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Globus Connect Server Initial Configuration

This page explains how to install and perform initial configuration for Globus Connect Server. It assumes that you have already followed the instructions on the Pre-Installation Planning and Installation pages.

Globus configuration has been split into two parts: Initial configuration is covered by this page, and explains the parts of Globus Connect Server configuration that are not dependant on authentication method. Authentication-specific configuration is covered on separate pages, one page per authentication method.

Globus Connect Server consists of multiple components, including…

  • GridFTP, for file transfer.

  • Certificate Authority (CA) files, so that GridFTP knows who to trust.

  • MyProxy, for issuing short-term certificates identifying end users.

  • MyProxy OAuth, for directly handling local authentication.

  • CA files, so that MyProxy can trust third-party services, like CILogon or another OAuth server.

Not all of these components are activated, and not all configurations are the same. Much depends on how you configure Globus Connect Server.

To make setup easier, the globus-connect-server-setup program reads from a single file, /etc/globus-connect-server.conf. Depending on the contents of that file, other configuration files will be modified, services started or stopped, et cetera.

The Complete Initial Configuration

A template globus-connect-server.conf file was created when you installed the globus-connect-server package. Replace the contents of that file with the template below:

If you need additional explanation, continue reading. Otherwise, you should proceed to the end of this page, where you will proceed based on your chosen authentication method.

Section Explanations

The rest of this page talks about individual sections of the configuration presented above.

Globus

The Globus section of the configuration file is where you specify your Globus ID and password.

[Globus]
User = stanford
Password = %(GLOBUS_PASSWORD)s

In the above example, the Globus ID is stanford@globusid.org, to the User is set to stanford.

Your Globus ID is public, and should not change for the life of the endpoint, so it is safe to hard-code the Globus ID in your configuration file. Your password is another matter…

In the above, the special string %(GLOBUS_PASSWORD)s tells the globus-connect-server-setup program to look in the GLOBUS_PASSWORD environment variable for the Globus ID password. If the environment variable is empty or does not exist, then globus-connect-server-setup will ask you for the password whn you run it.

Endpoint

The Endpoint section controls what people will see when they look up your endpoint.

[Endpoint]
Name = blah
Public = False
DefaultDirectory = /~/

The three fields in this section will appear in your endpoint’s page on the Globus web site.

The Name is a short name for your endpoint. Once chosen, it forms part of your endpoint ID, which is a combination of your Globus Connect ID and your endpoint’s short name. For example, if your Globus ID is stanford@globusid.org and your endpoint’s short name is blargh, then your endpoint ID will be stanford#blargh.

When you refer people to your endpoint, the endpoint ID is the best thing to use, because it is short, memorable, and easy to search on th Globus web site.

The Public setting tells the Globus web site if your endpoint will appear in search results. If you leave this set to False (which is the default), it will be harder for users to find your endpoint.

When a user successfully finds and authenticates to your endpoint, they will need to be placed in an initial directory. This is controlled by the DefaultDirectory setting. The default, /~/, means “The user’s home directory”.

GridFTP

[GridFTP]

The GridFTP section is the largest of the configuration file, and so has been broken up into parts below.

GridFTP: Encryption

This part enables encryption for data transfers.

RequireEncryption = True

Globus Connect Server enforces encryption in several areas:

  • End users use TLS to connect to Globus web and API services, as well as to OAuth services.

  • Globus infrastructure uses TLS to connect to the GridFTP and MyProxy services running on an endpoint.

There is only one area where encryption is optional: The actual file data sent from endpoint to endpoint may be sent in the clear. This is because encryption does add a processing overhead, which can slow down transfers. However, with modern CPUs, the overhead is generally minimal. So, although Globus has data stream encryption off by default, our default configuration enables it. You should only consider disabling encryption when your endpoint only has access to Low Risk data.

GridFTP: Path Restrictions

This part configures the paths that authenticated users are allowed to access via Globus.

RestrictPaths =

This is where you enter the Globus path-restriction string you devised during pre-installation planning. If you do not want to specify any Globus path restrictions, this field should be commented out.

Remember that in all cases, the OS permissions still apply.

GridFTP: Sharing

;; Sharing = True
;; SharingRestrictPaths =
;; SharingUsersAllow =
;; SharingGroupsAllow =
;; SharingUsersDeny =
;; SharingGroupsDeny =

This is where you enter the Globus sharing settings you worked out during pre-installation planning. If you do not want to restrict paths, users, or groups from sharing, those fields should be commented out.

GridFTP: Sharing State

;;SharingStateDir = $HOME/.globus/sharing

When an authenticated user creates a shared endpoint, Globus Connect Server needs a place to store information about the shared endpoint.

This setting supports the use of $HOME (referring to the user’s home directory) and $USER (the username of the authenticated user who is creating the share). The path must point to a valid directory, and although the user does not have to own the directory, the user must be able to write to the directory. The default is to store shared endpoint state files in the user’s home directory, as shown above.

This requirement can be a problem when users do not have home directories. In that case, you will have to perform the following steps to set up a secure space for shared endpoint state:

  1. Identify a group that all authenticated users are in. In this example, we will use operator.

  2. Create a directory somewhere on the system, in a path that authenticated users can normally access. For example, /var/lib/globus-sharing (/var/lib is normally world-readable). This will be the “sharing directory”. Set the owner to root, and the group to be the common group.

    mkdir /var/lib/globus-sharing
chown root:operator /var/lib/globus-sharing

  3. In your sharing directory, make another directory. For example, /var/lib/globus-sharing/state. This will be the state directory. Set the owner to root, and the group to be the common group.

    mkdir /var/lib/globus-sharing/state
chown root:operator /var/lib/globus-sharing/state

  4. Change the sharing directory so that root has full permissions, and the group only has execute permissions. This will allow authenticated users to enter the directory, without seeing its contents or making any changes.

    chmod 0710 /var/lib/globus-sharing

  5. Change the state directory so that root has full permissions, the group has write and execute permissions, and the sticky bit is set. This will allow authenticated users to enter the directory, create files in the directory, and delete the files they create, without seeing the directory’s contents.

    chmod 01730 /var/lib/globus-sharing/state

  6. Set SharingStateDir to the state directory.

    ;; Custom state directory, because we don't have homedirs.
SharingStateDir = /var/lib/globus-sharing/state

GridFTP: Server Connectivity

This part tells others how to connect to the GridFTP service running on your endpoint.

Server = %(HOSTNAME)s
;;ServerBehindNAT = True
;; DataInterface =

These three items are all related. What you set them to depends on how your machine’s name an IP address, as you can see it, matches what the rest of the world can see.

In the most simple case, your machine has a network interface with a public IP address, and the machine is able to perform forward and reverse DNS lookups to confirm that the machine’s fully-qualified domain name resolves to one of the interface’s IP addresses. In that case, nothing needs to be changed.

However, in some cases, Globus can not properly identify the public hostname of your machine. This happens most often when the machine is behind a NAT, or if the machine is part of an environment where it is getting DHCP from something other than the Stanford network. In those cases, you should set ServerBehindNAT to True. And if the system’s hostname does not match the name that the rest of the world uses to connect to it, then set Server to be the public hostname of the system.

Next Steps

Your next step is to perform configuration that is specific to the authentication method you decided to use.

Globus Connect Server v4 (deprecated)

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