Attendees:
Marko, Rob Q., Emelie, Lincoln, David, Tanya, Rob G., Suchandra
Rob Q: What is the general purpose for this meeting?
Rob G: Introduction to new meeting attendees (Rob Q. and David). Basic philosophical purpose of this meeting: There is a lot of overlap between campus grids and user support. The idea is to cover this overlap.
Emelie: More specifically, we are currently working on building a common set of software packages and libraries that will be available to users through Modules distributed by the OASIS repo.
Begin round-table updates:
Emelie: Still working on Quantum Espresso (not much progress since I've been gone). Will try to determine if this is OSG-compatible and how useful it will be.
Suchandra: Still working on module tracking (tracks when/where modules are loaded and used). Working on a web page that shows a map of module usage. Will probably have something to show for next meeting.
Rob Q.: Is there a formal request mechanism for software packages?
Suchandra: Nothing formal. Currently working from a list, but can handle individual requests.
Rob G.: Suchandra, can you describe what is on the list? One good target to start with are the standard applications distributed and maintained by XSEDE.
S: Looks like there are 5-7 XSEDE packages that we don't have. Many are just libraries that we already have or may not need. Adding most of XSEDE apps should be doable. Campus cluster list is a little larger. Currently going through and weeding out ones that aren't OSG-compatible.
Rob G: On determining which software to install and which are most relevant: We decided to just feel our way through this and be demand driven. Want to keep 'ears to the ground' to see what applications users will expect.
Rob Q.: EGI and XSEDE have list of software that is in use. One question is: should we ask users to register software and version number to determine common packages? This would, 1) determine what is useful, 2) eliminate duplicates. Do we need an application database? Or is this an unnecessary administrative step?
Rob G.: We essentially have this through modules.
Discussion between Rob Q. and Rob G. regarding virtual cluster concept and whether or not software duplication is a concern. Conclusion: The modules are really designed with the OSG VO user in mind. Other VOs will still be in charge of their own software, and some duplication is inevitable. But for the OSG VO especially, we want to eliminate the step of having to transfer software and make OSG look as much as possible like the cluster at their home institution (virtual cluster).
Rob Q: I will send a link to the application database (links: XSEDE, EGI)
Rob G: We do already have the XSEDE flat list. Some applications are not OSG compatible.
Rob Q.: Is there a mailing list for this project?
Emelie: Not yet, but that is a good idea.
Emelie: Lincoln, how does the Matlab runtime work on OSG?
Lincoln: The shared library runtimes are free to distribute and are installed in OASIS. The latest version was chosen. Matlab license is required to created mcr executables, but license is not required to run them on OSG using the Matlab freely-distributable runtime libraries.
Rob G.: How much does a Matlab license cost? (On OSG Connect login node for example).
Lincoln: Not sure. $500 or $600 ? Would just need a single Matlab license.
Rob Q.: A couple operational items: 1) OSG XSEDE submit node has more robust hardware just installed Tuesday. 2) Some drive failures occurred last Wednesday (through Monday). Should not have affected users though, just software managers.
David: Some changes in OSG Connect: Focusing on bringing individualized user content to the website. You can log in as yourself and you get content targeted to your activity. Input/suggestions are welcome. What kind of things would you like to see? We are trying to make it a home for computing activity.
Suchandra: We should discuss how we want to manage directories where modules are installed on OASIS. We may want to consider separate software and library directories. Doesn't change how things appear in 'module avail'. As we add stuff, we'll have more and directories under the modules directory. There will be 40 or 50 dirs tops.
Lincoln: I'm fine with whatever. Leaving it how it is sounds okay (Marko and Emelie agree).
Next meeting in 2 weeks.
Coordinates:
Tuesday August 19th at 2:00 p.m. Central Time
Dial-in #: 866-740-1260
Access code: 6643420#