TB-Support Phone Conference 2005-03-08
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Represented: Birmingham, RAL, Durham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Lancaster, London

Agenda: http://agenda.cern.ch/fullAgenda.php?ida=a051585


1. Problems and issues with SL installations  (10')
===================================================

- What problems remain with sites that have upgraded?
	- 7.3 Installations at: TCD, Edinburgh (in-process), Imperial
	- Seen as a security problem

- What are the learning experiences to be shared with sites about to move?
	- SL is not seen as a difficult OS to deal with
	
- What information is in the Wiki - http://goc.grid.sinica.edu.tw/gocwiki/


2. LCG software release  (10')
==============================

- What is new in 2.3.0
	- YAIM, Torque and Maui
        - information provider
        - APEL accounting 
- What has been included in 2.3.1
	- RB Upgrade
	- CRL insecurity
	- Also functional upgrades included in "security" install
		- Replica Manager commands removed (hard to hear)
		
- Site experiences in upgrading varies
	- Split CE and Torque host
		- Make CE do qsub to torque host /var/spool/pbs/server_name
		- Info provider
			- Manually generate edg-generic-info-conf file
	
	- Durham
		- Cautious as site only recently stable
	- Can do 2.3.1 upgrade on a live system
	
- Understanding of future releases

	- Assurance from Ian Bird that April 1st will be hit.
	- Upgrades within 3 weeks are requested
	- v27 of CA RPMs (included in 2.3.1) will be mandatory from next Monday (there has not been any central 	communication on this - JC will investigate.
	

3. Main outcomes of GridPP Tier-2 and Deployment Board meetings  (10')
======================================================================

- UK testzone 
	- Core services at each tier 2
	- Practice installations
	- Possibly open for site admins
	
- Involvement with LCG Service Challenge 3 (july)
	- RAL Preparing for SC2 (starts next week)
	- Connections via UKLIGHT/Production Network
	- Lancaster and Imperial as candidate sites
	- GridPP Service Challenges forthcoming so all sites need to start investigating their network bottlenecks 	asap.
	
- Site responsiveness vs manpower issues
	- UK seen as slow in moving to 2.3
	- Many sites have gone to SL3 which partly explains the time taken
	
- Other
	- Question about relationship between UKLIGHT and SuperJanet 5. How will sites move between them?
	- An understanding of UK network topology requirements between now and 2007 is being worked on 

4. Storage  (10')
=================

- Deployment of SRM/dCache in GridPP
	- Tier-1 and Edinburgh experience with dCache, less with DPM
	- Edinburgh
		- Some firewall problems
		- Lost staff with experience in dCache
		- Fairly close to usable service, but starting almost from scratch with new staff
		
		- DPM
			- More problems than with dCache
			- More about installation than the product

- Plan to roll out dCache to 1 site at each tier 2 (Edinburgh, Manchester, RAL-PP, Imperial)
- RAL ready for SC 2 with new dCache installation
	- recently achieved 4Gbit/sec under test load
- 1.5 days to get latest dCache working.  2 days fiddling.


5. UK Networking  (05')
=======================

- Planning and use of UKLIGHT
	- For SC2 RAL is getting 2 dedicated lightpaths to UKLIGHT (2*1Gb/s)
	- Challenge involves 500Mbit/sec from T0 to five T1s in SC2
	- 200-300Mbit/sec to T2 in SC3-4
	- The relationship between amounts of storage and required connectivity is not clear - will all sites really 	be transferring lots of data?

- Durham colleagues mentioned NORMAN and connection at 100 Mb/s. Currently the bandwidth is nowhere near fully utilised. Site will upgrade to 1 Gb/s but what fraction does PP need?

6. Developments in EGEE and LCG  (05')
======================================

- Focus on service challenges and storage
- How are sites scheduling other HEP and non-HEP VOs?
	- Most are not supporting extra VOs but would like more information on which might be supported. 
	- Lack of clear information within EGEE relating to VOs and their requirements
- Forthcoming EGEE conference in Athens (18th-22nd)
- EIS (LHC VOs) now working more closely with GGUS on User Support issues.


7. Topics for future meetings  (05')
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- Discussion on what you want to hear about!
- Enthusiasm expressed for "tutorials" over VRVS
	- How to setup nonstandard but common setups
	- SunGridEngine
	

8. AOB  (05')
=============
- GridPP deployment web pages are now available at http://www.gridpp.ac.uk/deployment/. The pages will be improved and feedback is welcomed
- Audio from RAL frequently cuts out. VRVS will be used for the next meeting
- Is there a preference for time and date of future meetings? Plans for the next year would help ensure regularity.