Ian Foster

Grid Projects in the US

I gave a brief talk at HPC 2009 in Cetraro, Italy, on Grid Projects in the US. I tried to explain what I see as three complementary sets of activities:

• Resource providers (RPs) focus on providing substantial communities with on-demand access to computing and storage. TeraGrid, Open Science Grid, campus grids, and the likes of Amazon EC2 and S3 fit in this space.
• Service providers (SPs) use either dedicated resources or RP-provided resources to provide services to communities. Certificate authorities, Globus Reliable File Transfer service, and Amazon Simple Queue service are examples of hosted services.
• Content providers (CPs) deliver application-specific content (data, software, etc.) to communities, using either dedicated or RP-/SP-provided resources and services. A TeraGrid "science gateway" is an example of a content provider that builds on resources and services provided by a third party.

As with any attempt to categorize complex activities, the divisions are not entirely accurate. For example, the cancer biomedical informatics grid (caBIG) project operates resources, host services, and provides content. But in recent work, caBIG has started making use of TeraGrid resources.

Many Tasks Computing: What's in a Name?

I mentioned the upcoming Workshop on Many Tasks Computing on Grids and Supercomputers. (Submission deadline: August 15.) What, you may wonder, do we mean by "many tasks computing"?

I (and my co-organizers Ioan Raicu and Yong Zhao) use the term to denote high-performance computations comprising multiple distinct activities, coupled via (for example) file system operations or message passing. Tasks may be small or large, uniprocessor or multiprocessor, compute-intensive or data-intensive. The set of tasks may be static or dynamic, homogeneous or heterogeneous, loosely or tightly coupled. The aggregate number of tasks, quantity of computing, and volumes of data may be extremely large.

Were we right to coin a new term, multi task computing, to denote such applications? There are certainly alternatives that we could have used instead. For example:

• Multiple Program Multiple Data (MPMD): A variant of Flynn's original taxonomy, used to denote computations in which several different programs each operate on different  data at the same time. (In contrast to SPMD, in which multiple instances of the same program each execute on different processors, operating on different data.) Not a bad term, really, although in our case, the set of tasks can vary dynamically. Maybe we should say dynamic MPMD?
• Heterogeneous applications: A computation that involves multiple, different parts. Not a bad term, but rather unspecific. Perhaps a synonym for MPMD?
• High throughput computing (HTC): A term coined by Miron Livny to contrast workloads for which the key metric is not floating point operations per second (as in high performance computing: HPC) but "per month or year." We didn't use that term because the applications we work with are often are just as concerned with performance as the most demanding HPC applications--they want to run in minutes or hours, they just don't happen to be SPMD programs.
• Workflow: Surely one of the most abused terms in computing, workflow was first used to denote sequences of tasks in business processes, but is sometimes also used to denote any computation in which control passes from one "task" to another. I find its use to describe many task (or MPMD or heterogeneous or ...) computations an unwarranted perversion of the English language.
• Capacity computing: A term used to denote a computing resource designed to support many small tasks --in contrast to a capability computing resource, on which a single large computation can run efficiently. I see the same problem here as with HTC: many task computations, while heterogeneous, can be extremely large and can place great demands on a computing system.
• Embarrassingly (or happily) parallel: A delightful term used to denote parallel computations in which each individual (often identical) task can execute without any significant communication with other tasks or with a file system. Certainly some "many task applications" will be simple and happily parallel. But others will be bothersomeingly complex and communication intensive, interacting frequently with other tasks and/or a file system.

Are we making a useful distinction in using the term "many task computing" rather than one of those above, or just engaging in unnecessary neologism? Tell me what you think!

Perhaps we could simply have said: applications that are communication-intensive but are not naturally expressed in MPI. In that sense (and this is really the primary goal of the workshop) we are simply drawing attention to the many computations that are heterogeneous but not "happily parallel." Such computations can arise for a variety of reasons, such as:

1. Individual tasks are themselves parallel programs.
2. Many tasks operate on the same input data, and we can use the fast network to broadcast that data to all nodes, or to distribute references to data subsets if that is more efficient (or if the data cannot be replicated)
3. There is considerable communication between tasks.
4. There is a need for substantial distributed data reduction operations prior to output.

In any case, we hope to see submissions from people working on high throughput computing, data-intensive scalable computing, and any other sort of high-performance computing that isn't conventional SPMD.

Impressions of HPC 2008 at Cetraro, Italy

I spent a wonderful week in Cetraro, Italy, at the 9th HPC Conference. A lovely location, exceptional colleagues, and fascinating presentations and discussions on various topics relating to HPC and Grid. Prof. Lucio Grandinetti organizes a wonderful event.

A focus this year on hardware--people showing off their  impressive close-to-petascale computers and talking about plans for exascale. Lest people get too proud, Jack Dongarra reminded us that on average it takes 6-8 years for the number one system on the Top 500 list to fall off the bottom. Some discussion of GPGPUs (but does anyone believe that they won't be replaced by general-purpose multicores within a few years?). Also much discussion concerning power management--but not clear how serious anyone is about the topic. (E.g., no real discussion of what tradeoffs will be made to reduce power consumption, or mention of genuinely low-power systems, such as SiCortex.)

Considerable discussion of "clouds" (whatever they may be) much of it naive and ill-informed. Fascinating to hear the same expansive expectations expressed (without any apparent doubts) for "clouds" as we heard five years ago from the most fullsome proponents off grids. "Soon, applications of all sorts will be hosted in the cloud." Well maybe, but big legal, business model, and sociological barriers have so far hindered hosting of core business applications as services, and those barriers seem slow to fall. "Clouds offer arbitrarily scalable computing." Scalable to infinity, for any value of infinity less than a few hundred (at least at present). "Clouds offer much simpler interfaces than grids." There isn't much to choose between say EC2 and Globus Workspace Service from the interface perspective.

Perhaps the most thoughtful remarks on these topics were from Ignacio Llorente, who is working with relevant technologies via his Globus GridWay and OpenNebula projects. He characterized clouds as "a paradigm for the on-demand provision of virtualized resources as a service" (correctly identifying virtualization rather than interfaces as the key advance) and grids as "the technology that will allow for cloud interoperability." It will be interesting to see whether cloud interoperability emerges as an important requirement. In the grid space, a lack of interoperability has so far proved to be more of an irritant than a real obstacle to progress.

Discussion of the European Grid Initiative, a proposal to create a pan-European grid linking national grids within each EU state. A curious lack of discussion concerning the application drivers for this new infrastructure, or their requirements. Is EGEE (focused on distributing jobs to federated clusters) really the right model? Why no discussion of data federation (a big driver for grid computing in the UK and US), services (at the heart of successful grids such as caBIG, BIRN, and Earth System Grid), or the role of supercomputer centers (surely major "powerplants"?). The software strategy was striking in its lack of vision--keep supporting three separate European middleware platforms (ARC, gLite, Unicore), and attempt to integrate them (to what end?), while ignoring the Condor and Globus software used by so many Europeans. Sounds more like "jobs for the boys" than a strategy for supporting European eScience. Let us hope for an outbreak of vision among European grid leaders.

Workshop on Many Tasks Computing at SC'08

Ioan Raicu, Yong Zhao, and I are running a Workshop on Many Tasks Computing on Grids and Supercomputers (MTAGS) at SC'08 (Austin, Texas, November 17, 2008). The deadline for submissions is August 15.

Our goal in convening this workshop is to encourage discussion among those interested in escaping the "SPMD rut" that characterizes much work in parallel, if not grid, computing. We believe that new applications and more powerful computers are spurring increased interest in computations involving many separate tasks, loosely or tightly coupled, often linked via a global name/file space. These computations may be no less demanding of computing, file systems, and networks than SPMD computations, but have important differences that may require new tools. Topics of interest include:

Compute resource management
      - Scheduling
      - Job execution frameworks
      - Local resource manager extensions
      - Performance evaluation of resource managers in use on large scale systems
      - Challenges in running many-task workloads on HPC systems

Data Management:
      - Data-Aware Scheduling
      - Shared File System performance and scalability in large deployments
      - Distributed file systems
      - Data caching frameworks and techniques

Large-Scale Workflow Systems
      - Workflow system performance and scalability analysis
      - Scalability of workflow systems
      - Workflow infrastructure and e-Science middleware
      - Programming Paradigms and Models

Large-Scale Many-Task Application
      - Large-scale many-task applications
      - Large-scale many-task data-intensive applications
      - Large-scale high throughput computing (HTC) applications
      - Quasi-supercomputing applications, deployments, and experiences

Cloud Computing and Applications Workshop (CCA'08)

Bob Grossman and I are putting together a workshop on Cloud Computing and Applications (CCA), to be held in Chicago October 22 and 23. We have a distinguished organizing committee (see below), and will soon announce a number of invited speakers. If you'd like to present, please submit a position paper by August 1, as detailed on the CCA'08 Web site at www.cca08.org. From the call for contributions:

Dramatic growth in data and equally rapid decline in the cost of highly integrated clusters has spurred the emergence of the data center as the platform of choice for a growing class of data-intensive applications. To encourage conversations between those developing applications, algorithms, software, and hardware for such "cloud" platforms, we are convening the first workshop on Cloud Computing and its Applications (CCA'08). This workshop will include a mixture of invited and contributed talks on cloud computing, data intensive scalable computing, and related topics.

Topics of interest include:

• compute and storage cloud architectures and implementations
• map-reduce and its generalizations
• programming models and tools
• novel data-intensive computing applications
• data intensive scalable computing
• distributed data intensive computing
• content distribution systems for large data
• data management within and across data centers

If you would like to give a contributed talk, please submit a five page extended abstract by August 1, 2008.  These submissions will also be used to select papers for a poster session. Extended abstracts should be submitted to: https://cmt.research.microsoft.com/CCA2008

Organizing Committee ([email protected])

Charlie Catlett, Argonne National Laboratory
Ian Foster, Argonne National Laboratory and University of Chicago
Garth Gibson, Carnegie Mellon University
Robert Grossman, University of Illinois at Chicago and Open Data Group
Joe Hellerstein, University of California at Berkeley
Tony Hey, Microsoft
Raghu Ramakrishnan, Yahoo
Alex Szalay, Johns Hopkins University
Douglas Thain, University of Notre Dame

Call for Participation: Open Source Grid & Cluster Conference

OPEN SOURCE GRID & CLUSTER CONFERENCE 2008

Featuring: GlobusWorld, Grid Engine Workshop, Rocks Cluster Workshop

Join Users, Administrators, and Developers of Open Source Grid and
Cluster Software from across the Globe at this unique event

Open Source Grid & Cluster Conference 2008
May 12-16, 2008
Oakland Marriott
Oakland, California

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS:  March 21, 2008

Whether you are a Grid or Cluster expert with technical advice to
share, or a leader with visions for the future of open source Grid and
Cluster computing in research or industry, the Open Source Grid &
Cluster Conference is the premier event for delivering your message to
the Grid and Cluster community.  In past years, hundreds of Grid and
Cluster professionals from research and industry have attended
individual events such as GlobusWorld, the Grid Engine Workshop, and
Rocks-a-Palooza to discuss Grid and Cluster adoption issues, to
receive training and exchange information related to these widely used
Grid and Cluster software systems. This year the Globus, Grid Engine,
and Rocks communities are joining forces to create the most
comprehensive event on open source Grid and Cluster computing to date.

The Open Source Grid & Cluster Conference program will offer a wide
variety of conference sessions, mini-symposiums, panel discussions,
workshops, and tutorials. Speaking opportunities range from highly
technical research, development, and deployment presentations to
targeted panels on commercial and research adoption
considerations. The Open Source Grid & Cluster Conference will run
parallel tracks, some focused on Globus, Grid Engine, and Rocks
community-specific topics, and others focused on cross-cutting and
other open source Grid and Cluster software technologies and uses.

KEY DATES AND DEADLINES
Abstract submission deadline - March 21, 2008
Acceptance notification - April 15, 2008
Presentation Slides Due - April 30, 2008

SPEAKING TOPICS
Submissions should be centered on the theme of uses and implementation
of Open Source Software for Grid and Cluster Computing.

All proposals should be submitted online at
   http://www.OpenSourceGridCluster.org/CFP.html

Questions should be sent to [email protected]

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
---------------------

ABSTRACT GUIDELINES
All submissions must include an abstract of no more than 500 words,
and a brief bio for each presenter. Abstracts should be written so as
to be self-contained and to provide the technical substance required
for the program committee to evaluate the session's contribution to
the Open Source Grid and Cluster community. Please indicate whether
the proposed session is specific to just one of Globus, Grid Engine,
or Rocks. If the presentation was given at another conference, then
the name, date, and location of the event must be noted in the
submission. Abstracts should be submitted in plain text format either
as an attachment or in the main body of the e-mail. Abstracts and bios
for accepted submissions will be published on the Open Source Grid &
Cluster Conference website and in other conference material as the
description of the session. Presentation slides may be published on
the Conference website and distributed with conference material.

PRESENTATIONS
Presentation proposals may be submitted for individual time slots of
thirty minutes. Please be sure to allow ten minutes for Q&A within
this allotted time. Individual presentations will be grouped with
similar topic presentations to fill an entire session.

BUILD YOUR OWN SESSION
Participants are invited to organize their own, complete,
ninety-minute session, including but not limited to the following
categories. The submission must include an agenda, and the names and
associations of all participants.

Panel Session / Mini-Symposium: These sessions will enable conference
attendees to learn from a group of experts on a particular topic. The
session organizer may deliver an opening talk to set the context for
the remainder of the session. Panelists will then give presentations
designed to stimulate audience participation, on their preferably
diverse opinions, experiences or expertise regarding the theme of the
session. At least ten minutes should be reserved at the end for
questions from the audience.

Birds-of-a-Feather (BOF) Sessions: These sessions will allow
conference attendees to discuss focused subject areas. The session may
include presentations and open discussion. Session organizers will be
responsible for moderating these sessions and reporting on their
outcomes.

WORKSHOPS AND TUTORIALS
Ample room is available for half-day and full-day pre-conference
(Monday) and post-conference (Friday) workshops and
tutorials. Workshops may include topical meetings with open
registration or community/group meetings with resricted attendance.
Tutorials may be on any topic related to the Open Source Grid and
Cluster theme of the conference. Submissions must include preferred
and minimum acceptable room size, and preferred and acceptable
times. An extra nominal fee may be required of attendees or the
organizer to cover additional costs such as A/V and food.

All proposals should be submitted online at
   http://www.OpenSourceGridCluster.org/CFP.html

Questions should be sent to [email protected]

HealthGrid Comes to Chicago, June 2-4 2008

The opportunities to apply grid  computing methods in health care are, simply put, enormous. (Irving Wladawsky-Berger refers to it as the "ASCI of Grid" to imply that the challenges are comparable in their extreme scale to those tackled by the DOE ASCI program in simulation. That is an understatement.) There is an urgent need for community, best practices, standards, and the like.

These considerations motivated the formation of the HealthGrid.US Alliance (HG.US), a partnership of scientific, medical and technology professionals from academia, industry and government, whose shared mission is to promote the application of advanced information technology to solve cutting-edge problems in Biomedical Science and Healthcare. HG.US is an affiliate of the international HealthGrid Association.

As a first action, HG.US is sponsoring the first HealthGrid Annual Meeting to be held outside of Europe, in Chicago, Illinois, USA, June 2-4 2008. See the announcement (pdf). The previous five meetings (2003-2007, held in Europe, have formal published proceedings that are also available from the website.