[Beowulf] Web interfaces for yer cluster.

[Robert G. Brown]

On Fri, 26 Oct 2007, Nathan Moore wrote:

> As I recall, the AHPCRC (in Minneapolis) had one of these "submit via web
> gui" systems up and running in the mid-late 90's.  As I was on site, I never
> had training on the system, but I remember there being buttons to replicate
> almost the entire shell.
>
> I never heard their motivation for developing the system.  Other list
> members (Richard Walsh?) might have better memory of the system.

The ATLAS project also had such and interface, and I believe still does.
I want to say that it was a part of that set of grid tools whose name I
can never remember -- Globus?

It may be just what you are looking for if your cluster is very
grid-like in that it primarily runs lots of independent EP tasks.

Look at www.globus.org.  In fact, look at:

http://www.globus.org/grid_software/computation/gram.php

which may be if not exactly what you want, at least a framework you can
work with.

    rgb

>
> NT Moore
>
> On 10/26/07, Bill Bryce <bill at platform.com> wrote:
>>
>> In response to the question:
>>
>>> PBS, Cluster Resources, and LSF all have some type of web portal where
>> you > can do some of these things. Of course they are commercial and
>> sometimes
>>> not always the most flexible.
>>
>> Do they expose some sort of API as well?
>>
>> There is the DRMAA api that SGE, PBS and yes even for LSF
>> (http://www.fedstage.com/wiki/FedStage_DRMAA_for_LSF).  That API is used
>> to create portals, and other submission/management tools.
>>
>> There is also the HPC Profile Working Group within the OGF that is
>> moving forward with other interesting projects such as HPCP (High
>> Performance Computing Profile), BES (Basic Execution Service), and JSDL
>> (Job Submission Description Language) this all ties into OGSA (they will
>> be demonstrating this stuff at SC07) a BES implementation is available
>> at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/bespp/
>>
>> DRMAA has been around longer and is now supported by all major batch
>> systems, the OGF stuff is pretty new - but interesting.
>>
>> Bill.
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: beowulf-bounces at beowulf.org [mailto:beowulf-bounces at beowulf.org]
>> On Behalf Of Kozin, I (Igor)
>> Sent: Friday, October 26, 2007 7:31 AM
>> To: Mark Hahn; Jeffrey B. Layton
>> Cc: Beowulf List
>> Subject: RE: [Beowulf] Web interfaces for yer cluster.
>>
>>
>>> really?  is it that the can't scrape up enough unix-able people
>>> to keep their clusters busy?  (I would want to know why - for
>> instance,
>>> do they build clusters that are too small to be interesting, or
>> somehow
>>> hard to use?  note that it doesn't take much *nix literacy at all to
>>> get along great - mainly it's an issue of whether the user is offended
>>> by anything non-mouse-driven.)
>>
>> The idea behind this strategy is that if you make your HPC centre
>> accessible to a large and diverse user community you will be less
>> susceptible to (minor) problems in your financial support stream since
>> you broaden up your options.
>>
>>> there have been many systems which aim to reduce real apps to basic
>>> <button>compute!</button> interface.  I've never quite understood why
>>> they're so seductive, since that level of automation is mainly
>> justified
>>> if you really do wind up pressing the button very frequently.
>>
>> There are a number of scientific applications with rather well developed
>> GUIs which are really useful and portable. The next obvious thing to do
>> is to integrate somehow the GUI with a job manager. I'm not talking here
>> about interactive steering where such a link is vital. I'm talking about
>> an interface where you compose your job, submit it and view the result,
>> and I'm not sure whether a web interface is ideal for this. Some have
>> done this already, others are still thinking but it would be still worth
>> the effort to come up with a common API for such programs to use.
>>
>>> PBS, Cluster Resources, and LSF all have some type of web portal where
>> you > can do some of these things. Of course they are commercial and
>> sometimes
>>> not always the most flexible.
>>
>> Do they expose some sort of API as well?
>>
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>
>
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>

-- 
Robert G. Brown
Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
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