TeraGrid Annual Review (2009) and TeraGrid Extension Proposal

1. TeraGrid Annual Review (2009)and TeraGrid Extension Proposal John Towns Chair, TeraGrid Forum Director, Persistent Infrastructure National Center for Supercomputing Applications University of Illinois

2. Excellent Annual Review! • TeraGrid Annual Review • Review held April 6-8 “TG has been instrumental in the discovery of new science that has required the most advanced hardware capabilities as well as the human expertise to utilize those capabilities effectively. … The broad impact of this evolution in high performance computing on science and engineering overall can be argued to be without parallel in the United States and the World. “

3. Key Opportunities • Improving Science Highlights Reporting • streamline the process • focus on opportunities to present TG as a coherent system • what could not have been done without the TG as an integrated set of services and resources • develop process to prioritize highest impact highlights • Continued Improvement of Metrics in the IPP • continued effort by TG at all levels to improve and refine these metrics and make them more quantifiable • ranking of the most important objectives, milestones, and concerns • explicit high-level priorities for all planned work • Develop a Science Gateway Framework • provide a framework for mid-range providers to create and offer their own gateways to more local resources

4. Key Opportunities (con’t) • Document Best Practices and Lessons Learned • “TG has accomplished the feat of making a complex federation of organizations work effectively to achieve a set of complex and demanding goals.” • need to capture the best practices and the lessons learned in a formal document • use by other organizations or to effect a smooth transition to the XD • panel recommends that TG prepare a transition report • document the tangible successes, lessons learned and best practices • Preserve the Essence of the TG User Portal • ensure that the content, infrastructure, and expertise not lost during any future organizational transitions

5. Additional Recommendations • Optimize Gateway Support Efforts • consider investigating the utility of supporting rarely accessed Gateways • TG Gateway for K-12, Undergrad Education • help communicate the excitement and potential of HPC-driven research to these communities • Improve User Services Metrics • identify better metrics that are tied back effectively to the strategic objectives • Network Provisioning • NLR dependence seen as a risk • If WAN filesystems are widely adopted, additional bandwidth may be needed

6. Additional Recommendations (con’t) • Data Annotation System for Archived Data • establishment of a self-contained data content annotation format for user data • pre-requisite for all data entering persistent archival infrastructure • Quality Assurance Extensions for Service Level Objectives and Problem Management • panel strongly endorses the decision to establish a quality assurance system and commends progress to date • centrally follow up on the performance of all services at all RP sites • provide tools to expose the overall availability and performance across all RPs

7. Additional Recommendations (con’t) • Security • secure back-channel access for both chat and the Wikis to handle security incident • risk analysis should be undertaken with the help of external experts • periodic security review by a committee of external experts • EOT • leverage the computational problem of the week for broader awareness • develop metrics for assessing the effectiveness of contacts made with underrepresented groups at conferences • consider “in-reach” as well as outreach • consider engagement through social media (e.g. Twitter) • use TG09 as effectively as possible to educate the general public • continue engagement through having a presence at a broader spectrum of conferences

8. TeraGrid Extension Proposal Status • Proposal submitted 27 Feb 2009 • $30.2M total budget • compared to $ • Proposal reviewed at NSF • informal word in that review went extremely well • currently going through NSF internal processing • anticipating award in September 2009 • start date of 1 April 2010

9. Technology Plans: Retiring Resources • Retiring Resources and TeraGrid Extension • all non-Track 2 resources slated to discontinue as TeraGrid resources after March 31, 2010 • TeraGrid Extension proposal pending • requests continued support for several resources • 12 months: Abe, QueenBee, Lonestar, Steele, Quarry, Lincoln • 3 months: Pople • orderly transition of users to resources with ongoing support

10. XD Transition Status John Towns Chair, TeraGrid Forum Director, Persistent Infrastructure National Center for Supercomputing Applications University of Illinois

11. Status of Process • Two teams pushing forward with planning process • executing planning grants • preliminary deliverables due in January 2010 • final deliverables due in July 1020 • they will also be supplemental documents for final XD proposals • Joint activities • BOF session at TG’09 • OGF facilitated as part of their larger process for gathering requirements globally • BOF suggested for SC09

12. TeraGrid → TeraGrid Extension (?) → XD Transition Planning • All activity areas have effort reserved for TeraGrid → XD transition effort as appropriate • transition issues exist for nearly all areas • effort ear-marked to support transition issues • more was learned about timing after PY5 IPP was developed • Start of XD for CMS/AUSS/TEOS deferred for one year (1 April 2011) • induced TeraGrid Extension Proposal • 12-month funding to support most GIG functions and some non-Track 2 RP resources • uncertainty in sequence of events • still need to address many changes in TeraGrid going into presumed Extension Period • many resources exit Teragrid • PY5 planning process will likely need to address: • TeraGrid Extension following PY5 • necessarily include transition to XD in extension period

13. Issues of Transition • TG’11/XD’11(?) • commitment on conference occurring and logistics • Long discussion regarding merging of proposals • not sure we want to rehash entire story here… • …