This document provides an introduction to grid computing and e-infrastructures. It discusses how grid computing allows users to access computing resources from different heterogeneous sources similar to how an electrical power grid provides power from various sources. It describes some examples of large-scale grids including the Large Hadron Collider and EGEE Grid. It also outlines some of the key components of grid infrastructure including middleware, virtual organizations, and applications.

1. Introduction to Grid computing and e-infrastructuresLeandro N. Ciuffo <leandro.ciuffo@ct.infn.it>INFN – Catania (Italy)EELA-2 Application Support ManagerGrid User TutorialKampala, 11.11.2009

2. 2Computationally intensive researchKampala - Uganda, Grid User Tutorial, 11.11.2009

3. 3Computationally intensive researchKampala - Uganda, Grid User Tutorial, 11.11.2009

4. 4The Large Hadron ColliderThe biggest experiment on EarthLHC tunnel: 27 km circumference, 100m underground15 Petabytes of data per year (41TB per day)The biggest experiment on Earth

5. LHC tunnel: 27 km circumference, 100m underground

6. 15 Petabytes of data per year (41TB per day)Kampala - Uganda, Grid User Tutorial, 11.11.2009

7. 5windcoalhydroelectricnuclearThe power Grid paradigmElectric Power Grid SystemUsers can access electrical power coming from different (and heterogeneous) sourcesKampala - Uganda, Grid User Tutorial, 11.11.2009

8. 6The computing Grid approachUsers can access storage and computing resources coming from different (and heterogeneous) sourcesComputingGrid SystemThe resources shared within the Grid can be physical objects (CPUs, storage devices) or logical resources (computing queues, distributed file systems)Kampala - Uganda, Grid User Tutorial, 11.11.2009

9. Fourth EELA Workshop, Bogota, 05.03.20077The Grid MetaphorMobile AccessGRIDMIDDLEWARESupercomputer, PC-ClusterWorkstationStorage, Data from Sensors andinstrumentsVisualising

10. 8e-ScienceVirtual Organisationse-InfrastructureApplicationsDataInstrumentsKampala - Uganda, Grid User Tutorial, 11.11.2009

11. 9Summarizing…Grid computing involves connecting geographically remote computers into a single network to create a virtual supercomputer by combining the computational power of all computers on grid.

12. Heterogeneous resources, usually owned by diverse organizationsKampala - Uganda, Grid User Tutorial, 11.11.2009

13. The EGEE GridEGEE numbers:>260 sites54 countries~150,000 CPUs>28 PetaBytes~14,000 users~200 VOs~330,000 jobs/day

14. 11The 1st Layer: The Global NetworkKampala - Uganda, Grid User Tutorial, 11.11.2009

15. 12SEE-GridBalticGridDEISATeraGridEGEEEUChinaGridOSGNAREGIEUMedGridEUIndiaGridEUAsiaGridEELA/EELA-2The 2nd Layer: The Global GridSAGridKampala - Uganda, Grid User Tutorial, 11.11.2009

16. Kampala - Uganda, Grid User Tutorial, 11.11.200913The South African National GridA national project coordinated by Meraka Institute, in concert with Universities and National Laboratories, along the lines of EGEE, to provide an integrated collaborative, high-performance computing platform to the nation's researchers

17. Currently :

18. 7 sites providing computing resources (storage, CPU), 5 in negotiation.

19. 2 sites provide core services (information index, workload management, medatada, file catalogue)

20. Project entails