Overview
What is it?
ScienceBox is an integrated software bundle with storage and computing services for general purpose and scientific use. It features container based version of distributed scalable storage, sync and share functionalities, and a web-based data analysis service, and can be deployed on a single machine or scaled-out across multiple servers leveraging modern technologies in Helm and Kubernetes.
Service Portfolio and Technology Stack
ScienceBox delivers an integrated set of services for storage, sync&share and data analysis and enables their deployment on a Kubernetes cluster using the Helm package manager:
- EOS: Distributed storage service used at CERN to host all the Physics data and user files.
- CERNBox: The sync and share platform for science that leverages EOS storage and provides cloud-based storage and sharing functionalities. CERNBox is based on the open-source ownCloud Infinite Scale software and expands it by providing tight integration with other services available at CERN.
- SWAN: The Jupyter Notebook service at CERN that provides an advanced data analyis environment through a web interface. SWAN is built on top of the upstream Jupyter software by integrating storage from EOS.
- CVMFS: The service for software distribution at a global scale adopted by the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) for the delivery of experiment analysis software.
Why do I want it?
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What is it good for?: ScienceBox leverages modern technologies like Helm to package the services that could be installed on a kubernetes cluster with just one command, instead of writing yaml manifests.
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What is it not good for?: ScienceBox is a all-in-one package to deploy CERN services, which comes with share of complexity, stacked services and inter-dependencies, if you want to just run SWAN, EOS or CERNBox separately/independently it would be better to look at other deployment options.
Where should I go next?
Head to the Getting Started section to get started with Sciencebox
- Getting Started: Get started with ScienceBox.