Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
6.8
In addition to the core NGS sites at STFC and the Universities of Leeds,
Oxford, and Manchester, the UK's high-performance computing (HPC)
facilities HPC-x and HeCTOR are also partners in the NGS. In addition,
i ve new partner sites have joined the NGS since October 2004 (Queen's
University Belfast, the University of Glasgow, the University of Cardiff,
Lancaster University, and the University of Westminster) and a number
of afi liate sites (the University of Keele, the University of Southampton,
the University of Bristol, and the University of Reading). Through the
partner and afi liate program the NGS has grown to include a wide vari-
ety of homogeneous resources, united by the common grid interfaces. At
present the NGS facilitates access to a range of different system resources
from those similar to the core services running Linux or other l avors of
UNIX to Windows-based Condor pools and Windows-based compute
cluster services.
Following the specii cation of the NGS minimal software stack, the
resource sites are integrated into the NGS following a period of certii ca-
tion to ensure that the required interfaces that should be compatible with
the NGS are available. Sites that do not directly contribute resources for
the use of general NGS users are termed “afi liates,” while sites that pro-
vide a contribution of resources for use by all NGS users are granted part-
ner status. As a partner they are expected to write a service-level dei nition
that details the type and level of service offered to NGS users. As a partner
site they are also entitled to direct representation, via a nominated person,
on the NGS technical board. This enables partner sites to be directly
involved with decisions relating to the operation of the NGS and for future
policy decisions.
Partner- and Affiliate-Certified Sites
6.9
The National e-Science Center in Edinburgh was originally established to
not only act as a regional center of e-Science specialism but also provide
dedicated training activities for users across the spectrum of e-Science
activities. Today the e-Science center hosts training and educational events
and supports and leads training activities across the EGEE grid project. As
a center specializing in training, NeSC was invited to participate within
the NGS project. Through the provision of funding from the central NGS
grant, NeSC has provided a number of training courses from general NGS
induction courses, which are designed to enable a user new to the grid to
Documentation and Training
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