Gafaelfawr

Gafaelfawr is the authentication and authorization front-end for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Science Platform.

It’s primary purpose is to serve as an NGINX auth_request backend. It also provides a web page where people can create and manage long-lived tokens for use outside of a web browser, and can serve as a simple OpenID Connect server. As a component of the Science Platform, it is designed for deployment with Kubernetes using the Phalanx infrastructure. Gafaelfawr requires the Kubernetes NGINX ingress controller.

Gafaelfawr is developed on GitHub. It is deployed via Phalanx.

Gafaelfawr is part of the Rubin Science Platform identity management system. Its design is documented in DMTN-234, and its implementation in DMTN-224. History and decisions made during its development are documented in SQR-069. Read those documents for a more complete picture of how Gafaelfawr fits into a larger identity management system.

Gafaelfawr is named for Glewlwyd Gafaelfawr, the knight who challenges King Arthur in Pa gur yv y porthaur? and, in later stories, is a member of his court and acts as gatekeeper. Gafaelfawr is pronounced (very roughly) gah-VILE-vahwr. (If you speak Welsh and can provide a better pronunciation guide, please open an issue!)