MRI: Development of Apt, A Testbed Instrument with Adaptable Profiles for Network and Computational Science

University Of Utah, Salt Lake City UT

Investigators

Abstract

Proposal #: 1338155 PI(s): Ricci, Robert; Corbato, Steven C; Eide, Eric N; Facelli, Julio C; Van Der Merwe, Jacobus Institution: University of Utah Title: MRI/Dev: Apt, a Testbed Instrument with Adaptable Profiles for Network and Computational Science Project Proposed: This project, developing a novel adaptable instrument (Apt), aims at attaining a novel control framework to manage a cluster of compute nodes, storage servers, and a flexible interconnect fabric. Adaptability constitutes the key feature enabling the creation of diverse instruments for computer science research. The work is geared towards representing a new generation of testbed instruments that engage a broader community of users by empowering them to customize it to their needs. The instrument is expected to leverage and drive the trends in cloud computing, thus making the development of adaptable instrument environments easier, cheaper, and less risky. At the same time, it offers properties not available on commercial clouds, including the proposed levels of resource fidelity and transparency required of a scientific instrument. The project also develops the control and management system for creating and using profiles, and for supporting concurrent experiments and allocating resources among them in a dynamic manner. The fundamental building blocks of Apt identified include: - Resource provisioning, scheduling, and conditioning; - Operational state tracking; experiment management, archive, and replay; and - User management. This work contributes to make these elements reusable in a way that enables the proposed to be shared by profiles supporting a wide range of research domains. The domains currently targeted include, but are not limited to, sustainable energy control systems, biomolecular science, privacy and security, and data-intensive computation. Broader Impacts: The instrument is expected to be a national resource for computer science and other computing-based fields, Internet-accessible and to contribute to the nation?s cyberinfrastructure. The broad and diverse targeted research communities include strong empirical and experimental components. The proposed instrument is highly suitable for training and education.