COllaborative VIrtual TEams (COVITE) Project

J.S. Pahwa, P. Burnap, L. Joita, W.A.Gray, O.F.Rana, John Miles

Partners: Cardiff University

ActivePlan Solutions Ltd

Overview

• Project Concept

• The Product Supplier Catalogue Database (PSCD) Application

• Security Management

• Collaboration

• Data Definition

• Data Search

• Conclusions and further work

• AEC (Architecture/ Engineering/ Construction) industry projects involve many individuals and companies forming a consortium for the duration of a project

• Consortia members are geographically dispersed

• Product/Service Manufacturers and Suppliers databases (if existent!) are heterogeneous

• Product/Service Manufacturers’ product information is plentiful and the majority is unstructured and unreachable

Project Concept

The PSCD

The PSCD application – Grid-enabled data management tool that provides the data structure for storing and retrieving information across a number of product suppliers’ databases.

Collaboration occurs between:

• Product Suppliers and Contractors for procurement of supplies

• Product Specification Designers for defining and building industry standards to describe available products

• Members of the Consortium working on a particular construction project which require information on the products

Collaborative Support Consideration

The PSCD

COVITE

Product Class Supplier Databases

Specification Designers

Users/User Groups Supplier Databases managed by suppliers

Poll and connect to relevant databases at runtime

Specification creation and management keep Suppliers up to date

Cardiff University activeplan

PSCDApplication

PCD

Master Data

SecurityService

Cluster of GRID computers

.NET Web Services

.NET Web Services

MasterGrid Service(MGS)

GRID Services

Multiple DatabaseSearch Service(MDSS)

The PSCD

• Software tools used:Apache Tomcat web server, Axis, AntMicrosoft IIS web serverGT3.0.2 coreServlet, ASP, JSP, VBScript, C#

• Resources used on the server side:2 computers in Welsh eScience, in the Grid

network (bouscat, agents-comsc)6 computers in the local network

Grid Security Infrastructure (GSI)

• GSI uses the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), X.509 certificates and Secure Socket Layer (SSL)

• X.509 certificates provide users with a unique global identification

• Authorization to access a resource is controlled by a mapping between the user’s distinguished name and a local Unix/Linux ID via a grid-mapfile

Grid Security Infrastructure (GSI)

• X.509 Certificate:subject : C=UK,O=eScience,OU=Cardiff,L=WeSC,CN=liviu joitaissuer : C=UK,O=eScience,OU=Authority,CN=CA,E=ca-operator@grid-support.ac.ukstart date : Tue Nov 12 15:33:51 GMT 2002end date : Wed Nov 12 15:33:51 GMT 2003

• Distinguished Name:CN=liviu joita,L=WeSC,OU=Cardiff,O=eScience,C=UK

• Main advantages of using GSI:Single sign-onUsers do not have username/passwords, instead

they have public/private key pairs and identity certificates

Security Architecture

1. First, a user has to have a valid proxy certificate. The user submits his proxy certificate, the VO who belongs to and his role within the VO to the Tomcat Authentication Server (AS) via a web interface using JSP - servlet interface.

2. Tomcat AS authenticates the certificate and obtains the local user name for the PSCD application from the grid-mapfile.

3. Tomcat AS passes the local user name, the user role and the VO to the IIS server that runs the PSCD system (which is a .NET web application environment). IIS then matches the username, the role and the VO to its local DB and creates a session for that user.

4. User preferences are applied to the ‘index’ page of the PSCD system and the user is presented with the home page of the application.

Client Side Web Browser

Firewall

TomcatAuthentication

Server

IISApplication

Server

3

PSCD Application

Submit user proxy certificate

2

4

1

The PSCD Authentication Architecture using a valid proxy certificate

Security Architecture1. First, a user has to have a valid proxy

certificate on the MyProxy Server machine. 2. The user submits his username/password

pair credentials, the VO who belongs to and his role within the VO to the Tomcat Authentication Server (AS) via a web interface using JSP - servlet interface.

3. Tomcat AS uses the username/password pair to authenticate and authorize the user against his proxy certificate from MyProxy server

4. Tomcat AS authenticates the proxy certificate uploaded from MyProxy server and obtains the local username for the PSCD application from the Grid-map file.

5. Tomcat AS passes the local user name the user role and the VO to the IIS server that runs the PSCD system (which is a .NET web application environment). IIS then matches the user name to its local DB and creates a session for that user.

6. User preferences are applied to the ‘index’ page of the PSCD system and the user is presented with the home page of the application.

The PSCD Authentication Architecture using username/password credentials

Client Side Web Browser

Submit username/password

1

Firewall

Tomcat Authentication Server

MyProxy Server

IISApplication

Server

2

3

4

5

6

PSCD Application

The Product Class

• A standard product definition for providing product information.

• Acts as a template and provides meta information for creating actual product information.

• Is made up of a number of specifications conforming to different specification types.

• Can be used by Product Suppliers for population of product information in their databases.

The Product Class Database

• A tool for creating Product Classes and Product Class Specifications.

• Enables Product Class versioning.

• Releases Product Class for subscription by Product Suppliers.

• Provides meta information for building product search criteria.

Sub Product Class Specification

Specification Group

Specification

Sub-Specification Group

Table Spec

List Specification

Product Class Specification

Specification

Value

Table Specification

List of Column Specifications where each column specification has list of values relative to other column specification values.

List Specification

Value

Value

…

Product Class

The Product Class and its various specification types

Product Class Versioning

• New products emerge• Existing products evolve and are assigned

more attributes• New versions created and assigned• Product suppliers notified• New classes downloaded

Product Class Subscription

Table

Table

…

Table

Table

…

XmlParse

Service

<xml> … … …</xml>

Product Catalogue Database

Transport Layer

Transport Layer

Product Supplier Database

Product Class Database Structure

Product Class

Product Category Product Class Version

Product Class DefinitionCategory Hierarchy

Category

Specification List Version Specification Group Version

Table Version

List Specification

Sub Product Class Version

Specification Group

Table Specification

Sub Product Class Definition

List DefinitionSpecification Group Definition

Table Definition

Sub Product Class

Data Search

• Information held by large number of data sources in a Wide Area Network.

• Access to such information held by large number of organisations.

• Information processing with aid of independent mechanisms, and

• Sharing of information with those who need it.

Objectives

• Searching autonomously managed data sources external to the Grid Environment.

• Processing, analysing and sharing information in real time.

• Collaborative working.• Collation of searched datasets.• Optimisation of data access operations.• Web Services support throughout.• Use of single proxy.

The Approach

• Does a data source really need to be “Grid Enabled” to provide data access support to the Grid Environment?

- may be not.

• Instead, why not just Grid enable the data access process?

- grid enabled data sources and grid enabled data access are two different things.

The MDSS

• A virtual distributed database search model.• A database centric Grid service for accessing and

processing information from large number of data sources.

• Searches supplier data sources based on a search criteria.

• Enables a channel for product suppliers for advertising products to a large user base.

• Built using Globus Toolkit 3.0.2 (Core).

The Search

• What to search?

- a search criteria submitted by the user.• Where to search?

- data sources that match user’s request.• What are the available resources to propagate the

search?

- the available Database Search Services in the MDSS

Search CriteriaWhere to Search? <NewDataSet> <Supplier> <IDSupplier>1</IDSupplier> <SupplierWS>http://131.251.42.40/test/categories.asmx</SupplierWS> </Supplier> …</NewDataSet>

Available GSHs <NewDataSet> <GridServiceHandle> <IDGsh>1</IDGsh> <GSH>http://131.251.42.40:8080/ogsa/services/DatabaseSearchService</GSH> </GridServiceHandle> <GridServiceHandle> <IDGsh>2</IDGsh> <GSH>http://131.251.47.110:18080/ogsa/services/DatabaseSearchService</GSH> </GridServiceHandle> …</NewDataSet>

MDSS Architecture

Two major components:• Master Grid Service: identify resources available,

register new resources, job allocation, data parsing and data aggregation.

• Database Search Service: data search, data aggregation, data parsing, collaborative working.

- MDSS Architecture -

WS Layer WS Layer WS LayerWS Layer WS Layer WS Layer

Grid DB Search ServiceGrid DB Search Service Grid DB Search Service

Apache Axis Soap Server

<<soap messages >> <<soap messages >><<soap messages >>

Master Grid Service * Metadata Query *Job Allocation Grid Service * Collation of datasets

Single user

VO

Active Plan (Search Criteria Specified here)

MetadataProduct Classes

Grid Engine(based on the OGSA Model)

Supplier databases

GSH Document

Parser

Supplier Document

Parser

Xml Converter

Database Search Service

Job Execution

Grid Service Manager

Data Aggregation

Master Grid

Service

OGSA Container

Master Grid Service Modules

MDSS Design Features

• Ability to register new data sources.• Ability to enhance MDSS capability by adding more

machines in the Grid cluster.• Supplier databases free of Grid Complexities.• Ability to identify data sources to be searched in real

time.• Distribute search equally among available GSHs.• New instance of Database Search Service for each

operation.

Conclusions & Further Work

• Product Class creation, versioning, subscription and search.

• Peer Review System.

• Multiple instances of Master Grid Services.

• Data Streaming.

• Data Caching.

• Memory Resident databases.

Demonstration

Please visit Welsh e-Science booth for the demonstration of the grid enabled PSCD Application between 1300 -1400 today.

Questions?