Speaker
Dr
Igor Sfiligoi
(INFN Frascati)
Description
The CDF software model was developed with dedicated resources in mind. One of the
main assumptions is to have a large set of executables, shared libraries and
configuration files on a shared file system. As CDF is moving toward a Grid model,
this assumption is limiting the general physics analysis to only a small set of CDF
friendly sites with the appropriate file system installed.
In order to exploit as many Grid resources as possible, we have looked at ways to
lift this limit. Given the amount of users and existing applications, it is
impractical to force the users to change their way of work and stop relying on the
CDF software distribution. Instead, we are developing a solution that uses Parrot to
transparently access CDF software remotely.
Parrot is a user level tool that allows any executable or script to access remote
files as if they were on a local file system. No special privileges are required to
install or use Parrot, so it can easily be deployed on a Grid. Parrot supports
several I/O protocols including HTTP, FTP, RFIO, and other protocols common in grid
computing. Using HTTP and standard caching mechanisms, this allows applications to
access a single copy of the CDF software distribution from anywhere in the world.
In the talk we will present our experience with the use of Parrot, including the
problems we experienced and how we solved them.
Authors
Mr
Christopher Moretti
(University of Notre Dame)
Dr
Douglas Thain
(University of Notre Dame)
Dr
Igor Sfiligoi
(INFN Frascati)
