Application Support Procedure

The main objective of the "Application Support" in the Baltic Grid project is to help application developers in adapting their applications to work in a grid environment. In order to achieve this goal the application support team has defined the process by which application developers can apply for help and assistance in porting their applications on a distributed computing environment like the Baltic Grid infrastructure. If you are an application developer please take a look how it can be done:

1. First of all go to the Baltic Grid website and download an "Application Description Template" developed by application support team. This document has a form of questionnaire with questions regarding many different aspects and technical details like internal structure and functioning of the application, demand for power or storage resources, security or licensing issues. It is really important that developers fill in this questionnaire as accurately as possible. This description will be used by people from Application Expert Group to carry out technical analysis of submitted application.
2. After receiving a filled-in application description the coordinator of application support will assign a two grid-experts (supporters) from AEG. From that point on the rest of the procedure will take one of the following approaches:
   • The Grid experts will analyse the application and develop a collection of general advices and hints of what can be done to adapt that application to work in a grid environment. This document enables developers to make necessary modifications to their applications. We assume that this approach will be sufficient enough for applications that only require a typical adaptation to be made.
   • The second method will be used in case of the most complex and demanding applications like Pilot Applications. It this situation supporter will prepare a more advanced document, the so-called “gridification” report, and the preparation of such report will take about a one month. During this month the assigned grid expert will analyse the given application and identify the required Grid technologies that are relevant to get grid-enabled, user-friendly and efficient application. Next, this first version of the report will be passed on to reviewers. Finally, the grid-expert will use their comments and suggestions to deliver the final version of the report. Gridification report would contain the following sections:
     • identification of grid techniques that should be used
     • grid-enabling procedures
     • deployment procedures
     • possibility of integration with user-friendly interface (Migrating Desktop)
     • possibility of using performance tools
3. Developers who will need more assistance or may want to make some more advanced changes in their applications will be helped on an individual basis. It will be accomplished through successive communication by e-mails, telephones or face-to-face meetings.
4. All documents will be accessible in the repository on Baltic Grid website to all NA3 partners in application support repository. The documents will be open for comments and suggestions. This will allow application support team to get feedback from developers and make necessary changes in the procedure or "Application Description Template". Moreover if application developer happens to have any questions or doubts he should not hesitate to ask a supporter for clarification and any kind of specific information.