Gemstone: a mozilla-based rich client for accessing grid services

SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER

Gemstone:a mozilla-based rich clientfor accessing grid services

Kurt Mueller / Karan Bhatia

Grid Middleware Development GroupSan Diego Supercomputer CenterUniversity of California, San Diego


The science driving Gemstone

• GEMSTONE: Grid-Enabled Molecular Science Through Online Networked Environments

• Molecular quantum and classical chemistries• Apps: APBS, GAMESS, Polyrate• Visualization: QMView

• “Our research involves utilization of computationally derived chemical and physical properties, in conjunction with experiments, to enhance the understanding of control within technologically important chemical structures and reaction processes.” - Kim Baldridge


Typical workflow

• Choose molecule(s) - i.e. input files• Setup an application run

• Choose application• Set application options

• Submit application run (job) to a resource• (optionally) monitor, tweak and resubmit

• Get application output• Visualize output• Share output


In the old days…

• Molecule files and job descriptor files edited/managed by hand - vi, ftp/scp from user’s computer to computational resource

• Grid credentials stored by user and managed with command-line tools - grid-proxy-init

• Job submission also through command-line tools - globus-job-run

• Retrieve job output - ftp/scp• Visualize on user’s desktop - QMView


Early portal efforts

• NPACI HotPage• Circa 2000• Perl-based, used GridPort toolkit• Credential management• File management• Generic job submission

• GAMESS/LAPK portals at SDSC• Circa 2001• Rudimentary GUIs for setting up and running GAMESS

and LAPK jobs• Primitive visualization of results


New paradigms

• SOA - Service Oriented Architecture• Applications refactored as services• Web services

• Dynamic discovery of services• Combination of services into novel workflows• OPAL - SDSC toolkit for quickly exposing apps as web services

• Rich user interfaces• Overcome traditional limitations of HTML and browsers• Flash, Java Applets, Java WebStart, AJAX


Portal functions

• Environment for end-users to do science• Discovery of service and capabilities• User Interface to service APIs

• Reduce complexity of Grid system• Unified mechanism to access disparate APIs and

protocols• Uberftp (gridftp), GRAM (job submission), etc

• Controlled publication or sharing of experiences/data• E.g. Geon data publication, myspace social networking,

personal workspace


Specific Challenges

• Heterogeneity of desktop/laptop operating environments• Multi-platform software (mac, windows, linux)• Reliable software deployment, manage software dependencies, push

updates• Standard software engineering issues

• Users’ _primary_ computer is not part of the grid• Grids are server-based (mostly)• Grid protocols don’t extend to the desktop• Desktop provides best environment for data management,

visualization and interaction

• Extreme heterogeneity of protocols, APIs and SDKs• Many different protocols (wsrf, soap, gsiftp, gram, mds)• Different tools for accessing different services (uberftp, portal, java

cog)


Grid Protocols and APIs


Traditional Portal Architectures

Grid Services

Portalserver

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (LZW) decompressorare needed to see this picture.User’sPC

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Grid Fabric

• Significant developer effort to add services to portal

• Wsrp could help, but not fully cooked

• No support to keep service with UI synchronized

• Non-grid protocols to get to portal server

• Eg. Data transfer first requires file upload

• Lack of integration with users’ primary computer (file system, vis, etc)APIs

data

Non-grid

WSRP ?


Gemstone approach

• No intermediate portal server to manage

• Services and UI can evolve together• Auto discovery and download

of new UI capabilities as services are upgraded

• Direct support of grid protocols • Gsiftp, job management

• Integration with desktop resources• File system, visualization,

security

Grid Services

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Grid Fabric

data

grid


Mozilla-based


Mozilla environment

• Grid protocols built directly into desktop apps• Leverage existing user abstractions

• Service discovery using RSS • Dynamic discovery and integration of new capabilities

• User services represented by Web Services + XUL• XUL provides UI for services (similar in concept to wsrp spec)

• Highly interactive applications • More control, better integration to desktop environment than ajax alone


Mozilla technologies

• XUL: XML-based UI language• Layout - widgets, HTML equivalents• Used to create interfaces for Firefox, Thunderbird, etc.

• CSS• Javascript

• Lightweight interpreted language

• XPCOM• Interface to C/C++ compiled libraries for heavy lifting• Globus libraries, for example

• XPI: package installer• Installs new functionality into Firefox browser, keeps programs

updated


Example 1: Topaz

• One component of larger Gemstone project• Protocol extension to Firefox Browser

• gsiftp://server:port/path/to/file

• GSI Security• Uses GAMA server to authenticate user• Secure, high performance download• Third-party transfer (in development)

• Multi-platform• Currently supports only macosx and linux

• Auto-update• Unified xpi-based installation• Collaboration with UTEP

• Michela Taufer, Richard Zamudio, Daniel Catarino


Demo


Example 2: Gemstone application

• Stand-alone application built on Mozilla framework• Supports mac, linux, windows• Tight integration with local desktop file system

• Service Discovery using RSS registries• Supports multiple registries

• Service panels represented with XUL + javascript• Use ajax xmlhttprequest directly to web service endpoints• No intermediate portal server needed• Supports OPAL-based application services or custom strongly typed

grid services

• Security leveraging GAMA• Demo 1: the basics

• Integration across applications of different scales• Demo 2: using SOA to support new science


Demo: The Basics


Demo: Integration across application services


Gemstone Project

• Funding provided by • NSF Middleware Initiative• National Biomedical

Computation Resource (NBCR)

• University of Zurich (Kim Baldridge Laboratory)

• San Diego Supercomputer Center

• University of Texas, El Paso

• People• Daniel Catarino • Sandeep Chandra• Kim Baldridge• Karan Bhatia• Sasha Buzko• Jerry Greenberg• Sriram Krishnan• Wilfred Li• Stephen Mock• Kurt Mueller• Brent Stearn• Michela Taufer • Richard Zamudio


Software

• Working on v1.0 release (next few weeks)• Gemstone: http://gemstone.mozdev.org• Topaz: http://gcl.utep.edu/projects/topaz/

• Open source license• Any feedback to:

• [email protected]• [email protected]

Gemstone: a mozilla-based rich client for accessing grid services

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