UC-cern-middleware
From EGI Knowledge Base
Use Case title: Middleware releases and security updates’ propagation to Grid sites.
Short description: Grid Deployment suffer today from the difficulty to reach users and site administrators when a package or a configuration parameter changes. Release notes, twiki pages and news’ broadcasts are not efficient enough.
Actors involved: Developers of automated, distributed tools for configuration updates. Experts of collaborative work. User supporters.
Related Requirement: To provide mechanisms for ensuring documentation quality, update, distribution, retrieval, search and push to the designated partner.
Pre-conditions: (optional) Complete restructuring of authority amongst deployers, users, supporters and site administrators is necessary. Publicity and User Support effort should be important and sustained.
Steps: The actual steps required, so that the use case can be materialised. 1. Deployers to define quality standards for developers. Agree on update frequency. Manage exceptions. 2. Security experts to provide procedures and tools for high priority propagation of security fixes. 3. Make resource availability and up-to-dateness a frequently audited prerequisite for the viability of a site/VO/user in the Grid community. 4. .Invest effort in automating updates’ propagation and authorised installation on target nodes. Post-conditions (optional): Audit, monitoring and security update procedures should be well established and applied for the Grid to be more easily accessible but remain secure.
Project(s) involved (optional): The following activities today take place informally on the side but should become projects: - Middleware release tools and paraphernalia (e.g. CRL and library updates). - Procedures and tools for Security updates’ propagation. Middleware (optional): All packages should be equipped with a change propagation wrapper. Application(s) (optional): The following are subject to development for updates’ automation: - Changes of VO application software installed on Grid nodes. - Software repositories, ID cards, Operations’ databases on Grid-wide resources. - Monitoring tools for site, VO and users’ update status and availability. - Information dissemination tools: documentation, web pages, newsletters.
