We report on our experiences replicating 7.3 petabytes (PB) of Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) computational simulation data from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California to Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) in Illinois and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee-a task motivated by a need for increased reliability, capacity, and performance. This task presented significant challenges: the need to move 29 million files twice under time pressure from aging storage hardware; a source file system bottleneck limiting throughput to 1.5 GB/s; frequent site maintenance windows; and the need for complete reliability at scale. We addressed these challenges using a simple replication tool that invoked Globus to transfer large bundles of files while tracking progress in a database, dynamically rerouting transfers to work around maintenance periods and file system limitations. Under the covers, Globus organized transfers to make efficient use of the high-speed Energy Sciences network (ESnet) and the data transfer nodes deployed at participating sites, and also addressed security, integrity checking, and recovery from a variety of transient failures. This success demonstrates the considerable benefits that can accrue from the adoption of performant data replication infrastructure. The replication tool is available at https://github.com/esgf2-us/data-replication-tools.

First introduced in 2013, Open OnDemand [5] (openondemand.org) is an innovative, open-source, web-based portal that removes the complexities of research computing (RC) system environments from the end-client, and in so doing, reduces “time to science” for researchers by facilitating their access to RC resources. Through Open OnDemand, RC clients can upload and download files, create, edit, submit and monitor jobs, create and share apps, run graphical user interface-based (GUI) applications and connect to a terminal, all via a web browser, with no client software to install and configure. Open OnDemand greatly simplifies access to RC resources, freeing domain scientists from having to worry about the operating environment and instead focus on their research. It enables computer center staff to support a wide range of clients by simplifying the user interface and experience. The overall impact is that clients can use remote computing resources faster and more efficiently. In this paper, we describe advances to the Open OnDemand platform since it was publicly released to the research computing world in 2017 [4], the community that has developed around it and our plans to leverage these to build an ecosystem to ensure future sustainability of this popular platform.

The Common Fund Data Ecosystem (CFDE) has created a flexible system of data federation that enables researchers to discover datasets from across the US National Institutes of Health Common Fund without requiring that data owners move, reformat, or rehost those data. This system is centered on a catalog that integrates detailed descriptions of biomedical datasets from individual Common Fund Programs’ Data Coordination Centers (DCCs) into a uniform metadata model that can then be indexed and searched from a centralized portal. This Crosscut Metadata Model (C2M2) supports the wide variety of data types and metadata terms used by individual DCCs and can readily describe nearly all forms of biomedical research data. We detail its use to ingest and index data from 11 DCCs.

The XSEDE Data Transfer Services (DTS) group focuses on streamlining and improving the data transfer experiences of the national academic research community, while also buttressing and future-proofing the underlying networks that support these transfers. In this paper, the DTS group shares how network and data transfer technologies have evolved over the past six years, with the backdrop of the Distributed Terascale Facility (DTF) and TeraGrid projects that served the national community before the advent of XSEDE. We delve into improvements, challenges, and trends in network and data transfer technologies, and the uses of these technologies in academic institutions across the country, which today translate into 100s of users of CI moving many terabytes each month. We also review the key lessons learned while serving the community in this regard, and what the future holds for academic networking and data transfer.

Modern research increasingly relies on network accessible data, execution, security, and information access digital services. These services often provide web based user interfaces and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). By invoking APIs software developers can create increasingly advanced research enhancing digital services. For example, researchers can access Science Gateways and Portals using a web browser to do analysis, simulations, machine learning, and visualizations that seamlessly combines gateway functionality with remote API accessible digital services. XSEDE's Mission is to "Substantially enhance the productivity of a growing community of scholars, researchers, and engineers through access to advanced digital services that support open research; and coordinate and add significant value to the leading cyberinfrastructure resources funded by the NSF and other agencies.". The XSEDE Cyberinfrastructure Integration (XCI) team's mission is to "integrate, adapt, and disseminate software tools and related services across the national CI community... and to enable the creation of an integrated national cyberinfrastructure." XCI introduces two new secure XSEDE information access APIs and propose that the OAuth 2.0 API security they use can accelerate development of powerful research enhancing digital services by breaking down services-to-service interactions barriers.

Use cases are a foundational element of most system design and development methodologies. The XSEDE system integration team defines and references its intended user experiences through use cases. In XSEDE, use cases enable people from many backgrounds and disciplines to speak coherently with each other about XSEDE’s capabilities and proposed changes to the system. With use cases as an organizing principle, XSEDE has built an open and transparent framework in which researchers, software developers, and service providers can view the system’s intended user experiences, the implementation activities aimed at delivering those experiences, and the resulting system. Use cases are one of several metrics used by the XSEDE project to continuously measure and track our value to the community. In section 1, we explain why the XSEDE project tracks use cases and the benefits this provides. In section 2, we describe the methods XSEDE follows for defining and tracking use cases. In section 3, we describe the tools XSEDE uses to manage use cases.

The Secure Shell (SSH) protocol and its OpenSSH implementation are a cornerstone of modern scientific computing, enabling users to access remote computers, transfer data, and execute programs. We describe here extensions to the OpenSSH software that enable an additional authentication method, namely OAuth tokens from Globus Auth. Integration with Globus Auth allows users to authenticate using one of hundreds of supported identity providers, and makes it possible for external applications and services to use short-term tokens to access remote computers securely on behalf of users.

The Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) connects cyberinfrastructure (CI) resources, software, and services. One of XSEDE's primary goals in supporting US research generally is to "advance the ecosystem" - making use of XSEDE's leadership position to create software, tools, and services that lead to an effective and efficient national cyberinfrastructure. Software enables this endeavor in two very distinct ways: enabling the operation of XSEDE as a distributed yet integrated cyberinfrastructure resource; and by providing access to a wide variety of software of value to end user researchers and students, operators of campus cyberinfrastructure resources, and to those considering to propose new cyberinfrastructure resources to the National Science Foundation (NSF). The Community Software Repository (CSR) provides transparency about how XSEDE operates and provides access to software of use and value to the US research community generally. The CSR provides access to use cases that describe needs expressed by the research community, capability delivery plans that describe how XSEDE meets those needs, and the actual software that meets those needs. Software is delivered in a variety of forms and formats. The CSR also includes mechanisms for interaction between XSEDE staff, software developers, and the end user community to accelerate meeting of community needs and aid software developers in finding audiences for their software. XCI's long term goal is that the XSEDE Community Software Repository will be widely used and valuable to the national research community.