Retelab: A geospatial grid web laboratory for the oceanographic research community

Retelab is a virtual laboratory for the Oceanographic research community. It is supported by a Grid infrastructure and its main objective is to provide an easy and useful tool for oceanographers, where computer skills are not an obstacle. To achieve these goals, Retelab includes improved versions of portal and Grid technologies related to security, data access, and job management. A solution based on a Role Access Management Model has been built for user access and registration, looking for a balance between simplicity and robustness. The sharing and discovery of scientific data is accomplished using a virtual database focused on metadata and designed specifically to store geospatial information. Finally, a comfortable and transparent procedure to submit and to monitor jobs has been developed. It is based on the integration and adaptation of the GridWay metascheduler to the multiuser portal environment in such a way that a single UNIX account can use several proxy certificates. The Virtual Laboratory has been tested by the implementation and deployment of several oceanographic applications.