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- All Sage data is stored on S3 and is not public.
- Users can only discover what data is available via the platform.
- Users can use the data for cloud computation by spinning up EC2 instances and downloading the files from S3 to the hard drive of their EC2 instance. See below for more details on this.
- Users can download the data from S3 to their local system. See below for more details on this.
- The platform directs users to sign a Sage-specified EULA prior to gaining access to these files in S3.
- Users must have a Sage platform account to access this data for download.
- The platform grants access to this data. See below for details.
- The platform will write to the audit log each time it grants access and to whom it granted access. S3 can also be configured to log all access to resources and this could serve as a means of intrusion detection.
- TODO list what info is loggedclient IP address is available in the log
- "anonymous" or the users AWS canonical user id will appear in the log
- See proposals below regarding how users might pay for usage.
- The cost of hosting not free.
- Storage fees will apply.
- Bandwidth fees apply when data is uploaded.
- Data can also be shipped via hard drives and AWS Import fees would apply.
- Bandwidth fees apply when data is downloaded out of AWS. There is no charge when it is downloaded inside AWS (e.g., to an EC2 instance).
Open Questions:
- can we use the canonical user id to know who the user is if they have previously given us their AWS account id?
Resources:
- Best Effort Server Log Delivery:
- The server access logging feature is designed for best effort. You can expect that most requests against a bucket that is properly configured for logging will result in a delivered log record, and that most log records will be delivered within a few hours of the time that they were recorded.
- However, the server logging feature is offered on a best-effort basis. The completeness and timeliness of server logging is not guaranteed. The log record for a particular request might be delivered long after the request was actually processed, or it might not be delivered at all. The purpose of server logs is to give the bucket owner an idea of the nature of traffic against his or her bucket. It is not meant to be a complete accounting of all requests.
- Usage Report Consistency
- It follows from the best-effort nature of the server logging feature that the usage reports available at the AWS portal might include usage that does not correspond to any request in a delivered server log.
- [Log format details | http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AmazonS3/2006-03-01/dev/index.html?ServerLogsLogFormat.html}
S3
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This is ruled out for protected data because ACLs can have a max of 100 grants and it appears that these grants cannot be to groups such as groups of arbitrary AWS users.
Open Question:
- Confirm that grants do not apply to groups of AWS users.
Resources:
Pre-Signed URLs for Private Content
Pros:
Cons:
Resources:
- "Query String Request Authentication Alternative: You can authenticate certain types of requests by passing the required information as query-string parameters instead of using the Authorization HTTP header. This is useful for enabling direct third-party browser access to your private Amazon S3 data, without proxying the request. The idea is to construct a "pre-signed" request and encode it as a URL that an end-user's browser can retrieve. Additionally, you can limit a pre-signed request by specifying an expiration time."
- http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/index.html?S3_QSAuth.html
- http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/index.html?S3_ACLs_UsingACLsRESTAuthentication.html
S3 Bucket Policies
This is the newer mechanism from AWS for access control.
Open Questions:
- What is the upper limit on the number of grants?
- What is the upper limit on the number of principals that can be listed in a single grant?
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- The following list describes the restrictions on Amazon S3 policies: from http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/index.html?AccessPolicyLanguage_SpecialInfo.html
- The maximum size of a policy is 20 KB
- The value for Resource must be prefixed with the bucket name or the bucket name and a path under it (bucket/). If only the bucket name is specified, without the trailing /, the policy applies to the bucket.
- Each policy must have a unique policy ID (Id)
- Each statement in a policy must have a unique statement ID (sid)
- Each policy must cover only a single bucket and resources within that bucket (when writing a policy, don't include statements that refer to other buckets or resources in other buckets)
S3 ACL
This is the older mechanism from AWS for access control.
This is ruled out for protected data because ACLs can have a max of 100 grants and it appears that these grants cannot be to groups such as groups of arbitrary AWS users.
Open Question:
- Confirm that grants do not apply to groups of AWS users.
Resources:
S3 and IAM
With IAM a group of users can be granted access to S3 resources. This will be helpful for managing access Sage system administrators and Sage employees.
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Resources:http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/index.html?UsingWithS3.html
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Pros:
Cons:
Resources:
- "Query String Request Authentication Alternative: You can authenticate certain types of requests by passing the required information as query-string parameters instead of using the Authorization HTTP header. This is useful for enabling direct third-party browser access to your private Amazon S3 data, without proxying the request. The idea is to construct a "pre-signed" request and encode it as a URL that an end-user's browser can retrieve. Additionally, you can limit a pre-signed request by specifying an expiration time."
- http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/index.html?S3_QSAuth.html
- http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/index.html?RESTAuthentication.html
EBS snapshot ACL
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The Pacific Northwest Gigapop is the point of presence for the Internet2/Abilene network in the Pacific Northwest. The PNWGP is connected to the Abilene backbone via a 10 GbE link. In turn, the Abilene Seattle node is connected via OC-192 192 links to both Sunnyvale, California and Denver, Colorado.
PNWPG offers two types of Internet2/Abilene interconnects: Internet2/Abilene transit services and Internet2/Abilene peering at Pacific Wave International Peering Exchange. See Participant Services for more information.
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