Systems/Enterprise:

GridXpert DEPLOYS GRID AT ARCELOR FLAT CARBON STEEL

GridXpert has completed Europe's first multi-site Grid Computing solution to serve industrial production.

Following the reorganization of Arcelor, the aim of implementing a Grid at the group was to adapt the IT system to the new structure of the company; and in addition to share and optimize IT resources in order to improve the efficiency of the research centers.

Grid Computing has enabled Arcelor FCS to homogenize its IT resources. The group has reduced its scientific IT costs by more than 20 percent, while managing to optimize its compute power by 35 percent and multiply its scientific IT resource utilization rate by three.

Using on-demand resource management, GX Synergy TM enables Arcelor FCS to allocate real costs by project using a detailed accounting of actual resources used. Furthermore, the group can now foresee and redistribute required resources by measuring capacity usage in real-time.

Begun in September 2003, the project is scheduled to finish at the end of 2004. In total, there are 150 scientific IT users. Arcelor FCS intends to go further and implement a single Grid across all the research centers. Eventually, the aim is to also include external partners.

The Implementation

In order to rationalize research facilities and to capitalize on its competences, Arcelor FCS has reorganized its research centers around three large markets: automobile, packaging and industry (household appliances, construction) as well as a center for industrial operations.

After concentrating activity into these four centers (compared to 11 previously), the Arcelor FCS research centers had available heterogeneous resources and a large potential to optimize compute power.

A preliminary study performed using GX Synergy TM Monitoring, an IT analysis and diagnostic tool, showed a large potential to optimize capacity utilization rates – as large differences in activity were found both between different research centers and between different business activities.

An evaluation phase was launched at a pilot center in the Lorraine region; the center houses 130 researchers including 20 scientific calculation users. The project itself then began with the deployment of a Grid at the Auto Applications site, a center used for the strategic market of automobiles. Based at Montataire (Oise), the center numbers 100 researchers of which 40 are scientific calculation users. The deployment of the solution at this site took only three weeks.

GridManager, a modelization and management module, was installed on a server, and GridAgent, an execution module, on each participating resource of the Grid. GridXpert Synergy includes the management of market-leading schedulers, multiple OS support and features application and user management as well as resource usage accounting.

Another site, Arcelor Research SA, based at Maizières-lès-Metz (Lorraine), will have a Grid deployed in the fourth quarter of 2004.

These two laboratories hold 95 percent of the calculation capacity of Arcelor FCS. The other two centers, having more limited means, will both be provided with GridAgents -– giving them access on demand to the resources available at the first two sites.

Applications are modeled as services accessible via a secured Web portal. A simple and friendly interface enables users to quickly submit jobs; the Grid transparently allocates the optimal resources. Researchers are no longer taxed with the tasks of finding and managing available resources.

"The Grid offers us adaptability and flexibility. Now, only four clicks are necessary to launch a calculation," explained Eric Lamm, head of scientific IT at the R&D centers of Arcelor FCS.

"The Grid will be the motor driving our scientific IT system. Once all our centers are connected, our aim in the long–run is to open our compute resources to external partners such as customers and suppliers," he added.

"This project is particularly interesting for us as it is the first time a multi-site Grid is used for industrial production. The evaluation and deployment at Arcelor FCS have enabled us to better understand the requirements of companies in a more operational phase, and to adapt our solutions as a consequence. The benefits for Arcelor FCS are real, and we are delighted to have contributed to this deployment" explained Sven Lung, president of GridXpert.