Overview
The FutureGrid Project allows researchers to tackle complex research challenges in computer science related to the use and security of grids and clouds. We provide a significant new experimental computing grid and cloud test-bed, named FutureGrid, to the research community, together with user support for third-party researchers conducting experiments on FutureGrid.
Project & Account Application
FutureGrid allows you to easily create a project and use FG resources. All you need to do is to create a portal account and apply for a project. Detailed information is provided in the manual.
Cloud Services
Currently, FutureGrid provides three cloud services on a variety of resources: Nimbus, Eucalyptus, and OpenStack. However, not all services on the different resources are integrated, and an additional account request is necessary for accessing Eucalyptus and OpenStack . To find out how the machines are divided, we provide a convenient status monitor.
Nimbus
Nimbus is an open-source service package that allows users to run virtual machines on FutureGrid hardware. You can easily upload your own VM image or customize an image provided by us. When you boot a VM, it is assigned a public IP address (and/or an optional private address); you are authorized to log in as root via SSH. You can then run services, perform computations, and configure the system as desired. After using and configuring the VM, you can save the modified VM image back to the Nimbus image repository. Users can find more details in the Nimbus tutorial.
Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus is an open-source software platform that implements IaaS-style cloud computing. Eucalyptus provides a Amazon Web Services (AWS) compliant EC2-based web service interface for interacting with the Cloud service. Eucalyptus also provides services such as the AWS-compliant Walrus and a user interface for managing users and images. Users can find more details in the Eucalyptus tutorial.
OpenStack
OpenStack is a collection of open source components to deliver public and private clouds. These components currently include OpenStack Compute (called Nova), OpenStack Object Storage (called Swift), and OpenStack Image Service (called Glance). OpenStack is a new effort and has received considerable momentum due to its openness and the support of companies. Users can find more details in the OpenStack Tutorial.
OpenNebula
Not yet available to the public, OpenNebula is an open and flexible tool that fits into existing data center environments to build any type of IaaS Cloud deployment. OpenNebula can be primarily used as a virtualization tool to manage your virtual infrastructure in the data center or cluster, which is usually referred to as Private Cloud. OpenNebula supports Hybrid Cloud to combine local infrastructure with public cloud-based infrastructure, enabling highly scalable hosting environments. OpenNebula also supports Public Clouds by providing Cloud interfaces to expose its functionality for virtual machine, storage, and network management. Users can find how to use this software in the OpenNebula tutorial.
High Performance Computing
High Performance Computing can be defined as the application of supercomputing techniques to solve computational problems that are too large for standard computers or would take too much time. This is one of the more important features that the scientific community needs to achieve their projects. Thus, FutureGrid provides users the possibility of executing their parallel applications or using scientific software. A guide to accessing HPC services can be found in the Accessing FutureGrid and HPC services sections of the User Manual.
Storage
Users can find different storage systems to cover a wide number of purposes. In the Storage Manual, users can find the information needed to get access and learn the usage. A summary of the external storage systems available can be found at: http://archive.futuregrid.org/manual/hardware.
Information Services
These services gather the information of the different elements that make up FutureGrid to provide accurate and complete knowledge of the computational environment. This information is presented using different web portals: General System Status, Cloud, Cluster, Services Status and Network Status.
Hardware
FutureGrid includes a geographically distributed set of heterogeneous computing systems, data management systems, and dedicated networks. These resources are provided by different institutions across the United States. Detailed information on the different sites can be found here and in the User Manual.
Support
The best place to start obtaining information about FutureGrid is to visit our expanding FutureGrid User Manual, of which this page is a part. To obtain support for FutureGrid, you can visit the Knowledge Base, which includes a collection of FAQs about FutureGrid. We also provide some user Forums. Please note that some information may already be outdated. We try our best, however, to keep the manual and the Knowledge Base as up to date as possible.
If you need help or observe things that are not correct, see http://archive.futuregrid.org/help.
Acknowledgement
You must include in all papers and oral presentations the following acknowledgment:
"This material is based upon work supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0910812 to Indiana University for "FutureGrid: An Experimental, High-Performance Grid Test-bed." Partners in the FutureGrid project include U. Chicago, U. Florida, San Diego Supercomputer Center - UC San Diego, U. Southern California, U. Texas at Austin, U. Tennessee at Knoxville, U. of Virginia, Purdue U., and T-U. Dresden."
If you run out of space you can use a shorter version:
"This material is based upon work supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0910812."
Additionally, you should forward a copy of each publication or presentation to http://archive.futuregrid.org/help. Please use this instead of sending e-mail. This will allow faster assignment to our support staff.
Futuregrid is a resource provider for