Addressing(the(challenges of federation in the Nectar(Research(Cloud - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Addressing(the(challenges of federation in the Nectar(Research(Cloud

The(Nectar(Research(Cloud(is(part(of(the(Australian(Research(Data(Commons,(which(is( supported(by(the(Australian(Government(through(the(National(Collaborative(Research( Infrastructure(Strategy(to(establish(eResearch infrastructure(in(partnership(with(Australian( research(institutions,(organisations and(research(communities.

Paul(Coddington,(Associate(Director(Research(Cloud(and(Storage

NCRIS,'Nectar,'and'ARDC

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• Nectar'was'founded'in'2011'through'the'federal'government’s'

National'Collaborative'Research'Infrastructure'Strategy'(NCRIS)

• Funded'the'Research'Cloud and'Virtual Laboratories
• The 2016'NCRIS'Roadmap'called'for'a'merging'of'3'NCRIS'facilities'

(Nectar,'Research'Data'Storage,'Australian'National'Data'Service)'to' form'the'Australian'National'Data'Cloud/Commons'(ARDC)

• ARDC'is''part of a broader Digital'Data'and'eResearch Platforms'

theme'including'national'HPC'centres,'AARNet NREN,'and'AAF

• The'research'infrastructure'roadmap'also states that:

“The%Australian%Research%Data%Cloud%should%broadly%align%with%the%European% Open%Science%Cloud%and%other%global%initiatives.”

The$Nectar$Research$Cloud

A world first…

The Nectar Research Cloud is a partnership between 7 institutions and research

• rganisations who are operating a

federated Openstack research cloud.

• University of Melbourne
• National Computation Infrastructure (NCI)
• Monash University
• Queensland CyberInfrastructure Foundation

(QCIF)

• eResearch SA (eRSA)
• University of Tasmania
• Intersect, NSW

A single integrated cloud

• perated by 7 national

partners and supporting over 15000 research users.

Nectar'Cloud'Federation

A"single"national"cloud"interface

• OpenStack*cells*to*support*7*regional*sites
• Other*institutions*have*joined*with*their*own resources (Swinburne,"Auckland,"UTS,*RMIT)
• Users*can*request*a*specific*site*– or*deploy'anywhere.

National"services

• Cloud*dashboard*(Horizon)*and*API
• Authentication*(Keystone,*AAF)
• Image*repository*(Glance)

Federated"services

• Object*store*(Swift)*
• Compute*(Nova)*and*volume*storage*(Cinder)
• User*support,*help*desk,*user*guides,*documentation

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…a#federation#of#7#operators#(~#16#FTE#total)#

Nectar'Research'Cloud'Ops'Team

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Core Services Node Operators User Support Team

Activities(to(coordinate(federated(ops

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Six$Monthly$Tech$and$Operations$Workshops

• Physically)bringing)Core)Services,)Node)Operators)and)DHD)together)for)2)days

Fortnightly$RC;ops$meetings

• Video)Conference)of)Core)Services,)Node)Operators)and)some)DHD

Weekly$Core$Services$meetings

• Video)Conference)of)Core)Services)staff)from)UoM,)Monash)and)QCIF

Fortnightly$DHD$meetings

• Video)Conference)of)6)sites)participating)in)the)DHD

Monthly$Control$Group$meetings

• Video)Conference)– steering)group)with)ARDC)and)Node)ops)managers

Usage

• ~7500&VMs&in&use&
• ~40,000&cores&and&2&Pbytes of&cloud&data&storage&in&use&
• ~2000&users&running&VMs&
• ~4000&users&ran&VMs&last&year
• >15,000&users&since&2012&and&200&new&registered&users&per&month
• Tens&of&thousands&of&users&of&VMs&and&services&that&run&on&the&cloud&
• >2500&project&allocations
• >700&allocations&are&for&multiFinstitutional&collaboration
• >300&projects&with&national&research&grants&using&the&cloud

http://status.rc.nectar.org.au

Nectar'Cloud'Federation

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• Mix$of$nationally$(NCRIS)$and$locally$funded$cloud$resources
• Located$at$NCRIS$funded$Nodes$: and$other$organisations$wanting$

to$federate$their$own$infrastructure$into$the$national$cloud

• Leveraging$co:investment$from$many$organisations
• National$and/or$local$resource$allocations
• National$service$and$standards$with$local$customisations$
• Standard$flavours$and$specialised$instance$configurations$(GPUs$etc)
• Nectar$Official$Images$and$community$contributed$images

Federation*Challenges

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• Collaboration*is*great*but*has*overheads
• Federated*organisations*in*Nectar*are*all*very*different
• Federation is expanding and now international with NZ
• Resource*allocation*and*charging
• National merit=based*scheme*plus*local*allocation*processes
• Federal*funding*plus*co=investment
• Costs*currently*covered*by*institutions*not*end*users*(pros*and*cons)
• Capacity*management*across*multiple*sites
• Monitoring*and reporting*(internal*and*to*sites*and*funders)
• Security*and*incident*response

Federation*Challenges

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• Governance
• Authentication.and.authorisation
• AAF.(and.Tuakiri).great.but.limited,.looking.to.support.Edugain and.OID
• Currently.group.authorisation.only.within.Openstack
• Provide.a.standard,.coherent.national.service.while.allowing.for.

innovation.and.local.customisations

• A.set.of.underpinning.services.and.standards.and.processes
• With additional.site.or organisationFspecific.additions.or.variations
• Some.sites.have.private/local.cells.and.local.dashboard
• International.alignment.to.enable.easier.international.collaboration

Future&Directions

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• Continue(existing(services(while(refreshing(infrastructure(
• Provide(more(higher7level(services,(not(just(IaaS

▪

Jupyter, Rstudio,(HTC,(cluster(in(cloud,(containers,(Binder,(ML,(…(

• Better(handle(trade7off(between(local(customisations and(standard(

national(service

• Align(with(international(cloud(initiatives(e.g.(EGI(and(EOSC,(ORCA
• How(to(best(take(advantage(of(public(cloud(and(multi7cloud
• Work(with(NCRIS(capabilities(to(provide(cloud(services(customised

to(their(requirements,(e.g.(Biocommons Pathfinder(project

• Find(a(sustainable(long7term(approach