New Features in the ASC Portal

This section enables users to run demo cactus simulations, i.e., the user is not required to have their own cactus executables or parameter files. Instead the executable is staged from a single repository maintained by portal administrators and the parameter file is transferred using gridftp from the same repository. This repository presently holds WaveToy executables compiled for sgi and linux platforms. In the demo section one can

• launch the cactus simulation via GRAM
• view the standard output in a java applet
• view the present iteration number by hitting "View" to reload the page
• use the HTTP interface if the simulation is in progress
• launch the File Advertiser for completed demos
• see the listing of output files with xgraph extentions in the data directory
• launch a simple visualization tool (for now only xgraph) to plot the data files

This section allows the user to perform standard cvs checkouts (no grid security, yet) of the cactus code. The portal runs cvs checkout as a GRAM job. The user can checkout Cactus Flesh, entire arrangements or individual thorns.

The portal keeps track of cvs logins and passwords, keeping the user from having to reenter these for each cvs checkout. The user simply enters them once into a setup interface before initiating any cvs commands.

Furthermore, the portal allows users to configure personal cvs repositories and their contents for use in the portal. Portal administrators perform this task for main group cvs repositories such as cvs.cactuscode.org:/cactus. This interface is displayed here.

This section also enables a user to duplicate a configuration that resides on one machine on a second resource. The method that we use to accomplish this is to perform the same sequence of cvs checkouts on the remote machine. This not an exact copy as it pulls out the present content from cvs which can differ from the earlier checkouts.

Look here for the view page of a cactus configuration built within the portal.

In the future we want the portal to:

• perform a complete build of the cactus code

The most recent changes to the Simulations section enable file advertiser runs through the portal. We stage a file advertiser executable via GRAM from a single repository machine (the repository holds executables for linux and sgi platforms).

Note: the parameter files in the repositories are configured to report to the Wash U portal. Portal developers with their own instance of the portal need to change the fileadvertiser and demo parameter file hash tables and additional parameter files must be placed in the repository.

Portal based simulations also communicate with the portal via the announce thorn, reporting the data directory, the httpd port and the current iteration number.

To allow the cleanup of externally announced simulations by the ordinary users a deAnnounce method has been added to the CactusXmlRPCHandler. Cactus Simulations can invoke this method to remove themselves from the portal database.

Portal users are now able to make use of a "staging" feature in order to reload a possibly long list of attributes into the job submission iterface. This can be done in both Gram and cactus simulations sections of the portal.

This utility is really a general text file importer/exporter; One can import a text file from a grid resource into a local cache on the portal, modify it and then export it to the same or a different grid resource. There are numerous functions implemented to allow the user to manipulate the local cache:

• rename,
• create a new local file,
• delete entries,
• attach a short description of a parameter file.