Institution Name: Florida State University Work Package Title: ASC CY5 IC Project Title: Gateway: Computational Science Portal or Interoperable Problem Solving Environment (IPSE) for ASC -- Evaluation and Extension POC: Bernholdt David E Geoffrey C. Fox Email: bernhold@npac.syr.edu, gcf@cs.fsu.edu Phone: 315 443 3857 850-644-4587 Fax: 315 443 1973 CTA or PEI: Information and Communications Project Description: This joint project, developed by OSC and FSU, will expand upon the Gateway proof-of-concept phase from the previous funding year. The ongoing goals of this project are to provide secure, transparent access to HPC resources for DoD scientists, providing a browser-based entry point to all MSRC resources, and furthermore, facilitating the use of those resources, allowing the researcher to concentrate more on the science of their problems without requiring specialized knowledge of such things as job submission, access to mass storage, etc. In the initial phase, the feasibility of this approach was demonstrated for CCM at Supercomputing '99. In this next phase of development, the goals are to build upon the success of the previous phase by integrating Gateway into ASC working environment, getting it into the hands of working CCM researchers for thorough testing and evaluation. It is also crucial that other CTAs begin the development of their PSEs. We must also evaluate other metacomputing activities such as the Globus toolkit, Visbench, NetSolve, and JINI to determine the feasibility of their integration with Gateway at ASC. Finally, Gateway makes use of a number of rapidly changing technologies, so it is crucial that we remain abreast of current developments in web technologies so that we build a flexible system capable of changing with the times. To do this requires that the system be built using specifications (CORBA, XML) from recognized standards-producing entities. Thus it may be necessary to revisit aspects of the Gateway design. FSU's contribution to the project includes the continuing development and maintenance of WebFlow, the Java- and CORBA-based middle tier that serves as the glue between the frontend and HPC backend. Also, because the CTA specific frontends are built from WebFlow components, we are responsible for maintaining a viable interface between the middle tier and the front end. Finally, FSU will set the lead in designing more general science portals that will subsume the current PSE. Project Objectives: The primary objectives of this phase are to have Gateway thoroughly tested and evaluated by CCM users, other CTAs, and ASC security staff, and to begin integration of Gateway into the ASC working environment. It is also the goal in this phase for other CTAs to begin development of their own frontends for Gateway. Finally, with the support of ASC, integration of Gateway with the Globus toolkit will begin. It will be crucial that FSU works closely with all of the above entities to insure that the goals are met. ASC security and systems support must be included in the evaluation and transitioning process. Users from CCM and other CTA developers will undoubtedly ask for middle tier services that have not yet been developed. We also recognize the need for providing information infrastructure and generalized queuing mechanisms. These are provided by Globus, and we will work closely with ASC systems staff in getting that integrated into the ASC environment. Deliverables: FSU will provide maintenance and support of WebFlow for early CCM users. We are also responsible for all middle tier development activities. To that end we will work closely with other CTAs to develop their PSEs. This work will include the development of specialized WebFlow metatools and visualizations that can be integrated into the Gateway toolkit. Finally, we will integrate Gateway with other metacomputing tools (principally Globus, other tools will be evaluated). Customers/End Users: All users within the HPC community, both DoD and otherwise. Benefit to Warfighter: The Gateway/HPcc concept offers a promise of dramatically extending access to HPC-like resources by warfighters requiring HPC resources for their desktop environments as well as researchers while minimizing the need to purchase high-dollar mainframes. This could have major implications for the Processing Level 3 (PL3) hardware purchases being planned at ASC and elsewhere. Potential FMS applications are directly relevant to the warfighter. Other benefits include reduction of RDT&E cycle time, etc. Project Dependencies: Continued progress of the Gateway project depends on a) the quality of work done in collaboration with other CTAs, b) the demonstration to ASC security that the transparent access HPC resources does not pose a security risk, and c) the support of ASC systems personnel for third party software. Risk Element: The primary risk is that FSU, during it's transitioning process, will not be able to provide uninterrupted high-quality support for WebFlow maintenance and development. Dr. Tom Haupt, the primary developer of WebFlow, may not be involved in the project during this next phase. This is not foreseen to be a long term problem, but there may be short- term difficulties as Dr. Geoffrey Fox builds up his research group at FSU. The secondary risk is that the technologies involved will lead to dead- ends, requiring (perhaps major) reworkings of certain aspects of Gateway. We have already observed this in the proof of concept phase, as web browser technology has entered a surprising developmental lull, producing unexpected problems transitioning the SC99 demo to the kerberized environment at ASC. More generally, there is a risk because Gateway makes use of Web technologies that primarily use Public Key Infrastructure, rather than Kerberos, for security. Currently, we are dependent on a single vendor to provide a kerberized version of CORBA. The requirement for using Kerberos also can lead to unexpected roadblocks in development that can delay deliverables. Required Funding Level Year 5: 100,000 Year 6: 100,000 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Institution Name: Florida State University Work Package Title: ASC CY5 IC Project Title: I/C Core Support POC: Bernholdt David E Geoffrey C. Fox Email: bernhold@npac.syr.edu, gcf@cs.fsu.edu Phone: 315 443 3857 850-644-4587 Fax: 315 443 1973 CTA or PEI: Information and Communications Project Description: This project supports the core activities involved in FSU's work in the Info/Comm area, including those related to Training and to the Gateway project. Project Objectives: Support the basic level of FSU involvement in Info/Comm activities at ASC. This includes reporting, participating in meetings, technology tracking and advising in areas relevant to Info/Comm, Training technologies, portals and metacomputing. In accord with our emphasis on I/C technologies in support of training and education, we have worked with national colleagues to define the concept of a collaborative education portal. This is currently best described at http://www.new-npac.org/users/fox/documents/pajavaapril00/ and http://www.new-npac.org/users/fox/documents/internetics2/ We will evaluate rapidly changing Internet technologies in this overall long term architecture and so ensure that ASC has a coherent training approach that however evolves with technologies moving at Internet time. For our metacomputing activities ("Gateway") to be successful it is critically important that we stay abreast of the latest developments in this area, participate in standardization efforts and related activities which Gateway can subsequently leverage to provide better interoperability and functionality. Of particular relevance are the activities of the DATORR (Desktop Access To Remote Resources) effort and the "computational grid" of the DOE, NASA, and Alliance. (These are now called the Computing Portals and Grid Forums respectively) They can be found at http://www.computingportals.org/ and http://www.gridforum.org We believe this work is of primary importance to DoD as it defines the architectures and standards which Gateway must observe to be able to be cost effectively supported and easily make use of new capabilities produced by non PET academic or commercial activities. One special effort is support of a web-based, database-backed system to support training course administration. This was developed in years 3 and 4. Deliverables: 1) Periodic reporting, as required by PET management 2) Participation in Reviews, Planning Workshops, and other meetings sanctioned by PET management 3) Attendance at international meetings in areas of I/C and education technologies and exchange of ideas with leaders in the field 4) Attendance at international meetings in areas related to I/C and metacomputing and exchange of ideas with leaders in the field 5) Technology tracking and advising, including training portal architecture and metacomputing/computing portal architecture 6) Support for Training Database 7) Participation in MAPINT 2000 conference and input into future such conferences Customers/End Users: The immediate "customer" for most of these core activities is the rest of the PET program, however MSRC users also benefit directly from productivity improvements resulting from our I/C activities. The database system will be used primarily by on-site MSRC and PET staff, but also by training instructors and training recipients (MSRC users). Benefit to Warfighter: This effort will ensure PET and the MSRC keeps up to date with The database system will reduce the human effort required to oversee routine training activities, and thereby allow staff additional time to devote to other MSRC and PET activities which benefit the warfighter. Project Dependencies and Scope: This project underlies all other FSU activities at ASC. Risk Element: There is minimal risk associated with this activity. Required Funding Level Year 5: 60,000 Year 6: 60,000 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Institution Name: Florida State University Work Package Title: ASC CY5 IC Project Title: On-Site Support for I/C Activities POC: Bernholdt David E Geoffrey C. Fox Email: bernhold@npac.syr.edu, gcf@cs.fsu.edu Phone: 315 443 3857 850-644-4587 Fax: 315 443 1973 CTA or PEI: Information and Communications Project Description: This project will support Dr. Marlon Pierce as a Florida State University employee working on-site at ASC in support of FSU's Info/Comm activities. Project Objectives: Florida State is undertaking a number of fairly large-scale projects which fall into the Info/Comm area. These are complex projects which in general require a significant amount of interaction with MSRC and PET taff as well as users to bring to fruition. Having an on-site staff member knowledgeable in, and contributing to these projects will greatly facilitate their timely and successful completion. Deliverables: Pierce's primary duties will include (but not be limited to): o Work on Florida State and other PET activities under the direction of Geoffrey Fox and David Bernholdt in consultation with PET management. o Facilitating technology transfer from Florida State into the ASC MSRC environment. o Facilitating communications between ASC MSRC and PET staff and Florida State-based researchers. o Seek out new opportunities for Florida State technologies and expertise to contribute to the ASC MSRC PET program. Customers/End Users: ASC MSRC and PET programs Benefit to Warfighter: The warfighter will benefit indirectly from the enhancement of Florida State's ability to contribute to the PET program. Project Dependencies and Scope: Pierce will be involved to a greater or lesser degree in all FSU projects which are active at ASC, however we do not foresee any project being singularly dependent on him -- in his absence, all work can be completed by Florida State-based staff (allowing for the lost effort). Risk Element: We are still in the process of trying to hire Pierce, though signs are good that he will accept if we can extend the offer fairly soon. Required Funding Level Year 5: 165,360 Year 6: 171,974 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Institution Name: Florida State University Work Package Title: ASC CY5 IC Project Title: Collaborative Computational Science Portal POC: Bernholdt David E Geoffrey C. Fox Email: bernhold@npac.syr.edu, gcf@cs.fsu.edu Phone: 315 443 3857 850-644-4587 Fax: 315 443 1973 CTA or PEI: Information and Communications Project Description: Provides Gateway distributed computing infrastructure with a general collaborative framework consistent with emerging national community architecture. Demonstrates this framework within a Gateway PSE Project Objectives: We have studied the problem of integrating the computing capabilities of Gateway with the collaborative structure illustrated by systems like Habanero and TangoInteractive. Both NCSA (with Chemical Engineering portal and Habanero) and us have concluded that there is no easy way to merge the current implementations. Technology has changed and the integration requires major changes in the collaborative architecture. We have taken Gateway's framework viewed as a computing portal together with similar education training and computing portals and designed a new architecture of a "Collaborative Portal". As asynchronous collaboration is dominant mode (compared to synchronous) and this is automatically supported by a portal, we consider that one should first start with portal technology (as in Gateway) and then add collaborative capabilities. As described in http://www.new-npac.org/users/fox/documents/pajavaapril00/, we have designed an approach that extends the XML interfaces used in current Gateway to define all properties of a portal -- the objects in the portal, their layout, their parameters and their collaborative mode. The XML syntax is whimsically termed "betterportalML". The purpose of this effort is to demonstrate these capabilities within Gateway for some simple but key components of a portal -- those specified by simple web fragments. These include initial parameters, portal information pages and displayed output data in web forms. We are pursuing these general ideas with the national Computing Portals Forum and will adapt our work to accord with their recommendations. This strategy will ensure that DoD is investing in re-usable technology with broad national support. Our plan is straightforward. First we will refine our crude ideas to define the collaborative features in "betterportalML". Then we will demonstrate this as a collaborative object outside Gateway. As the key final deliverable, we will demonstrate this collaborative structure in Gateway for one CTA to be discussed with ASC. Deliverables: o Initial design with Gateway Core group and Computing Portals Forum of Collaboration features in "betterportalML" (September 00) o Stand-alone Shared components (January 01) o Shared Data, Parameters and Portal Information in Gateway (May 01) Customers/End Users: Users of the Gateway architecture (PET initially, MSRC users eventually) Benefit to Warfighter: This project will expand the kind of productivity enhancements that is possible through the use of the Gateway system. Project Dependencies and Scope: This project requires interaction with the Gateway Portal Teams Risk Element: This is an evolving area but our established collaborations with national leaders in field should ensure that successful progress. More risky is prediction of exact timing and precise nature of deliverables Required Funding Level Year 5: 50,000 Year 6: 50,000