GRID Middleware
The Swis Bio Grid infrastructure is built following an incremetal approach driven by applications and projects requirements.
Grid Level 0: ProtoGRID
ProtoGRID is a prototype grid. In the early phase of the SwissBioGrid, it was decided to follow a two-pronged strategy: one one hand, to investigate the different pre-existing middleware and scheduling options as to whether they're suited for the purposes and applications brought forward by the SwissBioGrid, but to set out at the same to and create a "minimalistic set of humble Perl scripts" that allow for the distribution of jobs to different compute ressources. In this regard, the ProtoGRID serves two purposes: For developers, it enables us to familiarize ourselves first-hand with Grid concepts by providing a rudimentary implementation. More importantly, scientifically, the protoGRID provides a framework on which the SwissBioGrid proof-of-concept application is run. ProtoGRID is enable thanks to the PC-Grid technology available at Biozentrum in Basel
Grid Level 1: ARC
The Second phase of the SwissBioGrid production grid middleware is based on ARC, the middleware developed by NorduGrid. From the comparison of available grid middleware, NorduGrid emerged as the best match to the requirements imposed by the SwissBioGrid members, in particular due to its ability to be deployed on already existing compute resources. It was also decided that extensions to NorduGrid would be developed in those areas, where the services offered by NorduGrid middleware were perceived insufficient or ill-suited to the requirements of the SwissBioGrid. These extensions would be included in the NorduGrid code base and future releases.
Grid Level 2: Interoperability
The SwissBioGrid federates heterogeneous resources provided by the participating computing centers. These comprise compute clusters, large SMP machines, as well as desktop PC workstations in classrooms, public computer rooms, laboratories and offices. Compute clusters and supercomputers are efficient at providing compute power, however, they typically are fairly busy with jobs that were submitted by local users. Thus, it is desirable to complement these resources with a large contingent of desktop workstations providing idle capacity. Interoperability between ARC resources and the desktop Grid federated by the protoGRID will be ensured as third phase of the whole SwissBioGrid infrastructure.
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