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. 021015.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 Meeting 52 - 15th October 2002
===========================================
Present: Tony Doyle, Tony Cass, Steve Lloyd, Nick Brook, Robin Middleton,
Dave Britton.
Apologies: John Gordon, Pete Clarke (at GGF).
Oversight Committee Meeting (14/10/02)
--------------------------------------
The submitted documents can be found at
http://www.gridpp.ac.uk/docs/oversight/
Oversight Committee Feedback
----------------------------
TD reported that the OC enjoyed the meeting and were pleased with the progress
of GridPP. They liked the crisper reporting style of the submitted documents.
They could see that the PMB structure was working well, with the addition
of the Project Manager. They were especially impressed with the project
map and wanted to see GridPP using this as a "live" document throughout
the project.
Two items were raised:
1. Risk register - GridPP is a significant way through the 3-year project,
a draft version of the risk register is required by 15th December.
2. A document describing how the UK will rise to the challenge of the
CERN plan to roll out worldwide production to 3 continents is required
by the next meeting.
The next meeting would be fixed for 1 month after the Q9 reports, in order
to allow these to be reported in full (~end of April 2003).
In the discussion DB stated that similar meetings to that held recently to
discuss the EB returns would be held for the TB where PC, DB and RM would
sit together. This would probably not take as long as the EB version.
On the Risk Register, TD suggested that Dave Kelsey should be involved in
the security aspects. DB agreed and stated that other people probably need
to be involved in other areas. It was agreed that the PMB needs to discuss the
Risk Register at a face to face meeting before the 15th December. It was
proposed that the next PMB meeting be on 27th November at IC.
On the CERN rollout DB pointed out that the OC had used the words "How the
UK would rise to the challenge of ..." and queried whether this was also
something to do with risks. TC stated that the hardware aspects were OK
but that middleware rollout couldn't be sensibly discussed before
December.
TD asked others to comment on any other points from the meeting. The OC
was concerned about the move to the new CA. Daron Green asked specifically
about personal certs. - he saw a linear rise and thought we
might dominate the personal certificates issued through the UK e-Science
CA. We estimated we will level off at ~250-300. (Although we're currently
~1/2 the total number of people in the UK with certificates we will end up
a small fraction). His concern was that the UK e_science CA might not be
sufficiently well informed of our numbers and expected growth. (We said
that lines of communication were direct at RAL).
Daron Green had also been interested in seeing the Web access log. TD
agreed to send him a cached copy.
There was concern over the relationship between WP4 and LCFG. TC noted
that work is still ongoing in this area.
The OC would like to see the high level goals visible from the Project
Map. DB agreed to do this as part of general improvements to the Map.
There was confusion about whether the VAT on this year's hardware had to
come out of the £400k for next year. NB asked if Andrew Sansum was aware
of this. It was thought that he might already have a first draft ready for
tender and that this probably was for the whole £400k. It was pointed out
the JG should also be involved. DB said that he would try and clarify with
the Office.
On Tier-2, we are now waiting approval for the additional posts and a
clearer picture should emerge after Friday's Steering Committee Meeting.
On future planning, the OC seemed happy with our list of priorities and
seemed to expect GridPP to continue after the current three year period.
It was agreed that we should now be more aggressive about this and put
forward a proposal. TD and SL agreed to draft a long-term planning
document leading to a future proposal.
NEW ACTION 52.1 TD to send Web access log to Daron.
NEW ACTION 52.2 DB to link high level goals from Project Map.
NEW ACTION 52.3 DB and JG to clarify VAT position.
NEW ACTION 52.4 TD and SL to draft a long-term planning document.
Framework VI
------------
TD reported that the way DataGrid had been organised (with PPARC as a
principal partner) might not be acceptable to PPARC this time. The PI for
EGEE would be CERN but PPARC did not want to take responsibility for
employment of UK researchers itself. The question was how the UK linked
in. TD stated that RAL was the only site that could be clearly identified.
He suggested that RAL with RM should take the lead in bringing this
together. It was asked whether we could get all the Institutes on board
this way. RM stated that PPARC may actually sign but would subcontract all
the work. Also this was only the HEP part of the project. NG is actually
representing the whole Core programme on behalf of Tony Hey. It was agreed
that RM should write a short briefing paper for SL and TD to take to the
CB meeting on the 29th October.
GridPP is well integrated within EGEE, an EU-wide project (through NG, RM
and TD). There are two likely areas - hardware and middleware. It was
suggested that hardware be centralised (at Tier-1/A). There was some
discussion of whether the Institutes would be happy with this and whether
some Tier-2 support should be included. It was concluded that given the
total amount of money and the number of way this would be split across
projects and countries it seemed unlikely that the numbers would be large
enough to justify splitting below the Tier-1/A level.
RM reported on the recent meeting in Brussels. There is expected to be
strong engagement between Grids and Geant in future. It was possible that
a similar model might be employed i.e. a contract to a limited company. RM
commented on the slides he had circulated, especially slide 5. There would
be 200Meuro for ERA and 100Meuro for IST (including Geant future funding).
This is fragmented in time and across projects. There are several models
and 3 to 4 overlapping areas. EGEE has apparently been well received. RM
reported that other items from the meeting included the perception that
National programmes, except GridPP, are not well integrated with the EU.
There seemed to be more concern about working with the US than with each
other. Security and Trust was seen as very important. GridStart was
important for building communities. There is no overall management
structure. Paul Messina had reported on MAGIC, which is thought to be an
EU-US middleware initiative, and the Cyberinfrastructure Initiative. There
were also presentations on Networking and Grids.
TD asked what the legal entity will be that represents UK input to EGEE.
PPARC won't employ people but will be organising things in the UK. It
could be a GridPP consortium led by RAL. NB pointed out that some
mechanism will have to be found for getting funding to the Universities.
NB stated that this has to be sold both to the EU and to the UK community.
This was understood. The next step would be to present the status of
discussions at the CB on 29th October.
NEW ACTION 52.5 RM to write Framework VI briefing paper for SL and TD.
Next Collaboration meeting
--------------------------
This is still being advertised externally as 30-31 January but it was thought
that this would need to move to the 21-22 January. DB is probably unavailable
for the former dates. The date for the EU review is now scheduled for
February 5th (and fixed as far as is known). This needs urgent
clarification.
NEW ACTION 52.6 JG to announce final dates of next Collaboration Meeting.
Review of Actions
-----------------
Standing Items:
SL reported that an unsolicited (by him) SAM news item had just gone up which
is very good.
ACTION 35.4 : TD to contact sites which do not yet have a "green dot".
TD had been to Durham on Friday and reported that Mike Whalley was now
starting to work on setting up a system there.
Ongoing.
ACTION 37.3 : JG to review deputy job description. Ongoing.
ACTION 40.36 : DB check and pull together risk assessments. Ongoing.
ACTION 48.2 : JG to find lecturers for the tutorials. Ongoing.
ACTION 49.1 : NB to arrange EB meeting. Done. The meeting is tomorrow,
16th October.
ACTION 50.10 : TD to post PMB minutes web site inc. index and 1st year stats.
Done.
It was requested that all the minutes be in reverse order with the
latest at the top. TD stated that this is done in the archive section but
this is not always up to date as Barbara does not have a Grid certificate.
It was agreed that Barbara needs a certificate to do her job and hence
should have one. TD agreed to help her get one.
NEW ACTION 52.7 TD to help Barbara get a GridPP certificate.
ACTIONS AS AT 15TH OCTOBER 2002
===============================
Standing Items
==============
SI-1 : ALL : Continual review/improvement/update of the GridPP website.
SI-2 : ALL : to provide any new items to SL (who will pass on to PPARC).
SI-3 : ALL : supply SL/TD with meeting dates for the web page.
SI-4 : EB & TB to improve their areas of the web.
ACTION 35.4 : TD to contact sites which do not yet have a "green dot".
ACTION 37.3 : JG to review deputy job description.
ACTION 40.36: DB check and pull together risk assessments.
ACTION 48.2 : JG to find lecturers for the tutorials.
ACTION 52.1 : TD to send Web access log to Daron.
ACTION 52.2 : DB to link high level goals from Project Map.
ACTION 52.3 : DB and JG to clarify VAT position.
ACTION 52.4 TD and SL to draft a long-term planning document.
ACTION 52.5 : RM to write Framework VI briefing paper for SL and TD.
ACTION 52.6 : JG to announce final dates of next Collaboration Meeting.
ACTION 52.7 : TD to help Barbara get a GridPP certificate.
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