SCI: TeraGrid Resource Partners

可扩展Terascale设备(ETF)是NSF大规模网络基础设施发展的下一个阶段，用于支持高端计算研究。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、仪器和可视化能力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，以创建这个名为TeraGrid(TG)的分布式环境，我们现在正在进入生产运营阶段。TeraGrid的资源合作伙伴包括：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香槟分校的国家超级计算应用中心、印第安纳大学、普渡大学、橡树岭国家实验室和匹兹堡超级计算中心。另一份关于TeraGrid网格基础设施集团(GIG)[1]的提案于2004年10月19日提交给NSF。在UC/ANL的Charlie Catlett的指导下，GIG将负责协调TeraGrid的开发活动，并将分包给合作伙伴地点。资源合作伙伴将各自与NSF签署独立的协议，但将与GIG密切合作，以实现TeraGide的愿景。该提案概述了我们在芝加哥大学作为TeraGrid团队的资源合作伙伴(RP)参与的计划，以向不断扩大的用户社区提供对这一计算科学设施的持续访问。本提案的有效期为2004年11月1日至2009年10月31日。芝加哥大学提议为TeraGrid运营和进一步开发可视化和数据分析资源(VDAR)。我们的愿景基于这样一种理念，即许多TeraGrid用户将从访问由UC资源合作伙伴运营的TeraGrid硬件上托管的一套专门设计和支持的可视化和分析服务中获得实质性好处。这些服务将通过Web和网格服务接口提供，使最终用户(和那些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经常将可视化和分析工具作为其生产工作流程的一部分[4]。一个重要的设计考虑因素是，尽管计算中心通常拥有大规模和高端的可视化基础设施，但TeraGrid最终用户通常无法访问此类资源。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面向普通用户。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，使用户和开发人员都能使用。已部署的TG硬件已配置为支持交互使用以及批处理计算。我们在这项提案中概述了一项计划，即在未来五年内部署一系列能力越来越强的可视化和分析工具，并向需要分析或可视化大规模数据集的用户提供专门的支助服务，特别是那些超出其本地计算环境能力的数据集。VDAR的主要使用模式建立在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的思想之上。这些服务还将支持批量使用，用于渲染大型电影或图像或报告的非交互计算。

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.