Transparent Integration of Opportunistic Resources into the WLCG Compute Infrastructure

The inclusion of opportunistic resources, for example from High Performance Computing (HPC) centers or cloud providers, is an important contribution to bridging the gap between existing resources and future needs by the LHC collaborations, especially for the HL-LHC era. However, the integration of these resources poses new challenges and often needs to happen in a highly dynamic manner. To enable an effective and lightweight integration of these resources, the tools COBalD and TARDIS are developed at KIT. In this contribution we report on the infrastructure we use to dynamically offer opportunistic resources to collaborations in the World Wide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG). The core components are COBalD/TARDIS, HTCondor, CVMFS and modern virtualization technology. The challenging task of managing the opportunistic resources is performed by COBalD/TARDIS. We showcase the challenges, employed solutions and experiences gained with the provisioning of opportunistic resources from several resource providers like university clusters, HPC centers and cloud setups in a multi VO environment. This work can serve as a blueprint for approaching the provisioning of resources from other resource providers

Ceph Day for Research and Non-profits

CephFS is used as the shared file system of the HTC cluster for physicists of various fields in Bonn since beginning of 2018. The cluster uses IP over InfiniBand. High performance for sequential reads is achieved even though erasure coding and on-the-fly compression are employed. CephFS is complemented by a CernVM-FS for software packages and containers which come with many small files. Operational experience with CephFS and exporting it via NFS Ganesha to users' desktop machines, upgrade experiences, and design decisions e.g. concerning the quota setup will be presented. Additionally, Ceph RBD is used as backend for a libvirt/KVM based virtualisation infrastructure operated by two institutes replicated across multiple buildings. Backups are performed via regular snapshots which allows for differential backups using open-source tools to an external backup storage. Via file system trimming through VirtIO-SCSI and compression of the backups, significant storage is saved. Writeback caching allows to achieve sufficient performance. The system has been tested for resilience in various possible failure scenarios

Allosteric β-propeller signalling in TolB and its manipulation by translocating colicins

The Tol system is a five-protein assembly parasitized by colicins and bacteriophages that helps stabilize the Gram-negative outer membrane (OM). We show that allosteric signalling through the six-bladed beta-propeller protein TolB is central to Tol function in Escherichia coli and that this is subverted by colicins such as ColE9 to initiate their OM translocation. Protein-protein interactions with the TolB beta-propeller govern two conformational states that are adopted by the distal N-terminal 12 residues of TolB that bind TolA in the inner membrane. ColE9 promotes disorder of this 'TolA box' and recruitment of TolA. In contrast to ColE9, binding of the OM lipoprotein Pal to the same site induces conformational changes that sequester the TolA box to the TolB surface in which it exhibits little or no TolA binding. Our data suggest that Pal is an OFF switch for the Tol assembly, whereas colicins promote an ON state even though mimicking Pal. Comparison of the TolB mechanism to that of vertebrate guanine nucleotide exchange factor RCC1 suggests that allosteric signalling may be more prevalent in beta-propeller proteins than currently realized

The BGOOD experiment at ELSA Exotic structures in the strange quark sector?

The BGOOD photoproduction experiment accesses forward meson angles and low momentum exchange kinematics in the uds sector, which may be sensitive to molecular-like hadronic structure. Recent highlights are summarised in these proceedings

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The BGO-OD experiment at the ELSA accelerator facility uses an energy tagged bremsstrahlung photon beam to investigate the excitation structure of the nucleon via meson photoproduction. The setup with a BGO calorimeter surrounding the target and an open dipole spectrometer covering the for ward region is ideally suited for investigating low momentum transfer processes, in particular in strangeness photoproduction. The associated photoproduction of K0S and hyperons is essential to understand the role of K* exchange mech anisms. A cusp-like structure observed in the yp → K0SΣ+ reaction at the K* threshold is described by models including dynamically generated resonances from vector meson-baryon interactions. Such interactions are pre dicted to give a peak like structure in K0SΣ0 photoproduction off the neutron. A very preliminary cross section is determined and compared to the prediction, the results appear to support the mode

K0SΣ0 photoproduction at the BGO-OD experiment

The BGO-OD experiment at the ELSA accelerator facility uses an energy tagged bremsstrahlung photon beam to investigate the excitation structure of the nucleon via meson photoproduction. The setup with a BGO calorimeter surrounding the target and an open dipole spectrometer covering the for ward region is ideally suited for investigating low momentum transfer processes, in particular in strangeness photoproduction. The associated photoproduction of K0S and hyperons is essential to understand the role of K* exchange mech anisms. A cusp-like structure observed in the yp → K0SΣ+ reaction at the K* threshold is described by models including dynamically generated resonances from vector meson-baryon interactions. Such interactions are pre dicted to give a peak like structure in K0SΣ0 photoproduction off the neutron. A very preliminary cross section is determined and compared to the prediction, the results appear to support the mode

Λ(1405) photoproduction at the BGO-OD experiment

Since the discovery of the Λ(1405), it remains poorly described by conventional constituent quark models, and it is a candidate for having an “exotic” meson-baryon or “penta-quark” structure, similar to states recently reported in the hidden charm sector. The Λ(1405) can be produced in the reaction γp K+Λ(1405). The pure I=0 decay mode into Σ0π0 is prohibited for the mass-overlapping Σ(1385). Combining a large aperture forward magnetic spectrometer and a central BGO crystal calorimeter, the BGO-OD experiment is ideally suited to measure this decay with the K+ in the forward direction. Preliminary results are presented. *Supported by DFG (PN 388979758, 405882627

η’ beam asymmetry at threshold using the BGO-OD experiment

The unexpected nodal structure of the beam asymmetry recently reported by the GRAAL collaboration in η′ photoproduction very close to threshold could be explained by a previously unobserved narrow resonance. The BGO-OD experiment is ideally suited to verify this measurement via the detection of forward going charged particles which in the threshold region of interest allows the identification of the reaction γp → η′ p solely based on the proton going in the forward direction. This yields unprecedented statistics if, in the missing mass analysis of the η′ meson, the background can be sufficiently well controlled. Preliminary results using a linearly polarised photon beam are shown. The reaction γp → η′ p was identified in the BGO forward spectrometer, with simulated data used to seperate signal and background