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Globus Connect Server version 4 Pre-Installation Planning

Before installing Globus Connect Server, you need to make a few decisions about how users will access your server, and what they should be allowed to access.

Before continuing on with this page, we suggest that you allocate some space in your favorite note-taking medium. You will need to answer the following questions:

  • Which Globus ID do I use?

  • What auth method will users use?

  • What is my IP address and firewall configuration?

  • What should users be allowed to access?

  • Will sharing be allowed?

This page will help you to answer each of those questions.

Choosing a Globus ID

People may not own Globus Connect Server endpoints directly. Globus Connect Server endpoints are owned by entities, with people acting as the administrators and users. The Globus ID exists as a way for Globus Connect Server endpoints to have a Globus identity.

Several well-known Globus IDs already exist at Stanford, and you may be able to register your Globus Connect Server under one of them:

To use one of these well-known Globus IDs, reach out to the group using the links above. They will work with you during Globus Connect Server setup, in the same way that an Active Directory admin would work with you to join a Windows machine to an AD Domain.

If you have decided to create your own Globus ID, refer to the Globus ID page for instructions. After creating a Globus ID, email srcc-support@stanford.edu, asking for your Globus ID to be associated with Stanford’s Globus subscription. In your email, provide the following information:

  • Your Globus ID.

  • Information about your group, your relationship to Stanford, and how you plan to use Globus.

  • Contact information for the people who will be maintaining the Globus Connect server(s).

  • Confirmation that you will only use Globus for Low or Moderate Risk data.

Once submitted, you should hear back within two business days.

For this planning item, you need answers to the following questions:

  1. Will I be using one of the well-known Globus IDs, or will I choose my own?

  2. If I choose my own Globus ID, what will it be?

Congratulations! You now have your Globus ID selected! This is the first prerequisite.

 

Choosing an Authentication Method

The introduction to Globus accounts explained how Globus understands that individuals often have multiple identities at different institutions. Globus Connect Server needs to map Globus identities to local users on the endpoint. The specific method used depends on how easily the translation can be made.

In the ideal case, all local accounts use SUNetIDs. When all local accounts use SUNetIDs, the CILogon authenticaion method should be used. This method relies on University IT’s SAML (Authentication) service to handle the work of authentication, and uses the CILogon platform to convert a successful authentication into a set of temporary access credentials. This is the same method that Globus uses when you log in to www.globus.org.

If your users are all Stanford users, but you do not use SUNetIDs, you should consider taking the time to change usernames to match SUNetIDs.

If you absolutely cannot rely on SUNetIDs as usernames in your environment, the next-best option is to use the MyProxy OAuth method. This method runs a world-accessible OAuth service on your Globus Connect Server endpoint. When needed, Globus will send your users to this service, and they will authenticate with their local username and password. On a successful authentication, a set of temporary credentials is given to Globus.

The downside of the MyProxy OAuth method is that you need to run a web server that is open to the world. If you (or your security group) are unwilling to accept this, then the last option is to use the legacy MyProxy method. With this method, when Globus needs your credentials, it will ask you directly. You give Globus your username and password, which Globus exchanges for temporary credentials. You will still be running a MyProxy (non-OAuth) service on your endpoint, but it only needs to be accessible by Globus. This means you are trusting Globus with your username and password, although only for a short time.

To summarize the three options:

  1. CILogon: Most secure, and easiest to use, but requires that all local users use their SUNetID as their username.

  2. MyProxy OAuth: More secure when SUNetIDs can not be used, but requires running a web server.

  3. legacy MyProxy: Works when SUNetIDs can not be used, and does not require a web server, but exposes your credentials to Globus.

For this planning item, you need answers to the following questions:

  1. Can I use CILogon authentication?

  2. If I cannot use CILogon authentication, then can I use MyProxy OAuth, or do I have to fall back to legacy OAuth authentication?

Congratulations! You now have your authentication method selected. This is the second prerequisite. The decision you have made here effects what you do next, as you get a public IP address and perform firewall configuration.

IP and Firewall Configuration

Globus Connect Server requires a public IP address. This is because Globus—and any non-Stanford endpoints—will need to connect to your server. If your chosen server does not have a public IP address, you will need to allocate one first.

Globus Connect Server requires a public IPv4 address, which means your IT organization may require the server be placed behind a network firewall. For Globus Connect Server to work, certain inbound and outbound ports will need to be opened.

If your network firewall filters inbound traffic, here is what you will need to allow (the zone names are netdocs/Palo Alto firewall zone names):

  • From 54.237.254.192/29 (in the untrust zone), to TCP ports 2811 and (in some cases) 7512.

    Port 2811 is used for Globus to issue transfer-related control commands to your endpoint. For example, directory listing, and initiating transfer to another endpoint.

    Port 7512 is used for the MyProxy authentication service. Globus sends credentials to MyProxy over this connection, receiving certificates in return. It is required for both the MyProxy and MyProxy OAuth authentication methods.

  • From any IP address, in any zone, to all TCP and UDP ports from 50000 up to and including 51000.

    These ports are used for data-transfer traffic. The large range is to facilitate a large number of connections. Almost all transfers are using TCP, but some legacy transfers may use UDP, so it is helpful to keep that open.

    The “any” zone is used here; in case you have multiple firewall zones in the same vsys, if there are Globus endpoints in those other zones, they may need to be able to connect to you.

    If you are in the School of Medicine, or your network firewall is controlled by MedIRT, when you submit your firewall request, tell them to use the “ssl application”, not the “gridftp application”. If MedIRT have any questions, ask them to refer to “SNOW incident INC00282086”.

If you use MyProxy OAuth authentication method, one more inbound port will be needed:

  • From any IP address (in the untrust zone), to TCP port 443.

    If only Stanford people will be authenticating, then you might be able to get away with limiting this to only campus and VPN IPs (that is, to the “SU All Nets” listed in Stanford Network Numbers).

If you also filter outbound traffic, you need to open the following ports:

  • To any IP address, in any zone, on all TCP and UDP ports from 50000 up to and incuding 51000.

    Again, it is important that the entire range be opened up.

  • To 52.84.0.0/15 (in the untrust zone), on port 443.

    This is the AWS CloudFront IP range which hosts downloads.globus.org. It needs to be open long enough for software packages to be downloaded.

  • To 54.237.254.192/29 (in the untrust zone), on port 443.

    This is where Globus’ API servers live in AWS. Globus Connect Server communicates back to Globus during endpoint setup and maintenance.

For this planning item, you need answers to the following questions:

  1. Do I need a public IP address for my server?

  2. Do I need to put the server behind a network firewall, or can I rely on just the host-based firewall?

  3. Which firewall rules will I need to request/implement?

Congratulations! You now have your firewall configuration ready.

 

Access Control

Using the authentication method (which you should have already chosen), Globus translates a person’s Globus identity into a local account. Once the local account has been identified, two methods are used to check for access:

  • The OS: Globus respects the Operating System’s fine-grained access-control infrastructure.

  • Globus Path Restrictions: You may specify a simple list of paths that are read-only, read-write, or blocked for all users.

In order for a user to read or write at a path, both OS and Globus restrictions must allow it.

Globus path restrictions are defined as a string of comma-separated permissions, which may be empty. If no Globus path restrictions are set (if the string is empty), then everything is allowed, and access will depend solely on the Operating System’s access-control.

On the other hand, if you define any path restrictions, then Globus’ path restrictions become deny-by-default.

You either need to decide to not implement any path restrictions, or you need to decide what paths a Globus user will be allowed to read or write to.

Here is an example path restriction string:

N/etc,N/usr,R/,N/tmp,N/var,RW/home

Each restriction item has three components:

  • An R (for “read-only”), RW (read-write), or N (explicit deny).

  • A tilde (~), or a forward-slash (/); indicating that the restriction is relative to the authenticated user’s home directory, or the root directory, respectively.

  • Optionally, a more-specific path, which can contain * (for simple wildcard matching).

Permissions on directories automatically inherit the permissions of the parent directory. The order in which entries appear does not matter.

In the above example, Globus will allow read-write access to home directories; and read-only access to all other directories except for /etc, /usr, /tmp, and /var; access to those is completely blocked.

Here is another example path restriction string:

RW/scratch,RW/oak/stanford,N~/.*,RW~

In this example, read-write access is allowed to /scratch and /oak/stanford. Read-write access is also allowed to home directories, except for files in a home directory that begin with a dot. All other directories (such as /tmp) are blocked, due to the deny-by-default nature of the path restrictions.

For this planning item, you need answers to the following questions:

  1. Am I OK relying on just the OS for access-control decisions, or do I need to implement more on top of them?

  2. If I want to set path restrictions, what will they be?

Congratulations! Your access control regime has been defined.

Sharing

Sharing is one of the most powerful features provided by Globus Connect Server endpoints, and is one of the features enabled by our campus-wide subscription.

Sharing allows an authenticated user to create a new endpoint (a “shared endpoint”). In this new endpoint, the root directory is a directory that the authenticated user can access through the Globus Connect Server endpoint. The owner of the shared endpoint (the authenticated user) sees this as a directory on your Globus Connect Server endpoint; to the shared endpoint’s users, they see the directory as the root of the endpoint.

For example, if you have an endpoint connected to your lab’s storage, and you want a directory to be accessible by collaborators at other institutions, one of your users can create a shared endpoint rooted in that directory. You can give some collaborators read access, and others write access. Your lab members will continue to use the lab’s Globus Connect Server endpoint, while your collaborators use the new shared endpoint.

Shared endpoints (or parts thereof) can also be public, allowing anyone access to a directory you specify, so long as they can log in to Globus.

When deciding to enable sharing, you must decide if you want to restrict which paths may be shared.

Sharing path restrictions are expressed as a Globus path restriction string. By default, any paths which an authenticated user may access may be shared. However, you may set limits on which directories may be shared. In addition, you may decide if the shared endpoint’s users may only have read access (even if the shared endpoint owner wanted to grant write access).

In addition to restricting the sharing of paths, you may also control which local users and groups are allowed to share.

To determine if a user is allowed to create a shared endpoint, Globus Connect Server executes the following steps (‘user’ and ‘group’ refer to local users and groups on the system; read down the list until you get a “blocked” or “allowed” result):

  1. If a user is explicitly denied, then the user is blocked from sharing. If not, then continue evaluation.

  2. If a user a member of a group that is explicitly denied, then the user is blocked from sharing. If not, then continue evaluation.

  3. If there are no explicitly-allowed users or groups, then the user is allowed to share. Otherwise, continue evaluation.

  4. If the user is explicitly allowed, then the user is allowed to share. If not, then continue evalation.

  5. If the user is a member of a group that is explicitly allowed, then the user is allowed to share. If not, then continue evalation.

  6. The user is blocked from sharing.

You can also think about it in terms of “deny-by-default” and “allow-by-default”:

  • Anyone who is explcitly denied is always blocked.

  • Sharing is normally allow-by-default.

  • If anyone (user or group) is explicitly allowed, then sharing becomes deny-by-default.

For this planning item, you need answers to the following questions:

  1. Should sharing be enabled? If no, skip the remaining questions.

  2. What path restrictions should be in place for sharing (if any)?

  3. Should I allow only specific local users or groups to share? If yes, then whom?

  4. Should I explicitly block specific local users or groups from sharing? If yes, then whom?

Congratulations! You have finished defining your sharing regime.

Once packages are installed, you are ready for installation!

Globus Connect Server v4 (deprecated)

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