GT 6.0 Release Notes: GridFTP

Wider support for UDT

Chrooting GridFTP server

Synchronize datasets

Improved failure restart capability in globus-url-copy

Stall detection

Load balancing in globus-url-copy

GridFTP over UDT

SSH security for GridFTP control channel

Running the GridFTP server with GFork GridFTP

Multicasting / Network overlays (EXPERIMENTAL)

Netlogger’s bottleneck detection for GridFTP transfers (EXPERIMENTAL)

GSI security: This is the PKI based, de facto standard security system used in Grid applications. Kerberos is also possible but is not supported and can be difficult to use due to divergence in the capabilities of GSI and Kerberos.

Third-party transfers: Very common in Grid applications, this is where a client mediates a transfer between two servers (both likely at remote sites) rather than between the server and itself (called a client/server transfer).

Cluster-to-cluster data movement or Striping: GridFTP can do coordinated data transfer by using multiple computer nodes at the source and destination.

Partial file access: Regions of a file may be accessed by specifying an offset into the file and the length of the block desired.

Reliability/restart: The receiving server periodically (the default is 5 seconds, but this can be changed) sends restart markers to the client. This marker is a messages specifying what bytes have been successfully written to the disk. If the transfer fails, the client may restart the transfer and provide these markers (or an aggregated equivalent marker), and the transfer will pick up where it left off. This can include holes in the file.

Large file support: All file sizes, lengths, and offsets are 64 bits in length.

Data channel reuse: Data channel can be held open and reused if the next transfer has the same source, destination, and credentials. This saves the time of connection establishment, authentication, and delegation. This can be a huge performance difference when moving lots of small files.

Integrated instrumentation (Performance Markers).

Logging/audit trail (Extensive Logging in the server).

Parallel transfers (Multiple TCP streams between a pair of hosts).

TCP Buffer size control (Protocol supports Manual and Automatic; Only Manual Implemented).

Server-side computation (Extended Retrieve (ERET) / Extended Store (ESTO) commands).

Based on Standards: RFC 959, RFC 2228, RFC 2389, IETF Draft MLST-16 , GGF GFD.020.

On the client side we provide a scriptable tool called globus-url-copy. This tool can take advantage of all the GridFTP protocol features and can also do protocol translation between FTP, HTTP, HTTPS, and POSIX file IO on the client machine.

We also provide a set of development libraries and APIs for developers wishing to add GridFTP functionality to their application.

None

Fix crash on DCAU N with custom net stack

GRIDFTP-178: Hanging server processes with GT5.0.4 striped GridFTP servers

GT-2: GUC will treat directory as if its a file for the purpose of sync comparison

GT-4: Can’t build gridftp server with alternate CC, needed by LTA

GT-5: globus-url-copy doesn’t pipeline url input from a file

GT-6: GridFTP installation on OpenBSD 4.9

GT-7: Issues with netlogger style logs

GT-8: globus-url-copy -rst …​ -st …​ segfault if the options are not correctly synchronized

GT-10: Problem checking directory permissions with MLST

GT-11: globus-url-copy -rst segfault if the network is not working

GT-12: GUC exits with zero when it hits a stall-timeout

GT-273: can discover user names even with restrict path

GT-284: GridFTP pipelining and reliability issues

GT-318: globus-url-copy (guc) and "-do" option inconsistency

GT-374: Can’t share files in a path structure with symlinks: path not allowed error

GT-397: gridftp doesn’t error if file with unrepresentable name is used (MLSC)

GT-413: Clarify errors whenever sharing file operations fail

GT-414: globus-gridftp-server closing connection before returning cksm value

GT-428: Improve handling of hanging GridFTP server processes

GT-450: extra newline in PASV error message

GT-472: GridFTP server fails to detect client disconnection with piplining

Non-WS (General) Authentication & Authorization

C Common Libraries

XIO

OpenSSL (version is included in release)

None

None

Not Applicable (GridFTP is not Java-based)

Not Applicable (GridFTP is not SOAP-based)

RFC 959 Base FTP protocol

RFC 2228 gssapi security extensions for FTP RFC 2389 FEAT, OPTS, etc.

extensions to FTP (IETF FTP Working group draft) for structured directory listings, SIZE, MDTM commands.

GFD.020 GridFTP extensions