GRNET Greek Research & Education Network GRNET Simple Storage – GSS Ioannis Liabotis, Panos Louridas Amsterdam, June 2007

2 Outline An introduction to GSS Authorisation & Authentication GSS Functionality GUI Access API Access Storage Architecture Future steps

3 What is GSS? GSS will provide free storage for the Greek research & academic community; initially 5 Gbytes for each person Users will be able to upload, share, and index their files Thin & Thick GUI access will be provided Direct API access will be provided, enabling third parties to build functionality on top Inspired by Amazon S2, but going beyond…

4 Authentication & Authorisation (AA) GSS will use Shibboleth for AA GRNET has prepared a Shibboleth infrastructure for all institutions in Greece At the current stage, three universities have Shibbolethised their AA process: NTUA, AUTH, UoPatras (total number of users > 50,000) GSS will not offer other AA means (e.g., direct LDAP), but will be a carrot for other institutes to Shibbolethise their processes. Initially, all users will be equals

5 User Functionality GSS will offer users a file system abstraction, complete with file/folder hierarchical structures All usual file system operations will be offered Users will also be able to share their files with selected other users, or defined user groups Users will be able to delete files permanently, or use a trash can GSS will enable users to version their files automatically Full text search will be provided

6 GUI Access Thin web client using AJAX Thick client using Java WebDAV access to enable integration with window managers All user interfaces will offer about the same set of functionality

7 GUI Preview

8 API Access GSS will offer two APIs: REST and SOAP Both APIs will offer the same set of functionality Both APIs will be published GSS will encourage third parties to write applications on top of the provided APIs

9 Architecture SATA disks on a SAN – around 140 TBytes GPFS for data transfer All GSS functionality provided on the application layer via application server farms Application layer implemented in Java

10 Logical Topology Shibboleth (GRNET)

11 Storage Architecture – Connection with GRNET3

12 Storage Architecture – SAN

13 Future Steps Rollout complete application – currently at the prototype level Allow extra functionality on top of the initial one: offering the capability to upload virtual machines so as to move from hosting storage to hosting computation elements Increase infrastructure depending on use Open to suggestions