pid-proxy

This is the documentation of server configuration and data back-up for the Australian Government Linked Data Working Group (AGLDWG)'s Persistent ID (PID) proxy service that manages URI for Linked Data resources.

The PID proxy manages persistent URIs within the following domains:

• linked.data.gov.au - the main, operational, domain

Also managed are a number of non-persistent domains:

• test.linked.data.gov.au - for testing candidate PID URIs
• www.linked.data.gov.au - the main AGLDWG website
• catalogue.linked.data.gov.au - the catalogue tracking PID URI allocations

Server configuration

This repository documents the setup of the PID proxy.

In outline

The server is a small Virtual Machine (VM) that running Linux within which is installed the Apache 2 web server program which is configured to make URI redirects and proxying. The only other program of significance (i.e. not 'out-of-the-box' Linux programs) installed on the VM is Git which is used to pull updated Apache server config files from this repository to the server.

In detail

• The server is a Virtual Machine established on the NeCTAR cloud
  • The specific VM and the Floating IP address allocated to it is provided within the NeCTAR project 'AGLDWG' allocation by QRISCloud which is a NeCTAR provider institution
• The Floating IP of the PID Proxy is 203.100.30.55
• The Virtual Machine image of the current VM acting as PID Proxy is name: pid-prod8, ID: b8567a35-adaf-41cc-8228-b3e7f70d74e7
  • The installation log of the server is in this repository as install.sh

Backup

Redirection and proxying configuration implemented in the PID Proxy is slaved to this repository. This means that the configuration you see here (the files ending in .conf) is the master copy of Apache config which is then pulled to the server for deployment. So far, the three PID domains managed by the PID Proxy use configuration from the files:

• linked.data.gov.au.conf
• environment.data.gov.au.conf
  • lab.environment.data.gov.au.conf
• reference.data.gov.au.conf

The non-persistent domains are managed using .conf files with their names.

All .conf files loaded onto the server are contained within the [conf/](conf/] folder.

PID Governance

In order to create new URI PIDs within linked.data.gov.au.conf (the other two managed domains being in maintenance-only mode with no new URI patterns to be added), a governed process must be followed. That process is detailed on the AGLDWG's website:

• linked.data.gov.au/governance

PID Testing

The test.linked.data.gov.au domain is available for testing proposed PIDs. Contact the WG to implement URIs using this domain but know that they will be purged semi regularly (quarterly or as needed).

All PIDs accepted for allocation within linked.data.gov.au will be added to the PID Proxy conf file for that domain and then have the test suite run against the updated result. All tests must pass before the new PID becomes fully implemented and thus stable. This ensure that it doesn't interfere with existing PIDs.

The test suite for linked.data.gov.au is a Python pytests script in this repository at tests/linked.data.gov.au.py.

The workflow governing this testing is contained within the current AGLDWG's URI Guidelines.

License

This repository is licensed under Creative Commons 4.0 International. See the LICENSE deed in this repository for details.

Contacts

System Owner: Australian Government Linked Data Working Group

System Owner contact:
Nicholas Car
Research School of Computer Science
Australian National University
nicholas.car@anu.edu.au