Centralized user and label tree repository

[mzur]

Goal: Users should be able to use their user account, label trees and projects in every BIIGLE instance.

This goal is in conflict with our current approach of decentralized BIIGLE instances and transfer of data via import/export. One possible idea for implementation is this:

• Use only a single global BIIGLE instance (ours).
• Implement BIIGLE "image servers" that are installed on-premise at the various institutions. These image servers can be connected to the global instance and provide image files that are stored on the servers of the institution. Users of the global instance can be authorized to access different image servers so they can create new volumes with images provided by the image server.
• BIIGLE on the ship stays the same with no connection to the global instance. Users, label trees and volumes have to be im-/exported.

This is based on the assumption that the only motivation of the institutions currently maintaining their own BIIGLE instance is that they don't want to publish their images.

I don't really like this idea as the current decentralized solution has some benefits, too. I doubt that Senckenberg and Geomar want to give up their instances. If they don't, we don't gain anything but additional complexity by the implementation of the idea described above.

[mzur]

After a discussion with the Geomar people, we concluded that the centralized approach described above could indeed be a viable solution. But the most important issue in this case would be user trust. Users would have to be able to trust the entity which maintains BIIGLE with their data (if not their images). This is a similar situation like Pangaea which is maintained by a central authority.

1. The centralized BIIGLE instance must be maintained by a trusted authority.
2. BIIGLE might have to be deployed on a server infrastructure that is a little more reliable than the UniBi OpenStack.
3. Convenient use of images imported from Pangaea would be a huge plus. ( Import volumes from Pangaea #95 )
4. BIIGLE open source would also improve user trust. ( Software license/open source #154 )
5. Support for an authentication service like Shibboleth may be a nice solution for new user registration of the centralized instance. ( Automatic registration #173 )

[mzur]

After some discussion with Tim, I tend to prefer a decentralized version that is very similar to what we have today. Every institute maintains its ownl BIIGLE instance but the instances can share data with im-/exports. But the final decision is up to the project partners.

[mzur]

Continued in #208.