CHEP 2003 General Summary

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CHEP 2003 General Summary

• Torre Wenaus, BNL/CERN
• CHEP 2003, UC San Diego, La Jolla
• March 28, 2003

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• I agree with all the other summaries.
• Thank you to the organizers,
• and have a safe journey home

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Outline The CHEP03 Zeitgeist

• Themes and observations
• Rising trends
• Important developments
• Receding trends
• Underrepresented
• Open questions
• Concerns
• Major challenges
• Conclusions
• Thanks

zeitgeist Pronunciation 'tsIt-"gIst, 'zIt
Function noun Etymology German, from Zeit
(time) Geist (spirit) Date 1884 Meaning
the general intellectual, moral, and cultural
climate of an era
Google zeitgeist http//www.google.com/press/zeit
geist.html
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Themes and observations

• Lesson from the past Make it simple (R. Brun)
• No more complex than necessary
• Users want consolidation, ease of use, and
  stability
• Must consider also needs of the future longer
  view of maintainability and evolution
• In the interests of long term stability
• OO and C is the accepted paradigm
• No major OO/C migration or usage angst at this
  conference, it is done and accepted
• Offline and online Triumph of C for HEP DAQ
  confirmed DAQ summary
• Now we are hearing reports on Nth generation C
  software
• L. Sexton Kennedy, CDF Every component has been
  rewritten at least once. Implementations have now
  stabilized such that every new arrival doesnt
  start by discarding and rewriting software
• Many more talks about redesign than about
  design Data management summary
• And on the maturation and emergence of tools as
  broad standards, after years of development and
  refinement
• e.g. Geant4, ROOT I/O

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Themes and observations

• The tyranny of Moores Law
• Wolbers it is not a substitute for more
  efficient faster code, smaller data size
• it works against thinking before doing
• Optimize wherever possible
• Addressing the digital divide in networking
  (H.Newman)
• HEP is obligated as a community to work on this
• A world problem in which our field can have
  visible impact
• Farm challenges
• Dont underestimate farm installation and
  operations (R.Divia)
• Big issues are power, cooling, space! (S.Wolbers)
• Watts/ steadily rising (R.Mount)
• Tape-disk random access performance gap in
  analysis is receding as an issue, but disk-memory
  gap is hardly being addressed (R.Mount)

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R. Mount
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Rising trends

• ROOT
• For analysis, I/O, and much else
• Now fully supported at CERN EP/SFT section
• Close interaction with experiments on new
  developments
• Run II, RHIC, ALICE, LCG, BaBar,
• Foreign classes, PROOF, geometry, grid
  integration,
• Mentioned in 47 talks at this conference
• Open source databases (MySQL, Postgres, )
• Metadata, distributed computing, conditions,
• Empowering software easy and potent
• MySQL mentioned in 37 talks! Postgres in 8,
  Oracle in 27
• Online offline continuum
• Similar Linux farm environments, attainable time
  budgets
• Same framework, maybe same algorithms, in HLT as
  in offline (V.Boisvert, ATLAS)
• Stringent performance/robustness requirements on
  software

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Rising trends

• Common projects
• Joint projects one of the CDF/D0 successes
  (Wolbers)
• But hard to align running experiments with LHC
• LHC Computing Grid project
• Grid projects in general
• Laudable but difficult increasingly forced by
  the circumstances
• Resource constraints and increasing scale and
  complexity makes go-it-alone N times too costly
• cf. comments in online/DAQ context by G.
  Dubois-Feldmann today somewhat less success in
  online where it is even harder than offline, but
  possible LHC inroads
• Related is software reuse
• Respect what we know about long software
  development timescales

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Renes time to develop plot
LCG?
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LCG must effectively re-use and leverage existing
software, or fail
This is the approach taken cf. POOL, SEAL talks.
Time will tell! cf. next CHEP
LCG?
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Rising trends

• Modular component architectures
• Many examples in offline also in online/DAQ
  (XDAQ CMS) also in open source
• Associated infrastructure white boards,
  centrality of dictionary, plug-ins,
• XML
• The no-brainer for small scale structured data
  storage and exchange.
• The more humane applications leave the XML
  generation to the computer and not the humans
• ASCII lovers count me in now have their
  standard
• Many talks in many areas involving XML
  applications
• Detector description, conditions info,
  configuration, monitoring, graphics, object
  models, data/object interchange, dictionary
  generation, not to mention layered apps (e.g.
  SOAP)
• 37 talks mention XML (same 37 as MySQL?)
• But XML in itself does not define common
  format/schema, and much divergence and
  duplication exists in how XML is used
• e.g. detector description
• We heard (I.Foster) about an OGSA community
  clearing house, we have similar things ourselves
  (CLHEP, FreeHEP), maybe we need one for XML
  applications

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Rising trends

• Open source in general
• Open source, please. Your interests rarely in
  commercial vendors interests (M.Purschke,
  PHENIX)
• In the CDF/D0 success column, similarly all over
• DBs, Qt, utility libraries, and Linux, it goes
  without saying
• Extraordinary capability and quality
• Java, to a degree
• Important limitations being addressed, e.g.
  manageable C interoperability (JACE
  autogeneration of interface)
• JAS, NLC sw, IceCube, CDMS DAQ,
• But not broadly competing with C in usage so
  far
• HENP as CS partner and collaborator
• To our mutual benefit in the Grid and in
  networking

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Rising trends

• New simulation engines Geant4, FLUKA
• Geant4 as a production tool
• In production in BaBar EM validation in hand,
  hadronic beginning, robust and reasonably fast
• ATLAS on the way to completing G4 transition
  after two years of physics validation
• CMS, LHCb also transitioning over next year
• GLAST using LHCb/Gaudi Geant4 interface
• FLUKA not new established and widely used but
  new integration efforts as a detector simulation
  engine for the four LHC experiments
• FLUGG interface to G4 geometry
• ALICE Virtual Monte Carlo as uniform interface to
  multiple engines (FLUKA, Geant4, Geant3)
• Interest from other experiments joint LCG
  project starting
• Used for Geant4 testing
• FLUKA integration in progress

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Rising trends

• Automation in software development/management
• Heard about several automated tools for code
  building and testing, release integration tag
  management, configuration management
• Popular new software web portal at CERN LCG/SPI
• http//savannah.cern.ch
• Automated textual and statistical analysis of
  test outputs

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Rising trends The Grid

• The central importance of distributed computing
  to future (increasingly, present) HENP is long
  known
• The Grid as the means to that is now
  established
• Major, broad successes in funding and in
  attracting collaboration with CS
• F.Berman, Grid 2003 HEP has set a model for
  integration, focus, coordination
• Progress in applying Grid software and
  infrastructure to real problems
• Batch production
• Clearly the chosen path success to be proven,
  but has promise and broad commitment

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The Grid

• F.Berman, Grids on the horizon
• Must be useful, usable, stable supported
• More cooperative than competitive
• Not always the case today!
• Applications are key to success
• Not a Field of Dreams build it and they will
  come RD field any more
• Grid killer app a focus on data. Good match to
  us
• Still a long way to go

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The Grid

• Miron Livny
• Benefit to science democratization of computing
• Still very manpower intensive when the support
  team goes on holiday, so does the Grid (CMS
  testbed in Dec)
• Best practice middleware requires
• True collaboration, open minds (cf. Berman)
• Testing, deployment/adoption, evaluation metrics,
  robustness, professional support, longevity,
  responsiveness to show stoppers,
• Much to do and improve but important progress
• E.g. VDT as standard middleware suite

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Important developments

• Community consensus on a C object store ROOT
  I/O
• Though many approaches to its use
• Combined with RDBMS for physics data storage
• CDF, RHIC, LHC, BaBar, GLAST,
• Software engineering is catching up to us F.
  Carminati
• High ceremony processes are not an obvious
  success
• And we are not alone
• Agile methodologies, Extreme Programming (XP),
  is SEs response
• Extremely close to a successful HENP working
  model
• Adaptive, simple, incremental, tight iterations,
  plan for change, adjust the methodology for your
  environment
• I just learned we use XP, comment from CDF
• Means of responsibly formalizing and addressing
  in a useful way software engineering in HEP,
  and software management
• Both must be effective and lightweight Agile

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Important developments

• Major strides in networking
• HENP a leading applications driver and a
  co-developer of global networks (H. Newman)
• Require rapid global access to event samples and
  analyzed physics results drawn from massive data
  stores
• PB by 2002, 100 PB by 2007, 1 Exabyte by 2012
• Rate of Progress gtgt Moores Law
• Factor of 1M in 1985-2005 (5k during 1995-2005)
  in global HENP network bandwidth
• Factor of 25-100 Gain in max sustained throughput
  in 15 months on some USTransAtlantic routes
• Network providers see us as an opportunity
  because we push real production applications
• Future promise Optiputer (P.Papadopoulos)
• Key driving applications keep the IT research
  focused

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Important developments

• The LHC Computing Grid Project
• Major new internationally supported effort to
  build the distributed computing environment of
  the LHC
• Encompasses
• the distributed computing facility
• Site fabrics (facilities), middleware selection,
  integration, testing, deployment at distributed
  sites, operations and support,
• the common physics applications software
• Persistency, core libraries and services, physics
  analysis interfaces, simulation and other
  frameworks, all in a distributed environment
• Must succeed if LHC computing is to succeed!
• An impressive effort by the experiments together
  with CERN to work in accord across the cope of
  computing
• Managed so as to ensure comprehensive oversight
  by the experiments
• First testbed deployment is this summer (LCG-1)
• Including the first major applications
  deployment, POOL persistency framework (ROOT I/O
  MySQL hybrid)

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Important developments

• Success of mass stores
• Castor reliable and effective (ALICE)
• D0/CDF convergence on successful Enstore/SAM
• HPSS successful at RHIC
• Exciting new generation of specialized lattice
  gauge computers (B. Sugar)
• Two tracks
• QCD on a chip QCDOC, a technical marvel,
  project with IBM
• 1M/Tflop, aiming at 10 Tflop at BNL in 04
• Optimized commodity clusters
• Pentium 4, Myrinet/Gbit Ethernet
• 10 Tflop at FNAL and JLAB by 06
• SCIDAC grant to improve software usability

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Receding trends

• Objectivity and ODBMS in general
• Jury still out at CHEP 2000 (P.Sphicas), but
  now clear
• Objectivity dropped or being phased out by LHC
  experiments, COMPASS, BaBar event store
• In PHENIX becoming a liability (compiler
  issues) augmented with RDBMSs
• Not due to technical failure but a mix of
  technical problems, commercial concerns, manpower
  costs, availability of an alternative
• Its replacements are not other ODBMSes but files
  (often ROOT) RDBMS (mySQL, Oracle, Postgres)
  for metadata
• Magnetic tape (apart from archival)
• PASTA unlimited multi-PB disk caches
  technically possible but true cost is unclear
  (reliability, manageability)
• File system access under urgent investigation
• tapes as random access device no longer a viable
  option large disk caches needed for LHC
  analysis

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Receding trends

• Commercial software? No
• Some in decline (Objy, LHC), but new prospects
  opening (IBM, Sun, MS, ) in Grid
• Open source now has an important commercial
  element we derive great benefit from (even
  post-.com crash)
• Red Hat, MySQL, Qt,

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Underrepresented

• Collaborative tools
• Was represented this week, but only lightly
• Vital for distributed collaboration on software
  development and physics analysis
• H. Newman need culture of collaboration
• Distributed and remote collaboration should be
  the norm
• Not solely, or even predominantly?, a matter of
  tool development in the community
• How is the exponential commercial side evolving
  and how can we leverage it
• What is the evolutionary path, strategy, role for
  community-developed tools such as VRVS
• Why is the user experience often poor
• Poor physical facilities/configurations,
  instabilities, heterogeneous tools/protocols,
  support issues,
• Current experience sometimes competes
  unsuccessfully with the telephone, despite all
  the shortcomings

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Open questions

• Distributed analysis
• What will it look like? What development line(s)
  are taking us there? Still very much RD pursued
  in multiple directions
• Several models (e.g. R.Brun) with varying degrees
  of Grid exploitation/distributed character
• H.Newman where is the comprehensive global
  system architecture? M.Livny have to proceed
  incrementally, step by step, from the bottom up
• Some efforts were reported which are
  incrementally extending established analysis
  tools into Grid-based analysis
• PROOF, JAS
• Others working from various starting points
• Genius, Ganga, Clarens,

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Open questions

• Distributed analysis continued
• Production environments more well-defined, tools
  more advanced, a few in production, varying
  levels of middleware usage
• AliEn (ALICE), SAM-Grid (Run2), CMS tool suite,
  GRAT, Magda (ATLAS),DIRAC (LHCb)
• Not a lot of sharing/collaboration above the
  middleware level!!
• Necessary precursor to the more complex analysis
  environment, and hard in itself
• What analysis improvements will the Grid really
  provide? (panel discussion)

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What analysis improvements will the Grid really
provide? (panel discussion)

• Some of the comments (what I heard, not what was
  said)
• Murphys Law needs to be beaten, not Moores Law
  (V.Innocente)
• From a technical point of view, the realization
  of a successful grid will be a single integrated
  distributed computing center (R.Mount)
• But beyond the technical, a successful grid will
  grow human resources, drawing in distributed
  people not otherwise involved, as well as
  material resources (M. Kasemann)
• The grid is more than this. The LHC will build
  the first global collaboration, reaching out to
  uninvolved countries. This incurs on us an
  obligation. Through the grid we must make their
  participation possible and their resources
  useful. (H. Newman)
• It is an unprecedented opportunity to screw up.
  But we have no choice, we cannot put it all in
  one place. Focus on reliability.

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Grid panel 2

• The grid is something new. We cant let a one
  virtual computing center be the dominating
  thing. There should be no dominant force and we
  should avoid centralized decision making. This
  will help analysis. (L. Robertson)
• Grids enable collaboration at a scale not
  attempted before. Distributed efforts are
  motivated to compete with one another and with
  the central site, and this brings benefits and
  resources. Analysis groups are teams, spread
  across continents and time zones. How do they
  collaborate? The grid should provide the
  solution. Also, provenance is largely overlooked,
  but it is key to analysis. (P. Avery)
• We have no model for how 5000 users will use a
  globally distributed facility. System issues must
  be addressed now. (H. Newman)
• Physicists should not see the grid at all. It
  should be transparent. (P. Mato)

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Grid panel 3

• The grid will be successful if we make it simple.
  Will force some coherence in the development of
  distributed analysis tools. Too much process will
  kill the process. There is not enough prototyping
  going on. (R.Brun)
• Agree, we need more prototyping. We need
  candidate strategies, then build prototypes, and
  see what works. You have to do this before you
  will be able to abstract from experience and
  automate make transparent the approaches that
  work. (H. Newman)
• Funding agencies, computer scientists, other
  sciences are excited by the HEP grid work, eg. on
  provenance. Possibility of infusion of funding.
  Could pursue google-like response to what now
  takes 3 months. (R. Mount)
• The grid will enable collaborative work and
  harness distributed brainpower. It will allow
  HENP to be more present as a field at the home
  university. This is important for the health of
  our field. (H. Newman)
• There is lots to learn from existing experiments.
  (R. Brun)

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Open questions

• Impact of facility security on Grid computing
• Site security in the grid era Dane Skow
• Avoid complexity in designing security it is the
  bane of secure systems
• Must be agile in the face of change resistant to
  attack
• Risk management, not elimination must accept
  some risk to carry on work
• No clear answers in the bottom line, there is
  much yet to be resolved and understood, and many
  are working
• Workable resolution is vital, since you dont
  have a usable grid if the walls dont have sockets

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Open questions

• Impact of OGSA migration (Globus) on middleware
• Open Grid Services Architecture
• Leveraging industry standard web services
• Much industry involvement
• IBM, Sun, NEC, Oracle,
• Attention given to backward compatibility
• Promising approach may the migration go well!
• Alpha is under test production release in June
• Major dependency given Globus foundation role in
  our middleware
• Current Globus2 will be supported for some time
  but we will be interested in new functionality

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Open questions

• Utility and practicality of generate-on-demand
  virtual data (virtual data by materialization)
• Networking going well cost/complexity equation
  favors copying
• Interesting talk (C.Jones) on successful
  implementation and use for many years in CLEO
• Relies on user discipline to ensure regenerated
  data is trustworthy
• Utility of data provenance management, needed for
  secure trust of on-demand data, is a separate
  question
• Should have important utility, not only for
  virtual data (reproducibility, trust) but as a
  communication mechanism in widely distributed
  collaborations
• Cannot allow reliance on hallway conversations
  with production gurus

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Concerns

• Data analysis as the last wheel of the car (R.
  Brun)
• Clear message from current generation (e.g. Run
  2, BaBar) dont leave data analysis systems and
  infrastructure too late, it will lead to problems
• Vastly more true when we are talking about doing
  globally distributed analysis, for the first time
• with unprecedented volume and complexity, e.g.
  Terabyte scale at the LHC
• Making dist analysis both very difficult and
  mandatory
• We cannot bootstrap ourselves into a global
  analysis system, it will take long incremental
  work, so we better be working in a coordinated
  effective way now
• R. Brun Will not converge on one system will be
  multiple competing systems, and that will not be
  bad hopefully a small number

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Concerns

• Are we doing enough to ensure senior people can
  contribute directly to physics analysis?
• How do we interpret the fact (R. Brun) that PAW
  usage is still rising?
• Has everyone bought the C/OO paradigm shift?
• Are we developing and/or providing the right
  tools?
• Is there enough engagement of senior physicists
  in the (limited) exploratory work being done on
  future physics analysis environments?
• Almost certainly no, and may be difficult to
  attract their attention unless/until attractive
  prototypes can be turned loose on them

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Major Challenges

• Storage architecture possibly biggest challenge
  for LHC (PASTA)
• Seamless integration from CPU caches to deep
  archive
• Currently very poor data management tools for
  storage systems
• More architectural work needed in next 2 years

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Future ALICE Data Challenges

• New technologies
• CPUs
• Servers
• Network

R. Divia
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Conclusions (1)

• Coming experiments must learn from prior
  generations give early (ie for LHC, immediate)
  attention to data analysis
• It will take generations of incremental
  iterations of design, prototyping and stressful
  deployment to get it right
• Particularly in the unprecedented global
  collaborative environment of the LHC
• C is a mature and accepted standard
• Several generations of C code in production
  experiments (BaBar, Run 2, )
• Maturation of tools into broad usage (Geant4,
  ROOT I/O)
• No sign of a major new language migration so far
  thank goodness
• But beware excessive complexity and remember the
  promise of accessible, usable software

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Conclusions (2)

• Grids and networking are making great strides
• HENP is a successful and valued partner with CS
• We provide a community focused on challenging
  large-scale deployments in real research settings
• But Murphys Law is a potent adversary today far
  from robust transparency, and much much more to
  do
• Global collaborative computing must become a
  successful norm for us
• Down to the global researcher at the home
  institute
• Rich leadership potential for our field
• Important new common endeavours like the Grid and
  LCG have much invested in their success will be
  interesting to measure the degree of success at
  next CHEP

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Thanks

• Thanks to Jim Branson and his team of organizers
  for giving us
• A stimulating program and comfortable schedule
• More-than-pleasant facilities and surroundings
• Terrific banquet, I hear!
• A very successful conference.
• I for one will return to La Jolla any time

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• I agree with all the other summaries.
• Thank you to the organizers,
• and have a safe journey home