GridPP PMB Meeting 701

GridPP PMB Meeting 701 (11/03/19)
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Present: Pete Clarke (Chair), Tony Cass, David Colling, Tony Doyle, Pete Gronbech, Jon Hays, Roger Jones, Steve Lloyd, Andrew McNab, Andrew Sansum, Louisa Campbell (Minutes).

Apologies: Dave Britton, Alastair Dewhurst, Dave Kelsey.

1) GridPP6 Status
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An issue relating to the GridPP6 proposal was raised by STFC on Friday – they require a full matrix of all costings for FTEs and WPs. Standard spreadsheets are large and very detailed with information per annum that cannot easily be extracted from JeS. STFC require a cost breakdown per FTE per work package (which are complex and split between each FTE). For each WP they require FEC etc and GR confirmed we only receive this on aggregate based on the total and it is challenging to provide full breakdown per institute, per WP, per FTE – he is working on a scaled version across all WPs. PC noted all estates & indirects were not salary-based but FTE-based and there was some discussion on the technicalities of how this is worked out. It is possible that research support teams will be required to provide annual breakdowns for inclusion. GR is progressing by aggregating costs and dividing by 4 as this is how it operated previously. AS will discuss with Antonis at RAL (project manager at DUNE) on how this operated for his recent application. JH noted this method of breaking down the tables is now standard practice, for travel it is normal to add onto the management package. STFC have not indicated a deadline for receipt of the information but if they do not respond quickly since this project differs from their customary project, we should be prepared to consider costs per institute. GR will progress and await a response from STFC then discuss further. ACTION 701.1: AS will discuss with Antonis at RAL how costings were presented in his recent grant application.

2) Researchfish
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GR sent to PC and PG all publications he can extract (a total of 973) and requested guidance on what can be dropped for insertion to Researchfish. He requested that any PMB members who have recently taken up positions on various panels should advise him so that he can upload by the deadline (Thursday). Links to research projects will be available, but there are 4 questions in 4 sections that each member should respond to. GR circulated detailed instructions which work well. All the publications from 2018 till now that have been published with a DOI are included, others are not. The key to accuracy here is defining correct search strings.

ACTION 701.2: RJ, DC and PC to look at Researchfish guidelines and extract entries that are not relevant.

3) Production manager roles
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This relates to how roles previously undertaken by JC will be covered following HEP management’s decision that he will be working 100% on SKA. It was agreed to await DB’s presence at the next PMB for further discussion.

4) GridPP42
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Members will consider themes and sessions for the GridPP42 agenda. AD and LC will discuss sponsors on his return from annual leave. PC asked members to feed themes that should be covered to the PMB list for AD to include in the agenda. The introductory talk from DB will cover GridPP6. It was agreed that Tier-1 should be a focus for the meeting.

5) AOCB
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CHEP 2019 – call for papers in Australia. This will be expensive and we should consider who should attend, most likely at the traditional method of covering 50% costs (currently c. £1000 for return flights to Australia).

6. Standing Items
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SI-0 Bi-Weekly Report from Technical Group [DC]
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There was no meeting last week so nothing to report.

SI-1 ATLAS Weekly Review and Plans [RJ]
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Nothing significant to report. Setting up Jamboree sites was discussed and minimum sizes. These will be followed up in later weeks.

SI-2 CMS Weekly Review and Plans [DC]
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CMS has been having difficulty reading large files on CEPH at RAL over the last few weeks. The problem is understood but the solution is not. DC flagged this as an important problem that needs to be resolve. This is in the hands of Katie (liaison person) with AD and Chris Brew. This is a result of the move to block storage on Echo which has altered the way the block-read occurs. This differs to an issue recently experienced by DUNE of not being able to write data to RAL due to GB limits.

SI-3 LHCb Weekly Review and Plans [AM]
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Re-computation of Santests of sites caused by issues renewing the robot certificate to send out the tests. This will improve effectiveness and reliability figures when resolved within the month.

SI-4 Production Manager’s weekly report [JC]
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No report submitted.

SI-5 Tier-1 Manager’s weekly report [AD]
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AD was not in attendance and no report was submitted.

SI-6 LCG Management Board Report of Issues [DB]
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There has been no meeting.

SI-7 External Contexts (eg NGI/EGI)
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PC noted there are several roadmaps to UKRI relevant to GridPP and if they contain incorrect information this will have a negative impact. These relate to effort and software – on Cloud strategy, networking, data infrastructure and software and skills (PC presented at the IRIS meeting and shared slides with the PMB – the token is currently with Susan and DC will contribute to the presentation in discussion with PC). RJ noted a roadmap review on Physics that will be circulated in the next 48 hours contains a small section on computing/software and technologies.

REVIEW OF ACTIONS
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644.4: AD will progress capture of funds for Dirac with Mark Wilkinson. (Update: funding from DIRAC. AS has emailed Mark. They are now using it more heavily. Could use the money for tape, but have to be careful not to buy tape we won’t use. May be better charging later rather than during this FY? AD will now progress. 08/10/18 – Leicester are producing a PO for tapes and will send to AD to produce an invoice). Ongoing.

696.2: RJ to provide ATLAS’ guidance for 2 FTE location at Tier-2 sites. Ongoing. Done.

696.3: RJ to draft 4c(iii) in the Plan2 document: A description of WP2. Ongoing. Done.

696.5: JC to draft 4c(iv) in the Plan2 document and work with DB on 4c(i). Ongoing. Done.

696.7: JH to draft pathways-to-impact document and extract 1 page for proposal. (Update: JH is seeking clarification between provision in GridPP5 and requirements for GridPP6). Done.

696.9: PC to coordinate development of 4c(v) WP4 description. Done.

696.10: AD to provide draft of Tier-1 section 6b. Done.

696.11: AD to contribute via PC to 4v(v). Done.

696.13: DC to provide assistance to RJ with 4c(iii). Done.

696.15: DB to draft 4c(ii) with help from JC. Done.

696.16: DB to coordinate 4c(vi). Done.

696.17: DB to continue to develop effort matrix once Experiment site preference are known. Done.

696.18: GR to continue to gather resource requirements. (Update – emails have gone out and responses awaited). Done.

696.19: GR to liaise with PG on 4c(vi)2&3. Done.

ACTIONS AS OF 11/03/19
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644.4: AD will progress capture of funds for Dirac with Mark Wilkinson. (Update: funding from DIRAC. AS has emailed Mark. They are now using it more heavily. Could use the money for tape, but have to be careful not to buy tape we won’t use. May be better charging later rather than during this FY? AD will now progress. 08/10/18 – Leicester are producing a PO for tapes and will send to AD to produce an invoice). Ongoing.

701.1: AS will discuss with Antonis at RAL how costings were presented in his recent grant application.

701.2: RJ, DC and PC to look at Researchfish guidelines and extract entries that are not relevant.