| dc.description.abstract | The FusionGrid infrastructure provides a
collaborative virtual environment for secure
sharing of computation, visualization and data
resources over the Internet to support the scientific
needs of the US magnetic fusion community.
Invoking FusionGrid computational services
is typically done through client software
written in, for historical reasons, the commercial
language IDL. Scientists use these clients to
prepare input data and launch FusionGrid computational
services. There are also numerous
web sites throughout the US dedicated to fusion
research, functioning as light-weight single purpose
portals. Within the FusionGrid alone, there
are web sites associated with authentication,
authorization, and monitoring of services. Pubcookie
and MyProxy technology were used to
federate these disparate web sites by enabling
them to authenticate a user by their FusionGrid
ID and then to securely invoke FusionGrid computational
services. As a result of this drop-in
authentication mechanism, portals were created
that allow easier usage of FusionGrid services
by the US fusion community. The shared
authentication mechanism was accomplished by
the integration of Pubcookie’s single sign-on
mechanism with the MyProxy credential
repository that was already in use by the
FusionGrid. This paper will outline the implementation
of the FusionGrid portal technology,
discuss specific use cases for both invoking
secure services and unifying disparate web sites,
present lessons learned from this activity, and
discuss future work. | |
