> -----Original Message-----
> From: Testbed Support for GridPP member institutes [mailto:TB-
> [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Stephen Burke
>
> Testbed Support for GridPP member institutes [mailto:TB-
> [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Daniela Bauer said:
> > I think we should roll back glue2 which is way overengineered and stick
> > with glue1.
>
> You could just keep everything as
> it is with a view to phasing it all out soon, but even then switching off
> GLUE 2 would lose you information, e.g. the OS version under a service (as
> distinct from the one on the WNs)
This is a small case in point of what's wrong with the information system - what matters to an external user is what service I'm offering, and how they can access it. That's what (most of) the storage-centric information we publish is about, and why the system works relatively well for storage. The OS version under a service is not part of the interface, and does not need exposing.
As similar problem afflicts the whole 'subclusters' idea of trying to advertise exactly what number of which model CPUs a site has in what configurations in which individual batches of worker nodes. No-one actually needs to know that - the service offered is a more generic "SL6/x86_64/cvmfs" service. As well as being a nightmare for a cluster that has any diversity of hardware at all, it copes extremely poorly with novel cluster designs, in particular anything with a cloud backend.
It's sometimes worth bearing in mind the philosophical grounding of why we call this a grid at all - it's supposed to work like the power grid, and when I plug in an appliance I don't know whether the electricity was generated by coal, gas, nuclear, wind, or the solar panels on some guys house. I don't know what switchgear my local substations has, or who else is plugged into it. All I know, and all I need to know, is that if I have something with a standard fit plug and I stick it in the wall I get ~240V AC and my stuff works.
Ewan
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