[GSM-WG] OGF issues for SRM (GSM-WG)

[Jensen, J (Jens)]

Hi,

I attended the recent OGF in Manchester.  Here is a quick summary
of the most important stuff:

There was no dedicated GSM-WG session this time - nevertheless,
a number of issues arose that I will need to follow up on.
I summarise them here, and will follow up separately with
you lot later:

There has been (also outside the OGF, from EGEE and others)
talk about httpg being inappropriate for many SOAP clients,
since it is incompatible with normal SSL.

The GLUE stuff for 2.0 did not yet get to SEs, mostly CEs and
jobs were discussed.  Nevertheless, the 2.0 work was kickstarted
and there is time for us to provide use cases.  There are some
WGs from EGA looking at the same, e.g. resource management,
but their work is less mature than the GLUE stuff - but then
they are looking at more detailed descriptions of resources.

Interoperability was discussed again.  I talked to the AstroGrid
folks and the SRB folks (Reagan and Arun).  In my current line
of thinking, it will be easier to teach the data transfer tools
to transfer files between different types of SEs, instead of
developing interfaces between them.  Thus, instead of developing
an SRM interface to SRB - and vice versa (and more complicated
models have been discussed) - we teach FTS and friends to talk
to both SRM and SRB (and other SEs).  Requires more thinking.
I will follow up to GIN-DATA but have been informed the SRB
folks have started discussing this.

I talked to a number of folks about SRM - for example, I have
asked DEISA to discuss evaluating SRM as storage technology
(they currently have GPFS on dedicated networks).  There were
other opportunities for "spreading the word" - OGF is not just
"blessing" the standard, it is also a good opportunity to
"sell" storage protocols.

One other question which regularly pops up in my mind
(and did so this time as well) is that SRM implementations are
used by non-HEP communities (and we are trying to sell it
to wider communities), yet are driven by HEP users and use
cases and service providers.  There should be a way for the
non-HEP communities to feed in their use cases and priorities,
and it seems to me that the right forum for this is also the
OGF (in addition to EGEE for those who are in EGEE).  For
example, astronomers do things Differently(tm) and are well
represented in OGF.

In summary, I see three main uses of the OGF:
* Standards body for blessing the standard (for example, the
  EGEE NA5 reviewers have asked for this).
* Opportunity to "spread the word."
* Opportunity for others to feed back into the process.

Anyway.  This was just the summaries; I will follow up later
on the detailed issues.

It was also proposed that I replace Peter Kunszt as co-chair of
GSM-WG - Arie, of course, remains chair of the group.  Which I
accepted, having discussed it with Arie and Erwin - if there
are any objections, let us know.

>From my own perspective, this will also help me persuade my
bosses to let me put some more time and effort into this.

Thanks,
			--jens