The White Rose Grid: practice and experience

The White Rose Grid (WRG) initiative is establishing a production Grid that underpins a broad range of e-Science projects (e.g. DAME, gViz, and MRI Data Analysis System) involving the three Universities (Leeds, Sheffield and York) and our industrial partners. The White Rose Universities already operate as a Virtual Organisation (VO), and a key part of this project is to understand and demonstrate the value of the Grid in this environment. The paper reports our experience of building and delivering the WRG service. It raises practical issues pertaining to the Grid built by a joint team consisting of academics and Computer Services at the three Universities. The paper shares our approach to working together within the WRG and describes some aspects of technical experience gained while building our Grid. It outlines our organisational structure, technical configuration of the Grid and user management issues. Finally the business use of the Grid is discussed.