GriF: The Grid Framework (GriF)

GriF is a SOA Grid Framework aimed at running on the EGI Grid multi-purpose scientific applications. The SOA-based organization of GriF consists of two JAVA servers (YR and YP) and a JAVA client (YC). The first server YR (Yet a Registry) is based on the standard UDDI (Universal Description, Definition, and Integration) protocol. Users inspect YR to the end of finding the appropriate YPs. The second server YP (Yet a Provider) makes use of the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) which is the XML-based messaging format established as transmission framework for inter-service communication via HTTP or HTTPS. YP holds the Grid Services of the VO. Both YR and YP make use of WSDL (Web Services Description Language) to describe the services provided and to reference self-describing interfaces which are available in platform-independent XML documents. The JAVA multi-platform client YC (Yet a Consumer) needs not the issuing of Grid Certificates (security is granted by the fact that only VO members can access GriF and they need to specify on YC the related username and password). The selected YP takes also care of running the jobs on the associated User Interface (UI), of managing their status and of notifying the users upon completion. YC is weakly coupled with respect to the Grid Middleware and implements all the extensions and the protocols mentioned above in order to correctly interface the Web Services offered by GriF. It supports the management of large result files (even Gigabytes) empowering Single, Parameter Study and Workflow job approaches.