[AG-TECH] Grid capabilities

[Thomas D. Uram]

Hi Natalia:

I can answer your questions about grid capabilities in the Access Grid.

AG2 was built on top of Globus, using it for creating proxy certificates
and for network connections between components.  In doing so, it was
laying the groundwork for grid computing wherever it was installed,
by giving users a certificate repository and an installation of Globus
and pyGlobus.

AG3 is built directly on SSL instead of Globus, but has the same
aims as AG2, of enabling grid computing in a collaborative
environment.  By continuing support for user certificates,
grid computing can be performed by installing suitable grid
software (whether C code, or Python, or Java). 

In AG3, data transfer is performed using FTP over SSL.
Certificate manipulations are done using the M2Crypto
Python interface to OpenSSL.

I'm not aware of documentation around these issues, but I hope
to see the AG used more in this way, so eventually that will
change.

If I can be of any other help, please let me know.

Thanks,
Tom


On 8/16/06 6:37 AM, Natalia Costas wrote:
>
> Hi everybody,
>
> I am writing an spanish article about AccessGrid and I would like to 
> know a little bit more about grid capabilities if there are any.
> I have read recently and it seems that globus toolkit is not used 
> anymore in AGTK 3.0. Is that right?
> I was expecting the addition of new grid capabilities to AG. It seemed 
> pretty easy in AGTK 2.x as globus was a part of it, but not in AGTK 
> 3.x (i should reckon I know very little about this last version 
> tough). Maybe grid computing is not considered in the future 
> developments of AGTK?
>
> How data transfer/storage and security/certificates are handled?
> What about job submission?
> Is there any documentation available relating these issues?
>
> I've heard about the development of a shared application to provide 
> with grid functionalities, but i wasnt able to find some more 
> information.
>
> Thanx in advance,
> Best regards,
>