Introduction to Portals

2 Acknowledgements Dharmesh Chohan Rob Allan

3 Overview What is a portal? How does it use certificates?

4 NGS portal: en route Need to run jobs, access data, … from different machines and places – but do NOT want to –carry certificate everywhere – install GT2 before you can use any commands or resources Uses of a portal: –simple tasks can be achieved easily from a browser, via a portal –easy interface to the Information Service –Grids are about people collaborating, so give tools for this! (chat etc) Prototype portal is being prepared for 2nd release in a few weeks – building on current portlet standards and containers

5 What is a portal? GLOBUS, etc. Command-line interfaces Portal Browser User’s Interface to the grid

6 Example GENIUS on the GILDA testbed Run by INFN and University of Catania, by Dr Roberto Barbera and colleagues Demo portal is openly accessible: –

7 Certificates, MyProxy Rather than storing your Grid credentials on each machine you use to access the Grid, you can store a proxy in a MyProxy repository and retrieve a proxy credential when needed. MyProxy is part of VDT A MyProxy server is run for the NGS Note: some MyProxy servers are used to store your certificate, or a long-lived proxy. Debates on security continue….

8 Summary MyProxy allows access to stored credentials Portals allow single login by username / password to access the credentials and use grid services User interface is easy and familiar, via browser, cf. command line interfaces Allows access to a grid from any device that can support https and has a browser