Archive for July, 2008

Grid Systems Administrator / Programmer

Chris Samuel posted this job opportunity for a job with VPAC in Australia.

If you know anyone that may be interested in the job, please pass this announcement along. It seems like people reading here would have a good probability of knowing someone that may be interested and who also has the experience they are looking for.

Thanks


From http://www.csamuel.org/2008/07/28/vpac-job-grid-systems-administator-programmer


VPAC is looking for someone to join the systems team here to work on grid computing, including things like Shibboleth, SSL certificates, Globus and the like.


The Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing Limited (VPAC) has a unique opportunity for a person to assist with the operation of a National Distributed Computing and Data Project. VPAC operates a range of large Linux HPC Systems primarily used for scientific research and is part of ARCS, the Australian Research Collaboration Service, building research infrastructure across Australia.

Reporting to the VPAC Operations Manager, you will be working primarily on Linux systems in a distributed computing environment. Specifically, you will be involved in a National Project to provide authentication and authorisation services, and separately, data services across Australia and be a part of the international grid effort. The ability to work with and support our end users (typically scientific researchers and software developers) is very important in this role. Some national and international travel may be involved.

You will gain experience in a range of cutting edge distributed computing technologies.

To be successful in this role you will need Linux (or Unix) experience. A degree in Computer Science or a closely related field would be highly advantageous but hands on Linux experience is essential. Experience in authentication, authorisation and distributed data is highly desirable.

Key Selection Criteria

- A good knowledge of UNIX or LINUX at a systems level.

- Some skills in programming or scripting Python, Perl, Java or similar.

- Good communication skills and an ability to deliver quality services to end users.

Gain bonus points with:

- Experience with authentication, authorisation, Shibboleth and/or distributed data.

- Experience with grid or distributed computing, Globus.

- Experience in building and packaging custom Linux systems.

- Experience in XEN, OpenSSL, X509 certificates, Web Services or similar.

Applicants with specific skills related to the above are strongly advised to mention their experience level with each (e.g, experienced, competent, interested beginner) in their application.

VPAC is an equal opportunity employer and offers an exciting opportunity in a modern work environment with excellent employment conditions and career progression opportunities.

Please send resumes, along with a cover letter and academic transcripts to recruitment@vpac.org. Applications close COB 11th AUGUST 2008.

statistically indistinguishable from perfect

I like the end of the recent S3 downtime explanation:

“Though we’re proud of our operational performance in operating Amazon S3 for almost 2.5 years, we know that any downtime is unacceptable and we won’t be satisfied until performance is statistically indistinguishable from perfect.”

VWS RSS feed

VWS RSS feed:

One-click clusters, VWS TP1.3.3

A lot of developments with the workspace service and science clouds recently!

The cluster technology lets you bootstrap generic images into new network and security contexts on the fly. We built a sample cluster on top of the technology that lets you create the cluster and be immediately ready to submit jobs to a Torque cluster fronted by GRAM and GridFTP that use a newly created self-signed certificate:

 

  1. cloud-client.sh –run –hours 12 –cluster base-cluster.xml
  2. Wait a few minutes, once launched note the head-node hostname
  3. scp -r root@HOSTNAME:certs/*  lib/certs/

    (SSH was bootstrapped end to end already)

  4. Make sure your grid tools trust this certificate and then submit work

 

This can be done with nearly anything that can run on a non-virtual cluster. Check out these links for more information:

Major Globus Toolkit release: GT4.2.0

Congratulations everyone!

On behalf of the Globus Toolkit development team I am pleased to announce that a new stable release of the Globus Toolkit is now available. GT4.2.0 contains an upgrade to the web services specifications used by the toolkit as well as new features in all services. New users are encouraged to use the 4.2.0 release. Existing users may wish to evaluate the new software while maintaining their existing installations; due to the specification upgrade, the webservices are incompatible with the 4.0.x series. Details on the spec upgrade are available in the release notes.

Relevant 4.2.0 links:

Thanks for your support of Globus software!

Charles

New Features!

  • Persistent HTTP/S connection support in Java WS Core
  • Dynamic deployment support in Java WS Core
  • JBOSS 4.0.x support in Java WS Core
  • An implementation of WS-ServiceGroup added to C WS Core
  • C command-line tools for WSRF operations
  • Support for GetResourceProperties and QueryResourceProperties in the
  • Delegation Service

  • Added support for the OGSA-AuthZ Authorization Service to CAS
  • Server-side attribute-based authorization framework enhancements
  • Support for a pluggable Policy Decision Point (PDP) designed to minimize
  • common authorization errors

  • Enhanced security descriptor framework
  • A Web service interface for the Replica Location Service (RLS)
  • Improved support for multiple TriggerRules in the Trigger Service
  • Improved configuration interface for the Trigger Service
  • Java API to assist in creating resource properties from external
  • information sources

  • A new resource manager (RM) adapter API in GRAM4