Workspace%20Management%20Services

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Workspace Management Services

• Kate Keahey
• keahey_at_mcs.anl.gov
• Argonne National Laboratory

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Requirements

• We need to be able to dynamically create a
  customized execution environment on remote
  resources
• Isolation and Enforcement (Quality of Service)
• Configuration Aspects (Quality of Life)

Dream up an ideal environment
run jobs
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What are Virtual Workspaces?

• A description of an execution environment
• Basic workspace a Unix account on a remote
  machine
• Aspects of a more complex workspace
• Software configuration requirements
• OSG worker node, submit node for a Grid3 cluster
• Resource allocation requirements
• Use exactly X memory, at least X disk space, Z
  bandwidth
• Sharing and isolation properties
• Unix account, sandbox, various kinds of virtual
  machines
• And others
• Workspace can be managed and refined
• Manage lifetime
• Allow others to manage a workspace
• A workspace can be deployed on a resource
• A workspace can have various implementations

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VW Services
VW Factory
create new VW
VW EPR
Create VW
VW Repository
inspect and manage
Client

Resource
VW Manager
VW
start program
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VW Implementations Unix Accounts

• Dynamically created Unix Accounts
• Software configuration
• take advantage of existing configuration
• use Pacman, SoftEnv or other systems
• Weak enforcement properties quota, limits, etc.
• Weak isolation properties
• Low acceptance barrier
• Well-understood, familiar concept, many tools and
  general support already exist

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VW Implementations Virtual Machines

• Customizable software configuration
• Library signature, OS, 64/32-bit architectures
• Excellent enforcement potential
• Enforcement on a sandbox rather than process
  level
• Excellent isolation
• Generally enhanced security, audit forensics
• Pausing, serialization, and migration
• VM images (include RAM), can be copied
• Common concern performance
• Working with Xen VM outstanding performence
• Relatively new to Grid computing
• Developing Grid infrastructure working with VMs

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The Need for Speed
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DRAG Benchmark Results

• DRAG suite FFT-based benchmark
• Comparison (by Xuehai Zhang, UC)
• Linux machine runs native 2.6 Linux.
• Dom0 machine runs Xen and domain 0.
• DomU machine runs Xen, domain 0 and a user
  domain.
• Similar performance as native Linux
• lt3 degradation, but sometimes better
• More details at http//people.cs.uchicago.edu/hai
  /vm1/drag/.

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Deployment Concerns

• Available implementations
• Open source (Xen, UML)
• Visible effects of open source community at work
• Commercial (VMware)
• Also, support for Xen from XenSource and many
  other Linux distributors Fedora, Debian, SUSE,
  Gentoo, Mandrake, etc.
• Distribution/Installation
• Para-virtualization requires kernel modifications
• Yes, but everything else stays the same
• Work in progress on making Xen part of Linux
  kernel
• Support from many Linux distributors
• Privilege
• Xen (root, patch kernel, domain 0 privileges
  setup)
• VMware Workstation (root, installation only)

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Virtual Workspaces Status

• Dynamic account workspace service
• Release information
• Released with GT4 as technology preview
• Deployed by EGEE
• Prototype integration with OSG (Markus Lorch)
• www.mcs.anl.gov/workspace
• A basic workspace creates a dynamic account and
  provides a management interface for it
• Works with VOMS credentials
• Uses attirbutes for authorization as well as
  customization
• Backend implementations
• Truly dynamic accounts adduser command
• Leasing account pools

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Virtual Workspaces Status (cntd)

• Virtual Machines
• GT4 implementation
• Service interfaces shared with the dynamic
  account implementation (includes VOMS credential
  processing etc.)
• Implementation based mainly on Xen
• Ongoing work
• virtual cluster workspaces (virtual OSG cluster)
• networking
• Security how can we make
• Virtual playgrounds
• Deployment and integration with different
  communities
• First experiments with GADU toolkit last summer
• TG science gateway (also OSG/TG gateway)
• OSG applications and infrastructure

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Conclusions

• Virtual workspaces
• An abstraction of an environment
• Virtual machines are a particularly promising
  implementation
• But a simple account is often necessary and
  sufficient
• Nested abstraction COD, VMs, accounts..
• Past, Present and Future
• First release GT4
• Current work focused on virtual machines
• Agreement-based deployment