The National Grid Service User Accounting System

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The National Grid Service User Accounting System
Katie Weeks Science and Technology Facilities
Council
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The National Grid Service

• The NGS is the UKs grid for academics
• Free and easy to apply online
• Providing a number of heterogeneous compute and
  data resources on the grid
• Providing help and support to those using the
  grid
• The NGS is led and coordinated by the STFC in
  collaboration with the University of Manchester,
  the University of Oxford, the University of
  Edinburgh and the White Rose Grid at the
  University of Leeds

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The National Grid Service

• Over 590 registered users
• 4 core sites, 6 partner sites and 3 affiliate
  sites
• Entered production in Autumn 2004
• Now in phase 2
• Predominantly focussed on compute and storage at
  present

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Grid Accounting

• Accounting for any production grid is an
  important part of the monitoring process
• Pricing policies may be introduced to grids in
  the future
• To uphold policies relating to grid use and
  allocated hours
• To monitor systems particularly important for
  funding and future planning
• To have an overview of the system how much are
  we allocating? How much is being used? How much
  spare capacity do we have? How much are our
  biggest users using?
• JISC has recently funded a review of accounting
  and usage monitoring
• Its an issue many grids now face

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Grid policing

• Users are allocated limited resources
• Important to know how much of those resources
  have been consumed
• Users tend to go over quota even when monitored
• Need to lock-out users who go over quota
• There is an important distinction between
  accounting and policing
• Retain integrity of application and peer-review
  process

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Our problem

• Situation at beginning of 2006
• Applications under go light-weight peer review
  process
• Ability to monitor individual usage
• Policies in place for usage
• No tools to use the monitoring data to enforce
  the policies
• Needed a system to enable us to manage users and
  enforce allocation policies

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Other solutions

• APEL (EGEE)
• Accounting Processor for Event Logs
• Accounting information such as CPU time, Wall
  Time and DN
• Virtual Organisation emphasis with no individual
  policing
• TeraGrid
• Account monitoring available via command line
• No architecture in place for automatic policing
• OGF
• Resource Usage Service (RUS)
• Stores monitoring information that can be queried
• NGS has had a RUS instance since early 2006
• No current solution met all the needs of the NGS
  needed our own solution

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Our Solution

• Resource usage data obtained by querying the
  Resource Usage Service (RUS) at Manchester
• RUS already in place and had functionality the
  NGS required
• Accounting system based on an Oracle database
• Interface to the Oracle database was created
  using Oracle Application Express (Apex)
• Information collected
• User details
• Application information
• Account status
• Resource allocation
• Resource usage
• Usage and allocation is collated over all core
  sites
• Records historical information
• Records changes in Distinguished Name (DN)

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Policing the NGS

• User Accounting System (UAS) queries the RUS
  every day for total CPU and disk space for every
  user
• A warning email is sent out when you reach 90 of
  your CPU allocation
• The account is automatically locked and an email
  sent when you reach 100 of your CPU allocation

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Policing the NGS (2)

• The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
  queries the User Accounting System every hour
• Its only populated with users whose account has
  active status
• Users whose accounts are locked or pending are
  not included in the LDAP
• Maximum of hour before accounts are active again
  once theyve been unlocked

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Policing the NGS (3)

• When an account is locked, you can apply for more
  resources
• Via application form
• Via your account details
• When your application is successful, your account
  is automatically updated with your new allocation
  and account is active again
• An email is sent to you letting you know youre
  back within your limits
• Your account will be active within the hour once
  the LDAP has queried the UAS

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Integration with other systems

• NGS helpdesk is run using the commercial
  application Footprints
• Application process went through Footprints
• Reviewers were used to Footprints
• UAS sends applications directly to Footprints as
  well as putting them in the database
• System unchanged from reviewers point of view
• Systems need to be synchronised
• Approved in Footprints so ticket can be closed
• Approved in UAS so account is active
• Far from ideal situation

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Using Oracle and Apex

• Oracle is robust, scalable and efficient
• Oracle is used for hosting projects on the NGS
  e.g. CPOSS data
• Expertise, experience and Oracle support already
  available to us
• Apex allows web forms and reporting to be done
  very quickly
• Apex also allows graphs to be produced
  dynamically and data queried in a variety of ways

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Accessing your details

• Users wanted to know how much of their allocation
  they had used
• https//www.ngs.ac.uk/useraccountinfo.php
• Certificate access to account details
• Not supported by Oracle Apex
• Needed a workaround to take certificate details
  from browser
• Also provides ability to change contact details
• Renewals can be done through their own account

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Problems

• Limitation on field length restricted case
  entries and caused some problems when users wrote
  more than 2200 characters
• Oracle Apex doesnt support X509 certificate
  access our own workaround had to be implemented
  for the user to access their account details

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Results

• Entered production in October 2006
• Begun locking out users at 10,000 over quota
• Gradually reduced to 100 of quota
• 64 accounts have been locked
• 73 have successfully reapplied
• Over 150 new users have applied using the system

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Future Work

• The UAS is continuously developing
• Peer-review process is being integrated into the
  Oracle system
• Incorporation of external system that creates the
  SRB accounts and subscribes users to JISCmail.
• Inclusion of accounting of storage usage by users
• Extension to support Virtual Organisations

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Summary

• Oracle and Apex offered the best solution for the
  NGS UAS
• Monitoring and policing accounts is all done
  automatically now
• Application process is handled automatically
• Room for expansion of the system

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Further information

• Ask a question now!
• Talk to me after the presentation
• Visit the NGS stand (booth 20)
• Contact the NGS support centre support_at_grid-suppor
  t.ac.uk
• Visit the NGS website www.ngs.ac.uk