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How to work with secured dCache
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The dCache Book > Getting started > Getting in Touch with dCache > How to work with secured dCache

How to work with secured dCache

If you want to copy files into dCache with GSIdCap, SRM or WebDAV with certificates you need to follow the instructions in the section above.

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GSIdCap

To use GSIdCap you must run a GSIdCap door. This is achieved by including the gsidcap service in your layout file on the machine you wish to host the door. 

[gsidcapDomain]
[gsidcapDomain/dcap]
dcap.authn.protocol=gsi

In addition, you need to have libdcap-tunnel-gsi installed on your worker node, which is contained in the gLite-UI.

Note

As ScientificLinux 5 32bit is not supported by gLite there is no libdcap-tunnel-gsi for SL5 32bit. 

[root] # yum install libdcap-tunnel-gsi

It is also available on the dCap downloads page.

Example:

[root] # rpm -i http://www.dcache.org/repository/yum/sl5/x86_64/RPMS.stable//libdcap-tunnel-gsi-2.47.5-0.x86_64.rpm

The machine running the GSIdCap door needs to have a host certificate and you need to have a valid user certificate. In addition, you should have created a voms proxy as mentioned above.

Now you can copy a file into your dCache using GSIdCap 

[user] $ dccp /bin/sh gsidcap://<dcache.example.org>:22128/data/world-writable/my-test-file3
801512 bytes in 0 seconds

and copy it back 

[user] $ dccp gsidcap://<dcache.example.org>:22128/data/world-writable/my-test-file3 /tmp/mytestfile3.tmp
801512 bytes in 0 seconds

To use the SRM you need to define the srm service in your layout file. 

[srmDomain]
[srmDomain/srm]

In addition, the user needs to install an SRM client for example the dcache-srmclient, which is contained in the gLite-UI, on the worker node and set the PATH environment variable. 

[root] # yum install dcache-srmclient

You can now copy a file into your dCache using the SRM, 

[user] $ srmcp -2 file:////bin/sh srm://<dcache.example.org>:8443/data/world-writable/my-test-file4

copy it back 

[user] $ srmcp -2 srm://<dcache.example.org>:8443/data/world-writable/my-test-file4 file:////tmp/mytestfile4.tmp

and delete it 

[user] $ srmrm -2 srm://<dcache.example.org>:8443/data/world-writable/my-test-file4

If the grid functionality is not required the file can be deleted with the NFS mount of the Chimera namespace: 

[user] $ rm /data/world-writable/my-test-file4

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WebDAV with certificates

To use WebDAV with certificates you change the entry in /etc/dcache/layouts/mylayout.conf from 

[webdavDomain]
[webdavDomain/webdav]
webdav.authz.anonymous-operations=FULL
webdav.root=/data/world-writable

to 

[webdavDomain]
[webdavDomain/webdav]
webdav.authz.anonymous-operations=NONE
webdav.root=/data/world-writable
webdav.authn.protocol=https

Then you will need to import the host certificate into the dCache keystore using the command 

[root] # dcache import hostcert

and initialise your truststore by 

[root] # dcache import cacerts

Now you need to restart the WebDAV domain 

[root] # dcache restart webdavDomain

and access your files via https://<dcache.example.org>:2880 with your browser.

Important

If the host certificate contains an extended key usage extension, it must include the extended usage for server authentication. Therefore you have to make sure that your host certificate is either unrestricted or it is explicitly allowed as a certificate for TLS Web Server Authentication.

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Allowing authenticated and non-authenticated access with WebDAV

You can also choose to have secure and insecure access to your files at the same time. You might for example allow access without authentication for reading and access with authentication for reading and writing. 

[webdavDomain]
[webdavDomain/webdav]
webdav.root=/data/world-writable
webdav.authz.anonymous-operations=READONLY
port=2880
webdav.authn.protocol=https

You can access your files via https://<dcache.example.org>:2880 with your browser.

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