1. SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER Gemstone: a mozilla-based rich client for accessing grid services Kurt Mueller / Karan Bhatia Grid Middleware Development Group San Diego Supercomputer Center University of California, San Diego

2. SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER The science driving Gemstone GEMSTONE: Grid-Enabled Molecular Science Through Online Networked Environments Molecular quantum and classical chemistries Apps: APBS, GAMESS, Polyrate Visualization: QMView “Our research involves utilization of computationally derived chemical and physical properties, in conjunction with experiments, to enhance the understanding of control within technologically important chemical structures and reaction processes.” - Kim Baldridge

3. SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER Typical workflow Choose molecule(s) - i.e. input files Setup an application run Choose application Set application options Submit application run (job) to a resource (optionally) monitor, tweak and resubmit Get application output Visualize output Share output

4. SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER In the old days… Molecule files and job descriptor files edited/managed by hand - vi, ftp/scp from user’s computer to computational resource Grid credentials stored by user and managed with command-line tools - grid-proxy-init Job submission also through command-line tools - globus-job-run Retrieve job output - ftp/scp Visualize on user’s desktop - QMView

5. SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER Early portal efforts NPACI HotPage Circa 2000 Perl-based, used GridPort toolkit Credential management File management Generic job submission GAMESS/LAPK portals at SDSC Circa 2001 Rudimentary GUIs for setting up and running GAMESS and LAPK jobs Primitive visualization of results

6. SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER New paradigms SOA - Service Oriented Architecture Applications refactored as services Web services Dynamic discovery of services Combination of services into novel workflows OPAL - SDSC toolkit for quickly exposing apps as web services Rich user interfaces Overcome traditional limitations of HTML and browsers Flash, Java Applets, Java WebStart, AJAX

7. SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER Portal functions Environment for end-users to do science Discovery of service and capabilities User Interface to service APIs Reduce complexity of Grid system Unified mechanism to access disparate APIs and protocols Uberftp (gridftp), GRAM (job submission), etc Controlled publication or sharing of experiences/data E.g. Geon data publication, myspace social networking, personal workspace

8. SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER Specific Challenges Heterogeneity of desktop/laptop operating environments Multi-platform software (mac, windows, linux) Reliable software deployment, manage software dependencies, push updates Standard software engineering issues Users’ _primary_ computer is not part of the grid Grids are server-based (mostly) Grid protocols don’t extend to the desktop Desktop provides best environment for data management, visualization and interaction Extreme heterogeneity of protocols, APIs and SDKs Many different protocols (wsrf, soap, gsiftp, gram, mds) Different tools for accessing different services (uberftp, portal, java cog)

9. SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER Grid Protocols and APIs

10. SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER Traditional Portal Architectures Grid Services Portal server User’s PC Grid Fabric Significant developer effort to add services to portal Wsrp could help, but not fully cooked No support to keep service with UI synchronized Non-grid protocols to get to portal server Eg. Data transfer first requires file upload Lack of integration with users’ primary computer (file system, vis, etc) APIs data Non-grid WSRP ?

11. SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER Gemstone approach No intermediate portal server to manage Services and UI can evolve together Auto discovery and download of new UI capabilities as services are upgraded Direct support of grid protocols Gsiftp, job management Integration with desktop resources File system, visualization, security Grid Services User’s PC Grid Fabric data grid

12. SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER Mozilla-based

13. SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER Mozilla environment Grid protocols built directly into desktop apps Leverage existing user abstractions Service discovery using RSS Dynamic discovery and integration of new capabilities User services represented by Web Services + XUL XUL provides UI for services (similar in concept to wsrp spec) Highly interactive applications More control, better integration to desktop environment than ajax alone

14. SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER Mozilla technologies XUL: XML-based UI language Layout - widgets, HTML equivalents Used to create interfaces for Firefox, Thunderbird, etc. CSS Javascript Lightweight interpreted language XPCOM Interface to C/C++ compiled libraries for heavy lifting Globus libraries, for example XPI: package installer Installs new functionality into Firefox browser, keeps programs updated

15. SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER Example 1: Topaz One component of larger Gemstone project Protocol extension to Firefox Browser gsiftp://server:port/path/to/file GSI Security Uses GAMA server to authenticate user Secure, high performance download Third-party transfer (in development) Multi-platform Currently supports only macosx and linux Auto-update Unified xpi-based installation Collaboration with UTEP Michela Taufer, Richard Zamudio, Daniel Catarino

16. SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER Demo

17. SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER Example 2: Gemstone application Stand-alone application built on Mozilla framework Supports mac, linux, windows Tight integration with local desktop file system Service Discovery using RSS registries Supports multiple registries Service panels represented with XUL + javascript Use ajax xmlhttprequest directly to web service endpoints No intermediate portal server needed Supports OPAL-based application services or custom strongly typed grid services Security leveraging GAMA Demo 1: the basics Integration across applications of different scales Demo 2: using SOA to support new science

18. SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER Demo: The Basics

19. SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER Demo: Integration across application services

20. SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER Gemstone Project Funding provided by NSF Middleware Initiative National Biomedical Computation Resource (NBCR) University of Zurich (Kim Baldridge Laboratory) San Diego Supercomputer Center University of Texas, El Paso People Daniel Catarino Sandeep Chandra Kim Baldridge Karan Bhatia Sasha Buzko Jerry Greenberg Sriram Krishnan Wilfred Li Stephen Mock Kurt Mueller Brent Stearn Michela Taufer Richard Zamudio

21. SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER Software Working on v1.0 release (next few weeks) Gemstone: http://gemstone.mozdev.org Topaz: http://gcl.utep.edu/projects/topaz/Topaz: http://gcl.utep.edu/projects/topaz/ Open source license Any feedback to: Karan@sdsc.edu Gemstone-dev@sdsc.edu