1. ETICS 2 All-Hands Meeting
Project Status Update
ETICS 2 All-Hands Meeting

2. Summary
Consortium management Effort consumption Deliverables status Collaborations Overall technical status The Future Goals of this Meeting
ETICS 2 All-Hands Meeting - Palermo, October 2008

3. Consortium Management
The Consortium has been running smoothly so far, although there are some concerns about recruitment and effort for some partners
All partners have regularly met in the PMB meeting each month as planned
All Activity leaders have regularly met in the ETICS Technical Committee meetings.
Consumed effort and budget are lower than expected (around 70%). Partners affected by large deviations have to propose ways of recovering the underspending
At the end of the first year, if one or more partners are underspent by a significant amount, the Project Manager and the PMB have the possibility of reallocating the budget to partners with less recruitment problems. This will be discussed if needed when the time comes, but the numbers up to Q2 will be presented and discussed already at the next PMB in two weeks time
ETICS 2 All-Hands Meeting - Palermo, October 2008

4. Effort Tracking Estimated effort consumption for the first six months:
Consumed PM
Budgeted PM
Consumption
Funded 56
79.875
70 %
Unfunded 22
29.25
75 %
Funded+Unfunded 78
71 %
Effort and budget information are provided quite late. Please fill the timesheets by the due date!!! It is VERY important to do this to allow NA1 to monitor the project costs

5. Deliverables Status All deliverables up to PM4 have been submitted
Out of 5 deliverables planned for PM 6 (August), three are ready for submission (NA2.2, DSA2.2, DSA2.3), one has been reviewed (DJRA2.2), one has been submitted for review (DSA1.2)
Despite the effort so far, we are consistently very late. This is an aspect that has to be improved
ETICS 2 All-Hands Meeting - Palermo, October 2008

6. Deliverable Table Current and next quarter
DNA2.2
Dissemination and Use of Knowledge Plan (First Update)
NA2
3 – ENG R PU
M06
13/10/2008
DSA1.2
ETICS Core Services Design Specification
SA1
1 - CERN O
DSA2.2
New infrastructures evaluation plan
SA2
2 – INFN
DSA2.3
Infrastructure services integration - Analysis
2 - INFN
DJRA2.2
Test interface standards
JRA2
4 – 4DSOFT
DNA2.3
ETICS Grid Quality Certification Model activity report (year 1)
M09
DSA1.3
ETICS Site Service Level Agreement
DJRA1.2
IPv6 Compliance Analysis
JRA1
5 – UoW
ETICS 2 All-Hands Meeting - Palermo, October 2008

7. ETICS Usage
There are currently 31 registered project in ETICS, but only a few are really used, mainly gLite and D4Science, not counting ETICS itself
This a weak point to be addressed. We need to:
Add new project
Understand why existing projects are abandoned
Is it because ETICS is too difficult to use or doesn’t do what it’s expected to do or isn’t needed?
In particular we need to have example of commercial use of the system
ETICS 2 All-Hands Meeting - Palermo, October 2008

8. Collaborations
New potential collaborations foreseen in the coming months (more details in SA2 presentations)
EGEE
ESA
Unicore-based applications
OurGrid
BalticGrid
See-Grid
Are we exploring all opportunities for disseminating ETICS?
Participation to seminars, conferences
Training
Journal articles
What else?
ETICS 2 All-Hands Meeting - Palermo, October 2008

9. Project Timeline All-hands meeting
Two projects are issued with a Grid-QCM certificate (gLite, UNICORE)
ETICS runs on different infrastructures
First new infrastructure applications built and tested with ETICS
II Review
All-hands meeting
I Review
Four projects are issued with a Grid-QCM certificate
All-hands meeting
All-hands meeting
Kick-off
Mar 08
Sep 08
Mar 09
Sep 09
Mar 10

10. Issues/achievements Quality of code
The coming release 2.1 is solving most of the functional problems reported by users in the past. However, user-friendliness and intuitiveness are still an issue. We also need to start applying our methods on ETICS itself, add more unit tests, collect metrics and evaluate the Grid-QCM score of ETICS itself
User support and Quality of Service
User support is quite well established now. The support infrastructure run by SA2 is efficient, the support web site needs more material. Training is behind schedule, need to create the online training content and organize training events. We have a new web site, but it requires some spicing up to make it attractive
Industrial take-up
Although ideas have been discussed, there is nothing yet we can show. There seemed to be some opportunity with commercial companies related to gLite commercialization, but it’s not going well
ETICS 2 All-Hands Meeting - Palermo, October 2008

11. Issues/achievements Cross-site submission and parallel testing
These features are still at the prototype level. Projects like gLite and 4DScience are picking up on these topics, but we need to be able to provide a stable implementation of these features soon
Lack of maintenance of the Web Application
This is creating some issues. There are bugs to be fixed and new features to be implemented (more details in SA1 presentation/planning). Users from potential new projects (dcache) are holding back also because of this issue
Integration of plugins in the client
This is always an issue. It has been delayed by the delays in the release of the new client, but it has to be done soon
ETICS 2 All-Hands Meeting - Palermo, October 2008

12. Issues/achievements New features Vs. usability
The ETICS plan foresees many new features (release management, test workflow management, Grid-QCM reporting, support for more middleware implementations, etc)
But, the main issue with users is the complexity of the user interfaces, the lack of privacy features, the complexity of the installation and maintenance procedures
How can we simplify usage and at the same time keep our commitments?
ETICS 2 All-Hands Meeting - Palermo, October 2008

13. EGI, the gLite Consortium and the Future
ETICS cannot continue as an EC-funded project forever
It must become part of the general activities being developed in Europe in the scientific research communities
EGI and the gLite consortium always mention ‘ETICS-like’ activities in their official documents. We need to be actively present and keep the interest alive
At the same time alternative exploitation strategies have to be devised and explored
ETICS 2 All-Hands Meeting - Palermo, October 2008

14. Goals for This Meeting
Each one of the sessions in this AH meetings is related to some project goals
I encourage the presenters to discuss about the current status, but also to give a clear overview of the plans for the next 3 to 6 months and to match the activities being presented with one or more project tasks
The planning session on Wednesday morning will be an opportunity to consolidate the plan and define precise milestones
In particular I expect the following questions to be addressed during this meeting
ETICS 2 All-Hands Meeting - Palermo, October 2008

15. Evaluation of the current services
What are the most critical user issues?
What parts of the system do they affect?
What projects may benefit more by which changes (priorities)?
User feedback: new features, improvements, changes?
What else?
ETICS 2 All-Hands Meeting - Palermo, October 2008

16. Extension to new infrastructures: requirements and planning
Which infrastructures are we targeting now? And in 6/9/12 months?
What technical requirements, issues have been found?
What organizational requirements, issues have been found?
Lessons learned? Can be easier next time?
What else?
ETICS 2 All-Hands Meeting - Palermo, October 2008

17. Dissemination and exploitation strategies
How can we promote ETICS? Not just on a theoretical level, but practically (convince users to try it and stick to it)?
Conferences are good of course, but sometimes too high level, what other practical channels can be explored?
What about training? We can organize courses, but people have to want to be trained
How can ETICS and its methods be further exploited?
In particular what are the sustainability strategies beyond ETICS 2?
ETICS 2 All-Hands Meeting - Palermo, October 2008

18. Distributed testing tools: status, issues, planning
What are the tools integration challenges?
What are the requirements on existing parts of the system in terms of technology and deployment?
Are we making sure the tools will SIMPLIFY usage and not make it MORE COMPLEX?
One of most commons complaints is that doing things with ETICS is more difficult than doing them manually. User-friendliness, intuitiveness, documentation, etc must not be overlooked
ETICS 2 All-Hands Meeting - Palermo, October 2008

19. ETICS Job Submission: architecture, design, implementation, policies
What are the possible implementation strategies and what impact do they have on the infrastructures?
What are the integration and deployment issues?
Is there any additional effort required from users? Can we avoid it?
What are the pre-requisites from the system (virtualization? security? virtual organizations? policy agreements?)
What else?
ETICS 2 All-Hands Meeting - Palermo, October 2008

20. Grid-QCM implementation
Are all required metrics collectors identified?
How is the Grid-QCM score calculated (is it a plugin in itself? Is calculated asynchronously?)
What about trend analysis?
How is the report generator integrated with the metrics disseminators?
What projects will first be run through Grid-QCM? And in the next 6/9/12 months?
What else?
ETICS 2 All-Hands Meeting - Palermo, October 2008