Globus Toolkit 5.2 promises to greatly enhance the ability to install, setup and update the GT client and service components. This has been achieved by providing binary native packages Red Hat, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, Scientific Linux, and CentOS. Globus developers will maintain a Globus repository containing all packages.

GT 5.2 includes the latest versions of all components: GRAM, GridFTP, MyProxy and GSISSH. This latest version of GRAM includes a number of scalability and reliability improvements found from working with Open Science Grid (OSG) that are not in the 5.0 series. GridFTP added support for the DCSC command, which allows the client to specify credentials used to secure the data channel connection. Globus Online utilizes this command for seamless data movement across multiple security domains.

GT 5.2 is protocol and client API compatible with GT 5.0 (e.g. 5.2 clients will work with GT 5.0 services, and visa versa.)

For more information about GT 5.2 visit http://www.globus.org/toolkit/docs/5.2/5.2.0/rn/

The 5.2 release is protocol and source compatible with Globus Toolkit 5.0.

Major Changes between 5.0 and 5.2:

• Native packaging for linux distributions based on RPM and Debian package managers
• The concept of “flavors” of Globus libraries has been obsoleted
• Elimination of the compile-time distinction between threaded and non-threaded builds. All libraries are built to be thread-safe, but most applications and services will run by default without threads. The GLOBUS_THREAD_MODEL environment variable can be used to select between “none” (nothreads) and “pthreads” event-handling model.
• The toolkit has been reorganized to be compliant with the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard.
• The environment variable GLOBUS_LOCATION is no longer required to be set at runtime (though it is still honored to allow non-native packages to be relocated).
• Shared library versioning to allow different versions of libraries to coexist.
• Simplified configuration: more default values for Globus service configurations (especially GRAM5), more admin tools for interacting with tools (GRAM gatekeeper, audit)
• Cleaner separate of configuration file and implementation for GRAM LRM modules.
• Elimination of GPT setup packages as a way to create default configuration files
• Much simplified globus-simple-ca package for managing a CA, including tools for distributing RPM and debian packages containing CA certificate and policy files.
• More user-installable documentation and man pages for tools and libraries
• Many bug fixes

For more information about GT 5.2 visit http://dev.globus.org/wiki/Globus_Toolkit/5.2

Highlights of this release include:

• Several bug fixes on GridFTP and a couple of extra options
• Added RSL attributes and unique job manager log file names to GRAM5
• Updated MyProxy to version 5.4
• Updated gsissh to version 5.3

[Release notes] – [Software] – [Documentation] -[Support]

Highlights of this release include:

• GridFTP
  • Added new command: Data Channel Security Context (DCSC)
    • Useful for 3rd party transfers between GridFTP servers that use different CA certificates
  • Added gridftp server chrooting
    • Allows admin to limit the directories a gridftp server can access
  • Added command strings for ‘-disable-command-list’ option for gridftp server configuration
  • Added Progress markers for stream mode
• Fixed a variety of bugs on GRAM5 related with PBS, Condor and Solaris
• Updated MyProxy to version v5.3
• Updated gsissh to version 5.2

[Release notes] – [Software] – [Documentation] -[Support]

The cloud-hosted, secure file transfer service, is now available for general use. Globus Online enables researchers and other end users to move and synchronize files reliably between multiple locations without configuring servers or installing complex software. Details are available here and here (from Ian Foster’s blog).

Highlights of this release include:

• GridFTP
  • Synchronization (globus-url-copy -sync) feature that transfers files only if they do not exist at the destination or differ from the source
  • An offline mode for the server
• GRAM5
  • Improvements have been made to address all the known blocker issues for production deployment on TeraGrid and OSG
• MyProxy
  • Updated to MyProxy v5.2

[Release notes] – [Software] – [Documentation] -[Support]

Highlights of the 5.0.1 release include:

• GridFTP
  • New globus-url-sync command for syncing individual files or directories
  • New server option to control the default permissions of created files
  • New server option to time out on slow or hanging filesystems
  • New server logging level to include transfer statistics
• GRAM5
  • Improved reliability with Condor-G clients
  • Fixed a number of bugs and memory leaks
• MyProxy
  • Updated to MyProxy v5.1
• GSI-OpenSSH
  • Updated to GSI-OpenSSH v5.2
• GSI
  • Added OpenSSL 1.0.0 Support

Also, a Windows installer for GT 5.0 is now available, and includes most standard Globus components like GSI and GridFTP.

Relevant 5.0.1 links:

[Release notes] – [Software] – [Documentation] -[Support]

Most components of GT5 are incremental updates (numerous bug fixes and new features) over their GT4 counter-parts (e.g. GridFTP, RLS, MyProxy, GSI-OpenSSH). Some components of GT4 are not included in GT5 (e.g. GT4 Java Core, WS-GRAM4, RFT), to be replaced by new software under development (e.g. Crux, Globus.org Service) […] GT4.x releases will continue to be maintained and supported at least through the end of 2010. New users should immediately adopt 5.0.0. Existing users are encouraged to begin evaluating and migrating to GT5.

via

From a message sent by Ian Foster in October 2009:

• there have been long struggles and confusion over the GRAM2 vs. GRAM4 components. We have resolved these problems by re-investing in, fixing, and enhancing GRAM2. This new version, called GRAM5, is fully backward compatible with GRAM2 (with two minor exceptions: no support for MPICH-G/MPIG job rendezvous; and GRAM5 stages out stdout/err at the end of the job rather than streaming them out while the job runs), but solves its scalability issues and adds numerous frequently requested features. […] We will continue to support GRAM4 at least through December 2010 (perhaps longer, depending upon demand and funding), but have begun to assist GRAM4 users in migrating to GRAM5. […]

 

• the Reliable File Transfer (RFT) service has been of considerable interest to many Globus users, but in practice has suffered from difficulties in both use and operation. We have decided to replace the RFT functionality with a new Globus.org service: an online hosted service (i.e., Software-as-a-Service), to provide higher-level, end-to-end Grid capabilities, targeted to end users, as well as Grid builders looking for more complete solutions to build upon. Initial functionality of Globus.org will focus on replacing and enhancing the RFT functionality of reliable, high-performance, fire-and-forget data transfer, but over time will grow to include more “collective layer” functionality (as described in the “Anatomy of the Grid” paper 1]). […]

 

• GT4 Java Core is based heavily on obsolete technology (Apache Axis 1.x) and standards (WSRF), yet nonetheless continues to provide tremendous value-add to Web Services-based Grid builders, particularly in the area of security and stateful resource management. With the urging of, and in partnership with, some of our large Java Core users such as the caGrid team at Ohio State University, we have begun the Globus Crux effort to update our Java Web Services stack to newer technologies (e.g., Apache CXF), while preserving and enhancing our core value-add security capabilities as a plug-in to CXF and allowing for WSRF protocol compatibility. […]

 

• While MDS is applicable to a broad range of monitoring and discovery tasks, in practice its predominant use has been to build service registries/catalogs for TeraGrid, caBIG, and BIRN, with limited adoption for systems monitoring in a few other communities. Since MDS4 is intimately intertwined with GT4 Java Core, it would require a substantial reimplementation effort to update it to Crux.  Meanwhile, the state of monitoring tools has evolved considerably since MDS4 was first conceived, with the widespread adoption of highly capable, open source monitoring tools such as Nagios. Therefore we have begun work on a more focused effort to design and implement next generation service registry capabilities using Crux, which we are calling our Integrated Information Services (IIS) effort.  This IIS effort is still in the requirements gathering phase, with no releases planned until sometime in 2010.  We recommend that monitoring needs be met using other tools such as Nagios.

 

• Globus Toolkit version 5.2, targeted for Q1 2010, will focus on repackaging the GT5 components into independent component releases that leverage OS-native packaging approaches (e.g., RPM), with assistance from other groups (e.g., KnowARC) who have already blazed this trail. Subsequent GT releases in the remainder of 2010 will focus primarily on usability and reliability, along with features required by Globus.org. The repackaging effort will not impact backward compatibility with GT 5.0.  We expect GT 5.2 clients and services to be fully compatible with GT 5.0.