Many universities and research organizations are actively planning and implementing Grid technology as a tool to enable researchers, faculty and students to participate more broadly in science and other collaborative research and academic initiatives. However, there are numerous technologies, processes, standards and tools included under the "Grid umbrella" and understanding these various elements, as well as their likely evolution, is critical to the successful planning and implementation of grid-based projects and programs. This community-driven "Grid Technology Cookbook" is intended to educate faculty and campus technical professionals about the current best practices and future directions of this technology to enable effective deployment and participation at local, regional and national levels.

There is immediate need within the advanced scientific application community for effective resources and references that illustrate the planning, deployment and usage of grid technologies. Supporters of the Grid Cookbook include recognized grid experts from various communities and organizations including SURAgrid, the Open Science Grid, the Louisiana State University Center for Computation and Technology (CCT), and the European Enabling Grids for E-Science (EGEE) project. Writing and review teams have been (and continue to be) drawn from these known supporters and also through a continued open Call for Participation to insure that this Grid Cookbook is broadly vetted, relevant, and useful.

The Grid Cookbook is made available freely over the Internet as an online-readable document and in hard copy at a small fee for cost recovery. The Grid Cookbook has been designed to serve as both a reference and a model for grid technology education (such as preparatory reading for seminars and classes); reproduction for non-profit educational purposes will be granted to encourage and increase dissemination. We also encourage its use to leverage the development and creation of additional educational opportunities within the community.

This cookbook has been developed with three, possibly overlapping, audiences in mind:

	Beginners, higher level administrators, those just curious
	Programmers or those ready to consider using grid services
	Those considering or responsible for building a grid (for the first time)
	General material of interest to all readers of the Cookbook

This cookbook has been designed from general to specific, from introductory to advanced. The early sections provide a general introduction of the material. Later sections give actual programming examples and generic (and eventually real) installation examples. Depending on your experience level, here are some guidelines on sections that may be of most interest to you:

	Acknowledgements	Please don't miss this section! Read up on who had a hand in writing and producing this resource.
	Preface	This section covers the why, who, and how of getting the most out of your reading of the Cookbook.
	Introduction	We start from the beginning with what a grid is, an overview of how grids work, what resources you're likely to find on a grid, and who can access grid resources.
	History, Standards & Directions	Where are the standards? We discuss this in light of well-known initiatives that are developing standards in foundational areas such as grid architecture, scheduling, resource management, data access, and security.
	What Grids Can Do For You	We describe the payoffs you will see using grids: access to resources, performance improvements, speedup of results, and collaboration enhancements. We also highlight trends in computational and networked services offered via grids and describe a future view of a ubiquitous "grid of grids".
	Grid Case Studies	We present several examples of applications that benefit from the use of grids along with overviews of some multi-purpose grid initiatives. Both of these are intended to give you ideas on how such benefits can be realized within your own computational strategies.
	Current Technology for Grids	We give an overview of the typical components found in grid architectures from user interface, to resource discovery and management, to grid system administration and monitoring. Pointers to popular grid products in each area are included.
	Programming Concepts & Challenges	We present guidelines on how to work with specific grid services and toolkits, including programming examples. Scheduling resources, job submission (and monitoring and management), data access, security, workflow processing and network communications are covered.
	Joining a Grid: Procedures & Examples	This section includes overviews of two grid initiatives that are open to new participants and provide an environment for peer-to-peer learning and support. In future versions of the Cookbook, we hope to add more detail on designing your own grid and grid-to-grid integration.
	Typical Usage Examples	This section walks through several examples to show variety among grid applications and approaches to workflow and user interface.
	Related Topics	Other related things are helpful, if not important, in understanding and deploying grids. Networks form the virtual bus that interconnects grid nodes. Knowing how to plan your manpower is key. These things can be found here.
	My Favorite Tips	This section provides an interactive space for readers to share tips and techniques for successful grid design, development and use.
	Glossary	A number of excellent glossaries for grid technologies exist. We offer links to those resources as well as any additional terminology required for the use of this resource.
	Appendices	In this section, we provide a full bibliography plus valuable peripheral topics such as resources for further reading and reference, links to grid software distributions, links to mailing lists and other interactive forums, and a brief introduction to benchmarks and performance.

You should find this cookbook fairly straightforward to navigate. But lets go over a few of its features and tools:

Toolbar

First, you are likely to notice the toolbar where you will find the usual suspects:

Search

To use the Search tool (developed by iSearch), enter your search text into the box that appears in the right of the toolbar. Click on Search.

Upon entering your search criteria, you'll see a "Google-like" response:

Notice that you have another search box at the bottom if you want to change or further your search.

Table of Contents

The left hand table of contents:

will expand up to two level of subtopics:

Menu Bar and Content

Lastly, the content area will include a menu bar and the actual section content. The top menu bar shows the navigation path taken to get to this spot. You can also traverse backwards by clicking on the bold topic items. For instance, in this example you can go back to see all topics under "Current Technology for Grids" by clicking on the bold text.

We hope you find this easy to use. But please contact us if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for the cookbook by using our feedback form at Contact.