Integration of Grid applications in Medi GRID Juergen

Integration of Grid applications in Medi. GRID Juergen Falkner, Anette Weisbecker Cracow Grid Workshop 2006 18. October 2006

The Medi. GRID Project - Part of the German e-Science-Initiative „D-Grid“ - Community-Grid for medical sciences and bioinformatics Networked Knowledge Management Wis. Ent WIKINGER Ontoverse Text. Grid Medi. GRID In. Grid HEP-Grid C 3 -Grid Astro. Grid … Generic Middleware and Services VIOLA D-Grid Integration Project e. Sci. Doc Folie 2

The task - build and establish a Grid infrastructure for our community (medical sciences and bioinformatics) - realize access to the applications they need - enhance the performance of applications by distributing them in the Grid and share resources - provide application access for new users - satisfy the customer, i. e. community users, so they will actually accept and use the system Folie 3

Medi. GRID Users Typical Medi. GRID users (and what they are doing) - Doctor (looking for data, providing data, processing data) - Assistant Medical Technician (providing data) - Researcher doing bioinformatics (processing data) - Researcher doing clinical studies (processing data) - Radiologist (providing and processing data – e. g. mammograms -> medical image processing) - etc. What they usually have in common: - not an expert in computer science - feeling uneasy with complicated applications - don‘t like command lines Folie 4

The big picture: Everything is centered around Grid Applications Users Databases Applications Tape Storage Sensors and other technical equipment Disk Storage Compute Nodes Folie 5

The sense of a Grid – from the Medi. GRID viewpoint - help users solve their tasks - that is: provide applications that solve their tasks - so the key for the user is: find the right application get access to an application interface (preferably a GUI) - frontend solution: Portals or graphical Clients - backend (=> Grid): make sure that these applications can be executed efficiently - therefore the Grid provides simple access to distributed compute resources and data - that is: automate everything that lies behind the application gather and keep information on applications and resources and their dependencies use that information to select optimal resources provide a workflow execution service to orchestrate application workflows automatically distribute applications to optimal resources Folie 6

The morale… So far: - Grids are built by technicians - Usually they are made for the purpose of controlling the technology rather than helping everyday-users But: - they should be built for users who benefit from the added-value a Grid can offer Therefore Grid builders should: - find out what users want and what they really need - find out what the benefit of Grid technologies could be for these users - find out what the capabilities of the users are and what their core jobs are - usually their business is NOT to set up computers, install software, know the Grid’s resources, pick certain resources, write job scripts etc. ! - try to fit the Grid middleware to the users – not vice versa Folie 7

User Centred Design Process User-centred Design. . . is the iterative process by which products or systems are developed so that the needs of the users are taken into consideration at all stages of the design process and could also involve user participation. Analysis Specification Evaluation Production [Source: ISO 13407] Folie 8

Methods of requirements engineering Management define changeprocess Risk evaluation Product planning Re-use requirements Prioritise and negotiate requirements Methods for the processes from the analysis of requirements to implementation and validation Estimate costs and time map roles and responsibilities Enhance requirements process Select technologies Manage variabillity Surveys Analyses Specifications Verification and Validation Viewpoint-based documentation elicit functional requirements Formal modelling Create usage model Create domain model Set scope elicit tasks and business processes Check feasibility Create GUImodel elicit non-functional requirements Date modelling Create interaction model Analize impact of requirements elicit aims identify stakeholders and sources ensure trackability documentation of rationale Prototyping documentation of customer requirements measurable and checkable description of requirements Formal check of requirements Check usability documentation of developer requirements Use of standards and document structures Review requirements Prepare tests on requirements Basic Practice Setup Practice Optimisation Practice Context Practice Legend Source: Michael Ehresmann, Oliver Höß, Erich Meier, Thomas Olsson (Editor): Bausteine zur Optimierung von Software-Entwicklungsprozessen, IRB-Verlag, 2006 Folie 9

Medi. GRID experience What did we do? - before we fixed the architecture we conducted surveys with application and resource providers and users - result: surveys are not enough to get good information from application providers or users the users are future Grid users – not experienced Grid users often they don‘t know what you are talking about to fit the middleware you need to know the workflows as they should be: Better talk to people! Written language is often a mystery! Therefore: - we made workshops with all application providers – in our case these are users also - we had live demonstrations of the not yet gridified applications - => we understood the workflows! - => a lot of misunderstandings could be resolved! Folie 10

Good practice In General: - fix the administrational stuff first: user registration how do I get my certificates… security policies (life with resource providers is much easier if they know the rules – any rules!) - get applications to work – even if they are not yet fully gridified - first fix the front-end and get the application running to keep users satisfied - then fix the backend to make things faster, better, more distributed, more parallel, etc. - think of users as customers e. g. add help pages to application interfaces Folie 11

Questions to ask before designing the architecture (excerpts) - who will be the users? - what is their educational background? - shall the users integrate their PCs into the Grid or shall they be free of IT administration (i. e. are portals or Grid clients necessary)? - which applications shall be available in the Grid? - what access control is needed for the applications? - which requirements and dependencies do the applications bring along? - which types of data shall be used in the Grid? - what access control is needed for the data? - are there any laws that regulate the use of certain data in the Grid? - what data transfer volumes are expected per user? - how many users will there be per time? - what hardware and middleware available and do we have any experience with them? -. . . Folie 12

Integration of Medi. GRID-Applications into the Portal Based on the application analyses conducted through surveys and workshops a couple of pilot applications have been identified and integrated into the Medi. GRID Portal. - AUGUSTUS: Genome Sequence Analysis - Gene Ontology: Access to Ontologie-DB via secured OGSA-DAI - Medical Image Processing 3 D Ultrasound Prostate Imaging Virtual Vascular Surgery - Upcoming: analysis of clinical studies in neuroscience, etc. Folie 13

My. Proxy Upload Tool – use of credentials for accessing secured applications when the user is not located inside the Grid User PC Portal D-Grid CA Certificate Zertifikate Proxy D-Grid Certificate D-Grid PEM for. Certificate Browser My. Proxy Upload Tool Grid Application Portlets Portal Credential Certificate Lifetime : 2 hours Lifetime: 2 years Portal Credential Lifetime : 7 days My. Proxy Server Grid Resources and Applications My. Proxy Upload Tool by Glen Drinkwater: Original: http: //tiber. dl. ac. uk: 8080/myproxy/ D-Grid-Version: http: //tiber. dl. ac. uk: 8080/myproxy/sec/myproxy_test. jnlp Folie 14

Questions / Discussion Contact Information: Juergen Falkner Fraunhofer IAO Business Unit Software Technology Nobelstr. 12 70569 Stuttgart Germany E-Mail: juergen. [email protected] fraunhofer. de Tel. : Fax. : +49 -(0)711 -970 -2414 +49 -(0)711 -970 -2401 http: //www. swm. iao. fraunhofer. de http: //www. medigrid. de Folie 15