ARCHIVED: What is Inca?

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Inca is an automated system for testing and monitoring availability and performance of grid software and hardware. An Inca installation is designed to automate the execution of reporters (i.e., programs that test or measure some aspect of a system or installed software), and to store and display reporter results. For more, see the Inca website.

Inca is running on the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE). Inca improves XSEDE's usability by helping administrators detect and resolve system problems. Inca also can help you, the user, troubleshoot when your job fails to run, or debug problems with the software and services used in your complex workflows.

For XSEDE, Inca currently monitors GRAM usage, CA and CRL validity, and resource registration in MDS. For a list of reporters currently running on XSEDE and their results, see the Inca XSEDE Status Pages. Clicking links in summary pages (see Fig. 1) will take you to more detailed information about the input parameters the test used, when it executed, and what commands it executed.

Fig. 1 Summary pages have clickable links that retrieve detailed information.

These detailed information pages (see Fig. 2) also offer examples of using XSEDE's software and services as configured and reported by the system administrators. You can compare your own commands and environment (e.g., SoftEnv setup) with those used by the automated Inca system to debug problems.

Fig. 2 Detailed information pages let you see the input parameters and commands that were used.

This document was developed with support from National Science Foundation (NSF) grants 1053575 and 1548562. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.