Hi People,
LCG2_4_0 is upon is.
Steve
----- Forwarded message from Markus Schulz <[log in to unmask]> -----
From: Markus Schulz <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [LCG-ROLLOUT] Status of LCG-2_4_0
Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2005 23:35:10 +0200
To: [log in to unmask]
Reply-To: LHC Computer Grid - Rollout <[log in to unmask]>
Comments: To: LHC Computer Grid - Rollout <[log in to unmask]>
Comments: cc: project-eu-egee-cic-managers
<[log in to unmask]>,
"project-egee-roc-managers alternates))"
<[log in to unmask]>
Dear ROCs, CICs, RCs and otherwise linked partners,
here is an update on the status of the next release.
Today we tagged LCG-2_4_0!
-------------------------------------------
A few final touches are needed concerning packaging and documentation
before we can let it out in the wild.
Please be patient for a few more days.
To prepare you for what is coming we added the release notes to this
message.
the Release Team
=======================================================================
==========
Release notes for LCG-2_4_0
============================
This release includes major changes compared to the 2_3 series of
releases.
As you can see here:
http://grid-deployment.web.cern.ch/grid-deployment/changeLogLCG
-2_4_0.txt
a large number of outstanding bugs have been fixed.
In this release note we would like to give you some overview of the
components that have been modified.
In addition we would like to communicate a few general matters to the
sites.
The order in which we report these items doesn't reflect their relative
priorities. Please take the time to read these notes.
General Comments
=================
- We no longer distribute JAVA
------------------------------------------
As has been mentioned on several occasions the practice to include
the JAVA RPMs in our repositories was at best questionable from a legal
standpoint.
Of course, the middleware still requires JAVA to be installed.
The installation guides contain instructions on how to download the
software from SUN and install it.
This is certainly not a step forward to more comfort, but we see no
way to avoid it.
- The release procedure has changed
----------------------------------------------------------
2-4-0 is the first of the new fixed date releases. For those who
didn't follow the development and discussions in this area, here it is
in a nutshell:
Every three months (1st April, 1st July, 1st October ....) a major
release will be made.
This release can contain new services, new clients and might
require the installation of new RPMs and additional configuration
changes.
--> It is expected that these major releases are put into operation
by the sites within 3 weeks after the release came out. <--
In between there will be a release every month, if needed. The
sites are not required to install these releases, however, we expect
them to provide
space for dteam on the shared file system used for user software
installation to make the client libs available to the VOs.
The central services can get fully backward compatible upgrades at
any time. This will affect the CICs only.
In addition at any time a security upgrade might be needed. We
expect the sites to follow those in a timely manner.
- Shared space for user level software installation
--------------------------------------------------------------------
We have observed that most VOs can't make efficient use of sites
that do not provide some shared space for the installation of user
level
software. It would be really helpful if you could consider this
for your site. Please contact us if you have any questions concerning
this.
On several sites that already provide this to the VOs, this service
is not provided for the dteam VO. This now becomes more important,
since we
would like to use the mechanism described in the workload
management section to keep the client libs recent.
- Test Pilots
-----------------
To make the upgrades smoother we now test deploy first with a few
sites that volunteered. (Thanks for the help)
Some Major Changes
===================
The work load management system
--------------------------------------------------
Beside various bug fixes and performance improvements, the system now
includes an interface to file catalogues that conform to the DLI.
A mechanism has been put in place that enables the user to choose
between multiple version of the middleware offered by a site.
The selection is done by a simple JDL statement. Details on how this
works for users can be found in the LCG User Guide.
This feature will allow users to use the latest versions of the
middleware even on sites that can't follow the monthly updates.
New Data Management Software
----------------------------------------------
-dCache:
dCache is an SRM enabled disk pool manager provided by DESY and FNAL.
For an overview of the system please refer to:
http://www.dcache.org
A first version of an installation and operations manual is included in
this release. Currently there is no simple migration path from an
existing
Classic SE to a dCache SE, but a site can choose dCache for a new SE.
dCache is a highly flexible, tunable system. SA1 can only support a
limited
number of standard configurations, due to resource limitations. For
more complex setups, please contact the dCache team.
-LFC:
The LCG File Catalogue, already tested by the people active in ARDA and
by DESY, is supported by this release. It gives access to a
more performant secure catalogue. The client libs are part of the WNs
and UIs.
Before we include detailed installation guides for the server we would
like to gain some experience with typical deployment scenarios.
If your site, or VO, is interested in setting up an LFC server, please
contact the deployment team at CERN ([log in to unmask]).
This catalogue will interoperate with the RB via the DLI interface.
Migration scripts from the RLS to the LFC are available on request.
-DPM:
One of the interesting capabilities of the lightweight Disk Pool
Manager is that it can convert an existing, populated Classic SE into
an
scalable SRM-SE without moving the data.
The server is in the final stage of testing and will be released in the
very near future.
We mention the DPM already here to help smaller sites in planning the
migration from Classic SEs to SRM enabled storage.
VOMS
=====
This release includes support for VOMS on the CE and the classic SE. On
other services a VOMS proxy is accepted as a standard grid proxy.
On all nodes the gridmapfiles can be populated with information
provided by the VOMS servers and LDAP-VO servers.
This eases the interoperation with other grid infrastructures.
New BDII with Web based Config.
==========================
The new version of the BDII has a re-engineered database swap and
update mechanism that improves the BDIIs performance and
availability under load.
Very soon a service to allow VO specific configuration of the BDII
will be opened for public use. This service, located at the GOC at RAL,
has the following
features:
- sites will reflect the operational state as published in the GOC DB
- VOs can (if they want) apply filters on the sites to be used for
their jobs, depending on the status of the site defined by the test
matrix of the daily Site
Functional Tests, run by the CIC-on-duty team.
- VOs can in addition white- and blacklist sites
While for performance reasons it is still possible to have private
BDIIs for VOs, all BDIIs can rely on the identical configuration. This
should help to
stop the confusion that was observed in the past when different BDIIs
have been used at submission and runtime.
New improved R-GMA
===================
The new version of R-GMA is based on the version of R-GMA in gLite, but
is mostly backwards compatible. This version is expected to be more
stable
and have improved performance.
One service that will make use of the new R-GMA is edg-rgma-gin, which
in this release has been activated and will export to R-GMA
all the information that is produced by the Generic Information
Provider and the Grid Ice sensors.
Improved GridICE
==============
The latest version provided by the INFN team has been included.
New version of APEL
=================
The R-GMA based accounting tool now supports PBS and LSF.
Improved EIS user tools
===================
These tools are targeted at the endusers and ease the access to the
information system.
lcg-infosites
helps especially in finding SEs and their matching CEs. It is a
replacement for the very inefficient "edg-rm printInfo" command
lcg-info
for user friendly ldap browsing
Improved YAIM
=============
Based on the sites' constructive feedback from the previous releases a
large number of improvements to the scripts and configuration have been
made.
We also made it more flexible to ease the localization for sites with
non standard layouts.
Infrastructure for job level monitoring
=============================
New components have been included for job level monitoring. This will
allow users and monitoring tools to follow the status of jobs,
including their CPU
consumption and other indicators.
The following two components provide the basis for this. It should be
pointed out that the functionality is independent
of the batch system and doesn't add additional load to the services.
lcg-mon-wn:
Will publish every 5mins some information about the running job on a WN
into R-GMA. It is started by the job wrapper.
lcg-mon-job-status:
Publishes job state changes from the Logging and Bookkeeping server
into the R-GMA.
Tank & Spark
============
The RPMs for this tool for user level software installation are
included in this release, the configuration and
documentation can be found here:
http://grid-deployment.web.cern.ch/grid-deployment/cgi-bin/index.cgi?
var=eis/docs
This can be an alternative for sites that have problems providing a
shared file system for the user software.
----- End forwarded message -----
--
Steve Traylen
[log in to unmask]
http://www.gridpp.ac.uk/
|
