Table of Contents
Dcache is a Java application so requires a machine running Java and using RPM as a packaging source. Dcache is not yet open source but is available in RPM format.
Dcache supports a number of interfaces the most important for the system administrators at Tier 2 sites is the SRM interface or "Door". This interface handles long running requests through web services providing the SRM API, this door is dependent on the Postgres database.
The Dcache documentation states that Dcache runs on Intel based Linux installations and Mac OS X. We have only tested this with RH Enterprise derived (Scientific Linux) versions.
You will need a machine running Java. and using rpm as a packaging source. Since Dcache is not yet open source it is available as a RPM's
Dcache uses the Globus Security Infrastructure (abbreviated to GSI in this document). GSI is a public key infrastructure (abbreviated to PKI in this document). GSI as with many PKI systems requires the servers host certificate for authenticated connections. Getting a host certificate is outside the scope of this document but is no different for Dcache than any grid software. The system host-key is an important dependency. Please see http://ca.grid-support.ac.uk for further details about acquiring UK eScience Certificates.
openssl x509 -in /etc/grid-security/hostcert.pem -noout -text
Should produce an output that includes
Subject: C=UK, O=eScience, OU=CLRC, L=RAL,
CN=gppse01.gridpp.rl.ac.uk/Em
ail=tier1a-certificate@helpdesk.gridpp.rl.ac.uk
Where gppse01.gridpp.rl.ac.uk is the name of the host and tier1a-certificate@helpdesk.gridpp.rl.ac.uk is where to mail for supporting your server.
the web site http://ca.grid-support.ac.uk/ should include a copy of your public key if you have problems.
I do not yet know the full dependency list for Dcache. This requires computer resources that are not feasibly available for the first release of this document. Currently all release testing by the author has been using the Scientific Linux Distribution. Users of Red-Hat are not expected to have many problems but Debian, Mandrake, SuSE and other distributions may find greater difficulty installing Dcache.