Cyberinfrastructure in New York State - Grid Computing: Infrastructure, Service, and Applications - page 32

that have the ability to cooperate in serving the user) with a data grid
(storage devices that are similarly available to the user) so that the user
may deploy computationally intensive applications that read or write
large data i les in a very simple fashion. In particular, the NYS Grid was
designed so that the user does not need to know where the data i les are
physically stored or where an application is physically deployed, while
providing the user with easy access to their i les in terms of uploading,
downloading, editing, viewing, and so on. Of course, a user who wishes
to more closely manage where the data are stored and where the applica-
tions are running also has the option to retain such a control.
The core infrastructure for the NYS Grid includes the installation of
standard grid middleware, the use of an active Web portal for deploying
applications, dynamic resource allocation so that clusters and networks of
workstations can be scheduled to provide resources on demand, a scalable
and dynamic scheduling system, and a dynamic i rewall, to name a few.
Several key packages were used in the implementation of the NYS Grid,
and other packages have been identii ed in order to allow for the antici-
pated expansion of the system. The Globus Toolkit* provides APIs and
tools using Java SDK to simplify the development of OGSI-compliant ser-
vices and clients. It supplies database services and Monitoring and
Discovery System † index services implemented in Java, GRAM ‡ service
implemented in C with a Java wrapper, GridFTP § services implemented in
C, and a full set of Globus Toolkit components. The recently proposed Web
Service-Resource Framework ¶ provides the concepts and interfaces devel-
oped by the OGSI specii cation exploiting the Web services architecture.
The NYS Grid is the current incarnation of a Cyberinfrastructure
Laboratory-led grid that progressed from a Buffalo-based grid (ACDC-
Grid) to a persistent, hardened, and heterogeneous** Western New York
Grid (WNY Grid) before being enhanced, expanded, and deployed through-
out New York State. This series of grids was largely funded by the National
Science Foundation through a series of ITR, MRI, and CRI grants. The NYS
Grid currently supports a variety of applications and users from NYS Grid
institutions and the Open Science Grid. In addition, a grassroots New York
State Cyberinfrastructure Initiative †† (NYS-CI) has been granted access to the
NYS Grid due to its promise of users with the need for signii cant resources.
Unfortunately, to date, such users have not been identii ed by the NYS-CI.
* www.globus.org/toolkit/.
† www.globus.org/toolkit/mds/.
‡ www.globus.org/toolkit/docs/2.4/gram/.
§ www.globus.org/grid_software/data/gridftp.php.
¶ www.globus.org/wsrf.
** Equipment on the Western New York Grid includes one or more signii cant Sun
Microsystems clusters (Geneseo State College), Apple Clusters (Hauptman-Woodward
Institute), and Dell Clusters (Niagara University, SUNY-Buffalo), in addition to a variety
of storage systems.
†† www.nysgrid.org/.