Folks,
Rob H reminds me that the UK e-Science 2A certificate is being withdrawn
from the IGTF release; I actually thought it hadn't gone into (or rather
out of) the Feb release as I hadn't sent the pgp-signed email, only the
unsigned confirmation.
First, there is no impact on runtime as there are no valid end entity
certificates under 2A any more.
On a longer scale (12-18 months) it will be fully withdrawn - for good -
for slightly complicated reasons, essentially that it is running on now
unsupported hardware.
However, I had the Cunning Brainwave™ to use it in an interim period
(6-12 months) to issue user certificates for the Pathfinder project (in
which GridPP is a partner), so my aim is to put it back into IGTF but
reclassified as a SLCS CA (see www.igtf.net). It also means it needs a
rewritten policy and a re-review by the EU GridPMA. I want it to keep
the same name though, and keys, and everything.
The upshot of this is that if you support SLCS (and you should), the CA
certificate should pop back in in about a months' time or two, depending
on how quick the reclassification process is.
The purpose of these shenanigans is to be able to interconnect national
e-infrastructures, namely GridPP, eMedLab (www.emedlab.ac.uk), Oxford's
ARC (advanced research computing), DiRAC of course, maybe also ARCHER.
Pathfinder is "only" a pilot project, but I am determined that the
GridPP contribution will deliver Real Stuff® and not just some hacky
test stuff we've set up that can't really do anything useful.
At the moment it is safe to let 2A drop out. I shall let you know more
about the implications and risks when we put it back in.
Any questions let me know.
Cheers
--jens
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