Administrator's Guide: How to set up a gCube infrastructure

A gCube infrastructure is a set of working nodes (so-called gHNs, gCube Hosting Nodes) glued by the gCube enabling services and able to host gCube services in a cooperative way. When creating a new infrastructure, there are two kinds of configuration: secure configuration and non-secure configuration.

Non-secure configuration

Minimal deployment scenario

In this section, we report the steps to setup a gCube infrastructure with one Virtual Organization (VO):

1. decide the scope hierarchy configuration, i.e. the names of the Infrastructure and of the VO
2. identify a set of machines to turn on as gHNs (their number may vary depending on the infrastructure needs)
3. prepare a Service Map file for each scope (Infrastructure and VO)
4. setup the Infrastructure:
   1. identify 3 machines to dedicate to the Infrastructure Enabling Services
   2. install gCore in the 3 machines and copy the two Service Map files under the $GLOBUS_LOCATION/config folder
   3. configure the first gHN to join to the infrastructure scope and
      • deploy and configure a IS-Collector instance and configure it to join the infrastructure scope
   4. configure the second gHN as ROOT and to join to the infrastructure scope and
      • deploy and configure a IS-Registry instance and configure it to join the infrastructure scope
      • deploy and configure a IS-Notifier instance and configure it to join the infrastructure scope
   5. configure the third gHN to join it to the infrastructure scope and
      • deploy a Software Repository instance and configure it to join both the infrastructure and the VO scope
      • deploy a VREManager instance and configure it to join the infrastructure scope
   6. start the 3 containers following the order of the deployments and verify that they work properly
5. setup the VO
   1. identify 3 machines to dedicate to the VO Enabling Services
   2. install gCore in the 3 machines and copy the Service Map files under the $GLOBUS_LOCATION/config' folder
   3. configure the first gHN to join to the VO scope and
      • deploy the IS-Collector and configure it to join the VO scope
   4. configure the second gHN as ROOT and to join to the VO scope and
      • deploy and configure a IS-Registry instance and configure it to join the VO scope
      • deploy and configure a IS-Notifier instance and configure it to join the VO scope
   5. configure the third gHN to join it to the VO scope and
      • deploy and configure a VREModeler instance and configure it to join the VO scope
      • deploy and configure a VREManager instance and configure it to join the VO scope
   6. start the 3 containers following the order of the deployments and verify that they work properly
6. configure and start a few generic gHNs to use for future dynamic deployment activities
   1. install gCore in each machine and copy the Service Map files under the $GLOBUS_LOCATION/config folder
   2. configure the gHNs to join the VO scope
   3. start the container on each machine and verify that the gHN is correctly published both in the infrastructure and in the VO Information Systems.

Other possible configurations

Alternative configurations can improve the infrastructure performances. In particular:

• the IS-Notifier can be hosted on a different gHN with respect to the IS-Registry service
• the Software Repository can be hosted on a different gHN with respect to the VREManager service
• multiple Virtual Organizations can be defined and deployed

The 'optimal' configuration mainly depends on the number of available gHNs and on the expected exploitation of the infrastructure. More gHNs joining the infrastructure means a better distribution of resources and services across them.