EOSC-hub TSs and CCs

The Advanced Resource Connector (ARC) middleware integrates computing resources (usually, computing clusters managed by a batch system), making them available via a secure common layer. Conceptually, ARC provides an edge service to batch systems. Through this service, called ARC Compute Element (ARC-CE), scientific communities can launch and manage computational tasks in a uniform manner. 

A bit more than a year ago a non backward compatible major version, the ARC6.0 was released bringing new functionality, enhanced manageability and increased stability to the community. With the availability of the ARC6 release the support for the previous ARC5 deployments are to be discontinued with the end of June 2020.

This interactive webinar will introduce the major new features of the ARC6 release and cover the deployment steps of an ARC6 CE  both as a new installation and as an upgrade from a previous ARC5-based deployment. Special attention will be given to the accounting system related changes and the new one-shop-stop sysadmin toolbox built around arcctl. 

During this webinar we will show you how the IM framework can be used through the Elastic Cloud Computer Cluster (EC3) portal to create elastic virtual clusters on top of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Clouds. The virtual clusters created by EC3 are self-managed entities that scale out to a larger number of nodes on demand, up to a maximum size specified by the user. Whenever idle resources are detected, the clusters automatically scale in, according to some predefined policies, in order to cut down the costs in the case of using a public Cloud provider. In this particular webinar the EC3 docker CLI will be used to deploy and operate elastic virtual clusters on the EGI Cloud Federation. 

EC3 has been developed by the Grid and High Performance Computing Group (GRyCAP) at the Instituto de Instrumentación para Imagen Molecular (I3M) from the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV).

The Infrastructure Manager (IM) is a framework that eases the access and the usability of IaaS clouds by automating the VMI selection, deployment, configuration, software installation, monitoring and update of Virtual Appliances. It supports APIs from a large number of virtual platforms, making user applications cloud-agnostic. In addition it integrates a contextualization system to enable the installation and configuration of all the user required applications providing the user with a fully functional infrastructure. It is a service that features a web-based GUI, a XML-RPC API, a REST API and a command-line application.

IM has been developed by the Grid and High Performance Computing Group (GRyCAP) at the Instituto de Instrumentación para Imagen Molecular (I3M) from the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV).

The HTCondor-CE software is a site gateway that accepts remote resource requests (i.e., pilot jobs) and passes them along to the site's local batch system (e.g. Grid Engine, HTCondor, LSF, PBS Pro/Torque, or Slurm). 

Based on HTCondor, HTCondor-CE is widely used across the Open Science Grid (OSG) as the preferred Compute Element (CE) solution, and is now an official part of the HTCondor Software Suite. 

With the retirement of CREAM endpoints across the EGI sites planned by end of 2020, HTCondor-CE could be considered a good alternative as a CE endpoint solution and this talk will explain the reasons by giving an overview of the HTCondor-CE architecture, configuration, APEL and BDII support, and feature roadmap.

Kubernetes is the number one orchestrator to host Docker containers and is offered by all major public clouds. In this webinar Enol will introduce you to Docker containers and Kubernetes on the EGI Cloud Federation and will show you how to get your containers under control. 

The EGI DataHub allows users to make their data available using different levels of access: from completely unrestricted open access to open data to authenticated access to closed data sets. This is possible as a result of the seamless integration with the EGI AAI service. The data hosted on the EGI DataHub can be readily accessible by cloud Virtual Machines (VMs) or running grid jobs thanks to full integration with EGI Federated Cloud and High-Throughput compute resources. The use of protocols such as POSIX and web services guarantees easy and scalable access to data from cloud and HTC applications. This ensures maximum compatibility with existing applications and minimum hassle for developers and users alike. The EGI DataHub is built on top of the EGI Open Data Platform using Onedata technology to connect a wide range of existing storage services, regardless of their underlying technology (e.g. Lustre, Amazon S3, Ceph, NFS, or dCache).

The EGI Check-in service (also called EGI AAI proxy) enables access to EGI services and resources using federated authentication mechanisms. Specifically, the proxy service is operated as a central hub between federated Identity Providers (IdPs) residing ‘outside’ of the EGI ecosystem, and Service Providers (SPs) that are part of EGI. The main advantage of this design principle is that all entities need to establish and maintain technical and trust relation only to a single entity, the EGI AAI proxy, instead of managing many-to-many relationships. In this context, the proxy acts as a Service Provider towards the Identity Providers and as an Identity Provider towards the Service Providers.

Through the EGI AAI proxy, users are able to authenticate with the credentials provided by the IdP of their Home Organisation (e.g. via eduGAIN), as well as using social identity providers, or other selected external identity providers (support for eGOV IDs is also foreseen). To achieve this, the EGI AAI has built-in support for SAML, OpenID Connect and OAuth2 providers and already enables user logins through Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and ORCID. In addition to serving as an authentication proxy, the EGI AAI provides a central Discovery Service (Where Are You From – WAYF) for users to select their preferred IdP.

The EGI AAI proxy is also responsible for aggregating user attributes originating from various authoritative sources (IdPs and attribute provider services) and delivering them to the connected EGI service providers in a harmonised and transparent way. Service Providers can use the received attributes for authorisation purposes, i.e. determining the resources the user has access to.

This training session will provide an overview of enabling the use and management of community identities for accessing resources made available through the EOSC-hub AAI. 

IT Service Management is a discipline that helps provide services with a focus on customer needs and in a professional manner. It is widely used in the commercial and public sectors to manage IT services of all types, but current solutions are very heavyweight with high barriers to entry.

FitSM is an open, lightweight standard for professionally managing services. It brings order and traceability to a complex area and provides simple, practical support in getting started with ITSM. FitSM training and certification provide crucial help in delivering services and improving their management. It provides a common conceptual and process model, sets out straightforward and realistic requirements and links them to supporting materials.

FitSM is the reference framework being used in both EOSC-hub and EOSCpilot projects, among other research infrastructures as well. Through FitSM, the EOSC-hub project aims at conducting effective IT service management in the EOSC federated environment and achieving a baseline level of ITSM that can act in support of ‘management interoperability’ in federated environments from EOSC related projects (e.g. EOSC-Nordic).  

In addition, participants have an opportunity to receive a formal certification backed by certification authority APMG for anyone successfully passing the exam (20 multiple choice questions, 13 required to pass). Both the costs of the training and the exam is covered and offered by the EOSC-hub project for free.

The training is co-located with the EOSC Symposium taking place on 26-28 November 2019 and limits the overlap with the kickoff meeting programme.

T Service Management is a discipline that helps provide services with a focus on customer needs and in a professional manner. It is widely used in the commercial and public sectors to manage IT services of all types, but current solutions are very heavyweight with high barriers to entry.

FitSM is a lightweight approach to professionally managing services. It brings order and traceability to a complex area and provides simple, practical support in getting started with ITSM. FitSM training and certification provides crucial help in providing services and improving their management. It provides a common conceptual and process model, sets out straightforward and realistic requirements and links them to supporting materials.

This two-day Advanced level course aims to provide individuals with deeper knowledge of the ITSM processes focusing on service operation and control.