Re: Grid tasks
Hello,
Leandro Doctors wrote:
> 2009/3/10 Andreas Tille <tillea@rki.de>:
>> On Tue, 10 Mar 2009, Manuel Prinz wrote:
>>> If those would be globus-specific virtual packages, aren't they best
>>> maintained by the globus maintainers and not as a task in Debian
>>> Science?!
> There is an independent Debain-based distro (Instant Grid[0]) that
> packages many grid tools. Perhaps you know some of their maintainers.
> Their "packaging" experience could be useful...
> The project seem quite inactive regarding "stable" releases, but there
> is a "testing" branch updated often. I have tried it and it's very
> useful.
I once burned it, but understood it as a "grid client or job executor generator" for
single computers. Wrong?
>> I think so. In case we might have more (competing / incompatible)
>> grid solutions we might consider virtual packages grid-server and
>> grid-client. It does not sound like a problem for debian-science
>> tasks.
> +1
> I think this could make the packages more "Globus-independent".
> [0]: Instant Grid: http://instant-grid.de
It is a long time ago that I had a look. The globus packages coming to Debian are superior
to anything else since the maintainer did some amazing work to get Globus less redundant
with today's Linux distributions. Those patches have been forwarded and accepted by
upstream, so the Goettingen folks from Instant Grid will certainly profit from it (or are
already if using 4.0.7, 4.0.8 or 4.2.x). However, anybody with contacts to that group,
please stimulate them to embrace the Debian community to bring their developments
(extensions to Knoppix) to the masses.
I find it interesting to see that there are Globus-independent alternatives stressed so
much. To me, computatinal grids are very compatible, if not an extension, of what the
Debian Society has already achieved to implement a common software infrastruture, build
daemons and developer machines. The project I am tied with is the NorduGrid
(http://www.nordugrid.org), to which any group that also allows access to their own
cluster can gain access - they call it the "tit for tat" or "community" Virtual
Organisation (VO). The latest versions of their ARC middleware also work without Globus,
but compatibility to it is meant to be a service to the community. The packages for Debian
(and Fedora ...) help to reduce the workload for site maintainers to keep the installation
current and in sync with other sites. Linux distributions hence contribute strongly to
reduce variability between sites and thus render grid computing possible. Which of the
Free middlewares are actually being used I personally don't care so much - if they are
working reliably.
Steffen
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