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= FedCloud Users =
= FedCloud Users =


{{Fedcloud_Menu}} {{TOC_right}}  
{{Fedcloud_Menu}} {{TOC_right}}  


<br> <big>Technical support is available via the [mailto:support@egi.eu EGI.eu Support Team]</big>


<big>Technical support is available via the [mailto:support@egi.eu EGI.eu Support Team]</big>
<br> The EGI Cloud federation is an hybrid cloud composed by public, community and private clouds, all supported by the EGI Core Infrastructure Platform services and focusing on the requirements of the scientific community. The result is a new type of research e-infrastructure based on the mature federated operations services that make EGI a reliable resource for science. When using EGI Federated Cloud resources, researchers and research communities can count on:


;Elastic computing infrastructure.
:Execute compute and data intensive workloads (both batch and interactive), host long-running services (e.g. web servers, databases or applications servers), or create disposable testing and development environments on VMs and scale your infrastructure needs over a federation of cloud providers. Select VM configurations (CPU, memory, disk) and application environments that better fit your requirements.


The EGI Cloud federation is an hybrid cloud composed by public, community and private clouds, all supported by the EGI Core Infrastructure Platform services and focusing on the requirements of the scientific community. The result is a new type of research e-infrastructure based on the mature federated operations services that make EGI a reliable resource for science. When using EGI Federated Cloud resources, researchers and research communities can count on:
;VM image sharing and distribution
:Easily share and distribute VM images for your applications on a open library of Virtual Appliances. Community curated appliances are securely and automatically replicated accross the infrastructure. EGI provides a set of securely configured images with basic software ready to use on all providers that can be re-used and extended with contextualisation to execute your applications


; Elastic computing infrastructure.
;Unified view of federation
: Execute compute and data intensive workloads (both batch and interactive), host long-running services (e.g. web servers, databases or applications servers), or create disposable testing and development environments on VMs and scale your infrastructure needs over a federation of cloud providers. Select VM configurations (CPU, memory, disk) and application environments that better fit your requirements.
:The EGI Cloud provides: Single sing-on (SSO) for authentication and authorisation across all resource providers; Federated accounting with an integrated view of the the resource and service usage; Distributed information system for delivering a real-time view of the capabilities; and Federated monitoring to compute metrics for availability and reliability of the services.


; VM image sharing and distribution
;Beyond VMs  
: Easily share and distribute VM images for your applications on a open library of Virtual Appliances. Community curated appliances are securely and automatically replicated accross the infrastructure. EGI provides a set of securely configured images with basic software ready to use on all providers that can be re-used and extended with contextualisation to execute your applications
:Run docker applications on the EGI resources or use any of the supported PaaS and SaaS solutions that extend the IaaS capabilities of the EGI cloud and abstract the infrastructure to let you focus on your application development.
 
; Unified view of federation
: The EGI Cloud provides: Single sing-on (SSO) for authentication and authorisation across all resource providers;  Federated accounting with an integrated view of the the resource and service usage; Distributed information system for delivering a real-time view of the capabilities; and Federated monitoring to compute metrics for availability and reliability of the services.
 
; Beyond VMs
: Run docker applications on the EGI resources or use any of the supported PaaS and SaaS solutions that extend the IaaS capabilities of the EGI cloud and abstract the infrastructure to let you focus on your application development.


== Current Users and Communities  ==
== Current Users and Communities  ==


EGI Federated Cloud already has a large use base, check the [[Federated Cloud Communities|FedCloud Users Communities]] page for more details.
EGI Federated Cloud already has a large use base, check the [[Federated Cloud Communities|FedCloud Users Communities]] page for more details.  


[[Image:Fedclouduclogos.png|center|550px|Fedclouduclogos.png]]
[[Image:Fedclouduclogos.png|center|550px|Fedclouduclogos.png]]  
== How to use the EGI Federated Cloud? ==


== Usage Models  ==


A brief description on how to use the FedCloud resources is described in the text below. More information can be found on the '''[[FAQ10|FedCloud FAQ page]]''' and the Guides and Tutorials listed in this page. <br>
'''The EGI Federated Cloud considerably widens the usage models supported by EGI'''. Now, web services and interactive applications can be easily integrated in the infrastructure, the computing environments can be finely tuned to satisfy user’s needs in term of software (OSs and software packages) and hardware (number of cores, amount of RAM, etc.) and, many solutions are available to store, update and access big amount of data. These new opportunities offered by EGI hugely extended the potential user base of the infrastructure opening the doors to new research communities with minimal or none knowledge of the EGI ecosystem.  


=== Quick Start  ===
We classified the usage models enabled by the EGI Fededated Cloud as follows:


The typical user workflow on the EGI Federated Cloud looks like:  
*'''Service hosting''': the EGI Federated Cloud can be used to hosts any IT service as web servers, databases, etc. Cloud features, as elasticity, can help users to provide better performance and reliable services.
*'''Compute and data intensive''': applications needing considerable amount of resources in term of computation and/or memory and/or intensive I/O. Ad-hoc computing environments can be created in the FedCloud sites also to satisfy very hard HW resource requirements.
*'''Datasets repository''': the EGI Federated Cloud can be used to store and manage large datasets exploiting the big amount of disk storage available in the Federation.
*'''Disposable and testing environments''': environments for training or testing new developments.


#[http://www.egi.eu/how-to/get_a_certificate.html Obtain a grid certificate] from a recognised CA (if you don't own one already)
<br> [[Image:FedCloudUsageModels.png|center|550px|FedCloudUsageModels.png]] <br>
#Join [https://perun.metacentrum.cz/perun-registrar-cert/?vo=fedcloud.egi.eu fedcloud.egi.eu Virtual Organisation]. This VO provides resources for application prototyping and validation. It can be used for up to 6 month for any new user.
#Select existing images from the [https://appdb.egi.eu/browse/cloud Application Database Cloud Marketplace] and start them by:
##Using one of the [[Federated Cloud APIs and SDKs|APIs and SDKs]] available, which include
##*Using the [[HOWTO11|command line client]] OR
##*Using the [https://github.com/EGI-FCTF/jOCCI-api JOCCI API] (Java-based OCCI API)
##Using one of the [[HOWTO10|high level brokering tools]] that are interoperable with the Federated Cloud.


=== Advanced Usage  ===


==== Virtual Organisation  ====


Once the 6-month testing period of fedcloud.egi.eu membership expires, you will need to move into a production VO:
== How to use the EGI Federated Cloud?  ==


*Several other VOs of EGI make resources available from the Federated Cloud. Find a suitable VO in the [http://operations-portal.egi.eu/vo/search Operations Portal]. (Search for Cloud as a middleware type.)
=== Access  ===
*Existing grid production VOs can be extended by VO&nbsp;manager to cloud by declaring cloud resources in VO&nbsp;ID card (in Operations Portal) and requesting via [http://ggus.eu/ GGUS ](assign to Perun Support Unit) Perun support.
*If no existing VO suits your case, a new VO can be created. Please follow [https://wiki.egi.eu/wiki/PROC14_VO_Registration this procedure]. You can invite sites from the infrastructure to support them.


==== Customized Virtual Appliances  ====
EGI provides users with a single sign-on mechanism to access the federated services with the use of X.509 certificates and Virtual Organisations (VOs). Before using the EGI Federated Cloud you will need to:


You can prepare fully customised Virtual Appliances and deploy them to the sites:  
*[http://www.egi.eu/how-to/get_a_certificate.html Obtain a grid certificate] from a recognised CA (if you don't own one already).
*Join [https://perun.metacentrum.cz/perun-registrar-cert/?vo=fedcloud.egi.eu fedcloud.egi.eu Virtual Organisation]. This VO provides resources for application prototyping and validation. It can be used for up to 6 month for any new user.
*If you are part of an [http://operations-portal.egi.eu/vo/search existing VO] that has access to cloud resources, you may use that VO.


#Prepare Virtual Machine Images (VMIs) that encapsulate your application. See the [[HOWTO10|application porting tutorial]] for tips.
<!-- TODO: how to know if a VO has cloud resources?, which are those resources? -->
#Make the VMIs available online, for example in the [http://appliance-repo.egi.eu/images/ EGI Appliance Repository]
#Register the VMIs as Virtual Appliance in the [http://appdb.egi.eu EGI Applications Database] (for howto please click [https://wiki.appdb.egi.eu/main:faq:how_to_register_a_virtual_appliance here])
#Once your registered set of VMIs, bundled under a vAppliance version, have been published (see howto [https://wiki.appdb.egi.eu/main:guides:guide_for_managing_virtual_appliance_versions_using_the_portal here]),inform the Manager of your VO through Applications Database about the new Virtual Appliance (see howto [https://wiki.appdb.egi.eu/main:guides:notify_virtual_organization_representatives here]). He/she will include your images in the VO-wide image list, so these will be deployed on the Federated Cloud sites of your VO.


=== Guides and tutorials ===
=== Creating your first VM ===


These guides and tutorials help you to implement the above described typical user workflow and describe alternative ways of accessing, using high level application broker and infrastructure broker solutions:  
The basic user workflow for starting a Virtual Machine (VM) looks like this:  


*[[FAQ10|FedCloud FAQ page]]
#Browse in the [https://appdb.egi.eu/browse/cloud Application Database Cloud Marketplace] the available Virtual Appliances. Virtual Appliances  are the templates for the root volume of the running instances (Operating System and applications). EGI offers a set of basic images with minimal configuration that can get you started easily, but you can also find complete application stacks. See for example these images:  
*[http://www.egi.eu/how-to/get_a_certificate.html How to get a certificate (to access Federated Cloud resources)]
#*[https://appdb.egi.eu/store/vappliance/egi.ubuntu.14.04 EGI Ubuntu 14], a basic Ubuntu 14.04 image
*[[Fedcloud-tf:CLI Environment|Setup the rOCCI Command Line Interface environment]]
#*[https://appdb.egi.eu/store/vappliance/egi.centos.6 EGI Centos 6], a basic CentOS 6 image
** [https://gist.github.com/arax/4de4a41fb0fa67719856 rOCCI examples (command line parameters for the client)]
#*[https://appdb.egi.eu/store/software/compss.framework COMPSs], a VM for using COMPSs programming framework
*[[HOWTO10|Porting your application/web service to the EGI Federated Cloud]]  
#*[https://appdb.egi.eu/store/vappliance/biovel.portal BioVel Portal], for executing a biodiversity virtual e-Laboratory
*PRE-PRODUCTION: [[HOWTO09|EGI Federated Cloud Storage solutions]]  
#Read the description of the appliance for information on how to use it and connect to it once started.
*[[HOWTO10#4._Infrastructure_broker_2|High level user environments to interact with the EGI Federated Cloud]]  
#*You may need to have a ssh key in order to login into the VM, check [[FAQ10#How_can_I_inject_my_public_SSH_key_into_the_machine.3F|the FAQ on how to create one]]
*[https://wiki.appdb.egi.eu/ How to use the Applications Database Cloud Marketplace]
#Get the IDs for starting the appliance at one of the sites supporting it in the "Availability and Usage" tab.
*[[Fedcloud-tf:ResourceProviders#Fully_integrated_Resource_Providers|List and details about certified cloud resource providers]]
#Get the [[HOWTO11|command line client]] to start the VM using the IDs from previous step
*[[Federated Cloud APIs and SDKs|APIs and SDKs for accessing the EGI Federated Cloud resources]]
#*Check the [[FAQ10#How_can_I_start_a_VM.3F|How can I start a VM?]] FAQ entry and the [[HOWTO11|command line client how to]] for more information.
*[[Federated_Cloud_Containers|Using docker containers on EGI Federated Cloud]]
#Connect to VM and start using it
#*You may need to allocate a public IP for the VM, check [[FAQ10#How_can_I_assign_a_public_IP_to_a_VM.3F|How can I assign a public IP to a VM]] in the Federated Cloud FAQ


== Useful resources ==
=== Advanced topics  ===


* Current status of Federated Cloud resources (NAGIOS test results): https://cloudmon.egi.eu/nagios/cgi-bin/status.cgi?host=all&sorttype=2&sortoption=2
==== API and SDKs access to Federated Cloud resources ====
* Current status of OpenStack interfaces in the EGI federated cloud:  https://cloudmon.egi.eu/nagios/cgi-bin/status.cgi?servicegroup=SERVICE_org.openstack.nova&style=overview
* Explanation of NAGIOS tests performed by EGI on cloud resources: https://wiki.egi.eu/wiki/Cloud_SAM_tests
* How to write a new NAGIOS test for the EGI monitor: http://argoeu.github.io/samdoc/confluence/display/SAMDOC/Developer%27s%20Guide.html


Besides the command line client, there are several [[Federated Cloud APIs and SDKs|APIs and SDK ready to be used with the EGI Federated Cloud]].Preferred API for EGI federated cloud is OCCI, which can be accesses using using a command-line client (rOCCI), high-level tools or directly implementing the ‘Open Cloud Computing Interface’ (OCCI) into your environment. OpenStack Nova API is also available for OpenStack sites belonging to the Federation.


==== Storage ====


*PRE-PRODUCTION: [[HOWTO09|EGI Federated Cloud Storage solutions]]


==== Docker containers ====


=== Concept  ===
You can [[Federated Cloud Containers|run your docker applications on EGI's Cloud]]. EGI also provides a [[Federated_Cloud_Containers#EGI_Federated_Cloud_clients_docker_image|docker image with the clients]] so you can test them easily.


The EGI Federated Cloud is a seamless grid of academic private clouds and virtualised resources built around open standards and focusing on the requirements of the scientific community. The result is a new type of research e-infrastructure based on the mature federated operations services that make EGI a reliable resource for science. When using EGI Federated Cloud resources, researchers and research communities can count on:
==== PaaS/SaaS ====


*Total control over deployed applications  
Read in [[HOWTO10|this guidance]] about various options of porting applications to the EGI Federated Cloud that includes information on several [[HOWTO10#4._Infrastructure_broker_2|High level user environments to interact with the EGI Federated Cloud]] to manage your applications as VMs on cloud sites.
*Elastic resource consumption based on real needs
*Immediately processed workloads – no more waiting time
*An extended e-Infrastructure across resource providers in Europe
*Service performance scaled with elastic resource consumption
*Single sign-on at multiple, independent providers


After [[Federated_Cloud_user_support|obtaining access]] to one or more sites of the EGI federated cloud, the prospective user can setup and operate custom services, applications and simulations within the virtualized hosting environments of these sites.
==== GPGPUs ====


[[Image:Fedcloud.png|center|550px|Fedcloud.png]]
'''TODO'''


#Users select Virtual Appliances (a virtual machine image that encapsulates an operating system and optionally a set of applications) from the [http://appdb.egi.eu EGI Applications Database]. Technical developers may also create their own images with any operating system of choice, the scientific software and any optional component needed for the software to function.
==== Customized Virtual Appliances  ====
#*Tip: Images from the [http://appdb.egi.eu EGI Applications Database] may be reusable, customisable for your use case.
#Instantiate the Virtual Appliance(s) on the EGI cloud. Preferred API for EGI federated cloud is OCCI, which can be accesses using using a command-line client (rOCCI), high-level tools or directly implementing the ‘Open Cloud Computing Interface’ (OCCI) into your environment. OpenStack Nova API is also available for OpenStack sites belonging to the Federation.
#*Tip: Read about the [[Federated Cloud APIs and SDKs|APIs and SDKs for accessing the EGI Federated Cloud resources]].
#*Tip: Follow [[Fedcloud-tf:CLI Environment|this guide]] to setup the rOCCI command line client.
#*Tip: Read in [[HOWTO10|this guidance]] about various options of porting applications to the EGI Federated Cloud.
#*Tip: Use one of these [[HOWTO10|high-level tools]] to instantiate VMs on cloud sites.
#Users can use block storage (that can be attached as a disk to running Virtual Machines) or object-based storage that can be accessed from anywhere with the CDMI interface.
#*Tip: Read the [[HOWTO09|storage how-to]] for more information on the storage services of FedCloud ('''PREPRODUCTION''')
#Sites support the Virtual Organizations (VOs) and automatically download the Virtual Appliance lists endorsed by the VO managers.


<br>
You can prepare fully customised Virtual Appliances and deploy them to the sites:
== Usage Models ==
'''The EGI Federated Cloud considerably widens the usage models supported by EGI'''. Now, web services and interactive applications can be easily integrated in the infrastructure, the computing environments can be finely tuned to satisfy user’s needs in term of software (OSs and software packages) and hardware (number of cores, amount of RAM, etc.) and, many solutions are available to store, update and access big amount of data. These new opportunities offered by EGI hugely extended the potential user base of the infrastructure opening the doors to new research communities with minimal or none knowledge of the EGI ecosystem.


We classified the usage models enabled by the EGI Fededated Cloud as follows:
#Prepare Virtual Machine Images (VMIs) that encapsulate your application. See the [[HOWTO10|application porting tutorial]] for tips.
* '''Service hosting''': the EGI Federated Cloud can be used to hosts any IT service as web servers, databases, etc. Cloud features, as elasticity, can help users to provide better performance and reliable services.
#Make the VMI available online, for example in the [http://appliance-repo.egi.eu/images/ EGI Appliance Repository]
* '''Compute and data intensive''': applications needing considerable amount of resources in term of computation and/or memory and/or intensive I/O. Ad-hoc computing environments can be created in the FedCloud sites also to satisfy very hard HW resource requirements.
#Register the VMIs as Virtual Appliances in the [http://appdb.egi.eu EGI Applications Database] (for howto please click [https://wiki.appdb.egi.eu/main:faq:how_to_register_a_virtual_appliance here])
*''' Datasets repository''': the EGI Federated Cloud can be used to store and manage large datasets exploiting the big amount of disk storage available in the Federation.  
#Once your VA is published (see howto [https://wiki.appdb.egi.eu/main:guides:guide_for_managing_virtual_appliance_versions_using_the_portal here]),inform the Manager of your VO through Applications Database about it (see howto [https://wiki.appdb.egi.eu/main:guides:notify_virtual_organization_representatives here]). He/she will include your images in the VO-wide image list, so these will be deployed on the Federated Cloud sites of your VO.
* '''Disposable and testing environments''': environments for training or testing new developments.
<BR>
[[Image:FedCloudUsageModels.png|center|550px|FedCloudUsageModels.png]]
<BR>


== Current FedCloud Users and Communities ==
==== Virtual Organisation ====


<!-- [[File:fedclouduclogos.png|800px|thumb]] --> [[Image:Fedclouduclogos.png|center|550px|Fedclouduclogos.png]]
Once the 6-month testing period of fedcloud.egi.eu membership expires, you will need to move into a production VO:  


<br> More details of the FedCloud User Communities and their use cases is in the [[Federated Cloud Communities|FedCloud Users Communities]] page.  
*Several other VOs of EGI make resources available from the Federated Cloud. Find a suitable VO in the [http://operations-portal.egi.eu/vo/search Operations Portal]. (Search for Cloud as a middleware type.)
*Existing grid production VOs can be extended by VO&nbsp;manager to cloud by declaring cloud resources in VO&nbsp;ID card (in Operations Portal) and requesting via [http://ggus.eu/ GGUS ](assign to Perun Support Unit) Perun support.
*If no existing VO suits your case, a new VO can be created. Please follow [https://wiki.egi.eu/wiki/PROC14_VO_Registration this procedure]. You can invite sites from the infrastructure to support them.


== How to use the FedCloud? ==
== Useful resources ==


<!--
*[[FAQ10|FedCloud FAQ page]]  
=== Tools  ===
*[http://www.egi.eu/how-to/get_a_certificate.html How to get a certificate (to access Federated Cloud resources)]
 
*[https://wiki.appdb.egi.eu/ How to use the Applications Database Cloud Marketplace]
This list provides pointers to client/management tools who may be useful for the . Some of this tools are referred also into the [[#Guides_and_tutorials]] and the [[FAQ10|FedCloud FAQ page]]:  
*[[HOWTO10|Porting your application/web service to the EGI Federated Cloud]]
 
*Current status of Federated Cloud resources (NAGIOS test results): https://cloudmon.egi.eu/nagios/cgi-bin/status.cgi?host=all&amp;sorttype=2&amp;sortoption=2
*rOCCI (OCCI client/server, used to manage computing resources): [http://github.com/EGI-FCTF/rOCCI-cli/ http://github.com/EGI-FCTF/rOCCI-cli/]
*Current status of OpenStack interfaces in the EGI federated cloud: https://cloudmon.egi.eu/nagios/cgi-bin/status.cgi?servicegroup=SERVICE_org.openstack.nova&amp;style=overview
-->
*[[Federated_Cloud_Operation#Current_Resource_Providers|List and details about certified cloud resource providers]]
*Explanation of NAGIOS tests performed by EGI on cloud resources: https://wiki.egi.eu/wiki/Cloud_SAM_tests
*How to write a new NAGIOS test for the EGI monitor: http://argoeu.github.io/samdoc/confluence/display/SAMDOC/Developer%27s%20Guide.html


== Technical background  ==
== Technical background  ==


Cloud providers in the EGI Federated Cloud use hardware virtualization technologies to host software on their resources. The cloud management platforms that make this possible can [[Fedcloud-tf:Testbed#Resource_Providers_inventory|vary from site to site]], but they all enable the provisioning of virtualized computing, storage and networking resources, thus they empower scientific groups to setup and operate domain specific services, applications and simulations on these resources.
Cloud providers in the EGI Federated Cloud use hardware virtualization technologies to host software on their resources. The cloud management platforms that make this possible can [[Federated_Cloud_Operation#Current_Resource_Providers|vary from site to site]], but they all enable the provisioning of virtualized computing, storage and networking resources, thus they empower scientific groups to setup and operate domain specific services, applications and simulations on these resources. Read more about the [[Federated Cloud Technology|technology that drives the Federated Cloud]].
 
=== EGI Federated Cloud Sites  ===
 
The EGI Federated Cloud sites are the resource providers. An overview of the resource providers, and their certification status (production status) is available [[Fedcloud-tf:ResourceProviders#Fully_integrated_Resource_Providers|here]].
 
=== Interfaces and protocols  ===
 
The EGI Federated Cloud is designed to satisfy scenarios defined by various scientific communities. The initial set of scenarios that the community collected has been distilled down to capabilities that the EGI Federated Cloud must provide to enable these community use cases. The capabilities were compared to state-of-the-art cloud computing technologies, standards, protocols and APIs to identify a technology stack which can help the National Grid Initiatives and research communities to connect resources into a federated infrastructure. Read more about the [[Federated_Cloud_Technology|technology that drives the Federated Cloud]]  
 


== User support  ==
== User support  ==
Line 165: Line 131:
=== Technical support  ===
=== Technical support  ===


Users' technical support is provided via the [mailto:usupport@egi.eu EGI support contact].
Users' technical support is provided via the [mailto:usupport@egi.eu EGI support contact].  


=== Helpdesk  ===
=== Helpdesk  ===
Line 173: Line 139:
=== Feedback and open issues  ===
=== Feedback and open issues  ===


A list of open-issue and feedbacks reported by the FedCloud users is available at [[Federated Cloud Users Feedback and open issues|this page]].  
A list of open-issue and feedbacks reported by the FedCloud users is available at [[Federated Cloud Users Feedback and open issues|this page]].
 
<!--
== High Level Services  ==
 
The EGI FedCloud, tough the FedCloud User Communities, provides a set of High Level Services to the community users. A non-exaustive list of this services is provided below:
 
*TBD
-->

Revision as of 11:12, 13 January 2016

Enol Fernandez - CSIC https://www.egi.eu/sso/userDetail/enolfc

FedCloud Users

Overview For users For resource providers Infrastructure status Site-specific configuration Architecture





Technical support is available via the EGI.eu Support Team


The EGI Cloud federation is an hybrid cloud composed by public, community and private clouds, all supported by the EGI Core Infrastructure Platform services and focusing on the requirements of the scientific community. The result is a new type of research e-infrastructure based on the mature federated operations services that make EGI a reliable resource for science. When using EGI Federated Cloud resources, researchers and research communities can count on:

Elastic computing infrastructure.
Execute compute and data intensive workloads (both batch and interactive), host long-running services (e.g. web servers, databases or applications servers), or create disposable testing and development environments on VMs and scale your infrastructure needs over a federation of cloud providers. Select VM configurations (CPU, memory, disk) and application environments that better fit your requirements.
VM image sharing and distribution
Easily share and distribute VM images for your applications on a open library of Virtual Appliances. Community curated appliances are securely and automatically replicated accross the infrastructure. EGI provides a set of securely configured images with basic software ready to use on all providers that can be re-used and extended with contextualisation to execute your applications
Unified view of federation
The EGI Cloud provides: Single sing-on (SSO) for authentication and authorisation across all resource providers; Federated accounting with an integrated view of the the resource and service usage; Distributed information system for delivering a real-time view of the capabilities; and Federated monitoring to compute metrics for availability and reliability of the services.
Beyond VMs
Run docker applications on the EGI resources or use any of the supported PaaS and SaaS solutions that extend the IaaS capabilities of the EGI cloud and abstract the infrastructure to let you focus on your application development.

Current Users and Communities

EGI Federated Cloud already has a large use base, check the FedCloud Users Communities page for more details.

Fedclouduclogos.png

Usage Models

The EGI Federated Cloud considerably widens the usage models supported by EGI. Now, web services and interactive applications can be easily integrated in the infrastructure, the computing environments can be finely tuned to satisfy user’s needs in term of software (OSs and software packages) and hardware (number of cores, amount of RAM, etc.) and, many solutions are available to store, update and access big amount of data. These new opportunities offered by EGI hugely extended the potential user base of the infrastructure opening the doors to new research communities with minimal or none knowledge of the EGI ecosystem.

We classified the usage models enabled by the EGI Fededated Cloud as follows:

  • Service hosting: the EGI Federated Cloud can be used to hosts any IT service as web servers, databases, etc. Cloud features, as elasticity, can help users to provide better performance and reliable services.
  • Compute and data intensive: applications needing considerable amount of resources in term of computation and/or memory and/or intensive I/O. Ad-hoc computing environments can be created in the FedCloud sites also to satisfy very hard HW resource requirements.
  • Datasets repository: the EGI Federated Cloud can be used to store and manage large datasets exploiting the big amount of disk storage available in the Federation.
  • Disposable and testing environments: environments for training or testing new developments.


FedCloudUsageModels.png



How to use the EGI Federated Cloud?

Access

EGI provides users with a single sign-on mechanism to access the federated services with the use of X.509 certificates and Virtual Organisations (VOs). Before using the EGI Federated Cloud you will need to:


Creating your first VM

The basic user workflow for starting a Virtual Machine (VM) looks like this:

  1. Browse in the Application Database Cloud Marketplace the available Virtual Appliances. Virtual Appliances are the templates for the root volume of the running instances (Operating System and applications). EGI offers a set of basic images with minimal configuration that can get you started easily, but you can also find complete application stacks. See for example these images:
  2. Read the description of the appliance for information on how to use it and connect to it once started.
  3. Get the IDs for starting the appliance at one of the sites supporting it in the "Availability and Usage" tab.
  4. Get the command line client to start the VM using the IDs from previous step
  5. Connect to VM and start using it

Advanced topics

API and SDKs access to Federated Cloud resources

Besides the command line client, there are several APIs and SDK ready to be used with the EGI Federated Cloud.Preferred API for EGI federated cloud is OCCI, which can be accesses using using a command-line client (rOCCI), high-level tools or directly implementing the ‘Open Cloud Computing Interface’ (OCCI) into your environment. OpenStack Nova API is also available for OpenStack sites belonging to the Federation.

Storage

Docker containers

You can run your docker applications on EGI's Cloud. EGI also provides a docker image with the clients so you can test them easily.

PaaS/SaaS

Read in this guidance about various options of porting applications to the EGI Federated Cloud that includes information on several High level user environments to interact with the EGI Federated Cloud to manage your applications as VMs on cloud sites.

GPGPUs

TODO

Customized Virtual Appliances

You can prepare fully customised Virtual Appliances and deploy them to the sites:

  1. Prepare Virtual Machine Images (VMIs) that encapsulate your application. See the application porting tutorial for tips.
  2. Make the VMI available online, for example in the EGI Appliance Repository
  3. Register the VMIs as Virtual Appliances in the EGI Applications Database (for howto please click here)
  4. Once your VA is published (see howto here),inform the Manager of your VO through Applications Database about it (see howto here). He/she will include your images in the VO-wide image list, so these will be deployed on the Federated Cloud sites of your VO.

Virtual Organisation

Once the 6-month testing period of fedcloud.egi.eu membership expires, you will need to move into a production VO:

  • Several other VOs of EGI make resources available from the Federated Cloud. Find a suitable VO in the Operations Portal. (Search for Cloud as a middleware type.)
  • Existing grid production VOs can be extended by VO manager to cloud by declaring cloud resources in VO ID card (in Operations Portal) and requesting via GGUS (assign to Perun Support Unit) Perun support.
  • If no existing VO suits your case, a new VO can be created. Please follow this procedure. You can invite sites from the infrastructure to support them.

Useful resources

Technical background

Cloud providers in the EGI Federated Cloud use hardware virtualization technologies to host software on their resources. The cloud management platforms that make this possible can vary from site to site, but they all enable the provisioning of virtualized computing, storage and networking resources, thus they empower scientific groups to setup and operate domain specific services, applications and simulations on these resources. Read more about the technology that drives the Federated Cloud.

User support

Technical support

Users' technical support is provided via the EGI support contact.

Helpdesk

Technical problems and questions relating to the use of the EGI Federated Cloud can be reported and dealt with through the EGI Helpdesk ticketing system. Note: Please choose 'Federated cloud' in the 'Type of problem' field of the ticket submission form!

Feedback and open issues

A list of open-issue and feedbacks reported by the FedCloud users is available at this page.

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