Open Science Grid (OSG) Overview

The Open Science Grid (OSG) represents a pivotal effort in advancing open science through the principles and practices of distributed High Throughput Computing (dHTC). By fostering a consortium dedicated to bolstering the state of the art in dHTC, OSG plays a critical role in enabling significant scientific advancements across a variety of disciplines.

The OSG Consortium

OSG’s ecosystem is built upon a consortium model, bringing together researchers, computing resources, and institutions under a collective mission to support open science. The consortium orchestrates pools of shared computing and data capacity, each tailored to the specific needs of different research communities. This collaborative framework ensures that a diverse array of scientific inquiries can leverage high-throughput computing to accelerate discovery and innovation.

Governance and Management

The OSG Council oversees the consortium, aligning OSG’s offerings with the scientific goals of its stakeholders, including research communities and resource providers.
The Executive Team manages the core OSG Team, comprising members from various institutions responsible for delivering the essential technologies and services for dHTC.

Funding and Support

As of January 2022, the core OSG Team receives funding primarily through the NSF PATh project (#2030508) and the IRIS-HEP project (#1836650), alongside in-kind contributions from DOE national laboratories and other entities.

Distributed High Throughput Computing (dHTC)

OSG specializes in distributed high-throughput computing, a methodology that optimizes the execution of numerous self-contained tasks across a vast array of computing resources. This approach maximizes computational efficiency and enables the handling of large-scale scientific problems.

The OSG Fabric of Services

The OSG provides an array of open-source software, technologies, and services designed to meet the dHTC compute requirements of the research community. These offerings enable the creation and operation of virtual clusters, or “pools,” from shared computing and data resources, facilitating seamless access for researchers.

Key Technologies and Services

Global Research Accounting (GRACC): Delivers metrics on capacity contributions and usage across OSG pools, offering detailed insights for institutions and research projects.
Open Science Pool (OSPool): Offers dHTC capacity to research projects in the US, supported by NSF through the PATh project. Access is provided through institutional access points or the OSG Portal.

OSG’s Impact on Research

By democratizing access to computing resources, OSG empowers researchers from various fields to tackle complex scientific questions with unprecedented efficiency. The consortium’s dedication to open science principles ensures that these resources are utilized in a manner that promotes collaboration, transparency, and the broad dissemination of scientific knowledge.

Getting Started with OSG

Researchers interested in leveraging OSG’s resources for their projects can learn more about the available pools, technologies, and access methods by visiting the OSG documentation and exploring the OSG Site Admin documentation for specific software details.

OSG’s commitment to supporting open science through distributed computing continues to be a cornerstone of its mission, enabling the research community to achieve remarkable advancements and innovations.

Knowledge Base

For more information about OSG, including how to contribute or utilize its resources, please visit the Open Science Grid website.