UC-EUMEDGrid-Windows
From EGI Knowledge Base
Use Case title: Accessing e-Infrastructure from Windows platforms
Short description:
Actors involved: End-users and gLite developers
Related Requirement: Users need a simplest interaction with Grid Services from windows platforms.
Pre-conditions: Users are already formed at least once by a WP5 training activity. Users own a personal certificate in order to access to the EUMEDGRID e-Infrastructure
Steps: Offering the opportunity of Grid computing to the large audience of the users of the Microsoft Windows platforms is a strategic issue in order to promote the world-wide diffusion of the Grid paradigm. From both the WP5 experience and WP2 statistics of the EUMEDGRID project a big obstacle to the dissemination of the e-Infrastructure can be related to the low diffusion of Unix/Linux systems on the Mediterranean countries. As the Grid middleware is based on open-source Operating Systems, the integration of Windows applications is not a trivial task, requiring the re-compilation and. Re-build of the client libraries and CLI interfaces. The schema illustrated by Figure 1 has been designed in order to allow a transparent access to Grid resources using the existing software as far as possible. The user deals with a Windows User Interface where grid UI commands are re-compiled to run over a Windows Posix compliant library (Cygwin). This mechanism allows even the execution of native Windows code on a EGEE gLite Infrastructure with minimal changes.
The most important aspects include user authentication, job submission and data management. Computing Element (CE) and Worker Node (WN) are the other key Grid components that have to be integrated into a Windows platform in order to assure interoperability. Starting from the existing Torque/MAUI batch systems, the development of new middleware sections heads towards the replication in a Windows-compatible environment of the services offered by a “common” Grid site.
Post-conditions: Promote the possible adoption of the ported middleware. The access from Windows platforms to the EGEE gLite grid services this will open a wider domain of users.
