iRODS Overview
February 2016
Agenda
• (Re-)Introduction
• What is iRODS?
• Getting Started
• How iRODS Is Used
• Future Directions
• Discussion
Introduction
iRODS is free, open source software owned by a foundation called the iRODS Consortium.
Goal is to sustain iRODS as free open source software by:
▹ Building good software. ▹ Growing the iRODS community. ▹ Demonstrating value.
Funds a team of 10+ developers, application engineers, documentation, support staff
The iRODS Consortium and Sustainability
Contract Customers
and more ...
Meet the Team
What is iRODS?
Policy-Based Data Management
The Integrated Rule-Oriented Data System:
• Open Source
• Manages data for indefinite lifespan
• Metadata and event-triggered rules
Designed to work with big, important, and/or complex data
Example applications:
• Combining data from multiple sources
• Annotation and search
• Tiered storage
• Preservation
• Sharing in place
Data
Virtualization
Data
Discovery
Workflow
Automation
Secure
Collaboration
Data Virtualization
Data Discovery
Workflow Automation
Secure Collaboration
The Four Pillars
← all your storage in a single namespace
← system and user-generated metadata
← event-driven and scheduled cron → policies
← federation
iRODS Clients
• Web-based and Standalone GUIs
- iRODS Cloud Browser, MetaLnx, Kanki, Cyberduck
• Portals, External Systems
- iPlant Discovery Environment, Islandora, Fedora Commons
• WebDAV for drag-and-drop access built in to the OS
• APIs: Python, REST, Qt, Java, C++
• Command Line Interface
Getting Started
User Group Meeting
Initial Trial
Proof of Concept to Pilot
Production
Building Community and Demonstrating Value
https://irods.org/documentation/
Getting Plugged In with iRODS...
How iRODS Is Used
User Profile: NASA Atmospheric Science Data Center
• 2 PB of archived satellite data
• Publicly available, subsetting on demand
• In-house ingest and archiving software: ANGe (Archive Next Generation)
Virtual Collections
ls –l
/CER_100100.2012053100
/CER_100100.2012053100.met
/CER_100100.2012053101
/CER_100100.2012053101.met
/CER_100100.2012053102
/CER_100100.2012053102.met
Visibility determined by "visibility attribute"
Logical collection of files spread across physical storage resources.
Single Interface to Multiple Clients
WebDAV, FUSE, Web UI, Cyberduck
REST, Python, R, Java C++
(And more!)
Federation
User Profile:
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
• Viral Vector Core creates designer viruses:
request⟶transfection and amplification⟶sample delivery⟶reports
• Uses iRODS to combine, organize, and analyze sets of requests and instrument results
• Produces packaged results in response to researcher requests
• Quarterly cost reports for chargeback and trend analysis for quality control
User Profile: University College London
• Repository for research data that spans social science, physics, and genomics
• UK sponsored research requirements: last date of access request plus 10 years
• iRODS spans storage technologies and enables federated access from other centres
User Profile: Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
• Key genomics research centre
• 7 PB of storage managed by iRODS
Rich Metadata
attribute: library
attribute: total_reads
attribute: type
attribute: lane
attribute: is_paired_read
attribute: study_accession_number
attribute: library_id
attribute: sample_accession_number
attribute: sample_public_name
attribute: manual_qc
attribute: tag
attribute: sample_common_name
attribute: md5
Replication and Federation
User Profile: CyVerse
User Profile: Antelope RTS Sensor Integration
Future Directions
In Parallel
• Reference implementations, plugins, clients
iRODS 4.2
• Pluggable Rule Engine: Automation in Python, any language; provability
• Cleaner install and configuration
• Continued advancement of enterprise message bus
iRODS 4.3
• Maintenance Release
iRODS 4.4
• Universal Metadata Access (GQV2)
• Next Generation API
• Pluggable Transport
iRODS 5
• Advanced Zone Management
• Plugin Registry
Initial Trial
Proof of Concept to Pilot
Production
Building Community and Demonstrating Value
https://irods.org/documentation/
Getting Plugged In with iRODS...
Discussion
Thank You!