Reference

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Definitions and external resources for the OneSciencePlace (OSP) platform.

Glossary

App: A versioned, configured definition of a computational tool mapped to a single system. Apps encapsulate execution commands, input and output specifications, runtime environment, and system requirements. The same underlying tool deployed on multiple systems is represented as multiple apps.
App contributor: A user with permissions to create and manage apps on an OSP deployment. Typically researchers or research software engineers who package computational tools for others to use.
Batch app: An app that runs as a non-interactive command-line application, typically through a scheduler such as Slurm.
Container: A packaged software environment, supported in OSP through Docker and Singularity (Apptainer) runtimes.
Credential: The authentication information OSP uses to connect to a system on a user's or service account's behalf. Typically an SSH key pair generated by OSP, with the public key installed on the target system's authorized_keys.
DTN (Data Transfer Node): A dedicated system for handling file transfers, typically used when primary compute nodes are not optimized for data movement.
End user: A user who launches apps and works with results, as opposed to one who creates apps or administers the deployment. Researchers, students, and community members are typical end users.
FAIR principles: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable — a set of principles for research data and software, supported by OSP's publishing framework.
Federated identity: An authentication model where users sign in with credentials from their home institution rather than a separate per-deployment account. OSP supports federated identity through CILogon, Globus Auth, InCommon, SAML, and LDAP.
Job: An instance of an app execution. Jobs are submitted through a launch form, monitored in real time, and can be cloned and re-submitted with their original or modified parameters.
Launch form: The web form that captures the parameters needed to submit a job. Launch forms are configured by the app contributor through OSP's no-code form builder.
Logical queue: A named submission target within a batch scheduler, configured per system. Logical queues let an OSP system map to one or more queues on the underlying scheduler, with their own resource limits.
Multi-tenant: An architecture where a single platform serves multiple independent deployments. In OSP, each tenant has its own branding, users, applications, systems, and content.
Publication: A structured, versioned, citable record for sharing research outputs. Publications can carry DOIs, Handles, or ARKs and move through a Draft → Review → Published lifecycle.
RBAC (Role-Based Access Control): An access management model where permissions are assigned to roles, and users are assigned one or more roles. OSP uses cumulative permissions across roles.
Scheduler profile: A reusable configuration that customizes how jobs are submitted to a batch scheduler — including module-loading commands and other scheduler-specific options.
System: An integrated computing or storage resource connected to OSP. Systems can be HPC clusters, standalone hosts, or cloud instances, on-premises or remote.
System administrator: A user responsible for registering and maintaining systems, credentials, and scheduler configurations on an OSP deployment.
Tapis: The API layer that OSP uses for job and data lifecycle management across connected systems.
Tenant: A single OSP deployment with its own branding, users, applications, systems, and content. Tenants operate independently while sharing the underlying orchestration layer.
Tenant administrator: A user responsible for the configuration of an OSP deployment — user roles, publication workflows, content, and overall site administration.
VNC app: An interactive graphical app delivered to the browser via a VNC session. Used for native graphical applications such as MATLAB.
Webform element: An input control on an app's launch form. OSP provides a set of stock UI webform elements (Checkbox, File, Select, Text Field, Radio, Number, Computed Twig) optimized for passing user input as command-line arguments, environment variables, or scheduler options.
Web app: An interactive web application delivered to the browser, such as Jupyter Notebook.

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