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Present: Dave Britton (Chair), Tony Cass, Pete Clarke, Jeremy Coles, Alastair Dewhurst, Tony Doyle, Pete Gronbech, Jon Hays, Roger Jones, Steve Lloyd, Andrew McNab, Gareth Roy, Andrew Sansum, Louisa Campbell (Minutes).
Apologies: David Colling, Dave Kelsey.
1. Additional HW funds – STFC
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DB noted that additional funds are unlikely but has been in discussion with Charlotte to determine whether funds could realistically be spent this year should they become available (i.e. for the 5 large sites and RAL). Manchester confirmed they can spend c. £200K before end February, Imperial can probably spend, Lancaster can also probably spend and can turn around in c. 3 weeks, QMUL can spend c. £1M+ (restricted by rack space), it is not clear if RAL can spend, AD will investigate. At Glasgow things are complex and have to proceed through CAPEX committee which normally takes 4-6 weeks to approval then through the procurement process – GR is discussing with purchasing which seems promising, with restrictions. This probably equates to c. £2M so DB will advise Charlotte this could be achievable and very useful, though better if tied to movement of GridPP6 capital into later years of the project and clarify the definition of ‘confirmed’, then a scientific case could be constructed.
ACTION 694.1: DB will contact Charlotte confirming potential spend of additional HW funding and clarify the definition of ‘confirmed’.
2. GridPP 6 Proposal new terms of reference
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DB circulated emails informing Charlotte et al that we cannot respond to the original brief due to the elevated flat cash hardware costs. He received a very helpful response from Charlotte to his suggested approach and the agreement is we will write GridPP6 proposal and treat staff budget different from capital budget. This will require care – flat cash staff budget with +/- 10% and 70% scenarios. For hardware Charlotte has agreed we should ask for requirement but also provide 90%, 70% and 50% scenarios. It may be useful for experiment managers to be proactively engaged in discussing experiment requirements in the UK, DB is discussing with Dave Newbold and PC will participate in setting up meetings with relevant people. New terms of reference are positive and provide a good structure to move forward in planning.
3. GridPP review dates and attendance
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DB received an email from George Madden who is organising the GridPP review providing a proposed date of 18 March. This is earlier than anticipated and this was previously discussed with STFC who had agreed a potential c. 2 weeks extension. DB and PC are in USA for HSF and WLCG workshops. 7 May and 6 June have now been proposed by George – both are achievable for DB but attendees are limited to 5 from GridPP which differs from previously. DB suggests attendees include himself, PC (can also cover LHCb), RJ (Atlas), DC (CMS and Chair of CAP) and possibly AS as Tier-1 representative to covers broad range of topics and/or AD for specifically Tier-1, project managers are not essential as DB can cover (possibly TC to cover internationalisation if an additional attendee is allowed). It was agreed that DB, PC, RJ, AS can attend both dates and DB will discuss separately with DC, AD and AS. The panel is likely to comprise a combination of members of PPPG and PPRG and others associated with those committees with knowledge of computing.
ACTION 694.2: DB will respond to George Madden confirming proposed dates of the GridPP review meetings.
4. Citizen Science in ESCAPE & LHC
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DB circulated email from Stephen Serjeant – SKA Science Committee – following last year’s discussions with Ian Bird and now seeking a person for involvement for EU project in WP 6 (engagement & communication). Stephen asked for someone representing LHC prepared to be on the list for press releases, crowd sourcing, etc. Probably resulting in small amount of effort – RJ suggested he, DC and AM could get involved, though would like clarification on what is required so he will contact Stephen in this regard.
5. AOCB
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None
6. Standing Items
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SI-0 Bi-Weekly Report from Technical Group (DC)
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DC not present and no report submitted.
SI-1 ATLAS Weekly Review and Plans (RJ)
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Nothing of significance to report – Atlas has sent a deadline for CENTOS-7 to be completed.
SI-2 CMS Weekly Review and Plans (DC)
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DC not in attendance and no report submitted.
SI-3 LHCb Weekly Review and Plans (PC)
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Interruptions last week but now fixed.
SI-4 Production Manager’s report (JC)
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Nothing significant to report.
SI-5 Tier-1 Manager’s Report (AD)
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– arc-ce04, which was knocked over at the start of the year because of a large number of finished jobs is back in production. It would appear that since data taking finished the new normal for LHCb on the batch farm is to run large number of relatively short MC jobs. We permanently have around 200k LHCb jobs in the finished state but as long as LHCb spread their jobs submission across the nodes, its ok. We have scripts in place to hopefully prevent the CEs from getting knocked over again.
– Over the weekend (19th – 20th January), CVMFS appears to have not quite broken on a small subset of WN (If CVMFS breaks the WN is automatically taken offline). This resulted in poor job efficiency (and even a few failing jobs) for some VOs (ALICE, CMS and ATLAS).
– Procurement is ongoing. I believe the delivery and installation of the extra disks for existing storage nodes is expected next week.
SI-6 LCG Management Board Report of Issues (DB)
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No MB meeting.
SI-7 External Contexts (PC)
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Nothing significant to report.
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.
678.3: AD to finalise the Tier1 background document, including tape strategy by end September. (Update: Almost complete and will circulate current iteration for comment, more urgent now to feed into DB figures). Ongoing.
693.1: GR and AD will check proposed GridPP6 hardware figures. Done.
ACTIONS AS OF 21.01.19
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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.
678.3: AD to finalise the Tier1 background document, including tape strategy by end September. (Update: Almost complete and will circulate current iteration for comment, more urgent now to feed into DB figures). Ongoing.
694.1: DB will contact Charlotte confirming potential spend of additional HW funding and clarify the definition of ‘confirmed’.
694.2: DB will respond to George Madden confirming proposed dates of the GridPP review meetings.