Clustering the Reliable File Transfer Service
Jim Basney, Patrick Duda · 2007
Abstract — As grids move from prototypes to testbeds to production infrastructure, grid resource providers are faced with the challenge of delivering reliable services to enable productive use of available resources. On high performance, distributed grids such as the TeraGrid, moving large data sets to, from, and between supercomputing resources requires reliable data management services. The Reliable File Transfer (RFT) Service in the Globus Toolkit Version 4 (GT4) provides this capability on the TeraGrid and other grids. We present modifications to RFT to support clustering to achieve high availability in the presence of server failures, based on a standard Web service tiered architecture, leveraging the capabilities of modern database systems. Clustering distributes the RFT service across multiple tightly coupled servers so that RFT can continue to provide service even when individual components fail.