[Bioclusters] servers for bio web services setup

[Micha Bayer]

Hi Chris, 

that's all really useful , thank you.

If you had a load-balanced twin machine, how would you split/route the
traffic between them? Would you mirror all the services exactly, i.e.
have two separate Tomcat installations?

cheers
Micha

On Thu, 2005-01-13 at 15:03, Chris Dwan wrote:
> This sounds like a really cool project.   Good luck with it.
> 
> Depending on how the services are implemented, and on how people use 
> them, the requirements could vary wildly.
> 
> Important questions that spring to mind (and I'm sure you've thought of 
> these too) are:
> 
> * Will your server(s) be a potential bottleneck for data and results?  
> I.e:  When input queries and results are exchanged between user and 
> compute resource, will all of the bytes have to pass through the 
> server?
> 
> * Will your server(s) cache results for potentially large searches?  
> This could require large amounts of fast file storage.
> 
> * What local services will you provide from this server?  Even 
> lightweight things like rendering graphics from BLAST reports can cause 
> substantial loads if they are done by hundreds of users simultaneously.
> 
> That said, a well set up web services environment shouldn't require 
> much more hardware than similarly specified web server.  Decent 
> network, lots of memory, and (depending on how much downtime you're 
> willing to tolerate) a failover /  load balanced twin sitting beside 
> it.
> 
> -Chris Dwan
>   The BioTeam
> 
> > He wants to set up a bio facility which provides web/grid services
> > (probably Axis or GT3/4) to a substantial user community (UK-wide but
> > with access control, so probably in the region of hundreds or perhaps
> > thousands of potential users). Services will include the usual things
> > things like BLAST, ClustalW, protein structure analysis etc. -- 
> > probably
> > a small subset of what EBI offers.
> >
> > The computational back end is likely to be our UK National Grid or
> > similar, but either way he is only providing the server that hosts the
> > middleware and metascheduler. He is wondering what hardware setup setup
> > is best for this. We are probably looking at running the web/grid
> > services out of Tomcat.
> >
> > Would a single high-spec machine be sufficient for this kind of thing?
> > Or would one have several servers doing the same thing in parallel?
> > In which case, what spec should they have and how would they be
> > coordinated?
> >
> > many thanks
> >
> > Micha
> > -- 
> > --------------------------------------------------
> > Dr Micha M Bayer
> > Grid Developer, BRIDGES Project
> > National e-Science Centre, Glasgow Hub
> > 246c Kelvin Building
> > University of Glasgow
> > Glasgow G12 8QQ
> > Scotland, UK
> > Email: michab at dcs.gla.ac.uk
> > Project home page: http://www.brc.dcs.gla.ac.uk/projects/bridges/
> > Personal Homepage: http://www.brc.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~michab/
> > Tel.: +44 (0)141 330 2958
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Bioclusters maillist  -  Bioclusters at bioinformatics.org
> > https://bioinformatics.org/mailman/listinfo/bioclusters
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Bioclusters maillist  -  Bioclusters at bioinformatics.org
> https://bioinformatics.org/mailman/listinfo/bioclusters
-- 
--------------------------------------------------
Dr Micha M Bayer
Grid Developer, BRIDGES Project
National e-Science Centre, Glasgow Hub
246c Kelvin Building
University of Glasgow
Glasgow G12 8QQ
Scotland, UK
Email: michab at dcs.gla.ac.uk
Project home page: http://www.brc.dcs.gla.ac.uk/projects/bridges/
Personal Homepage: http://www.brc.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~michab/
Tel.: +44 (0)141 330 2958