European Plate Observing System

How EPOS implemented a robust AAI following AARC’s recommendations

EPOS is the ESFRI initiative for the solid Earth sciences. EPOS wants to establish a European infrastructure where datasets, metadata and resources can be searched and accessed across sites, and to create new e-science opportunities to monitor and better understand the dynamics of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other geological processes.

EPOS spans 25 countries, involves 4 international organisations and 256 national research infrastructures. The expected number of users will likely grow to a total of 2000.

The AAI challenge

EPOS already has established an Authentication and Authorisation Infrastructure (AAI) prototype with the EGI Check-in service as an Identity Provider and Unity-IdM as its core.

The ultimate goal for EPOS is to implement Single Sign On (SSO) system for their users to assess the EPOS Thematic Core Services (for specific Earth Science domains) and the EPOS Integrated Core Services (covering cross-domain computing and storage resources). Both sets of services are connected by an EPOS interoperability layer.

How did the AARC project help?

EPOS and AARC worked together on a pilot project to expand the functionalities of the EPOS AAI prototype.

EPOS implemented an AAI using the building blocks defined by the Blueprint Architecture. This allowed them to prototype a system that allows EPOS thematic services to be accessed with institutional credentials or EPOS identities. The EPOS AAI is now integrated with other services. It is now possible to access Virtual Machines running on the EGI Federated Cloud.

EPOS also benefitted from the AARC Training programme and successfully delivered a AAI-focused training event for Earth Science researchers. The training covered AAI concepts and federated access and provided an introduction to the different.

More information

AAI Training for EPOS is an introduction to AAI concepts and federated access to share a common model of knowledge for the EPOS Earth Science community.

Details about the EPOS pilot (wiki).