IBM Solutions Grid for Business Partners Helping IBM Business Partners to Grid-enable applications for the next phase of e-business on demand

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1 PartnerWorld Developers IBM Solutions Grid for Business Partners Helping IBM Business Partners to Grid-enable applications for the next phase of e-business on demand

2 2 Introducing the IBM Solutions Grid for Business Partners To accelerate the acceptance and adoption of Grid Computing as the foundation of e-business on demand, IBM has created the IBM Solutions Grid for Business Partners. The Solutions Grid is designed to provide the global development community with a powerful resource for enabling, porting, and validating Gridenabled solutions. IBM is an established leader in driving open standards for robust e-business platforms and Internet infrastructure. The Solutions Grid infrastructure provides developers with direct and remote access to IBM tools, servers, and storage located in porting and enablement centers in the United States. More importantly, the Solutions Grid provides developers with a platform to enable and validate applications for an on demand Grid services model. What is Grid Computing? A technical definition of Grid Computing is The ability, using a set of open standards and protocols, to gain access to applications and data, processing power, storage capacity and a vast array of other computing resources over the Internet. A Grid is a type of parallel and distributed system that enables the sharing, selection, and aggregation of resources distributed across multiple administrative domains based on their (resources) availability, capability, performance, cost, and users quality-of-service requirements. (1) More fundamentally, Grid Computing can be described as application processing, distributed across multiple locations, and interconnected through a shared network such as the Internet. Grid Computing enables the sharing and coordination of disparate resources across both network and organizational boundaries. Grid Computing employs standards-based architectures, enabling potentially unlimited growth. Examples of shared Grid resources are CPU processing power (including computing clusters, which are simply treated as another Grid resource), memory, storage and utility equipment. Common Grid types include Computational Grids, Data Grids, and PC Cycle Scavenger Grids.

3 3 e-business On Demand To become an on demand business, businesses must be responsive, variable, focused, and resilient. An organization must accomplish this without adding complexity to the current business infrastructure environment. A vehicle to achieve this transformation is virtualization. Virtualization occurs when end-users view multiple resources as a single, larger resource, regardless of the location or specific platform of the virtualized resources. For example, federated databases and data Grids virtualize data sources, and computational Grids virtualize multiple servers. IBM has a long track record of being a leader in bringing virtualization to the IT industry. When virtualized, resources can be distributed across organizational boundaries. Companies can then focus on their core business objectives, without needing to know how the computing occurs. Hence, the virtualization Grid Computing provides is an integral cornerstone of the IBM e-business on demand initiative. Open systems, the Globus Project and IBM The virtualization required for e-business on demand relies on the integration of open systems. The IBM definition of an open system is A system whose characteristics comply with standards made available throughout the industry and that therefore can be connected to other systems complying with the same standards. (2) The IBM commitment to open systems is well known throughout the technology industry, as exemplified by our commitment to such open systems technologies as Java, extended Markup Language (XML) and Linux. IBM continues to embrace open systems to help provide Grid middleware and Grid services, such as the Solutions Grid, to Business Partners.

4 4 The Globus Project (an open source software project with origins dating back to the early 1990 s) is yet another example of the type of industry standard and open systems to which IBM is committed. The Globus Project is a collaboration between Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Chicago and the Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California. The software made available by the Globus Project is called the Globus Toolkit (GT). Common acronyms typically used in a Globus Grid environment GRAM GSI MDS GASS GT GT2 GT3 OGSA OGSI GIIS GRIS Global Resource Allocation Manager Grid Security Infrastructure Monitoring and Discovery Service Global Access to Secondary Storage Globus Toolkit Globus Toolkit V2 (current release is V2.2) Globus Toolkit V3 Open Grid Services Architecture Open Grid Services Infrastructure Grid Index Information Service Grid Resource Information Service The GT, which IBM and many other vendors are supporting, is an open architecture, open source software toolkit. IBM works with the Globus Project to support current and future versions of the GT, and has announced the availability of the toolkit for ^ systems running AIX and Linux. With ^ hardware, Globus implementations and Globus technologies, the Solutions Grid offers IBM Business Partners a significant and resource-rich platform upon which to Grid-enable their solutions.

5 5 The Solutions Grid Through the IBM Solution Partnership Centers (SPCs) located worldwide and the Developer Technical Support Center in Dallas, IBM currently provides porting, enablement, and technical support services to IBM Business Partners. A significant number of IBM workstations and IBM ^ hardware are deployed in the Solutions Grid today, ranging from IBM IntelliStations all the way up to POWER4-based ^ systems. Even more powerful hardware can be employed by the Solutions Grid in the future, such as Regatta-class IBM ^ pseries and zseries systems currently deployed in the SPCs. Further, IBM storage systems allow terabytes of storage to be connected to ^ hardware through high-speed fiber (FAStT700) connections. The initial implementation of the Solutions Grid encompasses multiple locations across the United States, with plans to extend it globally in the future. These separate locations are interconnected using private network links and Virtual Private Network (VPN) connections across the Internet. Business Partner Business Partner Business Partner Illustration of the Solutions Grid

6 6 The Solutions Grid provides Business Partners with flexible access, either on site or through a VPN connection. Business Partners will be able to run Grid applications using ^ hardware and simulated virtual machines under Linux and AIX. To assist you, skilled Solutions Grid technical consultants are available to provide guidance and facilitate the validation of Grid-enabled solutions. Using the Globus Toolkit, IBM software, and custom configurations and tools, the Solutions Grid provides Business Partners and ISVs with access to a robust Grid Computing environment. We also employ open systems software such as Linux and other open-source development and management tools to further enhance the usefulness of the Solutions Grid. Although the initial focus of the Solutions Grid is based upon the GT, future support for other IBM-select Grid technology partners is planned. Remote access to the Solutions Grid As an alternative to physically visiting a regionally located porting and enablement center, IBM Business Partners may engage with the Solutions Grid remotely through a VPN connection. VPN access to the Solutions Grid provides Business Partners a cost-effective alternative to traveling, and allows resources off-site to temporarily join the Solutions Grid. VPN connections may be made from a variety of remote computing environments, including both Windows and Linux-based clients (though all remote platforms may not be supported by every Solutions Grid connectivity scenario). The existing SPC VPN service offering ibm.com/partnerworld/developer/ spc/vpn.html provides the basis for remote access to the Solutions Grid through secure VPN tunnels across the public Internet. The protocols passing through these tunnels will depend on the testing requirements. Some developers will only use the VPN as a method to remotely connect to and control Solutions Grid resources. As the Solutions Grid expands, entry points allowing for the remote control of Grid resources will be added in several SPC locations worldwide.

7 7 When using the remote control option, developers use VPN and remote control software to connect to special systems assigned for their use called master nodes. Master nodes are dedicated to the developer, and the developer has root or Administrator access to the node. Through Graphical User Interface acceleration tools from Tarantella and Avocent, this master node allows developers to discover resources and run applications in the Solutions Grid environment. Grid-to-Grid connections may also be used, when resources in the developer s lab need to directly participate in the testing. Connecting to the Solutions Grid in this mode is not unlike an Extra-Grid. This option is required when access needs are more complex, and allows a group of resources to communicate with the Solutions Grid. Grid protocols pass through VPN tunnels, and carry the applications, application data, and all other conversations between systems in the Grid. While the VPN provides the infrastructure for securing the communications between resources, resources on both sides of the Extra-Grid will still need to authenticate. This authentication is an important part of Grid security it is just as important to know with certainty who you are talking with as it is to know that the conversation is secure from eavesdroppers. NAS/SAN

8 8 Authentication using Globus protocols The diagram above shows the addition of a Business Partner s Grid environment to the Solutions Grid. In the Solutions Grid, each lab location uses a common domain naming system (DNS) naming architecture, and shares a local X.509 certificate hierarchy for authentication using the GSI. For convenience, all of the Solutions Grid hosts also hold a copy of the Globus Certificate Authority (CA) root certificate. In the simplest scenario of an Extra-Grid, a single workstation in the remote location is connected to the Solutions Grid. This workstation is assigned a secondary IP address and DNS name. Upon request, this secondary IP address will receive an X.509 certificate that is signed by the Solutions Grid CA. Alternatively, a certificate that has been previously signed by the Globus CA may be used. When accessing resources in the Solutions Grid from your workstation, user certificates signed by the Globus CA or the Solutions Grid CA can be used. Through these sets of X.509 certificates, the GSI can authenticate the host resources and the users requesting access to the hosts. In more complicated testing engagements, the Solutions Grid will be as flexible as possible to allow multiple hosts to participate in the Extra-Grid. For example, multiple remote systems may use an enterprise VPN connection to communicate with the Solutions Grid. If the number of systems is large, it may not be practical to issue additional certificates from the Solutions Grid CA. Also, the systems may be using certificates signed by a private certificate authority, instead of by the Solutions Grid CA or the Globus CA. These configurations will require more coordination to set up, and may only use a subset of the systems in the Solutions Grid, as required.

9 9 The benefits provided by the Solutions Grid IBM Business Partners benefit from the technology and expertise IBM has invested in the Solutions Grid in a number of ways. IBM has sophisticated, state of the art porting and enablement centers that provide a private, secure, and professional testing environment. These IBM centers are also staffed with experienced technology professionals with insight and expertise in many IBM software, ^ hardware, and storage technologies. Regardless of whether an engagement occurs within a regional center or through a remote VPN connection, the process of engagement remains the same. Business Partners will be put in contact with experienced IBM technical consultants who will help assess their Grid Computing needs. Following the initial consultation, technical resources, facilities and infrastructure will then be scheduled and allocated. From a business perspective, having a place to validate Grid-enabled applications or middleware represents a significant time and capital savings. By leveraging the significant computing and storage resources of the Solutions Grid, Business Partners can save both the capital equipment expense and the intellectual capital that would otherwise be required to build such an environment. IBM technical consultants and Grid technologists can also provide insight and direction on how to best exploit Grid Computing technologies. While our technical consultants do not develop solutions for Business Partners, they can assist in providing infrastructure support and access to tools. The future of the Solutions Grid, the GT and OGSA Scientific and research-based Grids in the past have focused on pooling highperformance computing resources. As Grids move into e-business platforms, Grid architectures are naturally beginning to exploit Web services. The Open Grid Service Interface (OGSI) Working Group of the Global Grid Forum (GGF) oversees the evolving definition of Open Grid Service Architecture (OGSA).

10 10 One key aspect of OGSA is that it defines services and service interfaces that represent computing and storage resources, networks, programs, databases and the other Grid components. OGSA defines a Grid service as a Web service that provides a set of well-defined interfaces and that follows specific conventions. The OGSI currently addresses discovery, dynamic service creation, lifetime management, notification and manageability. The Solutions Grid for Business Partners infrastructure was designed and built from the very beginning on the GT, an open source implementation of the Globus Grid Computing platform. While the current version of the GT, GT2, is v.2.2.x-based, the toolkit continues to evolve towards the ultimate goal of a complete OGSA-based implementation. Version 3.x of the OGSA-based Globus toolkit (GT3) is targeted to be available in the second half of An alpha release of GT3 was announced at GlobusWORLD on January 13, GT2 will continue to be supported and used widely during the GT3 rollout. A public GT3 beta is also expected to be released at the end of April 2003, with an official GT3 release expected to follow later in the year. GT3 will continue to provide key software elements of a service-oriented OGSA architecture: The Grid Resource Allocation and Management (GRAM) protocol and its gatekeeper service, which provides secure, reliable, service creation and management. Consistent interfaces to system and service information (formerly known as the Meta Directory Service or MDS-2 or GRAM reporter). The Grid Security Infrastructure (GSI), which supports single sign on, delegation, and credential mapping. GridFTP, which provides high performance and secure data transfer. GT3 key services, many of which have high-performance back-end implementations written in C, will be presented through OGSI-compliant Java interfaces based upon familiar protocols such as SOAP and WSDL. GT3 will provide a common framework for Grid services, and will simplify building systems and applications with OGSI-compliant services. For more detailed information, see the Globus 3.0 Toolkit Fact Sheet at

11 11 With GT3, developers can more easily use Web services and J2EE to enable applications for Grid environments. By incorporating GT3 into the Solutions Grid, IBM will be providing Business Partners with a platform upon which to more easily create and test Grid-enabled e-business solutions that leverage Grid services related to dynamic discovery and dynamic allocation of resources. How do we envision GT3 shaping the Solutions Grid? As the on demand world becomes a reality, Grid enablement is rapidly becoming a technology to help minimize cost while meeting users needs in a dynamic world. As the GT3 Web services framework emerges, the Solutions Grid will evolve to provide an environment for Grid-enabled Web services. Doing so will provide vendors with a controlled environment for testing and validating Grid-enabled applications. GT3 will make it easier to build Grid applications that can leverage Globus software libraries supporting security, information discovery, resource management, communication, fault detection and portability. The current Solutions Grid, built upon open standards, is capable of expanding to meet the emerging requirements of a quickly evolving Grid Computing industry, such as Providing a test-drive platform in which vendors can create Grid-aware applications using GT3. Allowing vendors that have written Grid-aware applications developed for a GT3 environment to install their solution in a GT3 environment and conduct functional tests. Validating dynamic, on demand features in one or more applications, such as discovery of computing resources, discovery of data storage resources, and discovery of other Grid resources, services, and applications. Validating parallel processing and remote messaging in a solution. Conducting performance and stress tests of a solution in a controlled environment. Allowing developers of Grid-enabled Web services to test them in a dynamic GT3 environment. Allowing IBM and vendor Grid infrastructure providers (such as security, billing and metering, network management, systems management, Web service provisioning, data storage and others) to test their applications in a GT3 environment.

12 12 Future Grid-related offerings will leverage simple object access protocol (SOAP), Web services definition language (WSDL), and Web services inspection language (WSIL). The GT3 Web services framework will provide the Solutions Grid with three key advantages: A Grid infrastructure requires support for the dynamic discovery and composition of services in heterogeneous environments. WSDL provides a standard mechanism for providing interface definitions that are decoupled from their implementation in a particular language on a specific platform. The adoption of Web services expands the number of tools, languages, communication transports, and hosting platforms on which the Solutions Grid can build and test. The Solutions Grid offerings will be positioned to exploit future Web service standards that are in the process of being defined, such as Web Services Flow Language (WSFL). As version 3.x of the GT3 matures and distributed resource discovery is made easier to use in a J2EE and Web services environment, the Solutions Grid offerings have the potential to be expanded. They can be extended from merely supporting distributed resource management to also include various aspects of dynamic business process outsourcing and provisioning. The continuing advancement of IBM technology platforms and OGSA IBM has a rich suite of software that will provide Business Partners with the tools they need to create and support robust Grid solutions. IBM WebSphere, systems management, and data management offerings are being enabled to support OGSA.

13 13 Components of on demand computing such as autonomic computing, Grid Computing, Web services, blade servers and Linux are also making tremendous inroads into e-business infrastructures. Today, the demands of leading edge commercial markets such as digital media, life sciences, and product lifecycle management are testing the current boundaries of technology. What about the future? Before looking ahead to how IBM software will incorporate OGSA into its offerings and how these changes will impact the Solutions Grid, it is important to first take note of the current IBM Grid Computing strategy: Base all Grid efforts on open standards Grid-enable our hardware and software platforms Build relationships with leading open toolkit providers Provide support for Grids, including computing Grids and data Grids. Provide a full set of products and services to assist customers in implementing Grids to meet their business needs. (ibm.com/grid) Today, IBM provides the GT on pseries (AIX) and xseries (Linux). IBM also plans to make its key products OGSI-compliant. These include WebSphere, the ^ product line, DB2, and IBM TotalStorage Solutions. WebSphere Currently, IBM and Globus are working together to retool the GT to be J2EEcompliant, using WebSphere as the reference application server. WebSphere will become OGSI-compliant. Plans are currently in place for the Solutions Grid to showcase the WebSphere e-infrastructure software in its offerings.

14 14 DB2 DB2 Universal Database (DB2 UDB) incorporates new autonomic technology to help companies simplify and automate many of the tasks associated with maintaining databases. DB2 Information Integrator is a key offering used to support data Grids. It also delivers broad support for open standards, so customers can manage, integrate and analyze information from a wide variety of sources. As WebSphere takes on a more prominent role within the Solutions Grid infrastructure, DB2 will join it as a key foundational offering for Grid Computing. ^ To help customers take the next step in building up and managing complex Grids, IBM offers scalable, supercomputing systems and middleware with selfmanagement technologies. Further, clustering of multiple computers in a single, unified computing resource provides flexibility, adaptability and increased availability for essential services. Solutions Grid showcases the ^ family. TotalStorage IBM Storage Group products will support Grid implementations, allowing for data access anywhere within a Grid, providing for the more efficient use of resources, greater sharing, higher availability, and dynamic allocation. Future IBM software plans for autonomic storage includes the provision of options for storage administrators to automate tasks. IBM plans to offer products that provide: Policy-based storage management provisioning Transparent data movement between volumes and storage pools Transparent addition, deletion and redeployment of storage Auto-failover and failback of virtualization nodes

15 15 Summary The Solutions Grid, with an infrastructure built upon open standards and solutions such as the Globus Toolkit and Linux, is well positioned to leverage new and emerging technologies such as pervasive computing, autonomic computing and storage area networks (SANs). To facilitate enablement, Solutions Grid technical consultants bring a wealth of knowledge to the areas of networking, security and emerging Grid technologies. The Solutions Grid technical consultants use welldefined methodologies, processes, technology and expertise to help developers anticipate the business and technical impact of a Grid services model. Simply stated, the Solutions Grid has been established to help developers expedite application migration to an on-demand operating environment. About PartnerWorld For Developers IBM is the world s largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. Software application developers receive support from PartnerWorld for Developers. Through PartnerWorld for Developers, IBM helps software developers reach broader markets, lower their costs of doing business, and take their products to market faster. For more information on the Solution Partnership Centers, porting and enablement centers located worldwide, and PartnerWorld for Developers, visit: ibm.com/partnerworld/developer To get more information on the Solutions Grid, submit an online form at: ibm.com/partnerworld/developer/emerging

16 International Business Machines Corporation Burnet Road Austin, Texas Printed in the United States All Rights Reserved IBM, IBM logo, e-business and the e-business logo, DB2, ^, pseries, WebSphere, xseries and zseries are registered trademarks of IBM in the United States. Linux is a regsistered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Other company, product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. 1 Definition is from w3.grid.ibm.com/index.shtml and 2 IBM Glossary of Computing