GridPP PMB Minutes 4 - 24th September 2001 =========================================== Present : Tony Doyle(TD), Steve Lloyd(SLL), Roger Barlow(RB), Neil Geddes(NIG), Robin Middleton(RPM), Les Robertson(LR), John Gordon(JCG)(part only). Minutes of last meeting ----------------------- The minutes were accepted without change. Actions List Review ------------------- 1.1 ONGOING. QMW have advertised with closing date of 1st November. Manchester have advertised and the closing date is 30th September. Liverpool are still to reply. 1.5 CLOSED. web page problems are now sorted out. Pages are now believed to be live, although concern exists about them working correctly with versions of Internet Explorer. Mark Williams (from Surfability) would be interested in working on the web pages, though in a commercial context. Before GridPP entertains such a sub-contract, there should be an overall web structure in place. PPARC want to have some impressive pages over the next few weeks (up to the next collaboration meeting) to show off GridPP progress. The current GridPP pages don't yet have a large amount of content. The various GridPP boards should each have one or more pages. 1.11 ONGOING 1.16 CLOSED (done by email to the CB - next meeting 23rd October, 1pm at UCL) 2.3 ONGOING (expected next week) 2.4 ONGOING. The UK prefers that equipment bought at CERN will be bought through the UK. Detailed discussions with PPARC are still outstanding. 2.5 ONGOING. BaBar are very attracted to the InterGrid idea. A timetable put forward by Ian Foster fits well with the CERN timetable. Discussions in Beijing during CHEP01 had focussed on making sure the various Grid projects come together sooner rather than later, before an opportunity is missed. The main concern is to ensure projects come together with a common set of objectives and initially a small number of sites (8 sites is already quite big). Subsequently, it would be foreseen to expand this. The Rome InterGrid meeting should focus on initiating this process between DataGrid, iVDGL, GriPhyN, PPDG, GridPP, CrossGrid, etc. 2.6 ONGOING 3.1 DONE. TD will ask people to each prepare a presentation for the next meeting. 3.2 ONGOING, started with BaBar UK and planned to be extended to other experiments. CDF are working on this. 3.3 DONE. Instructions on the web 3.4 DONE http://ppewww.ph.gla.ac.uk/~doyle/GridPP/PMB/minutes/this-week.txt is the (current) reference for minutes 3.5 DONE. Les expressed concern on the way the EPSRC DataGrid fellowships were advertised, since it was felt unlikely to attract CS people. The PPARC advert was more succinct - Les has had people showing interest already. The PPARC funded posts would be on UK salaries with cost of living allowance for being at CERN and some help with accommodation in Geneva. 3.6 DONE. Contacted Rob Henderson and asked for input on estimates of sysman support for Tier-2 centres. Rob will raise this at the Sysman meeting in October. 3.7 DONE 3.8 ONGOING (probably in the 2nd week of December) 3.9 DONE. EB chair and deputy would share the same role description. Similarly Project leader and deputy. 3.10 ONGOING Tier-1/A procurement meeting (RB & JCG) --------------------------------------- (attended by Roger Barlow, John Gordon, Dave Newbold, Ian McArthur, Andrew Sansum & Dave Kelsey). Few decisions were taken at the meeting as it was the first in the process. However it had been agreed to buy some few TB disk to cover near future needs. There was concern that the EU tendering process (lasting 60 days) could soon compromise completion of procurement this FY. There is a need for more detailed information from the experiments before the tender can be drawn up. BaBar are concerned that if kit is not purchased this year it will create a severe problem for them this FY. It was agreed at the procurement meeting that a general advert to solicit interest is put out in the EU Journal as soon as possible, to be followed up in more detail later on. The balance between CPU and disk is to be resolved in the next month. The next meeting is foreseen to be just after GGF using video conferencing. John will also prepare an overview document of the Tier-1/A so that people have a chance to comment and check their own requirements...including balance of disk and tape. DataGrid PMB Deputy ------------------- Tony Doyle was suggested as the DataGrid PMB deputy. Other nominations were called for, but all agreed that Tony should deputise. DataGrid WP3 Leadership ----------------------- The meeting noted the proposed candidate to take over the WP3 leadership. This has been discussed with Fabrizio Gagliardi who was supportive. The next step is to finish discussion on practicalities with Ken Peach later this week. A hand over period is foreseen with RPM continuing on PM9 Integration and his successor to carry forward the WP3 programme into the future. Globus Support -------------- DataGrid has arranged direct support during the testbed-1 integration with the Globus Team and lasting for 6 months. The cost to the UK of this will be about 15k and it has already provided for direct contact between DataGrid/GridPP developers and Globus experts. In addition, since the UK will deploy the Testbed-1 release, it will benefit from the support given to other groups in development of the software. Robin proposed to continue the support through DataGrid beyond the initial 6 months, subject to satisfactory costs and benefits. In the medium to longer term GridPP should also look to support from the UK National Grid Support Centre. Collaboration Meeting (November) -------------------------------- Monday 5th will be an all-day plenary, with each experiment presenting how they intend to use the Grid. Les will present the CERN situation and a few other people will attend from CERN. There will be a PMB on the Monday evening. On Tuesday 6th the meeting will break in to 2 major streams (experiments and technical) for the morning. The Tuesday afternoon will be used for reporting back. AstroGrid (Steve Lloyd) ----------------------- AstroGrid held a meeting at Coseners last Monday/Tuesday 17/18th Sept). There is already low-level collaboration between AstroGrid and GridPP in the areas of storage (via JCG) and networking via (PC). Information services is another area of potential collaboration between the two projects. Nick Walton (to be based in Cambridge) is just starting as the project scientist and will be invited to the Edinburgh GridPP meeting. It was noted that contact between GridPP and AstroGrid project leaders could be a next step in collaboration. AstroGrid will also recruit a project manager to oversee resource management. AoB --- * Next meeting will start at 1pm and run for 4 hours, reviewing progress over the past month and looking forward to the next two months, in order to identify longer term issues. All members of the collaboration are invited to raise agenda issues for this extended mtg. via e-mail to Tony. Action List ----------- ONGOING... 1.1 RPM to determine status of awarded EDG posts 1.11 PC & DB to determine which project management tools to be used 2.3 LR to table a 1-page document on the proposal to spend 300k on hardware 2.4 LR to contact Guy Rickett to confirm financial transfer options 2.5 RM to put place holder for InterGrid with potential interest from BaBar/CDF/D0 using prototype Tier-1/A at RAL. 2.6 RB to track options via InterGrid from application point of view 3.2 PC, NB, RB + EB to define experimental requirements 3.8 NG to provide details of Oversight Board timetable 3.10 DB to assess current financial commitments prior to request for transfer of up to 200k (total) via RAL SLA for travel this year NEW... 4.1 TD to set up the PMB web pages 4.2 NB to set up the EB web pages 4.3 SLL to set up CB web pages 4.4 RPM & PC to finalise GridPP PMB roles before next meeting 4.5 RB to table a 1-page to InterGrid on BaBar interest 4.6 RPM to circulate Les' background note 4.7 RPM to formulate guidance on costs of sending person to CERN on LTA. Some examples would be useful. Agree with Ken Peach and circulate to PMB (Les would use this information to inform potential applicants). 4.8 TD to contact Mary Elizabeth Shewry about the potential need for accommodation for Grid LTAs 4.9 JCG to prepare the advert in the EU Journal. 4.10 RPM to appraise David Boyd of Globus support through DataGrid in the short term 4.11 TD to appraise Malcolm Atkinson and NeSC of Globus support through DataGrid in the short term 4.12 RPM to circulate a paragraph for submission to next DataGrid PMB on UK position on Globus support. 4.13 SLL to send to AstroGrid a list of the GridPP working group contacts 4.14 ALL - Each PMB member should prepare a presentation on the issues they see confronting GridPP over the coming few months.