CernVM WebAPI - Controlling Virtual Machines from the Web

Lately, there is a trend in scientific projects to look for computing resources in the volunteering community. In addition, to reduce the development effort required to port the scientific software stack to all the known platforms, the use of Virtual Machines (VMs)u is becoming increasingly popular. Unfortunately their use further complicates the software installation and operation, restricting the volunteer audience to sufficiently expert people. CernVM WebAPI is a software solution addressing this specific case in a way that opens wide new application opportunities. It offers a very simple API for setting-up, controlling and interfacing with a VM instance in the users computer, while in the same time offloading the user from all the burden of downloading, installing and configuring the hypervisor. WebAPI comes with a lightweight javascript library that guides the user through the application installation process. Malicious usage is prohibited by offering a per-domain PKI validation mechanism. In this contribution we will overview this new technology, discuss its security features and examine some test cases where it is already in use.