GridFTP 2.4.0 Installation Guidelines

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Downloads:

Download the following files from www.globus.org into the directory ~/gridftp:

• gpt-2.2.9-src.tar.gz

• globus_data_management_client-2.4.0-src_bundle.tar.gz

• globus_data_management_server-2.4.0-src_bundle.tar.gz

Creating Necessary Directories:

Create the following directories in /opt

• datatag_gpt

• datatag_globus

• datatag_log

• datatag_log/client

• datatag_log/server

These are the directories where GridFTP will be installed

Setting up Environmental Variables:

Before starting to install GridFTP the following environment variables have to be set up as root.

Building GPT:

In the directory ~/gridftp first build gpt using the following commands: 

This will automatically build gpt in /opt/datatag_gpt

Building Globus using GPT:

First build the Data-Manager client using the following command in the ~/gridftp directory (have to build client first):

Then build the server using the following command in the ~/gridftp directory:

gcc32dbg is called the flavour.

The last part of the commands (-logdir=/opt/log/name) is optional , it will put installation logs for the client and the server in the /opt/log directory.

Building Globus GridFTP will take 10 to 15 minutes maybe even longer depending on the machine being used.  

To complete installation do the following commands:

Certificates:

Before running GridFTP the user has to acquire user-certificate, user-key for himself and host-certificates for each of the computers that GridFTP will run on. I acquired my certificates from CERN Certificate authority. The method of acquiring certificates from CERN CA is described below:

These are the steps to follow to issue a request for a new CERN CA user certificate:

• Log in to the testbed001.cern.ch machine with the user's CERN AFS account:

• Create a request for a new certificate using the command:

• When asked to choose CERN experiment or division name choose DEFAULT and press this will put the following files in the .globus directory.

userkey.pem, usercert_request.pem

• Mail usercert_request.pem to CERN CA by using the command:

The user-certificate will be sent to the user via email.     

These are the steps to follow to issue a request for a new CERN CA host certificate:

• Log in to the testbed001.cern.ch machine with the user's CERN AFS account:

• Create the directory which will contain the host private key and certificate request files. In the following this directory will be referred to as hostdir.
   
• Create a host certificate request using the command:

• When asked to choose CERN experiment or division name choose DEFAULT and press this will put the following files in the hostdir directory.

userkey.pem, usercert_request.pem, usercert.pem

• Mail usercert_request.pem to CERN CA by using the command:

The host-certificate will be sent to the user via email.     

For more information on certificates visit the CERN CA website.

Once the certificates have been sent via email, change the name of the user-certificate to usercert.pem and the host-certificate to hostcert.pem.

A directory called .globus has to be built in the home directory of the user and then usercert.pem and userkey.pem must be copied into that directory, check that usercert.pem has access rights   (-rw-r--r--) and userkey.pem has access rights (-r--------)..

The hostcert.pem has to be copied into the /etc/grid-security directory, check that hostcert.pem has the correct access rights (-rw-r--r--).

Now the latest CRL (Certificate Revocation List) list has to be downloaded into the directory /etc/grid-security/certificates. The latest CRL can be found on the website: http://datagrid.in2p3.fr/autobuild/rh6.2/rpmlist/, from here click on the latest alpha version (normally the top one in the alpha column) and then click on ca on the UI row. On top of the current page it will show the exact command to download the CRL, this commad will be something like :

Once this has been downloaded into the /etc/grid-security/certificates directory the CERN rpm package has to be installed by using the command:

In the /etc/grid-security directory in the file grid-mapfile the following has to be added (with the name changed):  

“/O=Grid/O=CERN/OU=cern.ch/CN=Shakib Mostafa”     shakib

The syntax matters, uppercases and spaces are vital.

A file called .gridmap has to be created in the users home directory, this file should contain the above line aswell.

Every single step with the certificates has to be done very carefully, it's very easy to forget one step and equally difficult to notice the mistake. To test that the certificates are set up properly, run the command:

This will ask for the pass phrase that was submitted when the user-certificate was requested. If all is well then a proxy certificate will be set up and the confirmation will be given.

Running GridFTP and transferring files using GridFTP:

GridFTP has to be run as the user not as root.

First set up the environment  variables:

Then grid-proxy-init has to be run to acquire proxy certificate.

Then start up the GridFTP server using the following command:

5678 is the port to be dedicated to GridFTP.

To transfer files using GridFTP use the following commands:

or

or

file:// means a local file

gsiftp://localhost:portNo means file from the local host

gsiftp://hostIP:portNo is for transferring to other machines.

“`grid-cert-info –subject`” gives the cert path i.e. the user information written in grid-mapfile.

Stopping the GridFTP server:

Once the GridFTP server has been started it will run until it is manually stopped: The way I used to do it is to log in as root to get the PID for the GridFTP server and stop it manually:

Re-installing GridFTP after modification:

Globus GridFTP software is build from the zipped bundles using GTP software. Hence to modify the code of GridFTP first unzip the bundle on which the changes are required to be made, then make the modifications, and then zip back the bundle and use GTP to build the modified zipped bundle.

For example when i needed to modify server/globus_io-4.0/library/globus_io_read.c, i did the following:

Then I uninstalled the previously installed GridFTP software, and used GPT to build GridFTP with the new modified globus_data_management_client_src_bundle-2.4.0.tar.gz bundle.

Uninstall GridFTP:

In order to uninstall GridFTP delete the contents of the following folders:

• /opt/datatag_gpt
• /opt/datatag_globus
• ~/gridftp/BUILD
• ~/gridftp/gpt-2.9
• ~/gridftp/gpt_errorlog

Understanding Error Messages:

I came across a few specific error messages while trying to install or run GridFTP. Some error messages are specific to specific mistakes. Please have a look at my tips for handling some common mistakes that cause specific error massages.