Dear All,
Please find attached the weekly GridPP Project Management
Board Meeting minutes. The latest minutes can be found each week in:
http://www.gridpp.ac.uk/pmb/minutes/this-week.txt
(as well as being listed with other minutes e.g. 020204.txt).
Cheers, Tony
________________________________________________________________________
Tony Doyle, GridPP Project Leader Telephone: +44-141-330 5899
Rm 482, Kelvin Building Telefax: +44-141-330 5881
Dept of Physics and Astronomy EMail: [log in to unmask]
University of Glasgow Web: http://ppewww.ph.gla.ac.uk/~doyle
G12 8QQ, UK Video - IP: 194.36.1.234
________________________________________________________________________
GridPP PMB Minutes 20 - 4th February 2002
=========================================
Present: Dave Britton, Nick Brook, Tony Cass, Pete Clarke, Tony Doyle, Neil
Geddes, John Gordon, Steve Lloyd, Robin Middleton
Late start to meeting due to problems with MCU at UCL - both primary and
backup system had failed.
Review of Actions
=================
ACTION 15.2: TD to iterate with Oversight (OS) committee on understanding
management of the Tier-2 centres. Not done - TD will contact Paul Jeffries
ACTION 17.7 TD Examine Gantt chart and identify risks, and consider how to
manage them.
Ongoing. TD has received GANTT chart from PC. It is not obvious how to
relate to risk strategy. TD will iterate with PC to understand GANTT chart
(which contain not inter dependencies as they stand at the moment).
TD proposes another approach that would start from the SuperJANET4 document
rather than the management tools. PC concurs with this approach. Further
information for the risk assessment will come from the WP functionality
information for each EDG testbed release that PC is collecting from WP
contacts at the moment. The OS committee wish to meet with GridPP at the
beginning of April.
This timescale sounds reasonable for an integrated risk document and GANTT
charts.
NEW ACTION : PC & TD to produce integrated risk assessment document & GANTT
charts for OS meeting in April
ACTION 17.8 NG Find out who gets the money if there's a gap in a post. Done.
The money, in principle, will return to PPARC (ie GridPP).
In some scenarios PPARC (e.g. maternity leave) won't claim the money back.
ACTION 17.9 SL with Andrew McNab; improve website. Discussion with Andrew
ongoing
ACTION 17.10 PC Encourage JIF and SRIF sites to put up Grid software.
Ongoing. PC has been in discussion with varios people (incl. JG, RM, Dave
Kelsey) to put together some formal procedure & clear plans for testbed
rollout & support eg support lines, … It is hoped installation of s/w
could be progress through following a simple crib sheet. The help line is
hoped to be run out of CLRC. All these thoughts are up in the air at the
moment.
NEW ACTION: PC will produce a draft document outlining this
ACTION 17.11 TD Contact Astrogrid project manager and see what we can learn.
Ongoing.
TD has failed to contact directly the Astrogrid project manager. Is waiting
reply of e-mail.
ACTION 17.13 JG and RM consider what 'running the grid' means. This action
is ongoing and should be rolled into PC's draft document under NEW action
in 17.10
ACTION 17.14 JG revise Tier 1/A staffing plans. Not done. JG been snowed
under with WP5 work. Situation better than some time: Andrew Sansum, Barry
Saunders & Stephen Traylen active + Marc Kelly (e-science student from
Bristol). Interviewing for positions in e-science centre occur
Thursday/Friday of this week - hope to gain posts from this recruitment.
(These are separate from the GridPP funded posts).
ACTION 17.18 PC forward spreadsheet to DB (including RAL grid effort and
some words to explain meanings). Done
ACTION 17.19 DB process spreadsheet from PC and use in reporting.
Ongoing - EXCEL macros needed
ACTION 17.20 PC through TB: get evaluation criteria to make MDS/R-GMA
decision. Done. Discussion with Steve Fisher and within EDG has led to a
September deadline being put in place for the comparison. RM - pointed out
that this deadline may be soft and may be modified in light of forthing
discussion at the GF workshop. JG pointed out there seems to be no-one
using MDS or FTREE within the testbed release - CERN GIIS seems not to be
up. These issues have to be raised at EDG WP managers meeting.
NEW ACTION: PC will also raise issue at this weeks TB meeting.
NEW ACTION: JG to find out what is being used & deployed in EDG, liaise
with Antony Wilson
ACTION 17.23 PC, RM and NB improve communication of TB and EB with WP8.
Ongoing. Should also include Frank Harris in discussion. PC is working on
it he is thinking about the monitoring of effort given to expts. He plans
to use LHCb as testcase - will take plans & milestones as appeared in
tender document & will iterate.
ACTION 17.26 ALL get grid certificates and learn how to update the GridPP
website. Done except for PC & TC
ACTION 17.27 RM write document describing how PPARC controls unfunded EU
effort and send to Fab. Process initiated this is now in the hands of NG and
Fab. They will iterate at GGF. RM has 4 identified area of unfounded effort
in his circulated note (point of clarification: HEFCE staff fall unde same
category heading as ScotGrid type effort)
NEW ACTION: NG to finalise write document describing how PPARC controls
unfunded EU effort and send to Fab
ACTION 17.28 RB Provide BaBar+Intergrid slides for Robin. Still to happen
ACTION 17.30 NB and RB Arrange EB meeting mid March. Waiting feedback from
PMB on document circulated in response to ACTION 18-1. (Since meeting NB
circulated EB with document and proposed date. Ongoing)
ACTION 18.1 NB/RB to investigate reporting format for Experiments
Testbed experiences. Done. Circulated to PMB (& after today's meeting to EB)
ACTION 18.3 SLL to get GridPP personnel details on website. SLL circulated
e-mail to UKHEPGRID awaiting people's response. 27 replies so far. NG would
also like this info so can be fed into NeSC etc
NEW ACTION: SLL to provide NG with GridPP personnel details
ACTION 18.5 TD Investigate making Glasgow MCU available as a backup.
Ongoing at Glasgow. UCL also plan a production service soon. Need to make a
decision whether to use these or buy and run an MCU ourselves.
ACTION 19.1 PC to send latest GANTT chart to TD
Done
ACTION 19.2 JG give brief report on testbed status at RAL.
At the moment the EDG testbed1 is trying to synchronise itself into a
release that is run everywhere at the same level. Sites are popping in and
out of the testbed daily as things change. RAL is more up to date with the
basic software than most sites but were temporarily disconnected last week
RAL are gearing up to re-install to the latest level in sync with everyone
else this week.
The 1.4TB for CMS has been taken out of the testbed. The other 1.4TB will be
used for BaBar. The testbed isn't using much storage just now as it is still
struggling to establish basic functionality. When it fires into life, we can
buy some time by buying a few 120GB disks for the testbed SEs. There is a
risk that if the testbed demand rockets that we are criticised for taking
testbed resources and giving them to CMS and BaBar.
ACTION 19.3 TD provide summary report of PEB to PMB
There were various issues covered at the monthly PEB mtg. Here are some
we need to pay attention to:
1. A spreadsheet (3 sheets) presented by Chris Eck (Resource Manager)
shows the current financial status. Les agreed that this could be
circulated to the PMB [attached].
(a) The UK commitment on hardware has been profiled differently from
Dave's current spreadsheet due to mismatch in financial years. The sum
(over 3 years) should be consistent with Dave's input, but is subject to
e.g. currency fluctuations.
Proposal is that Dave monitors this output to ensure no mismatch occurs.
(i.e. Dave <-> Chris liaise and each reports back)
(b) The UK contribution on hardware is relatively small (c.f. German
contribution of 5MDM). The CERN contribution cannot currently be included
in the planning which leads to a deficit. The situation is worse than
September 2001 (in terms of planning for the LHC Computing Project).
(c) A deficit of 8.2MSF in 2003 and 16.7MSF in 2004 is projected.
2. The posts attached to the LHC computing project were reported
separately by Les.
(a) For the UK the first of ten people starts in Feb and a new round
of interviews is planned in March.
(b) Overall the manpower is not a problem, compared to the projected
deficit on the hardware.
3. Future plans (Les):
(a) LHC project is being projected to start in 2007. Its implications
can now be discussed.
(b) The LHC computing prototype becomes a 4 (rather than 3) year project.
(c) Recosting required (of CPU, Disk, Tape, manpower) according to 4-year
profile.
Timescale for 20-30 page document to LHCC: ~June for LHCC mtg. in July
2002.
The next ~monthly main meeting of the PEB is March 5th.
LR summary of situation was that the staff pledges were at a reasonable
level but there was still a shortfall in hardware provision over the next
4 years.
The next round of CERN interviews are likely to be held late in March.
ACTION 19.4 SL to issue reminder to CB to respond on RAL posts
Done - SLL received a majority support for the proposal by CB members
NEW ACTION: SLL to send formal email reporting this with copies to appropriate
PPARC people.
AOB
CNAP meets on 5/2. Changing role due to GridPP taking responsibility for
central facilities. Will now include astronomy.
Next Meetings : V/C Monday 11th Feb, Thursday 14th Feb at Collaboration
Meeting at Cambridge. No meeting on 18th.
Actions 04/02/02
================
ACTION 15.2: TD to iterate with Oversight (OS) committee on understanding
management of the Tier-2 centres
ACTION 17.9 SL with Andrew Mcnab; improve website.
ACTION 17.11 TD Contact Astrogrid project manager and see what we can learn.
ACTION 17.14 JG revise Tier 1/A staffing plans.
ACTION 17.19 DB process spreadsheet from PC and use in reporting.
ACTION 17.23 PC, RM , NB and Frank Harris to improve communication of TB
and EB with WP8.
ACTION 17.26 PC & TC to get grid certificates and learn how to update the
GridPP website.
ACTION 17.28 RB Provide BaBar+Intergrid slides for Robin
ACTION 17.30 NB and RB to finalise EB meeting at end of March.
ACTION 18.3 SLL to get GridPP personnel details on website.
ACTION 20.1: PC & TD to produce integrated risk assessment document & GANTT
charts for OS meeting in April
ACTION 20.2: PC will produce a draft document outlining procedures and help
available for installing Grid middleware/EDG testbed releases
ACTION 20.3: PC will also raise issue of MDS/R-GMA at this week's TB
meeting.
ACTION 20.4: JG to find out what WP3 tools are being used & deployed in EDG,
liaise with Antony Wilson
ACTION 20.5: NG to finalise written document describing how PPARC controls
unfunded EU effort with Fab
ACTION 20.6: SLL to provide NG with GridPP personnel details
ACTION 20.7: SLL to send formal email to PMB reporting CB response to RAL
recruitment with copies to appropriate PPARC people.
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