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/php/pmb/minutes.php?latest

as well as being listed with other minutes at

http://www.gridpp.ac.uk/php/pmb/minutes.php

Cheers, Tony
________________________________________________________________________
Tony Doyle, GridPP Project Leader            Telephone: +44-141-330 5899
Rm 478, 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: 194.36.1.32
________________________________________________________________________




		GridPP PMB Minutes 181 - 8th August 2005

                ========================================

Present:  Tony Doyle, Dan Tovey, Dave Britton, Roger Jones, Jeremy Coles,

Sarah Pearce (Skype)



1. LHC Exploitation Planning Review

===================================

TD thanked everyone for their input on a short timescale. The GridPP input 

was now being used in the experiment planning. The LHC exploitation review 

meeting was confirmed as September 19th. An associated presentation would 

be prepared expanding upon the points in the text and responding to 

questions.



2. GridPP14 Agenda

==================

The PMB discussed the sessions for GridPP14 on Sept. 6-7. 

Some sessions would incorporate talks, but the main theme of the meeting 

would be to enable wider discussion across the whole of GridPP in various 

themed areas:

1. "LCG Service Challenges" (plans for SC4 based on experience of SC3) 

2. "Running Applications on the Grid" (Why won't my jobs run?) - 

3. "Grid Documentation" (What documentation is missing? Is it a 

question of organisation?) 

4. "What value does GridPP add?" 

5. "Beyond GridPP2 and e-Infrastructure" (What is the current status of 

planning?)

6. "Managing Large Facilities in the LHC era" (What works? What doesn't? What 

won't) 

7. "What is a workable Tier-2 Deployment Model?"

8. "What is Middleware Support?" (really all about) 



TD will announce the preliminary agenda to UKHEPGRID.



3. F2F Agenda

=============

DB and TD introduced discussion areas relating (mainly) to addressing OC 

concerns. The meeting takes place prior to GridPp14.



4. AHM Status

=============

SP referred to US dissemination examples on the PPDG site at

http://www.ppdg.net/ 

e.g.

Sustained Production Data Movement 

Job Scheduling over the Grid

10 applications inc. Biology links

scaling enhancements, reliability improvements, and feature development

each of which of anologues in UK developments. SP hoped that these

could be read by all prior to preparing AHM input and the summary data and 

associated upbeat statements incorporated into the talks and posters. 



5. JPhysG Status

================

Input had been received from TD and SL. SP asked for further input on one 

outstanding referee question relating to a  description of pre-Grid 

production methods.

Note: SP submitted a revised version of the document shortly after the 

meeting responding to all the referees' comments.



6. Dan's last PMB Meeting

=========================

TD thanked DT on behalf of the PMB for the way he'd handled all the issues 

that arose during his period as UB Chair. The overall planning process had 

improved significantly during the last year and the UB requirements were 

all well described and explained. Dave Newbold would step up as UB Chair 

from September 1st.



ACTIONS AS AT 1ST AUGUST 2005

=============================

180.1:  SP to prepare news on SL's re-appointment as Chair of the CB.

Done



STANDING ITEMS

==============

SI-1 ALL: to provide any news items and meeting dates for the web page to 

SP.  

No new input.



SI-2 Production Manager's weekly report of issues.

JC reported that:

1) LCG 2.6.0 has been released. 4 sites have upgraded so far. Due to 

   people being on leave not all sites will upgrade quickly. EGEE has 

   dropped the 3 week upgrade target, but GridPP will try to keep a target 

   otherwise upgrades will be adhoc. The deployment team feel that the 

   move away from a target date somewhat undermines previous attempts to 

   generate a "production service" mentality within GridPP.



2) GridPP will now centralise several independent Wikis on the main site. 

   Andrew McNab has adapted MediaWiki done for use within GridSite as 

   described at: 

http://www.gridsite.org/wiki/Main_Page 

   the outline / source code / modifications to MediaWiki are at: 

http://www.gridsite.org/gridsitewiki/



3) Tier-2s are not receiving adequate support for dCache installations. 

   Lack of direct communication between the sites and developers is seen 

   to be a problem.



4) DPM has been found to be better documented and supported than dCache. 

   Further tests are required before any decision on an overall GridPP SRM 

   strategy.



5) The throughput phase of SC3 has finished with mixed success. The UK 

   T1-T2 tests were useful and at target rates.



6) All Tier-2 additional hardware applications have now been received and 

   approved.



7) Several user issues have been raised recently. GridPP (and LCG/EGEE) 

   need a structure for user support issues.



8) Grid Ireland have added 16 new sites to the UKI ROC. This impacts the 

   regional metrics.



9) There were intermittent problems at several sites last week according 

   to the monitoring maps. This is thought to be due to problems 

   referencing a database of information and not actual site problems. It 

   is being investigated. TD asked if there could be a feed of information 

   when such events happen so that users of the service are not 

   misinformed.

 

ACTIONS AS AT 8TH AUGUST 2005

=============================

None.