Information and Observation Technology
Grid and e-Infrastructures
Within KNMI the demand for computational and storage capacity from the research and operational departments are continuously increasing and exceeding the resources available at KNMI. R&D of the Information and Observation Technology (INFRA IRD) division investigates and evaluates the possible e-infrastructures alternatives.
Grid computing is a term referring to the combination of computer resources from multiple administrative domains to reach a common goal. The grid can be thought of as a distributed system with non-interactive workloads that involve a large number of files. What distinguishes grid computing from conventional high performance computing systems such as cluster computing is that grids tend to be more loosely coupled, heterogeneous, and geographically dispersed. Although a grid can be dedicated to a specialized application, it is more common that a single grid will be used for a variety of different purposes. Grids are often constructed with the aid of general-purpose grid software libraries known as middleware.
INFRA IRD is active in the Earth Science Research (ESR) community. This community aims at improving the usability of Grid e-infrastructures to enable better usage by the ESR community. We do this by providing requirements and feedback to middleware developers, evaluation of middleware, providing support to ESR applications running on Grid and by promoting the use of e-Infrastructures within the ESR community.
Besides Grid, also Cloud computing and multi core / many core computing are part of the e-Infrastructure research area for INFRA IRD.
Examples of Grid infrastructures:
Computing farms at the hi-tech Grid Computing Center at Fermilab. GCC provides storage and analysis resources for CMS, DZero and CDF Experiments, and Open Science Grid. Image courtesy of Reidar Hahn, click on picture
Background information
1) Cossu, R., M. Petitdidier, J. Linford, V. Badoux, L. Fusco, B. Gotab, L. Huchly, G. Lecca, F.
Murgia, C. Plevier, P. Renard, H. Schwichtenberg, W. Som de Cerff, V. Tran, G. Vetois, A roadmap for a dedicated Earth Science grid platform, Earth Science Informatics, 2010. DOI: 10.1007/s12145-010-0045-4
2) Som de Cerff, W., M. Petitdidier, A. Gemünd, L. Horstink and H. Schwichtenberg, Earth
science test suites to evaluate grid tools and middleware-examples for grid data access tools, Earth Science Informatics, 2009 – DOI 10.1007/s12145-009-0022-y
3) Dissemination and exploitation of grids in Earth Science. W. Som de Cerff, M. Petitdidier, M. Lonjaret, L. Fusco, J. Linford, L. Hluchy, M. Dobrucky, V. Tran, H. Schwichtenberg, J. van de Vegte, C. Plevier, M. Zhinzhin. Sensors, Systems, and Next-Generation Satellites XI, R.Meynart, S.P.Neeck, H.Shimodal, S.Habib, Eds., Proceedings of the SPIE Europe remote sensing Conference, 17-20 September 2007, Firenze, Italy. pp. 67442F-1 to 67442F-7, ISBN 978-0-8194-69021.
4) Autonomic Management of Large Clusters and their Integration into the Grid Thomas R¨oblitz, Florian Schintke and Alexander Reinefeld, Olof B¨arring, Maite Barroso Lopez, German Cancio, Sylvain Chapeland, Karim Chouikh, Lionel Cons, Piotr Pozna´nski, Philippe Defert, Jan Iven, Thorsten Kleinwort, Bernd Panzer-Steindel, Jaroslaw Polok, Catherine Rafflin, Alan Silverman, Tim Smith and Jan Van EldikDavid Groep, Martijn Steenbakkers, Oscar Koeroo, Wim Som de Cerff and Gerben Venekamp,David Front, Massimo Biasotto, Cristina Aiftimiei, Enrico Ferro and Gaetano Maron, Andrea Chierici and Luca Dell agnello, Marco Serra, Michele Michelotto, Lord Hess, Volker Lindenstruth, Frank Pister and Timm Morten Steinbeck, Paul Anderson, Tim Colles, Alexander Holt and Alastair Scobie, Michael George and Andrew Washbrook, Rafael A. Garc´1a Leiva. Jounal of GRID Computing, 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers.
5) Using Virtual Organizations Membership System with EDG's Grid Security and Database Access Marco Niinimaki, John White, Wim Som de Cerff, Joni Hahkala, Tapio Niemi, Mikko Pitkanen Grid and Peer-to-Peer Computing Impacts on Large Scale Heterogoneous Distributed Database Systems, GLOBE'2004, Zaragoza, Spain
Proceedings published by IEEE Computer Science Press
6) Managing Dynamic User Communities in a Grid of Autonomous Resources
R. Alfieri, R. Cecchini, V. Ciaschini, L. dell'Agnello, A. Gianoli, F. Spataro, Franck Bonnassieux, Philippa J. Broadfoot, Gavin Lowe, Linda Cornwall, J. Jensen, D. Kelsey, Ákos Frohner, David L. Groep, W. Som de Cerff, M. Steenbakkers, G. Venekamp, D. Kouril, A. McNab, O. Mulmo, M. Silander, J. Hahkala, K. Lhorentey: Managing CoRR cs.DC/0306004: (2003)
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