HEPiX Virtulisation WG meeting minutes 2010-04-30

Present (in no particular order):
Tony Cass, CERN
Romain Wartel, CERN
Ulrich Schwickerath, CERN
David Kelsey, RAL
Thomas Finnern, DESY
Owen Synge, DESY
Jie Tao, KIT
Ian Gable, University of Victoria
Michel Jouvin, GRIF
Ewan MacMahon, Oxford

1. No comments on the previous minutes.

2. Image Cataloguing and Distribution

Ulrich went over some slides explaining the state of progress from Ewan, Owen, Martin and himself:

• they were working with a short timescale
• they have had several email exchanges and one phone call be ween Ulrich and Owen
• their goal is to develop as little code as possible to make the VMIC. They wish to have very little maintenance to do.
• they wish to avoid dealing with the on-site deployment.

VMIC API Status:
Very preliminary wiki page at: https://twiki.cern.ch/twiki/bin/view/HEPIX/Virtualization


3. Owen VMIC questions to the group

1) Are VMIC cascade/independent?

Each catalogue is independent, this was unanimous.

1.5) Do I endorse because of endorser or because CERN endorses?

No longer relevant because of 1.

2) Do VO's de-endorse images or endorsers or both?

Only the endorser de-indorses images. VOs alters the set of endorsers they authorize over time.

3) How do images related to VO's are images shared?

Images are not shared.

4) How do endorsers relate to VO's are endorsers shared?

If two VOs wish to use the same endorser they must appear in their lists seperately.

5) Chains of trust? Is it the job of endorser or VMIC to store this?

It is the job of the endorser.

6) Is trust in an image = (VO & Endorser & Image)

Not for the moment.

4. General discussion near the end of the meeting.

• Owen asked if we should again consider a certificate per image?
• Dave commented that this isn't something JSPG certificate authorities could do at the moment, and he wasn't sure if it makes sense.
• Owen agreed not to continue with the idea
• Ian Gable commented that he would like to see the VMIC, not WLCG specific, easy to install, and as light weight as possible.
• Ulrich commented that the general thinking of the VMIC group was inline with Ian's comments
• Ewan commented that the group should look for something that already does what we want. Tony asked him to pursue this.

5. Next Meeting

• The next meeting will be May 11 Face to Face at CERN with EVO for those who can't make it in person.
• Tony has a slot to speak at GDB on May 11
• There will also be an upcoming Virtualisation workshop as follow up to last years.