This topic of using Golbus Connect vs another form of web based client is
interesting, and relevant to our situation as well.
As Markus pointed out, while the Globus Connect client is extremely useful
the ports used (outbound tcp 2223 and 5-51000 if I recall) are commonly
blocked by organizations. I've encountered this several times when trying
to get remote users set up to use our end points in Globus Online. At that
point, using Globus Connect and Globus Online as a simple, easy way to
move your data comes to a halt - through no fault of Globus of course, it
has to use ports of course.
If there were a web deployable (ruby, python, node.js or tomcat [please not
tomcat]) gateway which could allow a user to authenticate to Globus Online
and the endpoint, it could (I believe) help make using Globus easier for
users in this situation. They could then at least be able to upload data,
though if outbound ports are blocked, and traffic could only go out via 80
and 443, this would mean single stream transfers and slow transfer rates so
I'm not sure how practical this is in the long run.
Perhaps another option might be to allow a proxy to be configured in the
Globus Connect client so that the outbound myproxy and data traffic could
be directed through a single point to enable organizations to better
monitor such traffic, as they are naturally reluctant to allow outbound
traffic from these ports from all devices on their network.
It might also be helpful to have information on the Globus Connect site for
users to verify connectivity to relay.globusonline.com and something
listening on port 5 so they could check via
telnet relay.globusonline.org 2223
telnet somthing.listenting.com 5
(It would be nice to have a a Check Network Compatibility button on the
Globus Connect Download page verify outbound ports, that's of course that
is tricky. For web based tools, I've really only found services like
http://www.firebind.com which use a java client to do so, or some binary
client etc. the user must download which is non-optima. I guess a simple
node.js, apache etc. web server running on port 2223 and 5 with links
to it and a You connected might work - though since http headers would be
used it might be allowed if packet inspecting firewalls allowed outbound
http on ports other than 80.)
I know there is not really a magic answer to all this, but I find myself
coming back to these points. I would like to use Globus more, and have
several instances where people need to download and upload multi terabyte
sized data sets, but the number of steps currently includes: Needing a GO
account, an account on the end-point, installing they GO client, having
outbound ports open (which they usually don't know until this point)
configuring the client, etc. I fully appreciate how easy Globus Online
makes transferring data, but for many users the above is too much to ask.
From a researcher or collaborator perspective I believe they tend to think
why can't I just just ftp or scp and be done with it? Of course we know
why, but that does not improve the above for them.
Pete
On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 10:36 AM, Guillermo Marco Puche
guillermo.ma...@sistemasgenomicos.com wrote:
On 03/13/2013 02:56 PM, Brock Palen wrote:
Just to add my $0.02 Xsede uses a Java (I personally detest the thing)
gridftp client.
You can run it locally or in a webpage. Not sure how it is licensed or how to
add your own endpoints.
I suppose you're making reference to GSI-SSH client?
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gsi-sshterm/
Brock Palenwww.umich.edu/~brockp
CAEN Advanced computingbro...@umich.edu(734)936-1985
On Mar 13, 2013, at 6:21 AM, Guillermo Marco Puche
guillermo.ma...@sistemasgenomicos.com
guillermo.ma...@sistemasgenomicos.com wrote:
Hello Markus,
Could I see the solution you implemented? Did you use any API to start
developing your frontend?
Thank you.
Best regards,
Guillermo.
On 03/13/2013 10:24 AM, Markus Binsteiner wrote:
Guillermo,
I don't think there exists a webclient for GridFTP, apart from the one
that is part of GlobusOnline. And even with GlobusOnline you can't
upload files. They would have to use GlobusConnect, which they need to
install on their desktop machine. GlobusConnect is basically a gridftp
server, just bundled up for easy install, without having to worry (too
much) about the authentication side of things.
Once that is installed, users can kick off (and monitor) transfers from
the GlobusOnline website. Since that will be a 3rd party gridftp
transfer it'll be quite fast. But it can introduce a few problems with
firewalls and such, since the ports that need to be open are often (in
my experience anyway) closed by University/company firewalls. Your
mileage may vary though.
I guess one could write a webfrontend for gridftp, where users could
upload files via http and then the portal would forward the files to the
endpoint via gridftp. I implemented a similar
