GOVERNMENT
LSU Researcher Develops AmieGold to Allow Faster Access for TeraGrid Users
Steven Brandt, a researcher with the LSU Center for Computation & Technology, or CCT, has written a new software package for the TeraGrid. The TeraGrid is distributing Brandt’s software, called AmieGold, available from http://software.teragrid.org/tgcdb/amiegold.tar. 
One of the ways TeraGrid benefits researchers is by providing centralized accounting services, making it easier for them to use different sets of computational resources. This requires synchronized account and allocation data among the TeraGrid resource provider sites. TeraGrid uses a system called AMIE to do this synchronization. “AmieGold provides a bridge between AMIE and Gold, so users at the different TeraGrid sites can install both programs simultaneously and add their systems to the TeraGrid quickly and easily,” Brandt said. AMIE is not an account and allocation system. Instead, it provides software and protocols for distributing this account and allocation information. TeraGrid resource providers must integrate their local accounting systems to work with AMIE. This process is one of the more significant technical hurdles for a new resource provider to join the TeraGrid. The Gold Allocation Manager (free software from Cluster Resources) is a package that some TeraGrid Resource Providers use for their local accounting. Brandt developed this software through his work with the CCT Cyberinfrastructure Development Division, which leads the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative’s participation in the TeraGrid as one of 11 national Resource Providers. LONI joined the TeraGrid in fall 2007, and the LONI centerpiece system, Queen Bee, became accessible to TeraGrid users in February 2008. “We’ve been very happy with the support we received from the existing TeraGrid Resource Providers to help us get Queen Bee quickly integrated into the TeraGrid, and we hope that AmieGold will make the process even easier for future Resource Providers,” said Daniel S. Katz, CCT’s CyD Director.
One of the ways TeraGrid benefits researchers is by providing centralized accounting services, making it easier for them to use different sets of computational resources. This requires synchronized account and allocation data among the TeraGrid resource provider sites. TeraGrid uses a system called AMIE to do this synchronization. “AmieGold provides a bridge between AMIE and Gold, so users at the different TeraGrid sites can install both programs simultaneously and add their systems to the TeraGrid quickly and easily,” Brandt said. AMIE is not an account and allocation system. Instead, it provides software and protocols for distributing this account and allocation information. TeraGrid resource providers must integrate their local accounting systems to work with AMIE. This process is one of the more significant technical hurdles for a new resource provider to join the TeraGrid. The Gold Allocation Manager (free software from Cluster Resources) is a package that some TeraGrid Resource Providers use for their local accounting. Brandt developed this software through his work with the CCT Cyberinfrastructure Development Division, which leads the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative’s participation in the TeraGrid as one of 11 national Resource Providers. LONI joined the TeraGrid in fall 2007, and the LONI centerpiece system, Queen Bee, became accessible to TeraGrid users in February 2008. “We’ve been very happy with the support we received from the existing TeraGrid Resource Providers to help us get Queen Bee quickly integrated into the TeraGrid, and we hope that AmieGold will make the process even easier for future Resource Providers,” said Daniel S. Katz, CCT’s CyD Director.