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CHAPTER 21. STAGE PROTECTION

Access to tape is expensive. To avoid inefficient use of tape resources, or “stage mayhem” by random, chaotic user activity a mechanism exists in dCache called “stage protection” that allows to control access to data on tape based on user identity (DN), VO group membership and VO role (defined in FQAN), storage group and protocol. Attempts to stage data that does not satisfy the criteria of stage permission configuration will result in permission denied errors.

Configuration of stage protection

The stage protection rules are captured in a stage configuration file which is pointed to by the variable :

dcache.authz.staging = <path>/StageConfiguration.conf

The stage protection policy enforcement point (PEP) can be PoolManager or doors. Configurable using the variable dcache.authz.staging.pep.

If set to PoolManager like so:

dcache.authz.staging.pep = PoolManager

then the stage protection applies to all transfers in the system and the stage protection configuration file naturally has to be available on the host running PoolManager. If set for doors like:

dcache.authz.staging.pep = doors

then the stage protection applies only to transfers performed by doors on hosts that have dcache.authz.staging defined and the file present. The host running PinManager also has to have dcache.authz.staging defined and the file present.

The default settings are dcache.authz.staging = (not set) and dcache.authz.staging.pep = doors.

Defining stage protection

Stage protection can be set up as a white or a black list. Blacklisting is achieved by using ! in front of an expression.

Each line of the list may contain up to four regular expressions enclosed in double quotes. The regular expressions match the DN, FQAN, the Storage Group and protocol specified in the following format:

"<DN>" ["<FQAN>" ["<StorageGroup>" ["<protocol>"]] ]

Lines starting with a hash symbol # are discarded as comments. The regular expression syntax follows the syntax defined for the Java Pattern class.

Some examples of the White List Records:

“.*” “/atlas/Role=production” “/C=DE/O=DESY/CN=Kermit the frog” “/C=DE/O=DESY/CN=Beaker” “/desy” “/O=GermanGrid/.*” “/desy/Role=.*”

This example authorizes a number of different groups of users:

  • Any user with the FQAN atlas/Role=production.
  • The user with the DN /C=DE/O=DESY/CN=Kermit the frog, and any VOMS groups he belongs to.
  • The user with the DN /C=DE/O=DESY/CN=Beaker but only if he is also identified as a member of VO desy (FQAN /desy)
  • Any user with DN and FQAN that match /O=GermanGrid/.\* and /desy/Role=.\* respectively.

If a storage group is specified, three parameters must be provided. The regular expression ".*" may be used to authorize any DN or any FQAN. Consider the following example:

Example:

".*" "/atlas/Role=production" "h1:raw@osm"
"/C=DE/O=DESY/CN=Scooter" ".*" "sql:chimera@osm"

In the example above:

  • Any user with FQAN /atlas/Role=production is allowed to stage files located in the storage group h1:raw@osm.
  • The user /C=DE/O=DESY/CN=Scooter, irrespective of which VOMS groups he belongs to, is allowed to stage files located in the storage group sql:chimera@osm.

If a protocol is specified, all four parameters must be provided; for example:

".*" "/atlas/Role=production" "h1:raw@osm" "Htt.*"
"/C=DE/O=DESY/CN=Scooter" ".*" "sql:chimera@osm"  "GFtp.*"

In the example above:

  • Any user with FQAN /atlas/Role=production is allowed to stage files located in the storage group h1:raw@osm using HTTP protocol.
  • The user /C=DE/O=DESY/CN=Scooter, any VOMS groups he belongs to, is allowed to stage files located in the storage group sql:chimera@osm using GFTP protocol.

The exact protocol names are DCap-3.0, GFtp-1.0, GFtp-2.0, Http-1.1, NFS4-4.1 and Xrootd-2.7. The version suffix is subject to change, therefore .* comes in handy.

Non-authenticated protocols like plain DCap protocol or NFS protocol (if so setup) carry null for DN and FQAN. A """ expression will match nulls.

In order to allow all users using the dCap protocol to stage data for any storage group the list, the configuration would look like this:

"" "" “.*” “DCap.*”

NB: Once stage protection configuration exists, the PEP will process it for match and if no match is found, staging will be denied. Therefore an empty stage configuration file will effectively deny staging for all.

As was mentioned above, black lists can be formed my adding !<expr> in front of matching regular expression translating into “staging is allowed if not matching <expr>”.

In this example:

".+"
"" "" "!nova.*"
"" "" "nova.*"          "!NFS4.*"
  • Any authenticated user (non empty DN) can stage any files using any protocol (not a black list per se but is used here from a real life setup).
  • All non-authenticated users can stage files not belonging to storage groups matching nova* using any protocol.
  • All non-authenticated users cannot stage files belonging to storage groups matching nova* using the NFS protocol.

NB: A root user is special. All authorization checks are by-passed for root user. Therefore, in the example above, a root user will still be able to stage nova data using the NFS protocol.

The ! notation is a convenience feature, the same setup can be expressed by using proper Java regular expressions for negation:

“.+” "" "" “^(?:(?!nova).)*$” "" "" “nova.*” “^(?:(?!NFS4).)*$”

The stage protection configuration file can be edited on the running system at any time and the policies will take effect once the file is saved to disk.