF) is the next stage in the evolution of NSF large-scale cyberinfrastructure for enabling high-end computational research. The ETF enables researchers to address the most challenging computational problems by utilizing the integrated resources, data collections, instruments, and visualization capabilities of nine resource partners. On October 1, 2004, the ETF concluded a three-year construction effort to create this distributed environment, called the TeraGrid (TG), and we are now entering the production operations phase. The TeraGrid resource partners include: the University of Chicago/Argonne National Laboratory, the San Diego Supercomputer Center at the University of California San Diego, the Texas Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas Austin, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, Indiana University, Purdue University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center.A separate proposal was submitted to NSF on October 19, 2004, for the TeraGrid Grid Infrastructure Group (GIG) [1]. Under the direction of Charlie Catlett at UC/ANL, the GIG will be responsible for coordination of development activities for the TeraGrid with subcontracts to the partner sites. The Resource partners will each have independent agreements with NSF but will work closely with the GIG to implement the vision of the TeraGridThis proposal outlines our plan at the University of Chicago to participate as a resource partner (RP) in the TeraGrid team to provide the expanding user community with ongoing access to this computational science facility. This proposal covers the period November 1, 2004, through October 31, 2009. The University of Chicago proposes to operate and further develop a Visualization and Data Analysis Resource (VDAR) for the TeraGrid. Our vision is based on the idea that many TeraGrid users will gain Material benefit from access to a set of purposely designed and supported visualization and analysis services hosted on the TeraGrid hardware operated by the UC resource partner. These services will be made available via Web and Grid service interfaces in a manner that enables end users (and those supporting end users) to include them in existing applications or to use them directly via Web-based portals or other client-based tools [2, 3]. Our goal is to have users routinely include visualization and analysis tools as part of their production workflow [4]. An important design consideration is that although computing centers often have large-scale and high-end visualization infrastructure, the TeraGrid end user typically does not have access to such resources. Therefore, the primary design point for Services delivery needs to be aimed at the average user via a modest networking infrastructure between the TeraGrid resource and the end-user desktop. The other large NSF centers (NCSA, SDSC, PSC) all provide visualization services to their user base in the form of select services, consulting, and generic package deployment. The goal of the VDAR is to reach a larger community, reduce the barrier to entry, And to enable both users and developers by exposing applications through Web/Grid services. The TG hardware that has been deployed has been configured to support interactive use as well as batch computation. We outline in this proposal a plan to deploy a series of increasingly capable visualization and analysis tools over the next five years and to provide specialized support services to those users that need to analyze or visualize large-scale datasets, especially those datasets that exceed the capability of their local computing environment. The primary usage model for VDAR is founded on the idea of users being able to reserve visualization and compute resources on an on-demand basis to support interactive analysis and visualization sessions. The services will also support batch use for rendering large movies or for non-interactive computation of images or reports.