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caGrid 1.1

The goal of cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid caBIG™ is to develop applications and the underlying systems architecture that connects together data, tools, scientists and organizations in an open federated environment. In meeting this goal, caBIG™ will necessarily bring together data from many and diverse data sources. The underlying service oriented infrastructure for caBIG is caGrid

caGrid implements grid technologies and methodologies that enable local organizations to have ultimate control over access and management. caGrid 1.1, released in September, 2007, includes important security features, based on security policies and procedures from the caBIG™ Security Working Group, to enable data sharing across the caBIG™ Federation. It builds on and enhances earlier versions. The caGrid 0.5 "test bed" infrastructure was released in September, 2005, and included the initial set of software tools to effectively realize the goals of caBIG™. The release of caGrid version 1.0 in December, 2006, provided the implementation of the required core services, toolkits and wizards for the development and deployment of community provided services, APIs for building client applications, and some reference implementations of applications and services available in the production grid.

For a fuller description of the new features and improvements in caGrid 1.1, please see Key Enhancements, below.

caGrid enables numerous complex usage scenarios but its basic technical goals are to: enable universal mechanisms for providing interoperable programmatic access to data and analytics in caBIG™, create a self-described infrastructure wherein the structure and semantics of data can be programmatically determined, and provide a powerful means by which resources available in caBIG™ can be programmatically discovered and leveraged.


Software and Documentation Links

caGrid 1.1 Installer Instructions caGrid 1.1 Installer Instructions
caGrid 1.1 Installer Install caGrid 1.1
caGrid 1.1 Source Download caGrid 1.1 Source code
caGrid 1.1 Users Guide caGrid 1.1 Users Guide
caGrid 1.1 Programmers Guide caGrid 1.1 Programmers Guide
caGrid 1.1 Release Notes caGrid 1.1 Release Notes
NCICB Download Site NCICB Download Site
caGrid wiki caGrid wiki

Project Information for Developers

Reporting Bugs caGrid 1.1 - Bug Tracker
Feature Requests caGrid 1.1 - Feature Requests
Project Page caGrid 1.1 - Project Page
File Release Site caGrid 1.1 - File Release Site
Document Release Site caGrid 1.1 - Document Release Site
Training Grid caGrid 1.1 Training Grid Information

Production Grid

The design of caGrid is such that one needn't hardcode the addresses of services, as each running service registers itself to the Index Service. Registered services can then be discovered programmatically. In this sense, the Index Service is really the only service for which a "well known address" is needed. However, in some cases it may be useful to know the address of core services. The core caGrid infrastructure services, maintained by the NCI's production environment, are:


You can launch caGrid Portal that is part of the caGrid 1.1 release. This should be your starting point for monitoring and discovering services that are available in caGrid. The tool provides visual display of services on the caGrid infrastructure and institutions that are participating in the caBIG program.

The caGrid browser is a web-based application that allows users to discover advertised caBIG grid resources and to query those resources for data of interest. The tool uses caGrid 1.1 supported grid APIs for browsing for advertised services, discovering services based on metadata and registered objects in Cancer Data Standards Repository (caDSR) and concepts from Enterprise Vocabulary Service(EVS) and querying the deployed services using the caBIG XML query language.


Key Enhancements

caGrid 1.1 represents another step in the evolution of caGrid to better address the requirements of the research community. It includes important new features and enhancements and is backwards compatible with the caGrid version 1.0. A detailed listing of the changes from caGrid 1.0 can be found in the release notes but some highlights include:

  • Service Development and Deployment
  • caGrid 1.1 adds the ability to migrate caGrid 1.0 Introduce services to caGrid 1.1 services, and provides the migration framework to handle all such future migrations. Introduce also received numerous updates including the ability to self-update, better manage service security settings, and better support complex resource-based services, edit all service documentation directly from the tool, and JBoss deployment support. The Data Service component in caGrid 1.1 adds support for caCORE SDK versions 3.2 and 3.2.1, integration with Bulk Data Transfer, and an initial auditing framework. Additionally a full “training grid” was deployed and supported, and the ability to easily switch between grids (such as the production grid and the training grid).

  • Usability Improvements
  • The client applications including Introduce, the security administration interface, and data service components, have a variety of usability related improvements, including layout, input validation, help systems, tooltips, and better error handling. The caGrid installer was completely overhauled and improved to simplify use and capabilities. It can now completely install and configure all prerequisites, caGrid itself, service containers, and all core caGrid services. Additionally, the start of a new Workflow user interface was developed to facilitate submission and monitoring of workflows.

  • Security
  • caGrid 1.1 represents a major thrust to deploy the security infrastructure of caGrid, called the Grid Authentication and Authorization with Reliably Distributed Services (GAARDS), to the cancer research community, in that its release is timed and informed by the first set of policies and procedures created by the caBIG™ Security Working Group. The Security Working Group is a collaborative effort of the caBIG™ Architecture and Data Sharing and Intellectual Capital (DSIC) Workspaces that is intended to create and implement security policies to enable data sharing across the caBIG Federation. The initial policies in place for caGrid 1.1 formalize the envisioned Levels of Assurance for credentials in the grid, and detail the policies and practices of a credential provider adhering to the initial Level of Assurance (LOA1) which will govern the baseline credentials all caBIG™ participants may use. Significant functional improvements to GAARDS include the ability to issue and manage host credentials, as well as the capability to leverage dedicated Hardware Security Modules (HSMs).

  • Testing
  • Building on the core and robust unit, system, and integration testing processes and infrastructure deployed in the development and release of caGrid 1.0, several hundred additional tests have been added throughout the development and release of caGrid 1.1. Interested users may view results of these tests on a centralized dashboard , execute these test frameworks locally, or leverage the testing framework during the development of their own services.


External Technologies Used by caGrid

caGrid 1.1 leverages the following existing technologies:

  • Globus Toolkit: provides the core grid infrastructure and supports service deployment, service registry, invocation and secure communication -From Globus Alliance
  • Mobius GME: provides grid repository for XML Schemas of strongly typed objects transferred on caGrid - From Ohio State University
  • Cancer Data Standards Repository (caDSR): provides repository for Common Data Elements and UML models - From National Cancer Institute Center for Bioinformatics
  • Enterprise Vocabulary Services (EVS): provides controlled vocabularies - From National Cancer Institute Center for Bioinformatics
  • ActiveBPEL™: provides an open source workflow engine whose implementation follows the Business Process Execution Language standard. - From Active Endpoints, Inc.
  • Grouper: provides ability to manage group information across integrated applications and repositories. – from Internet2

User Information

Subscribe to the caGrid Users Listserv


Contacts

Michael Keller - caBIG Architecture Workspace Lead

Scott Oster - caGrid Lead Architect - Ohio State University

Krishnakant (Avinash) Shanbhag - Director, Core Infrastructure Engineering - NCICB

List of caGrid 1.1 Team Members


Previous Releases

last modified 01-02-2008 03:00 PM