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The eXtremeDigital (XD)

Program

Barry I. Schneider

Office of Cyberinfrastructure

National Science Foundation

email:bschneid@nsf.gov

XD Solicitation/XD Program eXtreme Digital Resources for Science and Engineering (NSF 08-571) – eXtremely

complex High-Performance Computing and Storage Services

• aka Track 2 awardees and others become service providers (SP) for XD High-Performance Remote Visualization and Data Analysis Services

• 2 awards; 5 years; $3M/year• proposals due November 4, 2008 – Two awards funded in 2009 – RDAV (NICS) & Longhorn (TACC)

Integrating Services (5 years, $26M/year)• Coordination and Management Service (CMS)

– 5 years; $12M/year

• Technology Audit and Insertion Service (TAIS)– 5 years; $3M/year – Two awards funded in 2010 – Buffalo (TAS) and UIUC (TIS)

• Advanced User Support Service (AUSS)– 5 years; $8M/year

• Training, Education and Outreach Service (TEOS)– 5 years, $3M/year

two phase proposal process for IS• pre-proposals November 4, 2008• final proposals due June 15, 2009 – Final project called XSEDE funded July, 2011 for five years with a possible additional five year extension

XD at a Glance Technical Audit Service develops lightweight tools (XDMoD) to

enable

stakeholders to obtain information on the systems, performance, usage and

other characteristics of the XD resources – extremely valuable for data

collection – Aid users, system administrators and NSF Program Director

Technical Insertion Service evaluates software and middleware and makes

recommendations for injection into project XSEDE provides the integrating services for the project:

Coordination and

management, advanced user services and training, education and outreach XSEDE is a comprehensive set of advanced heterogeneous high-

end

digital services, integrated into a general-purpose infrastructure. XSEDE is about increased user productivity, not just high end

resources Increased productivity leads to more science at all levels Increased productivity is sometimes the difference between a

feasible project and an impractical one

Thanks to the XSEDE folks for permission to use material from slides used at the US-EU SummerSchool in computational science held at Lake Tahoein early August

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The Vision Enhance the productivity of scientists and engineers by providing them with new and innovative capabilities Facilitate scientific discovery while enabling

transformational science/engineering and innovative educational programs Develop a more sustainable approach to the national CI

XSEDE supports a breadth of research

Earthquake Science and Civil Engineering

Molecular Dynamics Nanotechnology Plant Science Storm modeling Epidemiology Particle Physics Economic analysis of phone

network patterns

Brain science Analysis of large

cosmological simulations DNA sequencing Computational Molecular

Sciences Neutron Science  International Collaboration

in Cosmology and Plasma Physics

Sampling of much larger set. Many examples are new to TeraGrid/HPC. Range from petascale to disjoint HTC, many are data driven. XSEDE will support thousands of projects.

From direct contact with user community as part of requirements collections

XSEDE’s Distinguishing Characteristics Foundation for a national CI ecosystem – in sync with the NSF CIF21 vision

A comprehensive suite of advanced digital services Federated with other high-end facilities, other providers of digital services here and abroad and importantly campus-based resources

Unprecedented integration of diverse digital resources Developing an innovative, open architecture making possible the continuous addition of new technology capabilities and services – Achieve Seamless integration of resources at all levels

XSEDE: An Infrastructure Designed for Innovation & Evolution

An environment in which all resources, data and services relevant to a researcher can be embedded and shared Campus bridging creating a single virtual system with interactive data transfer and resource sharing capabilities

•“make my data accessible everywhere I want to be” Coordinated archival approach to ensure persistence of important datasets beyond the lifetime of particular service providers – Still needs fleshing out

An underlying infrastructure to support this Open architecture with judicious use of standards designed to evolve in a non-disruptive way Interoperability of XSEDE with other Cis – OSG, PRACE, DEISA NAREGI

XSEDE’s Distinguishing Characteristics - Architecture

XSEDE is designed for innovation & evolution There is an architecture defined, but it is still evolving as a consequence of the review process

• based on set of design principles• rooted in the judicious use of standards and best practices• clearly defined transition plan from TeraGrid to XSEDE

Professional systems engineering approach Responds to evolving needs of existing, emerging, and new communities

• incremental development/deployment model

New requirements gathering processes• ticket mining, focus groups, usability panels, shoulder surfing

Ensure robustness and security while incorporating new and improved technologies and services Process control, quality assurance, baseline management, stakeholder involvement

How XSEDE describes the architectureA set of “views” examining the elephant from the perspectives of

different stakeholders Not (only) immensely detailed documentation!

Different stakeholders require different views, e.g., Service provider System administrator Power user Occasional user Gateway developer

Tell us what views you think are important

–Security officer–NSF program manager–Campus CIO–Trainer– . . .

XSEDE’s Distinguishing Characteristics - Governance

World-class leadership from CI centers with deep experience: partnership led by NCSA, NICS, PSC, TACC and SDSCPI: John Towns, NCSA/Univ of IllinoisCo-PIs: Jay Boisseau, TACC/Univ of Texas Austin

Patricia Kovatch, NICS/Univ of Tenn-Knoxville Ralph Roskies, PSC/CMU Nancy Wilkins-Diehr, SDSC/UC-San Diego

Partners who strongly complement these CI centers with expertise in science, engineering, technology and educationUniv of Virginia Ohio Supercomputing Center SURA CornellIndiana Univ PurdueUniv of Chicago RiceBerkeley NCARShodor Jülich Supercomputing Centre

Engaging stakeholdersCollection of stakeholder needs:

surveys, ticket mining, … focus groups, usability panels, … interviews, shoulder surfing, …

Prioritization of identified need and derived requirements User Requirements Evaluation and Prioritization (UREP) Working Group

•broad participation across architecture, deployment, operations, users, and service providers

Assessing plans and deployments through a variety of stakeholder-focused, facilitated workshops

•e.g., interactive ATAM sessions focused on identifying, quantifying, discussing tradeoffs

Representation in the management of XSEDE XSEDE Advisory Board User Advisory Committee Service Providers Forum