NGI profile: Lithuania's LitGrid
LitGrid - Getting ready to host the 2011 User Forum
The Lithuanian National Grid Infrastructure (NGI), known as LitGrid, brings together 13 research centres and universities in an ambitious programme sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Education of Lithuania. With 17 computing clusters and 90 active users, LitGrid is getting ready to co-host the upcoming EGI User Forum, to be held on 11–14 April in Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital.
Officially named ‘Lithuanian distributed and parallel computing and e-services’, LitGrid was established as the country’s NGI in 2008, with Vilnius University as the leading partner and now as representative in EGI’s Council. Bidding for the event was a natural decision: “It is crucial for us to be involved much deeper in EGI activities and to learn the European experience in grid technology, as well as in similar technologies like cloud computing and HPC,” says Algimantas Juozapavicius, LitGrid’s project leader.
LitGrid was set up as a project in 2005 “to develop the research computing and communication infrastructure in Lithuania, and to integrate this infrastructure into the emerging European Grid and Baltic Grid infrastructure,” Juozapavicius says.
Nowadays, LitGrid operates over 500 processors, with over 30 terabytes storage capacity for the benefit of a growing user base covering numerous research areas. Current scientific applications include modelling of heterogeneous processes in biology, quantum mechanics, material science, analysis and visualisation of multidimensional biomedical data and astrophysics. “Usually our users publish about 20–40 scientific articles each year, with data or results obtained with the help of the grid,” says Juozapavicius.
LitGrid is also involved in the analysis, design and test deployment of cloud computing technology in relation to grids and the search for new users never stops.
The Lithuanian infrastructure runs mainly on gLite middleware, but several other operational systems are under consideration, including KnowARC, Globus, UNICORE and CREAM. All LitGrid clusters have EGI certified status and are monitored both globally, with GSTAT, SAM, Stress Test monitors, and locally with Ganglia and Nagios. Lithuania’s user support is based on a request tracking workflow managed by a ticketing system.
Despite all the recent progress, LitGrid keeps looking forward: “The aim is to develop the symbiosis of grid-cloud computing, as well as to offer our services to a broader spectrum of society, including academics, public sector and business,” he adds.
With this goal in mind, Lithuania is creating a Digital Science and Computing Centre (DiSCC) at Vilnius University. The aim is to enable knowledge transfer and the application of research to business and to foster innovation in digital products.
“DiSCC is expected to be translated into an international centre, attractive for computer scientists, industry, foreign partners and for the state as a customer, helping them to digitise areas of activities by using the most suitable scientific and technological initiatives,” says Juozapavicius.
