Globus Is Modular

  1. How To Install Individual Components
  2. Separately Installable Components
  3. Further Comments
  4. To Learn More About Packaging
  5. A Related Issue: Globus Security
  6. For More Information

It is a common misconception that the Globus Toolkit is a monolithic entity. This is not true.  Each Globus service can be installed and used independently. For example, if you just want GridFTP, you can install just GridFTP.  No additional software will be installed.  You get just the software needed for GridFTP, and only what you need for GridFTP.

In addition, for those developing new programs and/or services, you can install just the libraries that you need. There are ~150 C libraries, ~100 java libraries, and ~150 WSDL interface descriptions. Each library contains information about the libraries on which it depends.  When a library is installed, a dependency tree is built.  Only the software in that tree is installed.

1. How To Install Individual Components

  1. Download the Globus installer tarfile from www.globus.org/toolkit/downloads/: either source or binary.
  2. Uncompress the installer tarfile.
  3. Configure and install the desired component(s). E.g., for just GridFTP:

        ./configure
        make gridftp

    And for both GridFTP and WS-GRAM:

        ./configure
        make gridftp wsgram

2. Separately Installable Components

There is a list of (some of) the "make targets" (separately installable components) included in GT4. The following are some examples:

  • Services and containers:
    • gridftp: GridFTP data transfer service
    • gsi-myproxy, myproxy: MyProxy service
    • prewsgram: Pre-webservices GRAM (aka GRAM2)
    • rls: Replica Location Service
    • wsc: C WS core, for building new services in C
    • wscas: Community Authorization Service
    • wsdel: Delegation Service
    • wsgram: GRAM4 job submission service
    • wsjava: Java WS Core, for developing new Java services
    • wsmds: MDS4 monitoring and discovery services
    • wsrft: Reliable File Transfer service
  • Libraries:
    • i18n: Internationalization libraries
    • globus_xio: eXtensible I/O library
    • globus-gsi: Grid Security Infrastructure library
  • Clients:
    • globus_gass_copy: globus-url-copy
    • globus_crft_util: C RFT client
    • globus_globusrun_ws: globusrun-ws c client
  • Tests:
    • wstests: Tests for java webservices
    • wsctests: Tests for C webservices
    • prews-test: Tests for pre-webservices components

3. Further Comments

The process required in Step #2 requires that you download all Globus software just to install a single component. However, once that component is installed, you can delete the installer and with it all unwanted components.

We adopt this approach out of convenience, not necessity. Since network transfer rates tend to be high these days, we believe that it is more convenient to give our users everything in one set and allow them to choose what they want rather than have several confusing web pages describing dependency information.

For users who do not want to download the entire toolkit, we do provide the tool make-packages.pl.  This less user-friendly tool downloads only the components that have been requested for installation.

4. To Learn More About Packaging

Details: http://www.globus.org/toolkit/docs/4.0/admin/docbook/apb.html

5. A Related Issue: Globus Security

Another misconception is that Globus requires use of public-key-infrastructure (PKI)-based credentials.  This is also not true in the case of GridFTP:

  • GridFTP can be run in a mode using standard SSH security credentials.  This makes installing and configuring a GridFTP server a trivial task.  Most systems run sshd for remote access and therefore have ssh keys already installed on their hosts.  GridFTP can use these keys for authentication with clients. (Details on how to do this will be provided soon.)
  • GridFTP can be run with username/password authentication: not very secure, but easy to use.

(It should be noted that GSI offers many advantages over either of these alternatives: for example, the ability to delegate credentials.  Obviously when not using GSI, GridFTP loses this feature.)

6. For More Information

The best starting point for installing the Globus Toolkit is the QuickStart Guide, which guides you through the process of installing the Globus Toolkit on multiple machines..