SI2-SSE: Open OnDemand: Transforming Computational Science through Omnidisciplinary Software Cyberinfrastructure

超级计算，或高性能计算(HPC)，具有推动科学和工程所有领域工作的能力。不幸的是，HPC的影响往往是有限的，因为计算机本身很难使用，科学家和工程师宁愿把时间花在推进他们的学科上，而不是学习HPC。许多学生和研究人员刚开始使用传统的HPC系统时，学习深奥的命令是一个障碍，这导致妇女、少数群体和残疾人在相关的STEM领域所占比例相对较小。Open OnDemand项目通过创新软件解决这一问题，这种软件使HPC不比使用台式计算机或网站更困难，从而减少了最初学习曲线。Open OnDemand将为研究和教育提供增强的基础设施，因为学生和教育工作者将在较小的部门和课堂系统上接触到相同的工具和技术，他们最终将在较大的HPC中心使用这些工具和技术。这简化了培养一支更具全球竞争力的STEM员工队伍的管道，一旦他们从学术界毕业，他们就准备直接投入计算问题和资源。Open OnDemand还允许科学家和工程师向更多来自学术界和工业界的合作者和用户提供特定领域的专门工作流程和专业知识。这应该会增加伙伴关系，并将更多的技术从公共部门转移到私营部门。网络已成为除高性能计算(HPC)以外的所有计算领域远程计算服务的主要访问机制。如今访问HPC网络基础设施(CI)资源，无论是在园区级还是国家级，通常都需要具备高级的Unix知识、熟悉命令行界面以及安装和配置定制客户端软件。如今，HPC中的Web应用程序确实以科学网关的形式存在。然而，网关并没有激增，部分原因是每个单独的网关都需要开发和管理管理费用。这些因素表明，高性能混凝土存在可获得性差距。Open OnDemand是一个用于HPC和远程计算访问的开源平台，可弥补可访问性差距。Open OnDemand将在成功的OSC OnDemand平台的基础上公开发布。OSC OnDemand是一个Web平台，为俄亥俄州超级计算机中心(OSC)用户提供对HPC系统、Web应用程序和VNC服务的集成访问。OSC OnDemand自2013年1月投入生产以来，拥有来自27个不同科学领域的800多名不同用户，其应用程序已被发布超过7万次。除了轻松访问HPC服务外，Open OnDemand还集中了Web应用程序的管理费用，简化了对定制可视化和科学门户应用程序的支持。Open OnDemand通过提供一个平台，为HubZero应用程序、XSEDE Science Gateways、IPython笔记本和Pegasus等工作流工具等科学网络工具提供一种新的交付方法，从而能够改变网络基础设施。在该项目下，Open OnDemand平台将通过以下方式创建：(A)将现有的OSC OnDemand软件转换为托管在GitHub上的社区开发项目，(B)扩展每个用户的Web服务器以服务Rails应用程序，(C)用现有的开源项目(如Nginx)取代定制开发的代理，以及(D)用HTML5解决方案取代现有的基于Java的VNC客户端。通过更新或更换AjaXplorer并集成高性能文件传输功能(sftp和Globus Online)，将提高文件使用率。可访问的应用程序将通过以下方式进行更新：(A)升级或更换AnyTerm，(B)更新作业构造器，以及(C)为作业和集群性能指标集成Open XDMoD和SUPREMM。此外，还将建立社区基础设施，包括(A)系统管理员文件和讨论论坛以及(B)基于现有OSC OnDemand材料的培训材料。将实施测试版计划，包括(A)协助测试版网站安装，(B)更新培训材料以纳入新功能，(C)开始指标报告和(D)记录应用程序集成的Galaxy案例研究。HPC中心的工作人员将通过“新兵训练营”和“培训员培训”课程进行培训。最后，Open OnDemand将作为XSEDE校园桥接技术插入服务的一个项目提出。这些活动将有助于实现以下目标：(1)将OSC OnDemand过渡到社区开发的名为Open OnDemand的开源软件包；(2)通过更新和扩展无障碍应用程序，包括整合Globus Online和Open XDMoD项目，改善Open OnDemand的接口能力。(3)开展一项计划，促使部门、校园和全国HPC用户和管理员通过Open OnDemand提高HPC包容性；(4)利用Open OnDemand作为平台，基于我们支持数据密集型生物医学包(银河项目)的经验，支持现有的基于Web的应用程序，如XSEDE Science Gateways和HubZero应用程序。

Supercomputing, or High-Performance Computing (HPC), has the power to advance work in all fields of science and engineering. Unfortunately, the impact of HPC is often limited simply because the computers themselves are difficult to use and scientists and engineers would rather spend their time advancing their disciplines than learn HPC. Learning esoteric commands is a hurdle to many students and researchers when they first begin to work with traditional HPC systems, which has contributed to the relatively small proportions of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities within related STEM fields. The Open OnDemand project addresses this problem through innovative software that makes HPC no more difficult than using a desktop computer or a web site, hence reducing that initial learning curve. Open OnDemand will provide an enhanced infrastructure for research and education, in that students and educators will be exposed to the same tools and techniques on smaller departmental and classroom systems that they'll eventually utilize at larger HPC centers. This streamlines the pipeline for developing a more globally competitive STEM workforce that is prepared to dive right into computational problems and resources once they graduate from academia. Open OnDemand also allows scientists and engineers to make specialized domain-specific workflows and expertise available to more collaborators and users, both from academia and industry. This should result in increased partnerships, and the transfer of more technologies from the public to private sectors.The web has become the dominant access mechanism for remote compute services in every computing area except high-performance computing (HPC). Accessing HPC cyberinfrastructure (CI) resources today, either at the campus or national level, typically requires advanced knowledge of UNIX, familiarity with command-line interfaces and installation and configuration of custom client software. Web applications in HPC today do exist in the form of science gateways. However, gateways have not proliferated in part due to the development and administrative overheads required for each individual gateway. These factors demonstrate an accessibility gap for HPC. Open OnDemand is an open source platform for HPC and remote computing access that addresses the accessibility gap. Open OnDemand will be a public release based on the successful OSC OnDemand platform. OSC OnDemand is a web platform providing Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) users integrated access to HPC systems, web applications, and VNC services. OSC OnDemand has been in production since January 2013, has over 800 distinct users from 27 different NSF fields of science, and its apps have been launched over 70,000 times. In addition to easing access to HPC services, Open OnDemand centralizes web app overheads, easing support for custom visualization and science gateway apps. Open OnDemand has the ability to transform cyberinfrastructure by providing a platform to enable a new delivery method for scientific web tools like HubZero apps, XSEDE Science Gateways, iPython notebooks and workflow tools like Pegasus. Under this project, the Open OnDemand platform will be created by (a) transitioning the existing OSC OnDemand software to a community developed project hosted on GitHub, (b) extending the per-user web server to serve Rails apps, (c) replacing the custom-developed Proxy with an existing open source project like NGINX and (d) replacing the existing Java-based VNC client with an HTML5 solution. File usage will be improved by updating or replacing AjaXplorer and integrating high performance file transfer functions (sftp and Globus Online). The accessibly apps will be updated by by (a) upgrading or replacing AnyTerm, (b) updating Job Constructor and (c) integrating Open XDMoD and SUPREMM for job and cluster performance metrics. In addition, community infrastructure will be created including (a) system administrator documentation and discussion forums and (b) training materials based on existing OSC OnDemand materials. A beta program will be conducted including (a) assisting beta sites with installs, (b) updating training materials to include new functionality, (c) beginning metric reporting and (d) documenting a Galaxy case study for app integration. HPC center staff will be engaged by through the "boot camps" and "train the trainer" sessions. Finally, Open OnDemand will be proposed as a project to the XSEDE Campus Bridging Technology Insertion Service. These activities will help meet the following objectives: (1) Transition OSC OnDemand to a community-developed open source software package called Open OnDemand, (2) Improve the interface capabilities of Open OnDemand by updating and expanding the accessibility apps, including integration of Globus Online and Open XDMoD projects. (3) Conduct a program to engage departmental, campus and national HPC users and administrators on enhancing HPC inclusivity through Open OnDemand and (4) Leverage Open OnDemand as a platform to support existing web-based applications such XSEDE Science Gateways and HubZero applications based on our experience supporting a data-intensive biomedical package (the Galaxy Project).