Backbone ServicesService Agreement on Helmholtz Backbone
HIFIS fostered a service agreement with the German National Research and Education Network (DFN) on operating a a Helmholtz-wide Virtual Private Network (Helmholtz Backbone), covering the majority of Helmholtz centres. By September, the contract is expected to be signed from the participating partners.
HIFIS OverallStart of HIFIS Helpdesk
A common contact point for all queries and support requests shall be introduced. This will be realized using a ticketing system, allowing to distribute tasks related to the different HIFIS clusters, especially Cloud Services and Software Services.
Software ServicesLaunch of the HIFIS Software Consulting Services
HIFIS Software offers free-of-charge consulting as a service to research groups within
the Helmholtz umbrella.
We can help you deal with specific licensing issues, migrating code between
different environments and languages, setting up new projects, and other
problems that you need to solve.
Request consulting.
Cloud ServicesAnnouncement of initial Helmholtz Cloud Service Portfolio
After multiple iterations, the first set of selected federated services, forming the initial Helmholtz
Cloud Service Portfolio, will be announced and started to be integrated. This set will be continuously enhanced
and the performance of the integrated services will be monitored.
HIFIS OverallHIFIS Meeting
A meeting of all HIFIS members is planned to foster collaboration between the HIFIS clusters.
Non-HIFIS Helmholtz-centres as well as all incubator platforms shall be incorporated.
Software ServicesReusable Ansible recipes for a scalable GitLab instance
The future software management platform will be based on reusable Ansible recipes.
This allows other research centers to reuse the implemented solution.
The open-source recipes are publicly available on gitlab.com/hifis/ansible.
Backbone ServicesSet-up of Helmholtz Backbone Connections
First Virtual Private Network (Helmholtz Backbone) connections have been set up and are in productive use.
Cloud ServicesTop 10 of future Helmholtz Cloud Services
We are happy to announce that the group of the 10 most mature services has reached a maturity level of more than 80% - more than sufficient for them to be integrated into the Cloud Portal in the coming weeks. This top group includes services like GitLab (HZDR, FZJ), Nextcloud (HZB, KIT), Mattermost (HZDR), Rocket.Chat (FZJ) but also OpenStack (FZJ, KIT), JupyterHub (FZJ), Zammad (HZDR) and B2Share (FZJ).
Find more information of Initial Service Portfolio here.
Backbone Services
Deprovisioning of users will be supported by the Helmholtz AAI. This includes a framework to query
deprovisioning information from IdPs to allow automatic deprovisioning in Helmholtz AAI. In case of
failure, user shall be contacted to confirm their account manually.
Cloud ServicesUsage and Success Monitoring of Helmholtz Cloud Services
The success of the services is essentially reflected in their use and application. From the middle of the year, key figures on the use of the individual services are therefore determined and collected.
Cloud ServicesDeprovisioning of users for at least one service and at least one using centre
The automatic deprovisioning of users is documented and technically implemented for at least one service and at least one service using centre.
Backbone ServicesHIFIS data transfer generally usable for interested centres
The HIFIS data transfer service will be improved such that any combination of interested centres can
participate by only needing to install a lightweight client that can manage third party copy.
Backbone ServicesAAI: Communication with services
Developed concept and alpha implementation for automated communication with services, for example using
Local Agent or via Cloud Portal. This requires cooperation with the
Service Integration working group of the Cloud Cluster.
Cloud ServicesPostponed services from initial service selection transferred into new onboarding process
Services, that were postponed during the initial service selection, as well as newly applied services were transferred into the onboarding process for new Helmholtz Cloud services.
Software ServicesCI as a Service (Pilot)
We consider Continuous Integration (CI) an important aspect in a
modern software engineering workflow.
Easy-to-use CI resources should be available for all Helmholtz scientists.
Beside the Helmholtz-wide GitLab many Helmholtz
centers run their own GitLab instances on dedicated infrastructure in their
center.
In order to bundle resources and enable research software projects
to easily use CI for their projects, CI will be offered as a service.
In this milestone, we will set up CI as a Service and test it first with few
pilot centers, in order to make it available to all Helmholtz communities.
Please note: The milestone was originally set for the end of the second quarter.
Due to the underlying compute resources not being available in time, this
milestone needed to be rescheduled to the third quarter of 2021.
Cloud ServicesRelease of Helmholtz Cloud Portal
The production version of the Helmholtz Cloud Portal will be made available.
The new search function and filter options help to find a suitable service.
The availability of the service is tested automatically and is visible in the service card. The service description contains all main information such as support, service level and limitations.
User comments are welcome in the new free text field and will help to continuously improve the usability of the portal.
Cloud ServicesProcess Framework for Helmholtz Cloud Service Portfolio
The Process Framework for Helmholtz Cloud Service Portfolio is published in version 1.0. It focuses on the explanation of the processes regarding the Service Portfolio Management for Helmholtz Cloud, giving an overview of which processes exist, how they interconnect, which roles are involved in each process and what is included in each process step.
Backbone Services
Obtained deprovisioning information shall be provided to services. This requires cooperation with the
Service Integration working group of the Cloud Cluster.
Cloud ServicesLegal Framework
The legal framework describes the necessary coordination and responsibilities so that the Helmholtz Cloud can perform its task for and within the Helmholtz community. It covers the relevant aspects, such as data sovereignty, intended use, GDPR or IT security.
Cloud Services
At least one of the prominent services (such as Nextcloud, Open Stack or Jupyter) or a combination of those is extended to a meta service: the meta service, which is provided by several Helmholtz Centers, is working as a federation or cooperation instead of separated local solutions.
Software ServicesConceptualize Binder / ShinyR Integration into GitLab
Allowing scientists or reviewers to easily interact with computational environments
can be considered a key aspect for reproducible and easy-to-use research software.
Integrating tools like Binder or ShinyR
into the Helmholtz-wide GitLab
will allow scientists to easily make their research software product available
to others without the need for installing and configuring tools locally.
In this milestone, a concept will be elaborated on how this integration
may be realized.
Backbone ServicesAAI: Establish improved process for Virtual Organisation Registration
Virtual Organisations (VOs) have been introduced in Helmholtz AAI during 2020.
Requests to create new top-level VOs are currently being processed on end user request,
using the HIFIS Helpdesk and considerable manual interaction for VO creation and documentation.
In 2022, a transparent process shall be set up and implemented to allow VO handling in larger scales than so far.
Software ServicesInitial Prototype of a Helmholtz Research Software Directory
The basis for the software catalogue will be the Research Software Directory
developed at Netherlands eScience Center.
In close collaboration with the original maintainers, an adapted version for Helmholtz will be developed.
The development of the HIFIS Research Software Directory will
be coordinated at GFZ in collaboration with DLR and UFZ, and aided by the HIFIS Software Technology work package.
In this milestone a basic prototype with the initial functionality will be deployed, marking the beginning of the test phase with selected test users.
HIFIS OverallHIFIS Conference
Until summer, HIFIS will give all stakeholders the opportunity to strengthen our community and to contribute to the further development of HIFIS, especially in light of the upcoming review.
As a part of this, HIFIS will organize an All-HIFIS conference in Berlin, possibly as presence meeting, if circumstances allow.
Backbone ServicesHelmholtz Backbone Network: Usage Policies
For 2022, a set of policy rules, regulating the basic participation conditions of the Helmholtz Backbone network,
shall be worked out and put into action for the participants.
Software ServicesEmpower CI/CD #3 - Support Windows in GitLab CI
So far the Helmholtz Codebase service does not support the Windows operating
system for executing jobs.
As part of this milestone the Helmholtz Codebase service will support the Windows
operating system to run CI jobs.
Scale with rising usage figures through advanced maintenance automation
As part of this milestone it should be possible to
- test the core functionality of the Helmholtz Codebase service automatically,
- automatically setup a test infrastructure via OpenStack.
Backbone ServicesAAI: Yearly housekeeping
After ramp-up phase, and going towards operational phase, the components of Helmholtz AAI will undergo a regular updating and housekeeping process.
Amongst these, the owners of registered services as well as the managers of registered Virtual Organisations (VO) will be contacted and requested for information confirmation or updates.
Further updates and regular review processes are to be defined in the upcoming Policy Review Process.
Backbone ServicesAAI: HIFIS becoming full AEGIS member
For over one year, HIFIS already has been an observing member of the AARC Engagement Group for Infrastructures (AEGIS), which facilitates activities for the adoption of harmonised federation solutions and thus the design and adoption of AARC guidelines.
Based on the many practical use cases in the context of Helmholtz AAI and Helmholtz Cloud, as well as the continuous increase of user numbers and participating groups, HIFIS was asked to step up as a full member.
It is planned to do so by February; we look forward to a fruitful cooperation on further developing harmonised federated access to digital resources for science.
HIFIS OverallBased on evaluation: Define further developments
Following the overall very positive HIFIS evaluation results received end of 2022 and
in line with our ongoing annual reporting,
we will define the short- and mid-term steps to focus on during 2023 and parts of 2024.
Backbone ServicesAAI: Multi Factor Authentication (MFA)
It is planned to enforce MFA in administrative endpoints of the central community AAI (Unity IdM), i.e., the /console and /oauth-home (userhome of oauth clients) endpoints.
It will be made optional on normal user’s /home /upman /oauth2 /saml-idp endpoints and recommended for VO admins to use it.
Corresponding documentation will be provided and signalling the MFA status will be prepared.
Software ServicesRSE Bootcamp
In spring and summer 2023, scientists will have the opportunity to be taught
the combined HIFIS course portfolio in a joint RSE Bootcamp organized with HIDA.
Backbone ServicesAAI: Fostering the participation of non Helmholtz IdPs in Helmholtz AAI
Users from numerous non-Helmholtz organisations can in principle access Helmholtz AAI and Cloud services by logging in via their home IdP. However, lack of standard conformity, local policies and technical inconsistencies frequently prevent successful authentication, frustrating the users and also putting high load on the HIFIS support.
A frequently used workaround, authenticating via social IdPs (ORCID, Github, Google) allows users to access our services with caveats.
Using AAI statistics of user’s originating organisations, we will identify organisations with significant numbers of users, and non-working IdP based authentication, so that we can concentrate efforts on actively integrating these organisations systematically.
The identification and workflow to do so is planned to be established by late spring 2023, with follow-up work being continuous.
HIFIS OverallFollow-up process on user feedback
HIFIS provides numerous channels that already allow users and user groups to funnel their feedback on HIFIS services.
The tools include
the single point-of-contact Helpdesk,
direct feedback in the Helmholtz Cloud Portal,
surveys,
the Helmholtz Cloud Service Operation KPI,
and many more.
Until summer, we will streamline the processes to follow-up on user queries, including selection and priorisation.
We will decide on potential additional or altered formats to systematically obtain user feedback.
Further, the reporting (KPI) will be adapted,
moving a bit away from reflecting the build-up of services,
towards the representation of user acceptance and user satisfaction.
Software ServicesEmpower CI/CD part two
Again, a special focus will be put on Continuous Integration (CI).
For this purpose, the team offers a container workshop
or GitLab-CI workshop once per quarter.
In addition, general CI support for Windows will be added
to the Helmholtz Codebase.
Software Spotlights in the Helmholtz RSD
The Helmholtz Software Spotlights found their new home in the Helmholtz RSD.
The Spotlights previously presented at hifis.net will be migrated
to the Helmholtz RSD and presented there from now on.
Backbone ServicesFirst Coordination of future operational Cybersecurity Activities
The HIFIS Backbone cluster, together with Cloud cluster, will define first coordinating steps to align with Helmholtz KoDa’s activities in fostering Operational Cybersecurity.
HIFIS OverallIncubator Workshop: Presentation of future developments
In the Helmholtz Incubator Workshop to be held in July,
HIFIS will present the envisioned future developments,
especially in the light of the advises given
during HIFIS evaluation.
Backbone ServicesAAI: Integrate most relevant federations, based on negotiated use cases (pilot)
Any completely transparent interconnection of Helmholtz AAI with other federations, such as EGI Checkin, ELIXIR/Lifescience, or Indigo IAM, is notoriously problematic due to many degrees of freedom of such implementations (and thus potential conflicts) in terms of user lifecycle management, authorisation management, group memberships, applying policies and more.
In coordination with specific user groups using infrastructures from other federations and communities, we will define specific technical and administrative procedures to enable the negotiated use cases while minimising the abovementioned problems.
HIFIS OverallDetailed elaboration on long-term plans
Following the first presentation of envisioned future developments of HIFIS
in the Helmholtz Incubator Workshop in July,
further details are planned to be worked out until fall 2023.
Backbone ServicesAAI: Robot accounts, group accounts
Group Accounts and Robot Accounts are not yet fully supported by DFN AAI and thus Helmholtz AAI.
As such accounts are envisioned to play an increasing role in the Helmholtz AAI and Helmholtz Cloud, HIFIS will foster to establish an AARC guideline to fully support such accounts.
In parallel, HIFIS will provide first conceptually compatible implementations so that ongoing use cases can be supported soon.
Software ServicesHelmholtz Software Award
For the first time, an award for high-quality research software will be granted in Helmholtz.
Backbone ServicesAAI: Policy Review Process (close collaboration with Cloud Cluster)
With experiences made during the annual housekeeping, user deprovisioning, adoption of new use cases (for example, including robot accounts), and updates in the upstream AARC guidelines (SIRTFI-v2, REFEDS Assurance Framework V2), the AAI policies may need regular updates.
This and yet to be defined elements will be part of the policy review process that is due to be defined.
As this strongly related to similar review activities of the HIFIS Cloud cluster for the Helmholtz Cloud services, there will be a close collaboration between clusters on this.
Software ServicesImprove software quality to uphold policy standards
Best practice workflows are to be defined on the basis of the guidelines
for the sustainable handling of research software
that are currently being established at Helmholtz.
These can be used to check compliance with certain criteria
as automatically as possible and to award software quality badges for research software.
Initial work in this area is expected to be ready for presentation towards the end of 2023.
Cloud ServicesBachelor thesis implementing resource booking in Plony successfully completed
Service providers can now configure all aspects around resource booking in Plony. This includes the content of the resource booking form displayed in Cloud Portal, how many resources are offered as well as access control to them. The modeling of the corresponding process as well as the implementation in Plony was subject to a bachelor thesis written at HZB.
Software ServicesHelmholtz Summer School - From Data to Knowledge
The five Helmholtz Information & Data Science platforms -
Helmholtz AI, Helmholtz Imaging, HIFIS, HIDA, and HMC -
are crafting a two-week program to cater to participants with diverse backgrounds and interests.
We offer a wide array of course packages,
ensuring that you find the perfect fit regardless of your level of expertise.
Productive Cloud Portal Integration
The first productive cloud portal integration will allow users to
to create teams in Mattermost via the Helmholtz Cloud portal.
This integration is being carried out in close cooperation with the cloud cluster
and provides the technical basis for further future integration.
