Grid monitoring: a holistic approach

Computational grids involve the intersection of different geographically distributed communities: the resourceusers and the resource-providers. Grid monitoring is required by various super-sets of these communities as everyone wants to know something about how the Grid is performing. Many grid monitoring systems have a top-down prescriptive approach. Grid monitoring is often considered separable from the monitoring of non-grid elements within a functioning grid site. This schism can result in grid monitoring ignoring existing technologies, often requiring some form of bridging between different systems. In this paper, the key interested parties of grid monitoring are discussed along with what information they are interested in. The three-component model of monitoring systems is presented and illustrated with examples. From this model, we deduce the concept of a universal sensor and discuss its role in providing different information to different people. The MonAMI project is introduced with its aim of providing an implementation of a universal sensor. Possible uses of MonAMI are discussed.