Multi-Grid, Multi-User Workflows in the P-GRADE Grid Portal

Abstract

Computational Grids connect resources and users in a complex way in order to deliver nontrivial qualities of services. According to the current trend various communities build their own Grids and due to the lack of generally accepted standards these Grids are usually not interoperable. As a result, large scale sharing of resources is prevented by the isolation of Grid systems. Similarly, people are isolated, because the collaborative work of Grid users is not supported by current environments. Each user accesses Grids as an individual person without having the possibility of organizing teams that could overcome the difficulties of application development and execution more easily. The paper describes a new workflow-oriented portal concept that solves both problems. It enables the interoperability of various Grids during the execution of workflow applications, and supports users to develop and run their Grid workflows in a collaborative way. The paper also introduces a classification model that can be used to identify workflow-oriented Grid portals based on two general features: Ability to access multiple Grids, and support for collaborative problem solving. Using the approach the different potential portal types are introduced, their unique features are discussed and the portals and Problem Solving Environments (PSE) of our days are classified. The P-GRADE Portal as a Globus-based implementation for the classification model is also presented.

Supporting biodiversity studies with the EUBrazilOpenBio Hybrid Data Infrastructure

“…There has been a major effort to create portals and general-purpose services to address such issues. Portals and workflow engines such as Enginframe [13], eScienceCentral [14], Moteur [15], or P-Grade [16], address the problem of creating scientific workflows through individual modules and wrapping legacy code. However, these general approaches still require programming skills and background awareness of the features of the underlying infrastructure.…”

GECEM: A portal-based Grid application for computational electromagnetics

“…The P-GRADE portal supports the composition and execution of workflows, and is not tied to any specific application domain [16]. The P-GRADE portal is similar in some respects to the GECEM portal: both portals are based on GridSphere, both represent the input/output of data to/from a workflow node in terms of files, and both make use of certificates, GSI, and MyProxy servers in the authorization and authentication of users and resources.…”

Can We Connect Existing Production Grids into a World Wide Grid?

“…All these grids allocated some grid sites to do experiments on their interoperability. In the framework of the GIN VO activity a GIN Resource testing portal [12] has been set up based on the P-GRADE/GEMLCA portal technology [19]. This portal enables the job submission (even workflow submission) to all these grid sites and hence can be used to constantly monitor their availability and usability in the GIN VO.…”