Begin forwarded message:

From: "Franco Travostino" <travos@nortel.com> Date: 1 November 2006 14:11:48 GMT To: "David Snelling" <David.Snelling@uk.fujitsu.com>, "Cees deLaat" <delaat@science.uva.nl> Subject: Fwd: Re: URGENT Input Needed for the Technical Strategy Document

I follow up to the earlier message (see end of this email) with a roadmap-worthy update on the set of NM-WG specifications anticipated for 2007:

The NM-WG focuses on how to make Grid-relevant network metrics available to middleware, network operators etc. NM-WG will not look at how measurements should be made. Throughout 2007, the NM-WG will produce a set of specifications (standard track documents + companion informational/experimental documents) on a V2.0 schema for network measurement data and the methods with which to request such data. This is a major overhaul of GFD.23 (also known as V1.0). The NM-WG has already produced the bulk of the V2.0 work over 2005 and 2006. The new schema is stable and ready to be finalized into the GFD series. Interoperability testing considerations apply (see earlier email).

Clearly, the work by the NM-WG has had an impact in the research community. Early adopters include EGEE JRA4 and perfSONAR. perfSONAR is a joint effort by: ESnet, Fermilab, GÉANT2 JRA1, Internet2, and RNP. In commercial settings, the NM-WG is directly applicable to any private network (e.g., a Grid within the Boeing or Intel worldwide network), though there are no documented cases of early adopters. In a provider-provisioned network, however, it is unlikely that the provider will agree to expose the kind of performance information described in the NM-WG body of work.

As for the overall Infrastructure Area:

The GHPN-RG will move past the use case document (currently in and out of Editor's queue) and look squarely into the interoperability of Grid Network Service stacks across multiple administrative domains, in close cooperation with the Global Lambda Integrated Facility organization (www.glif.is). This work will allow a Grid infrastructure element to cause the set-up and tear-down of a lightpath (an optical circuit) end-to-end across various domain boundaries. It will be directly applicable to dark-fiber networks (either customer-owned networks or the research & education network testbeds).

Throughout 2007. we expect to make progress on the Grid + Virtualization front (see earlier email) and the creation of a new group concerning with the machine-friendly, Grid-consumable description of either virtual or physical topologies.

Cees, anything you want to add?

thanks -franco

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Date: Sun, 29 Oct 2006 10:15:20 -0500 To: "David Snelling" <David.Snelling@uk.fujitsu.com>, "Cees deLaat" <delaat@science.uva.nl> From: Franco Travostino <travos@nortel.com> Subject: Re: URGENT Input Needed for the Technical Strategy Document Cc: "Joel Replogle" <replogle@ogf.org>, "Mark Linesch" <mark.linesch@hp.com>

Dave, before we provide actual spec updates concerning my Area, I want to brief you on two noteworthy activities that we seeded during calendar year 2006 and could result in material for the roadmap.

1. Grids and Virtualization. As anticipated back in January, we did hold a BOF on this topic at OGF18. The BOF manifesto presented a set of use cases and goals that resonated quite well with the audience, while steering clear of obvious overlaps (e.g., DMTF was represented in the room and helped formulating the charter). Intriguingly, the BOF hit a chord at SAP. Alexander G. of SAP (see his email hereafter) has gotten back to us and is now working with me on drafting an augmented charter. While Alexander's email wanders some into non-OGF turfs (for instance, you can ignore the sentence to the extent that OGF would become a player in the hypervisor space, he later retracted it), Alexander makes an important point. He argues that virtualization is a large enough topic that the OGF governance ought to be involved in isolating the signal from noise and promoting that signal as a distinguishing OGF contribution to the industry.

2. Elements of "Service Grid". The OGF/ITU workshop which we held last week at ITU in Geneva (with Mark) is another key 2006 deliverable and a springboard for future activities. The effort of planting the Grid seed over there was worthwhile, despite the fair amount of talking past one another that is due to happen when you put computer-heads and network-heads together in the same room. Specifically, there are elements of Grid infrastructure that seemingly apply well to a SOA-ized next-generation network like the one that ITU is building. These elements include WS-Agreement (with network domain-specific derivations), the security "cartwheel" architecture and supporting specifications, the schema by the Network Monitoring working group, etc. I think of ITU (and others, like the IPsphere consortium) building a "service grid" (this term was introduced by John Seely Brown afaik) and envision that OGF can play a role in this space by way of selected specifications.

I will close with a note on interoperability. I want to stick to the optimistic view that the newly formed ETSI TC Grid group will be a meaningful player whose role is to complement OGF. For this, I volunteer that GridFTP and the NM-WG schema are material for plugtest exercises and within the ETSI comfort zone. I would therefore recommend to engage ETSI on these grounds, with GridFTP being the most mature spec in the pipeline.

-franco

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---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Gwen Nichols-White <gnwhite@ogf.org> Date: Oct 24, 2006 8:21 AM Subject: DMTF and Virtualization To: travos@ieee.org, alexander.gebhart@sap.com, "Fogel, Robert" < robert.fogel@intel.com>, Craig Lee <craig@rushg.aero.org>

When: Friday, October 27, 2006 10:00 AM-11:00 AM (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada). Where: Conference Call US-866-875-2241 International +1-832-445-1174 Code 2721010

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Pacific-Fri 7:00 AM (Sorry Robert) * Paris-Fri 4:00 PM * Central- Fri 10:00 AM * Eastern-Fri 9:00 AM

Conference Call US 1-866-875-2241 International 1-832-445-1174 Code 2721010

From Alexander:

Overall Concept / Big Picture

Virtualization technologies, or to be more specific hypervisor technologies, are getting more and more important. Key indicators are

1) dramatically increased revenue of VMware ESX 2) major customers are rapidly deploying virtualization technologies 3) estimated VMworld (Nov. 7, 2006) participants: 4000-6000

Hypervisor technologies are providing key features that are very important in a resource management context. Example: VMotion = the ability to move any application during runtime from one physical machine to another. From my point of view the key capabilities of hypervisors should be usable by resource management software, meaning that resource management software could integrate hypervisor capabilities. By pursuing this goal, OGF would become a player in the hypervisor area.

Deliverable(s):

OGF should define what I would call profiles (similar to WSI). Each profile consists of a defined set of functionalities and a standardized interface to access them. Examples: Profile A: Functionality = get monitoring information from any hypervisor Profile B: Functionality = manipulate hypervisor resources (e.g. increase memory, network bandwidth, processing power) Profile C: Functionality = move VM from one physical machine to another OGF could also add best practices / guidance for customers, e.g. which type of profile is recommended for which use case. Another enhancement could be a certification, e.g. OGF certifies that resource management system X works perfect with hypervisor Y using profile A on HW Z.

Stakeholders / Key players: VMware, Xen, IBM, SAP, Intel, Microsoft

Roadmap: 1) Identify responsibles. In my opinion it should be an OGF VP, since this effort has in my opinion a significant impact on the performance of OGF as an organization. 2) Align with related activities 3) Get buy-in from the stakeholders / key players 4) Establish an OGF virtualization working group with the deliverables mentioned above 5) Organize kick-off meeting

At 05:37 PM 10/19/2006, David Snelling wrote:

...

[Bicycle crash boiler plate: I will include this boiler plate in my mails for a few weeks to apologize for terseness in the rest of the mail. I have a broken finger from the crash on Oct 4th, and typing is hard and possible only in short spurts. Sorry, Dave.]

Cees and Franco,,

This has been an outstanding request to all ADs for some time now, so I am sending personal reminders to all AD's. I need you to look at the roadmap table in here and correct the entries for specs in your area. Also, if you have additional details on each, such as a list of those companies/orgs that have committed to implementation by a certain time, that would help as well. Please aim for the end of the month, as I know you probably need to contact chairs.

Just send you responses in email, I'll integrate them into the document.

Thanks. --

Take care:

Dr. David Snelling < David . Snelling . UK . Fujitsu . com > Fujitsu Laboratories of Europe Hayes Park Central Hayes End Road Hayes, Middlesex UB4 8FE

+44-208-606-4649 (Office) +44-208-606-4539 (Fax) +44-7768-807526 (Mobile)

[Bicycle crash boiler plate: I will include this boiler plate in my mails for a few weeks to apologize for terseness in the rest of the mail. I have a broken finger from the crash on Oct 4th, and typing is hard and possible only in short spurts. Sorry, Dave.] -- Take care: Dr. David Snelling < David . Snelling . UK . Fujitsu . com > Fujitsu Laboratories of Europe Hayes Park Central Hayes End Road Hayes, Middlesex UB4 8FE +44-208-606-4649 (Office) +44-208-606-4539 (Fax) +44-7768-807526 (Mobile)