Planning for Grid Deployment and Usage in South Africa

12 mai 2008, 09:00 → 13 mai 2008, 17:00 Europe/London

First discussion between people from the Institut des Grilles in France and those interested in deploying and using grid technology in South Africa. The goal of the meeting is to determine the scope of the collaboration and concrete plans for deploying grid technology and for running a grid school in South Africa.

lundi 12 mai

09:00 → 10:00 Scope of Collaboration and Goals

Discussion of the desired scope and goals of the collaboration. The initial goals were: 1) to deploy the grid software at a site in South Africa, 2) run a grid school in South Africa concerning grid technology, and 3) improve scientific exchange between France and South Africa.

10:00 → 11:20 Project Overviews

Overviews of computing projects in France, South Africa, and Europe that may be relevant for this collaboration.

10:00 EGEE/LCG

Orateur: Dr guy wormser (LAL Orsay)

Paper Conclusions_of_the__Internet_and_Grids_in_Afrique.pdf

Slides grille_meraka.ppt

10:20 Institut des Grilles

Orateur: Dr guy wormser (LAL Orsay)

10:40 French Government Programs

Orateurs: Dr Anne Corval (CNRS/Head of Office for Sub-Saharan Africa), M. Vincent Baron (Embassy of France in South Africa)

11:00 South African Grid/Computing Projects

11:00 → 12:00 Grid Applications

Survey of the types of applications that are using grid technology in Europe and those who may be interested in using it in South Africa.

11:00 EGEE Applications

Orateur: Dr Charles Loomis (LAL-Orsay)

Slides 20080512-grid-sa-app-overview-v1.0.ppt

11:20 Life Science Applications

Orateur: Dr Johan Montagnat (I3S)

Slides CSIR_080512.pdf

11:40 Potential Grid Applications in South Africa

mardi 13 mai

09:00 → 10:00 Grid Middleware

Functionality offered by the gLite (EGEE) middleware and by other packages commonly used in conjunction with gLite. Detailed discussion of the security infrastructure needed to support grid computing, including the establishment of a Certification Authority (CA). Distributed computing tools already used by applications in South Africa and software required by the applications.

09:00 Middleware Functionality (gLite and others)

Orateur: Dr Charles Loomis (LAL-Orsay)

Slides 20080512-grid-sa-middleware-v1.0.ppt

09:20 Security Aspects

Orateur: M. David Bouvet (CC-IN2P3)

Slides Security_Aspects_SouthAfrica.pdf Security_Aspects_SouthAfrica.ppt

09:40 Software Used in South Africa

10:00 → 11:00 Grid Operations

Discussion of the requirements in operating resources visible via the grid. Survey of the available help, contacts, and procedures.

10:00 EGEE Operational Procedures

Orateur: M. David Bouvet (CC-IN2P3)

Slides EGEE_Operational_Procedures_SouthAfrica.pdf EGEE_Operational_Procedures_SouthAfrica.ppt

10:20 Installation/Configuration

Orateur: Dr Charles Loomis (LAL-Orsay)

Slides 20080512-grid-sa-installation-v1.0.ppt

10:40 Available Resources and Constraints

11:00 → 12:00 Conclusions

Revision of goals/scope of the collaboration taking into account the information presented in the workshop. Plan for future (including actions and people responsible for them), financial aspects of collaboration, expanding the collaboration to western Africa.