GriddPP PMB Meeting 880 [08 April 2024]

GridPP PMB meeting 880

Present: David Britton (Chair), Daniela Bauer, David Colling, Alastair Dewhurst, Tony Doyle, Alessandra Forti, Peter Gronbech, Jonathan Hays, Roger Jones, David Kelsey, Steve Lloyd, Andrew McNab, Andrew Sansum, Sam Skipsey (Minutes), Jill Sambrook (Minutes)
Apologies: Tony Cass, Peter Clarke, Davide Costanzo, Katy Ellis

ITEMS

0) Welcome to GridPP7:
– WPD work plans.

Work Package D is now a substantial work package for innovation (the GridPP7 review board having expanded it, when the GridPP6 review board told us to shrink it!). DB noted that this means it requires careful management.
DB has been considering the best way to report on the wide range of topics.
Perhaps: asynchronous updating of  milestones by each group/topic as they make progress rather than waiting for quarterly reports. SS said we may wish to consider something more structured than a google doc, but agreed something we can update as we progress would be a good way of managing this.
Big considerations will be how SS can monitor progress and how DB can get a summary quickly.
DB suggested that the first focus would be the 2 NetZero projects. DB, JH and SS to put together a programme of work with a structure to monitor and see how this goes. If this works it could be rolled out to the full work package moving forward. 
The group then had a discussion around quarterly reports. SS is looking to make some updates to the process.

Hoping to streamline the process. SS is going to create a new “directory tree” in cernbox so that Matt Doidge no longer needs to prep the folders for these reports.
The plan is that the reports will come out a little quicker and we can continue to improve reporting after GridPP6.
SS also looking at ways to pull out some of the metrics into a semi-automated system.
Updates on this to follow. There will soon be a call for the final reports of GridPP6.


1)- Use of Confluence.
  DB put some notes on the minutes, see below.

Confluence:
Information Sources for GridPP:

–              GridPP website (two actually?)

–              GridPP Twiki

–              And now Confluence.

Isn’t fundamental problem with first two, the fact that we have nobody to maintain?  Is this likely to change with Confluence?
How do we consolidate existing information on to Confluence? Is there any sort of automatic import and organisation? Currently, there is a GRIDPP TWIKI space on Confluence, but this seems to be just a placeholder??
What is our exit strategy if we need to avoid vendor lock-in or migrate (again) to something superior in the future?
So, questions are:

1)        What is import and export capabilities?

2)        What are the options for structuring information in Confluence?

3)        Who is going to organise and maintain Confluence?

Some discussion followed and the summary is as follows:

  • DB suggested we give Confluence a go.
  • It was suggested we freeze Twiki and pull out any relevant information and add this to Confluence. It would be a good opportunity to do some housekeeping. DB noted this would take quite a bit of effort from everyone.
  • AD to export content from Confluence every month. (This is a good back up and we should consider an exit strategy).
  • Agreed the website was still needed, even if just an entry point to Confluence.
  • SS said we would need to speak with Matt about the Twiki side of things.


1) Engagement with Harwell Open Week [All]
Greg mentioned this during his talk at GridPP51 and requested either/both of the following:

  1. Please register interest to help with the activities already planned
  2. Questioned if GridPP would like to propose an activity.

DB urged anyone to get involved if they can help. Perhaps more those in close proximity. Please contact Gregg about this if you can help.
AD to contact Greg about Daresbury open day for further information and to see if they can input into these activities.

2) Annual ‘UK Data Challenges’? [All]
DB agreed this seems like a good idea. KE and AF agreed and are happy to be part of this.
Action moving forward:
KE and AF to come up with a proposal around how this can be organised. Need to consider timings and how it might interact with Rucio and FTS. (DB made an initial suggestion of November as a pre cursor to Spring data challenge).

AOCB:
Quarterly Reports due [SS]

Security report, Fed Services and LondonGrid reports still missing.
Some discussion of new LondonGrid reporter.
Next set of reports will be coming out soon.

Comments on GridPP51?
Thanks to Davide for organising.
Overall a very good event.
It was noted that the joint session wasn’t perhaps as smooth as could be. This came together a little later on the SWIFT-HEP side, so made coordination a little tricky.

XRootD / FTS workshop planning for September (AD)
Trying to plan this meeting (showed slide with further details).
Asking about costs and if they were reasonable.
DB said costs looked reasonable to him, but perhaps look at sponsorship. (Although DB priority is for GridPP52 Ambleside).

STANDING ITEMS

SI-0 Tier-1 Manager’s weekly report & Technical Meetings [AD] Technical meeting:
There was a  technical meeting around the Obsolete VO discussion (action 876.2) just before GridPP51. Proposal for Decommissioning anything not used for GridPP6. Putting together a proposal to present to PMB and then will action this.

Tier 1:
Brij has started today. ATLAS tier 1 liaison
New person starting for tape (Covering Maha on Maternity).
Note – Hammer cloud all failed for ATLAS. Outside of this operational things are good.
Work on Token migration is ongoing.

SI-1 ATLAS Weekly Review and Plans [DCos]
RJ provided update:
Main thing to note is planning around the QMUL downtime in May (Hand-over to Lanc and RAL).
Oddities at Manchester (GPU queue) and Birmingham vanishing from the monitoring.

SI-2 CMS Weekly Review and Plans [DC/KE]  
Status report from KE.

  • Tier 1 largely fine.
  • Job efficiency numbers – looking into this
  • KE already volunteered to help out @ Harwell Open Week!

SI-3 LHCb Weekly Review and Plans [AM]
Alex asked if he can close ticket.

SI-4 Operations Meeting Report [SS,PG,PC] –
No ops meeting.
Ops meeting tomorrow. Report next week.

SI-5 LCG Management Board Report of Issues [DB] NTR

SI-6 External Contexts (eg NGI/EGI) [PC/JH] NTR.

REVIEW OF ACTIONS
868.3 DB and SS to look at Storage accounting – ongoing (SS to talk about this at GridPP51)
875.1 Update on APEL to take place in around 1 months’ time. AS to also check if Tom Dack can present an update at GridPP51. (AS to give update at next PMB meeting). CLOSE. New action of AS to present at this meeting or TOM. PMB should be updated.  Request an update on April 29th.
876.2 AD to complete a report and present further on the Obsolete VO discussion. Action closed
880.1 Harwell open week – anyone that can help please contact Gregg. AD to contact Gregg about Daresbury Open day.
880.2 Confluence updates by all. SS to speak with Matt and AD to make sure content is extracted monthly. Ongoing.
880.3 KE and AF to come up with a proposal around how annual ‘UK Data Challenges’ can be organised.

Cancel meeting next week. Meeting again on the 22nd.