New Workload Management System from the NGS

The WMS service will be familiar to users of GridPP and EGEE grids. Together with some specific enhancements the NGS is making the WMS service has a number of advanced features for parameterised jobs and file staging that mean that it will be possible to launch 100’s of jobs easily to the NGS, and have the results returned to your home directory.

Users interact with the WMS service through a UI (user interface) machine, where users can specify their jobs and any files the job requires. Users can also describe any additional requirements (hardware, software) and the WMS then automatically selects the best resources on the NGS to run the job.

You can try out some simple examples by following the UI/WMS tutorial(s) linked here.

More documentation and examples are in the pipeline over the next couple of weeks and there will be an article in the next NGS quarterly newsletter in December, showing how the ease of use and power features can be used together to quickly produce useful results.

Please give it a go if you have a few minutes to spare, and let us know how you get on by dropping us an email.

The NGS Resource Broker and User Interface is based on the gLite 3.1 WMS-LB and UI nodes from the EGEE Project.