[Swift-user] using swift in an IP-impoverished environment

[Ben Clifford]

> I want to run swift in my new location, which is an institution with a
> relatively restricted IP allocation and a particular knack for
> centralization. As a result, the entire computer network of my center
> is behind a NAT/Firewall.

> I am exploring options to run swift in this scenario but before
> pursuing them further wanted to consult the collective experience.

Can you run swift on a machine that is behind the firewall? (eg log into a 
cluster head node and run there?)

> 1. Perhaps run via vpn. I can open a vpn connection from a linux 
> machine. That way I obtain a visible IP address. But, the linux client 
> vpn crashes often, which has to do with the microsoft vpn system 
> installed here.  And I am not certain there's a proper hostname 
> associated with the IP obtained via VPN, which, if I understand 
> correctly is a Globus requirement.

Having an unreliable connection will make Swift runs probably a bit 
unreliable, but I don't know how bad that will be.

You don't need a real hostname on your submitting machine. You might need 
to set an environment variable GLOBUS_HOSTNAME to your VPN IP address, 
like this in the shell:

  export GLOBUS_HOSTNAME=81.187.211.41

That is what I do to submit from my laptop when I have it in various 
different network locations (where 81.187.211.41 is replaced with whatever 
my IP happens to be at that time)

> 2. Run behind NAT/Firewall. I found a document describing client-side
> reqs for this kind of situation here
> (http://dev.globus.org/wiki/FirewallHowTo section called "Network
> Address Translation (NAT)").
> Does anyone have experience in running swift in this mode?

I've never run it from behind a NAT.

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