Grid Services/Grisu

The Australian Research Collaboration Service’s (ARCS) National Grid provides a standard interface to numerous high performance compute (HPC) systems – each of which is different and quite complex. To view a map of Grid resources, click here.

Grisu is the flexible Grid submission system developed by ARCS. Apart from the user-friendly interface, there are numerous benefits to using the ARCS Grid:

• Users can seamlessly access different HPC systems through one interface.
• The submission system can select the best location for a job when users have accounts at more than one site.
• There is access to more resources and sites through the Grid. If an application is not installed at one computer cluster, it may be accessible at another.
• The Grid future proofs its users from inevitable changes. Users are sheltered from underlying changes to the HPC architecture or job submission systems. ARCS makes any modifications required from system alterations so jobs can continue running.
• The Grid provides a single means of authentication.  Researchers can use their institutional username and password as the basis for accessing the Grid.
• The Grid provides a graphical user interface with an application-specific template using Grisu, the ARCS Grid submission system.
• There is no need to know or understand the different scheduling systems at each site.
• ARCS will assist in acquiring and managing entitlements and access at different sites.
• Users will have access to a wider range of HPC architectures suiting different styles of jobs.
• Users can build workflows that reduce completion times by distributing jobs over multiple resources.
• Developers can access the Grisu application programming interface to build their own custom work flows and application interfaces.

There are many HPC resources and applications users can access on the ARCS National Grid.