John/Joel,

Here are answers to the first set of questions from your previous email.

Everyone,

Please feel free to comment and help fill out the “Who is involved?” section.

Thanks

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What is the HPC Basic Profile?

The HPC Basic Profile is a proposed standard that is used to describe how a particular set of specifications are composed to enable interoperability between HPC systems for a specific set of operations. It consists of references to existing specifications, along with specific clarifications of the contents of those specifications, restrictions on the use of those specifications, and references to any normative extensions to those specifications. Examples of the operations include the submission of tasks to a batch job scheduler, the retrieval of a task’s execution status and the retrieval of information about an HPC system’s resources. Specifications that are referenced by the profile include the WS-I Basic Profile, the Job Submission Description Language (an XML language for describing tasks to be run) and the Basic Execution Service (a Web service definition of the operations).

Why do people care?

The HPC Basic Profile enables interoperability between HPC systems from different academic institutions, open source communities and vendors within the scope of the operations defined in the specifications it references. It leverages standard Web services protocols and development environments. It enables organizations to more easily integrate HPC systems into their existing environments, interface with HPC systems at remote locations and leverage generic HPC utilities. The profile also allows application and middleware software providers to target multiple HPC systems via a single protocol.

Who are involved?

The HPC Basic Profile SC06 Demo working group is part of the Open Grid Forum. The following is a list of the participants and details of their HPC Basic Profile implementation:


Participant Web Service Tooling (OS) Scheduler (OS)
  Globus                       ??                                                                                             ??   
  Fujitsu                        ??                                                                                             ??   
  Platform Computing   GSOAP (Linux)                                                                          LSF (Linux)   
  Microsoft                    Windows Communication Framework (Windows)                    Compute Cluster Server (Windows)   
  Tokyo Institute of Technology   MS Web Services Enhancements (Windows)           SGE (Linux)   
  Unicore                      ??                                                                                             ??   
  University of Virginia   MS Web Services Enhancements (Windows)                          Compute Cluster Server (Windows)   
  University of Virginia   MS Web Services Enhancements (Windows)                          PBS (Linux)   
  University of Virginia   Jetty/Axis (Linux)                                                                     ??  

NOTE: This is the list from the wiki and will change. Needs to include each participants target OS, web service tools and scheduler.

What are we showing?

The SC06 interop demonstration shows interoperability using the HPC Basic Profile between multiple 3rd party schedulers and Web service platforms. Each participant’s HPC Basic Profile Web service fronts a compute cluster that hosts one or more applications. Demo stations are setup at booths throughout the conference where tasks are submitted or forwarded via the HPC Basic Profile to the compute cluster that hosts the application requested in the task.