This page contains details of the Shibbolized Resources to be found at [http://www.nesc.ac.uk/hub/ National e-Science Centre Hub at the University of Glasgow (UK)]. The ESP-GRID project (based at the University of Oxford) partnered with the team at NeSC at Glasgow to Shibboleth-enable their grid portal applications.

[Alun: suggests include here at the top a quick start section for those readers who just want to do it, just to catch all learning styles at once!] (-- AlunEdwards DateTime(2006-04-10T15:33:22Z))

The applications use the Gridsphere portal and, previously, were accessed simply using a username/password combination that was known to the portal. The team made the access to the portal and the portlets via Shibboleth as a demonstrator.

The demonstrator shows how non-computer-specialist researchers are likely to access the power of grid computing in the future.

The portal had two main uses to researchers:

1. Access to Grid enabled [http://www.ncbi.nih.gov/BLAST/ BLAST] software across multiple large scale high performance computing resources (including the National Grid Service) and seamless Grid enabled user oriented access to a multitude of genomic data sources including ensembl (rat, mouse, human), MGI, HUGO, OMIM, RGD queries via the [http://www.brc.dcs.gla.ac.uk/projects/bridges/ BRIDGES] portlet. This application is of use to local (and remote) bioinformaticians who wish to run BLAST jobs against genomic and proteomic databases. This application, presented in a portal such as this has every chance of becoming a production-level application of value to the wider bioinformatics and genetics communities. The software is currently being hardened to support very large BLAST jobs by many users as part of the Scottish Bioinformatics Research Network. (-- AlunEdwards DateTime(2006-04-10T15:33:22Z))

2. Access to the [http://labserv.nesc.gla.ac.uk/projects/dyvose/ DyVOSE] project's text-mining demonstrator. This second application was developed as a demonstrator for the DyVOSE project and is unlikely to become production-level. (-- AlunEdwards DateTime(2006-04-10T15:33:22Z))

The portal also provides access to the [http://labserv.nesc.gla.ac.uk/projects/votes/ VOTES] portlet which provides simplified access to a variety of clinical data sets - currently training data sets used by the NHS including Scottish Care Information (SCI) Store, GPASS, Scottish Morbidity Records and a consent database. The VOTES project is an MRC funded project exploring how Grid technologies can be used to support clinical trials and epidemiological studies. Ensuring that the right people see the right data sets for the right purpose is crucial in this domain. The attributes used below indicate how Shibboleth (in combination with an authorisation infrastructure such as PERMIS) can be used to deliver and subsequently ensure that users attributes can be used to enforce authorisation decisions by service providers. (-- AlunEdwards DateTime(2006-04-10T15:33:22Z))

The information below gives an outline of how the demonstrators operate.

We hope to have a demonstration username/password combination for you to use (very soon)

Connect to the Gridsphere portal

You can connect to the portal containing the BRIDGES and DyVOSE portlets at:

• http://pioneer.nesc.gla.ac.uk/gridsphere

This will direct you to the [http://sdss.ac.uk/ SDSS] Shibboleth Where Are You From (WAYF) service:

• http://users.ox.ac.uk/~markn/wikifiles/SDSSwayf.png

The 'home organisation' to choose is the "DyVOSE Project" (although it is hoped that it will soon be possible to use the general University of Glasgow single sign-on).

• To explore this, the following usernames/passwords have been established:
  • guest1/guest1 roles: nurse, studentteam1
  • guest2/guest2 roles: consultant, studentteam2
  • guest3/guest3 roles: investigator, studentteam1, studentteam2

Here guest1 has the role of a nurse in the VOTES project (and will be restricted to seeing data sets associated with that role) and is a member of studentteam1 (for the DyVOSEproject). Guest2 is a consultant role in VOTES and can see the data sets associated with this role and is also in studentteam2 in the DyVOSE project. Finally guest3 is a member of both studentteam1 and studentteam2, and is an investigator in VOTES. (-- AlunEdwards DateTime(2006-04-10T15:33:22Z))

All of these users are able to run the BRIDGES BLAST service, however they are only authorised access to the Condor pool at the National e-Science Centre at the University of Glasgow (and not the National Grid Service or other clusters at Glasgow).

Once past that point, you should see the NeSC Gridsphere portal:

• http://users.ox.ac.uk/~markn/wikifiles/portal.png

  (This shows an example of Richard Sinnott being logged in)

The interface shown enables you to run a BLAST job. Some users are able to run BLAST jobs using the compute resources of the NGS (nationally). However, others (including our test users) are just restricted to the Condor pool at the University of Glasgow. (-- AlunEdwards DateTime(2006-04-10T15:33:22Z))

Look at the Shibboleth attributes presented

If you scroll to the bottom of the main screen, you will see the Shibboleth attributes that were passed to the portal and portlet, so that the authorisation decisions can be made.

• http://users.ox.ac.uk/~markn/wikifiles/shibAtribs.png

  (Again, these are attributes belonging to Richard Sinnott)

Have a look at this whilst logged on as the different users.

Look at the DyVOSE portlet

At the top of the portal window, you can click on "Grid Search Sort Portlet". This is the application demonstrator for the DyVOSE project. This application uses PERMIS for the authorisation decisions. You can see in the permisROLE attribute, to which student team you have been assigned. For example, Richard (see above) was assigned to both student teams and is given the status of 'Investigator' (i.e. "studentteam1;studentteam2;investigator").

Try logging in as the following to see the different groups to which you will belong at any one time:

[Alun suggests: in an appendix to the report actually show these screen shots now in case the portal unavailable in near future?] (-- AlunEdwards DateTime(2006-04-10T15:33:22Z))