MyGridFTP: A Zero-Deployment GridFTP Client Using the .NET Framework

Abstract

Large-scale scientific and engineering applications are increasingly being hosted as Grid services using Globus middleware complying to the Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA) framework. In order for users to fully embrace Grid applications, seamless access to Grid services is required. In working towards this aim we present the design and implementation of Grid clients that utilise the language-independent Microsoft .NET Framework that can be deployed without software prerequisites (zero-deployment). We demonstrate runtime security authentication interoperability between Microsoft Windows-native SSPI and the Globus GSSAPI, with full proxy support. This is demonstrated with a .NET GridFTP client, called MyGridFTP. We believe that this is one of the first implementations to use Windows native security infrastructure to interoperate with the Grid Security Infrastructure in Globus. This paves the way for language-independent .NET clients to be written that are fully interoperable with Globus-based Grid services. This work is part of a larger experimental aerodynamics Wind Tunnel Grid project, which has significant requirements for data management from acquisition, collating, processing, analysis and visualisation.