SRM and SRB interoperability - at last!

People have been talking for years about getting SRM and SRB "interoperable", mostly involving building complicated interfaces from SRX to SRY in various ways.

Now it turns out SRB has a GridFTP interface, developed by Argonne. So here's the idea: why don't we pretend the SRB is a Classic SE?

So we can now transfer files with gridftp (i.e. globus-url-copy) from dCache to SRB and vice versa, although the disadvantage is that you have to know the name of a pool node with a GridFTP door. Incidentally, if you try that, don't forget -nodcau or it won't work (for GridFTP 3rd party copying).

But here's the brilliant thing: it also works with FTS, since FTS still supports Classic SEs. So we have successfully transferred data between dCache, the SRM, and SRB as a, well, GridFTP server, and back again.

Cool, eh?

Next step is to set up a Classic SE-shaped information system for SRB and see if it works with lcg-utils and GFAL (because FTS does not depend on the SE having a GRIS).

This is work with Matt Hodges at Tier 1 who set up FTS, and with Roger Downing and Adil Hasan from STFC for the SRB.

--jens