VMIC project meeting

Friday 24 Jun 2011, 11:00 → 12:00 Europe/Zurich

VMIC project meeting with ASGC http://evo.caltech.edu/evoNext/koala.jnlp?meeting=MtM8Ma2i22DlDa9t92Ds9t

Minutes - VMIC project meeting with ASGC
24/06/2011
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Presences:
CERN - Belmiro (chair, sec.), Ulrich;
ASGC – Felix, Jinny;

Belmiro started the meeting greeting all the participants and explained the purpose of this series of meetings between CERN and ASGC. Until the arriving of the ASGC collaborator at CERN it was decided to have regular meetings to discuss the VMIC project, analyze and evaluate technologies and discuss proof of concepts.

Felix and Jinny clarified that the ASGC collaborator (Jinny) is expected to arrive at CERN in October 2011.

Next, the different phases of the VMIC project were discussed. It is expected that the ASGC collaborator will be at CERN for at least 6 months. It was decided to split the project in 2 different phases with 3 months each. Belmiro gave a brief overview over the project. The goal for the first phase is to have a full VMIC implementation. This consists in a VMIC server software implementation, a web service API and a user CLI that interact with the web service API. All work done in the context of the HEPiX working group must be considered.

The second phase of the project will be dedicated to developed a web interface for VMIC.

All project requirements must be clearly understood by all participants before any implementation.

It was discussed and it was agreed that “python” will be used as main programming language in this project.

For the implementation of the web service there are several technical options. For this reason it was decided that Belmiro and ASGC will evaluate SOAP and REST technologies and in the next meeting they will discuss what is more suitable for this project. The web service will expose the VMIC API that will be used to interact with the VMIC server.

A design document is to be created which will summaries all required functionality. Based, on that, the API specifications will be developed.

Ulrich suggested that both CERN and ASGC should run test instances of the new VMIC, in order to test the VMIC functionality and image exchange between different sites.

Ulrich will create and provide access to Jinny and Felix to a SVN area and a Twiki page for the project. Also, a mail list for easy communication between all project participants will be created.

Jinny asked if we will use SSO in the VMIC web interface. It was clarified that SSO will be needed for the web interface, however this is not a priority for the first phase.

Then Felix asked if when a “VMIC - producer” uses an image it is used as cache for all the others sites that will use the same image. This scenario was discussed a bit, and it was agreed that a single trusted source for an image will be needed as a reference. Sharing the already distributed parts of the reference  images at different sites to speed up further deployment is not excluded, and should be seriously considered in the project.

The next VMIC project meeting will take place next week (week 26 of 2011).