Fraunhofer-Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing SCAI Licence Management in Grid - A result from the BEinGRID Project.

Fraunhofer-Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing SCAI

Licence Management in Grid- A result from the BEinGRID Project

Fraunhofer-Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing SCAI

BEinGRID

Fraunhofer-Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing SCAI

License Management BEinGRID

License management in BEinGRID Use-case and requirements analysis.

Design patterns and component descriptions.

License management architecture for Grids.

Requirements Flexible –must be usable in different scenarios

Generic –

Support for every middleware

Needs to support all currently existing client server license management mechanisms.

Local use (Cluster, workstation)

Fraunhofer-Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing SCAI

LM - Current Situation

Commercial applications in the industry are commonly used together with a fixed client server licence management system.

The authorization of currently used client-server based

license mechanisms relies on an IP-centric scheme. Any user of a shared (Grid) resources may access the

exposed license server.

Secure and authorized access to a local or remote license server in grid environments has not been possible so far.

The use of commercial ISV applications in grid environments therefore was not possible either.

Fraunhofer-Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing SCAI

Use case

Organisation BSYS

owns a certain number of licenses for an ISV Code,

runs a corresponding FlexNet License Server

wants to use these licenses for calculations at a grid resource provider.

BSYS requires cost-unit accounting

The resource provider might not be known at job submission time.

In order to perform the calculation with the ISV Code, organization BSYS would have to open its firewall and allow any potential remote grid site to access its license server.

Fraunhofer-Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing SCAI

Goals

Grid-friendly license management

Accepted by ISVs

Compatible with different grid middlewares

Adjustment of existing client-server license management systems to the grid:

Allows the usage of existing solutions in the grid, e.g. Flexnet

Idea: PIN/TAN concept

Fraunhofer-Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing SCAI

PIN/TAN Concept

Similar to Online-Banking a user that wants to submit jobs to the grid receives:

a list of one time passwords (TANs)

a license account (PIN)

When a user submits a job, he provides these as additional parameters.

Validation of PIN/TAN is done on the provider site.

If the validation was successful the user can access the licenses via a license proxy.

Fraunhofer-Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing SCAI

Solution

Solution Authorize the upstream proxy access with one-time

passwords in order to provide a generic secure solution for hostile environments.

Transparently reroute the proprietary encrypted socket-based communication between application and license server via a SOCKS proxy-chain.

Fraunhofer-Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing SCAI

License Management Architecture

Fraunhofer-Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing SCAI

Capabilities

Provider: Detailed accounting and billing through license

accounts.

Customer: License accounting web service.

Self-imposed budget-control.

Web service for handling of the one-time passwords (generation of tan lists, license accounts and their properties)

ISV: No need to modify their software.

Fraunhofer-Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing SCAI

GUI

Fraunhofer-Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing SCAI

Server components

Grid Middleware

Socks5 proxy: tsocks

Tan management: via pam_sotp

Accounting records: mySQL Database

Webserver: Tomcat + Axis2

Client server license management, i.e. FlexNet

Fraunhofer-Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing SCAI

Conclusion and outlook

We have designed and implemented a novel license management architecture which supports the entire class of client-server based license mechanisms in grid environments.

This support is a pre-requisite for the use of commercial ISV applications in grid environments.

The solution will hence substantially enlarge the grid market size in the area of on-demand computing by industry.

The license management architecture supports the required non-interruptive transition towards a pay-per-use business model for licenses.

Fraunhofer-Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing SCAI

Conclusion and outlook

Availability

Can be downloaded in the next view weeks from www.gridipedia.eu

Exploitation

Requests from T-Systems Spain (Automotive), HWW, German Institute for Reactor Safety (GRS) , German Aerospace Research (DLR)