vas's blog

The certificate authority used to issue service certificates for Globus Connect Server installations will expire on August 9, 2016. We have released an updated version of Globus Connect Server that contains the new certificate authority. Please update your installation prior to August 9th for uninterrupted use of your Globus endpoint(s). Click here for instructions on updating your endpoint.

On February 16, 2016 a new critical vulnerability CVE-2015-7547 - "glibc getaddrinfo() stack-based buffer overflow" was announced. We have reviewed the severity and impact to Globus services, partner services and users, and posted details of our findings in a new security bulletin. We recommend corrective action for users who are operating Globus endpoints on Linux systems - please read the security bulletin for further details.

We’re excited to announce changes to the way users access Globus that removes a lot of the “friction” currently associated with signing up and using the service. On February 13th, 2016, we will be upgrading the Globus authentication and authorization mechanisms so that users can access the service with their institutional username and password. This provides a familiar login experience and no longer requires users to create a separate Globus username and password just to use the service.

Recently, a new vulnerability was discovered in the Sparkle Updater framework on Mac OS, that is used by Globus Connect Personal to check for, and install, updates. All Mac users who have Globus Connect Personal installed should immediately update to the latest version so they are no longer vulnerable.

Note: This downtime was previously scheduled for January 30, 2016 and is now scheduled for February 13, 2016. We're delaying our release plans at the request of customers who would like additional time to test their systems' integration with new Globus functionality.

In April 2016 we'll be releasing enhancements to the underlying security mechanism in Globus Toolkit components used by the Globus service. This is just an informational message since most Globus users will not be affected by these changes. In particular, users operating a Globus Connect Server endpoint that uses the Globus-provided security credential are not affected and no action is required.

We’re excited to announce that data publication is now available to all Globus subscribers! We first described our vision for making research data easily discoverable and accessible to all at GlobusWorld 2014. Since then, we’re worked with a handful of early adopter institutions to refine and test the system, building a simple framework along the way to guide our development efforts.

Globus subscribers now have direct access to usage reports for their managed endpoints via the Globus web interface (previously, subscribers had to request usage data from the Globus support team). If you're a subscription manager for your institution, you can navigate to the Globus Usage Reports endpoint and download the usage reports*. You will see a directory named for your institution's domain, e.g.uchicago.edu.

The winner of our 100PB contest is Todd Raeker from the University of Michigan. Todd came closest in predicting the date and time at which Globus would pass the 100PB mark. We passed 100PB at 3:36:14pm CDT on June 26, 2015. Todd's prediction: 11:11:11pm CDT on July 4, 2015. Congratulations, Todd!

Last week we passed a pretty cool milestone for the Globus service: 100 petabytes of data moved! Even in this age of "big data", 100PB is a big number. How big, you ask? Well, 100PB is roughly...

...twice the entire written works of mankind, from the beginning of history, in all languages,
...1,000 times all of Twitter,
...8.88 million hours of HD video,
...21,276,596 DVDs,
...50 times all the material in US academic libraries,
...5 times the entire production of disk drives in 1995 (yeah, that's a pretty obscure one).