News

2010

  • Nimbus 2.5 Final Release
    Jul 30, 2010

    We are happy to announce the Nimbus 2.5 release!

    This release introduces two major new features. The first one is the Cumulus storage cloud implementation that has been integrated with the Workspace Service but can also be used standalone. Cumulus is compatible with the Amazon Web Services S3 REST API and has a pluggable backend that allows it to support multiple storage systems used by the scientific community. It also includes support for quota management. Cumulus replaces the current GridFTP-based upload and download of VM images. The second new feature is the Zero -> Cloud installation process, which significantly simplifies Nimbus installation and also includes user management tools.

    In addition, this release also contains new scheduling and network configuration options, new propagation methods, new workspace pilot options, as well as multiple smaller features and bugfixes -- too many to cover them all in an announcement! The full list is available in the changelog.

    The community testing and feedback has been an invaluable help. This has been the most active and productive release cycle that Nimbus has seen and resulted in a product that all of us can be proud of. We would like to thank all who volunteered their effort to help with testing and submitted patches to this release. In particular, we'd like to thank Patrick Armstrong, Colin Leavett-Brown, Paul Marshall, Paulo Motta, Pierre Riteau, Marien Ritzenthaler, and Matt Vliet.

    The Nimbus 2.5 release is available for download at:
    http://www.nimbusproject.org/downloads/

    Documentation is available at:
    http://www.nimbusproject.org/docs/2.5/

  • Nimbus 2.5RC2 Available
    Jul 16, 2010

    We are happy to announce RC2 of Nimbus 2.5!

    This release "rounds out" the new features introduced in RC1, addresses usability concerns, improves and adds documentation, and provides several new developer features. In addition, the release also of course provides bug fixes relative to RC1.

    The full changelog information is available at:
    http://www.nimbusproject.org/docs/2.5/changelog.html

    Nimbus 2.5 RC2 is available for download at:
    http://www.nimbusproject.org/downloads/

    The community testing and feedback has been an invaluable help, this has been the most active and productive release candidate cycle that Nimbus has seen and we think it will show in the final release. We would like to thank all who volunteered their effort to help with testing and submitted patches to this release. Specifically, we would like to acknowledge the help of Pierre Riteau, Patrick Armstrong, Paul Marshall, Paulo Motta, Marien Ritzenthaler, Colin Leavett-Brown, and Matt Vliet.

  • Announcing RC1 of Nimbus 2.5
    Jul 06, 2010

    Happy (belated) Independence Day—we have just won independence from a kludgy storage solution and a tyrannical installation system and are happy to announce RC1 of Nimbus 2.5!

    This release introduces two major features:

    1) Cumulus, a storage cloud implementation that has been integrated with the Workspace Service but can also be used standalone. Cumulus is compatible with the Amazon Web Services S3 REST API, but extends it to include quota management.

    2) Zero -> Cloud installation process, which significantly simplifies Nimbus installation and includes user management tools.

    In addition, this release also contains new scheduling and network configuration options, new propagation methods, new workspace pilot options, as well as multiple smaller features and bugfixes—too much by far to brag about in this mail; the full list is available in the changelog at: http://www.nimbusproject.org/docs/2.5/changelog.html#2.5

    This release would not have been the same without active involvement of the Nimbus open source community. The changelog contains acknowledgements of many members who made substantial contributions: in particular, we’d like to thank Patrick Armstrong, Paulo Motta, Pierre Riteau, and Matt Vliet. They not only contributed new ideas, suggestions, and features but also helped us improve code quality—priceless!

    The Nimbus 2.5 release candidate is available for download at:
    http://www.nimbusproject.org/downloads/

    Documentation (still in progress) is available at: http://www.nimbusproject.org/docs/2.5/

  • Nimbus at OGF29
    Jun 21, 2010

    Nimbus is to be featured in a demo at this week's OGF29 in Chicago. The demo involves six Nimbus cloud installations spread across FutureGrid and Grid'5000. Many VMs with up to 1000 cores will be started between the clouds and used to run a single bioinformatics application (BLAST). The demo will also showcase some experimental features in Nimbus for fast propagation of VM images.

    From the OGF29 site:

    Sky Computing on FutureGrid and Grid'5000

    "Sky computing" is an emerging computing model where resources from multiple cloud providers are leveraged to create large scale distributed infrastructures. This demonstration will show how sky computing resources can be used as a platform for the execution of a bioinformatics application (BLAST). The application will be dynamically scaled out with new resources as need arises. This demonstration will also show how resources across two experimental projects: the FutureGrid experimental testbed in the United States and the Grid'5000, an infrastructure for large scale parallel and distributed computing research in France, can be combined and used to support large scale, distributed experiments. The demo will showcase not only the capabilities of the experimental platforms, but also their emerging collaboration. Finally, the demo will showcase several open source technologies. Specifically, our demo will use Nimbus for cloud management, offering virtual machine provisioning and contextualization services, ViNe to enable all-to-all communication among multiple clouds, and Hadoop for parallel fault-tolerant execution of BLAST. (POC: Kate Keahey, Mauricio Tsugawa, ANL; Pierre Riteau, IRISA)
  • Let’s welcome the Google Summer of Code students!
    May 08, 2010

    Please welcome Matt Vliet and Paulo Gomes to the Nimbus community, they were accepted to the Google Summer of Code 2010 to work on Nimbus related projects!

    Matt will be working with Ian Gable on HDFS for robust VM propagation, Paulo will be working with Tim Freeman on Spot Instances to maximize cloud utilization.

    Thanks Google for your generous support of open source software!
  • Nimbus 2.4 Released
    May 05, 2010

    Happy Cinco De Mayo—we too feel like we’ve just won a victory against the odds—and are happy to announce the final Nimbus 2.4 release!

    The major feature of this release is a new installer which makes the installation process significantly easier and faster, eliminates the need for a separate Globus container installation, and sets up an embedded certificate authority. Another significant contribution is a refinements to the Nimbus cloud monitoring service including a new feature that aggregates monitoring information from various Nimbus clouds. In addition, the release contains numerous feature enhancements and bug fixes. Check out the full changelog.

    The Nimbus 2.4 release is available for download at: http://www.nimbusproject.org/downloads/

    Documentation is available at: http://www.nimbusproject.org/docs/2.4/

    Many thanks to folks who contributed their time, comments, and patches during the release candidate process!  We would like to particularly acknowledge Patrick Armstrong, Ian Gable, Paulo Ricardo Motta Gomes, Colin Leavett-Brown, Mike Lowe, Paul Marshall, Pierre Riteau, and Mauricio Tsugawa.

  • Nimbus 2.4RC2 Released
    Apr 30, 2010

    We are pleased to announce the second release candidate of Nimbus 2.4 (RC2). In response to excellent community feedback, we’ve identified and fixed several problems with RC1. We’ve also significantly improved the documentation and installation experience.

    For a detailed list of changes between RC1 and RC2, consult the changelog.

    Download the new RC2: http://www.nimbusproject.org/downloads/. Documentation is available here.

    This has been one of the most active and helpful release candidate periods we have ever had.  Many thanks to everyone that has contributed their time, comments, and patches!  We would like to especially thank Patrick Armstrong, Ian Gable, Paulo Ricardo Motta Gomes, Colin Leavett-Brown, Mike Lowe, Paul Marshall, Pierre Riteau, and Mauricio Tsugawa.

  • Nimbus 2.4RC1 Released
    Apr 15, 2010

    We are happy to announce release candidate 1 (RC1) of Nimbus 2.4. The major feature of this release is a new installer which makes the installation process significantly easier and faster, eliminates the need for a separate Globus container installation, and sets up an embedded certificate authority. In addition, the release contains enhancements to the Nimbus cloud monitoring service including a new feature that aggregates monitoring information from various Nimbus clouds.

    This RC1 also contains numerous smaller improvements, and bug fixes. Check the changelog for details.

    The RC1 is available for download at: http://www.nimbusproject.org/downloads/

    Documentation for the new release is available here.

    We appreciate help from all who volunteered to alpha test this release. To help provide an easy vehicle for feedback and resolve issues quickly we offer real-time access to a Nimbus RC chatroom for serious alpha testers. If you would like to participate, please contact us for access.
  • Grid5000 Large Scale Deployment Challenge winner
    Apr 09, 2010

    Congratulations to Pierre Riteau for winning the Grid5000 large scale deployment challenge!

    Pierre demonstrated an automated install of Nimbus clouds onto several large clusters. He went on to use these clouds to launch virtual clusters. And he did all of this in front of an audience. Very impressive, Pierre.

  • Google Summer of Code 2010!
    Mar 19, 2010

    Globus has been again selected as a mentoring organization for Google Summer of Code. GSoC is an excellent program that sponsors students to work on various open source projects.

    Nimbus has eight GSoC project ideas this year. If you are a student and are interested in working with us over the summer, please take a look at our ideas page. If you have any questions, please contact us. Applications are due to GSoC by April 9th.

  • Nimbus 2.3 Released
    Feb 02, 2010

    We are happy to announce the final Nimbus 2.3 release!

    This release contains support for EC2 Query API as well as support for KVM via a new, refactored, workspace-control based on libvirt. This is also the first release of the refactored design of the Nimbus context broker. Another major addition is an administrative web interface that supports securely distributing user credentials. In addition, this release contains improvements to the cloud client, numerous small features, and bug fixes. Check the full changelog for more information.

    The Nimbus 2.3 release is available for download at: http://www.nimbusproject.org/downloads/

    We would like to acknowledge the contributions of all who volunteered their effort to help with testing and submitted patches to this release. Our sincere thanks go to Pierre Riteau, Alex Clemesha, Kevin Wilson, Adam Bishop, Kyle Fransham, and Patrick Armstrong.

2009

  • Nimbus 2.3RC1 Released
    Dec 31, 2009

    Happy New Year from the Nimbus Team!

    After a year devoted primarily to working with users and experimentation, we are back to packaging our work off in releases. We are happy to announce release candidate 1 (RC1) of the Nimbus 2.3 release. For the Nimbus workspace service, this RC1 contains support for EC2 Query API as well as support for KVM via a new, refactored, workspace-control based on libvirt. This is also the first release of the refactored design of the Nimbus context broker. Another major addition is an administrative web interface that supports securely distributing user credentials.

    In addition this RC1 contains improvements to the cloud client, numerous small features, and bug fixes. The full changelog information is available here.

    The RC1 is available for download here.

    We appreciate help from all who volunteered to alpha test this release. To help provide an easy vehicle for feedback and resolve issues quickly we offer real-time access to a Nimbus RC chatroom for serious alpha testers. If you would like to participate, please contact us for access.
  • Nimbus Project Update
    Dec 18, 2009

    Exciting things are happening in the Nimbus world! The development team is growing and so is our user base. We have several developments to report from the past few months:

    • The Nimbus codebase has been moved to GitHub which we are very happy about. Collaboration is easier than ever and it is simple to track development progress. Check it out.
    • We’ve just launched a new website at a new address: http://www.nimbusproject.org
    • We have also recently moved our Science Clouds pages into a separate site accompanied by a blog. Check it out at http://www.scienceclouds.org
    • Heavy software development has been underway and we are preparing a Nimbus 2.3 release candidate which is expected to be available within a couple of weeks. Highlight features include initial EC2 Query API support, an administrative web application, and integration with libvirt.
    • We are committing to a more regular release schedule and have a lot of great features forthcoming in the next few months.
  • Where to find Nimbus at SC09?
    Nov 13, 2009

    On Monday, November 16th, Kate Keahey will talk about Nimbus in the afternoon at the SC09 Cloud Computing for Systems and Computational Biology workshop. See the workshop page for details.

    On Tuesday, November 17th, Kate Keahey will give a talk at the AIST Booth on the SC show floor at 9 AM. The talk will be followed by a discussion.

    There will be an ongoing display of a Nimbus poster in the ANL booth.

  • OGF27 talk
    Oct 12, 2009
    Kate will giving a talk "Infrastructure-as-a-Service - Cloud Computing for Science" tomorrow at the Banff Centre, 9am PT. Details can be found here. Update: download the talk here.
  • XtreemOS talk
    Sep 07, 2009
    Kate will be giving an invited lecture at the XtreemOS Summer School 2009 at Wadham College, Oxford, UK on September 7th. Details can be found here.
  • TG09 student poster winner
    Jun 29, 2009
    A poster by Xiaoming Gao on the Virtual Block Store won the Best Student Poster award at TeraGrid 2009.
  • CERN workshop talk
    Jun 26, 2009
    Kate will be giving a talk at CERN on Friday, June 26th, get the details from the workshop page.
  • Nimbus Cloud Client 12 released
    Jun 03, 2009
    A new version of the Nimbus cloud client is available. It includes minor features and bugfixes as well as an experimental new meta-cloud-client which supports contextualizing across multiple clouds. Get it from the downloads page.
  • IU Talk: Cloud Computing with Nimbus
    Apr 22, 2009
    Kate will be giving a talk at Indiana University on April 22nd, 4pm Eastern in Lindley Hall 101. See you there!
  • Nimbus and cloud computing meet STAR production demands
    Apr 02, 2009
    See the press release!
  • Nimbus helps scientists run high energy physics experiments
    Mar 24, 2009
    See this press release for the details.
  • Nimbus at CHEP 09
    Mar 23, 2009
    Nimbus at CHEP 09:

    Jerome Lauret from BNL will talk about Nimbus in his plenary on Wednesday March 25th and Artem Harutyunian will present a poster on how he integrated CernVM VMs running on the Nimbus cloud at UC into the ALICE testbed.

    See here for schedule details.

  • Nimbus at the OSG all hands meeting
    Mar 02, 2009

    Update: find the slides from the talk here.

    Kate will be talking about Nimbus at the Virtualization Workshop co-located with OSG All Hands Meeting in Baton Rouge, LA.

    At the same workshop, you will hear about how STAR scientists are using Nimbus in the "STAR & Virtualization" talk and Alex Younts will talk about his experiences running the Wispy Cloud at Purdue on TeraGrid resources.

  • BLAST virtual cluster available on Nimbus
    Feb 12, 2009

    Andrea Matsunaga and Mauricio Tsugawa have contributed a new image to the marketplace that lets you form a Hadoop/MPI cluster on the fly using Nimbus contextualization technology. The cluster is set up to run NCBI BLAST or mpiBLAST, see the marketplace description for all the details.

    On the Teraport cloud this has been linked into your personal directory, give it a go! You need to download the cluster XML file from the marketplace. If you've never launched a self-configuring virtual cluster before, the best way to learn is from this walkthrough.

  • Talk: Turn your cluster into a Cloud with Nimbus
    Feb 11, 2009

    Update: find the slides from the talk here.

    Kate will be in Silicon Valley on the 11th to discuss Nimbus and many cloud computing topics and trends.

    See this page for details. See you there!

  • Talk: Cloud Computing with Nimbus
    Jan 29, 2009

    Update: find the slides from the talk here.

    Computing Techniques Seminar

    Thursday, January 29, 2pm. Feynman Computing Center, Fermilab.

    Abstract:

    Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) cloud computing is emerging as a viable alternative to the acquisition and management of physical resources. But what exactly is cloud computing and to what extent can it be used to meet the needs of scientific applications?

    In this talk, I will give an overview of cloud computing and describe Nimbus -- a toolkit that provides an open source, EC2-compatible IaaS implementation as well as tools that enable, for example, the creation of tightly-coupled clusters such as are often used in science.

    I will describe how applications drove the development of various Nimbus capabilities and how they use these capabilities today on Amazon EC2 and the Science Clouds. Finally, I will discuss the emerging trends in cloud computing and discuss how they can benefit science.

  • VTDC 09 Call for Papers
    Jan 21, 2009

    The call for papers for VTDC 2009 is out. This is the 3rd workshop on Virtualization Technologies in Distributed Computing, taking place June 15th in Barcelona, Spain.

    See the homepage for CFP and other workshop details.

  • Nimbus TP2.2 released!
    Jan 09, 2009

    The main new features provided in this release are an EC2 metadata server (can be used with both EC2 and WSRF remote interfaces) and a standalone context broker that allows you to contextualize virtual clusters on both EC2 and Nimbus, and even virtual clusters spanning across virtual clusters.

    You can download the new release here

    The full changelog can be found here