Abstract
Structural bioinformatics applies computational methods to analyze
and model three-dimensional molecular structures. There is a huge
number of applications available to work with structural data on
large scale. Using these tools on distributed computing infrastructures
(DCIs), however, is often complicated due to a lack of suitable interfaces.
The MoSGrid (Molecular Simulation Grid) science gateway provides
an intuitive user interface to several widely-used applications for
structural bioinformatics, molecular modeling, and quantum chemistry.
It ensures the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data
via a granular security concept, which covers all layers of the infrastructure.
The security concept applies SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language)
and allows trust delegation from the user interface layer across
the high-level middleware layer and the Grid middleware layer down
to the HPC facilities. SAML assertions had to be integrated into
the MoSGrid infrastructure in several places: the workflow-enabled
Grid portal WS-PGRADE (Web Services Parallel Grid Runtime and Developer
Environment), the gUSE (Grid User Support Environment) DCI services,
and the cloud file system XtreemFS. The presented security infrastructure
allows a single sign-on process to all involved DCI components and,
therefore, lowers the hurdle for users to utilize large HPC infrastructures
for structural bioinformatics.
Users
Please
log in to take part in the discussion (add own reviews or comments).