A Lightweight Door into Non-Grid Sites

¹ University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
² University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
³ University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
⁴ University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA
⁵ Morgridge Institute for Research, Madison, WI, USA

^* e-mail: jdost@ucsd.edu
^** e-mail: marco.mascheroni@cern.ch

Published online: 16 November 2020

Abstract

The Open Science Grid (OSG) provides a common service for resource providers and scientific institutions, and supports sciences such as High Energy Physics, Structural Biology, and other community sciences. As scientific frontiers expand, so does the need for resources to analyze new data. For example, High Energy Physics experiments such as the LHC experiments foresee an exponential growth in the amount of data collected, which comes with corresponding growth in the need for computing resources. Allowing resource providers an easy way to share their resources is paramount to ensure the grow of resources available to scientists.

In this context, the OSG Hosted CE initiative provides site administrator a way to reduce the effort needed to install and maintain a Compute Element (CE), and represents a solution for sites who do not have the effort and expertise to run their own Grid middleware. An HTCondor Compute Element is installed on a remote VM at UChicago for each site that joins the Hosted CE initiative. The hardware/software stack is maintained by OSG Operations staff in a homogeneus and automated way, providing a reduction in the overall operational effort needed to maintain the CEs: one single organization does it in an uniform way, instead of each single resource provider doing it in their own way. Currently, more than 20 institutions joined the Hosted CE initiative. This contribution discusses the technical details behind a Hosted CE installation, highlighting key strengths and common pitfalls, and outlining future plans to further reduce operational experience.