This was posted on the BOINC msg boards; I'm answering it here. -- David > I'm trying to implement "yet" another Boinc Account Manager (AM), I'm > currently in a planning stage. I've been reading wikis, mailist, and the code > of other similar project (jarifa) and there are some doubts for the correct > management of the accounts/user/hosts.
James Drews from U. of Wisconsin implemented an AM for managing a dynamic "farm" of hosts running BOINC. If this is what you need, consider using his system (I can put you in touch with him). > > First. if a host is attached to the AM using the weak autenticator. And after > a while the user changues the password. How does it work? because the host no > longer has the correct "weak" autenticator. I can only supose that the AM > must update the account in the diferent projects and that they will provide > the new weak autenticator to the host, so after a while the host will be able > to reconect to the AM. To clarify: authenticators attach hosts to projects, not to AMs. AMs send auths to hosts in their RPC replies. They can send either weak or strong auths. Currently, if an AM sends a new auth, the client will ignore it, print an error message, and keep using the old one (which, in the case of weak auths, will fail indefinitely). This is, it seems to me, a design error (although it can be worked around by having the AM tell the client to remove the project, then add it later). I think the correct behavior is for the client to used the new auth, if both old and new auths are weak. I'll make this change in the client; it will appear in the 6.14 release. > > Second. If the host is attached to the AM using user/password. It's the same > procedure? See above; how the client is authenticated to the AM is not relevant here. > > The http://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/wiki/AccountManagement is a bit misleading > in this regard, because doesn't show this part of the process, or even the > client contacting the project. It also imply that there must be allways a > project atached when changing the password, or the whole scheme would fail > and also that there are some race conditions where the node is ofline for a > while and doesn't update properly unsyncing forever. I don't understand the above. > > Another doubt is regarding that some AM user (IT managers) may want to set > preferences or usage to a group of host (or farm) that has certain attribute > (similar specs, geographic location, availability, owner). Setting to them > some special preferences, projects to run, etc; but that doesn't seem > compatible with the current boinc scheme. I mean, the more similar thing are > the profile Venues, but they requiere that the host set the location, and > it's limited to 3 diferent preferences. The only "solution" that I thought > it's that the AM create multiple accounts in the project to satisfy the > diferent preference requirements, but it will imply to create some kind of > "email alias" to redirect all the account information to the same "real" > user. AMs can define whatever set of venues they want, including allowing users to create their own venues. I believe that BAM! offers this feature. -- David _______________________________________________ boinc_dev mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ssl.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/boinc_dev To unsubscribe, visit the above URL and (near bottom of page) enter your email address.
