The Nimrod Portal Quick Introduction

Logging in

     Accessing the portal requires the user to authenticate themselves. This is done with a login screen that is presented when the user accesses the portal. The username and password is tested on the Nimrod experiment server (not the web server) Unix account and if accepted, the user is redirected to their experiments page, otherwise the user is prompted again.

Nimrod Portal
Please login: Name: Password:

     For the more techincal minded: the portal uses Secured Session Cookies to keep track of the user's connection. Session Cookies must be enabled in the user's browser and are removed once the user closes the session window. If the cookie was unable to be set, the user is notified.

The experiments page

     The user's experiments page quickly displays the state of all the user's experiments. This includes execution status, the experiment type (Nimrod/G or Nimrod/O) and the duration of the experiments. They are also presented with a menu on the right-hand-side of the page giving quick access to all the experiments and other user options. This menu will stay static (unless if an experiment is added).

     Every section in the portal has a "What's this" icon at the top right of the window. Clicking this icon will display help on the current section.

Nimrod Portal Welcome, Demo User	Experiments GoodPlan nimrodo bead New experiment Resource management Logout
Experiments GoodPlan Not started nimrodo Not started bead inactive 00:17:03     New Experiment

The experiment page

     The experiment page displays everything related to the experiment in one window. The window is split up into multiple sections for easy usage. If there is a problem with a section, it will appear in red. A warning message is also displayed in the status section.

Nimrod Portal Welcome, Demo User

Experiments GoodPlan nimrodo bead New experiment Resource management Logout

Status of: bead The experiment had executed for 17mins and 3secs. The experiment has started, but is currently paused.   Resume Experiment   Archive Experiment  Schedule file parameter p integer range from 35 to 60 parameter q integer range from 2 to 17 parameter r integer range from 15 to 45 task main copy bead.data node:bead.data copy beader node:beader node:execute ./beader $p $q $r > final copy node:final output.$jobname endtask method simplex starts 2 named "Simplex" starting points random tolerance 0.000 endstarts endmethod   You cannot change the plan after execution has started.  Files (Refresh/Reload this window to display newer files as the experiment is executing) Nimcache.dir   Nimcache.pag   Nimcache_stats   asched.log   bead.data   bead.run   bead.shd   beader   enfAPI.log   jsched.log   nimrodo.log   nimrodo.runtime.error.log   nimrodo.runtime.log   output.1   output.10   output.11   output.12   output.13   output.14   output.15   output.16   output.17   output.18   output.19   output.2   output.20   output.21   output.22   output.23   output.24   output.25   output.26   output.27   output.28   output.29   output.3   output.30   output.31   output.32   output.33   output.34   output.35   output.36   output.37   output.38   output.39   output.4   output.40   output.41   output.42   output.43   output.44   output.45   output.46   output.47   output.48   output.49   output.5   output.50   output.51   output.52   output.53   output.54   output.55   output.56   output.57   output.58   output.59   output.6   output.60   output.61   output.62   output.63   output.64   output.65   output.66   output.67   output.68   output.7   output.8   output.9   sched.log   schedule.summ   Upload a file:     File maintanence  Jobs 68 jobs have been completed and there are 0 waiting.     Schedule This experiment will run as quickly as possible. This experiment has unlimited budget   Edit Schedule  Resources Type Host and/or queue Use? CPU Time Data transfered Rate globus hathor.csse.monash.edu.au / jobmanager-pbs Yes 0hrs 2804KB 34KB/s   Select resources

The experiment page shows statistics on data transferred and CPU hours used by the experiment. This information is given in the "Resource" section after an experiment has started. This information can be used to determin how your experiment performing on the grid and how much it is costing.

Creating a new experiment

     Creating a new experiment is simple. The user only needs to provide an experiment name and what type of experiment it is (Nimrod/G or Nimrod/O). The user is redirected to the newly created experiment page allowing to user to upload files, set the schedule, set which resources to use and create a Plan (Nimrod/G) or Schedule (Nimrod/O) file.

The Nimrod Portal Plan/Schedule file editor

     Nimrod/G and Nimrod/O needs to know how to execute your experiment. Both need to know what files to copy and what files to execute. Nimrod/G uses a plan file which contains this information and includes which parameter sets that need to be executed. Nimrod/O uses a schedule file that has file copying and execution information and contains information about what optimisation techniques to use and how to use them.

The Nimrod Portal has an editor (written in Java as an applet) that helps a user to create these files. Using dropdown menus and text boxes that only appear when it is appropiate, makes creating these files easy. And for the more advanced user, there still is a text editor option.