Grid Software and Services
Overview
Grid computing can include a broad range of technologies. At NERSC we are interested in new computational and data-centric services which enhance the productivity of science teams. The grid infrastructure we support (described below) can be used to manage jobs and data in ways that are otherwise difficult form the comamnd line. Grid services enable remote job management, file transfer and distributed computing workflows through the Globus Toolkit. Web based Science Gateways can be built on the foundation provided by those services.
Users can access several NERSC resources via Globus grid interfaces using X509 grid certificates. NERSC is part of the Open Science Grid (OSG) and is available to select OSG Virtual Organizations for compute and storage resources. Go here for more information.
The NERSC Grid infrastructure is based on the Globus Toolkit 4.0.x which is distributed with the VDT (Virtual Data Toolkit) as part of the Open Science Grid software stack.
NERSC also supports Globus Online for reliable file transfer across the WAN in a simple easy-to-use manner.
Using Grid Services
- NERSC Grid Resource Map Provides the grid host names and services available at NERSC.
- Grid Certificates Grid certificates allow you to access NERSC (and other Grid enabled computing facilities) via grid interfaces. Grid certificates are credentials that must be initialized for use with grid tools. Once a certificate is initialized it is automatically used by the grid tools to authenticate the user to the grid resource.
- Grid Data Transfer This section describes the tools and services available to move your files across the grid. Specifically, it talks about using GridFTP to move data.
- Running Grid Jobs This section describes how to submit and monitor a job to NERSC grid interfaces using the globus tools. The grid tools enable remote job submission and distributed workflows across multiple systems on the grid.
- Grid Client Tools You can either run the OSG and/or Globus client software by downloading it to your workstation, or by running it directly on the NERSC systems via "modules".
- Open Science Grid at NERSC NERSC provides computing to OSG users through a special allocation. OSG Users must submit an OSG new user request form. This gives them access to NERSC resources, using the standard OSG interfaces. Users must also complete a NERSC User Policy Form before their access to NERSC can be activated.
