Symphony A JavaBased Composition and Manipulation Framework for Computational Grids

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Symphony A Java-Based Composition and
Manipulation Framework for Computational Grids

• Dennis Kafura Markus Lorch

This work is supported by the Virginia
Commonwealth Information Security Center (CISC)
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Organization

• Motivation
• The Symphony Framework
• Security Requirements
• Security Architecture

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Motivation

• Different grid user categories- component
  developer- grid (meta) program
  composer/developer- end user
• Existing grid middleware expose command-line
  interfaces and proprietary APIs and use scripts
  to define meta programs
• Grid portals are build for specific applications
  (PSEs) and use specific grid middleware

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Motivation (contd.)

• Need for a grid abstraction layer, that
• allows grid applications to be quickly composed,
  customized, executed and monitored
• provides a unified API for grid portal and
  application developers, independent of the
  underlying grid middleware
• provides for grid applications that run accross
  several grid middleware systems

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The Symphony Framework

• A component-based framework for creating,
  sharing, composing, and executing (elements of)
  grid applications
• Components abstract local and remotely accessible
  data and software resources through customizable
  JavaBeans (programs, data files, and data
  streams)
• Grid applications defined by linking components
  through data and control flow relationships
• Beans are instantiated and customized (equipped
  with knowledge on the object this bean will be a
  surrogate for)

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The Symphony Framework

• Symphony beans can be customized and
  interconnected either interactively by a user or
  through programmatic means
• Standard composition environment is Suns
  BeanBox. A container supporting collaborative
  work (shared workspace) is Sieve
• Symphony can currently incorporate Globus
  resources (using the Java COG Kit), Symphony
  resouces (RMI) and local resources into a single
  meta program

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Sample Meta Program
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Sample Bean Customization
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Resource Browser
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Security Requirements

• Support for group collaboration- delegation of
  fine grained privileges - combination of
  privileges from sep. sources
• Fine grained enforcement with support for legacy
  applications required
• Support for multiple credentials
• Low overhead setup mechanisms for ad-hoc
  collaborative groups
• Support for short-term temporary users (without
  OS user accounts)

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Proposed Security Mechanisms

• Use proxy certificates as intended for
  authentication
• Convey fine grained rights through attribute
  certificates to enable user collaboration
• Interface grid middleware with POSIX OS
  extentions for portable enforcement of fine
  grained access policies

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Symphony Security Mechanism
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Symphony Security Summary

• Can employ any combination of proxy certificates
  and attribute certificates
• Enables ad-hoc group collaboration through
  user-to-user delegation
• Based on widespread GSI, can incorporate CAS
• Supports legacy applications even for
  fine-grained access policies

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Current and Future Work

• Refining and evaluation of our security
  mechanisms and integration in existing grid
  security architectures.
• Support for additional grid middleware (Legion,
  Unicore)
• Improvement of GUI and transformation into a
  three tier architecture

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Conclusion

• Evaluation version available athttp//symphony.cs
  .vt.edu

Contact

• Markus Lorch ltmlorch_at_vt.edugt
• Dennis Kafura ltkafura_at_vt.edugt