User Guide - Getting Started

This section provides instructions for accessing the NPACI Grid resources.  The NPACI Grid consists of 4 systems: blue horizon (SDSC), longhorn (Texas), hypnos (Michigan), and morpheus (Michigan).  The steps below will walk you through establishing and configuring access.

Establishing an account
Configuring your environment
Obtaining and setting up certificates
Verifying access and configuration

Once you have access to the NPACI Grid, a Tutorial is available to walk you through some of its features.

Establishing an account

1. If you do not have an NPACI (i.e., ux*) account and you are a PI, you will need to request an expedited account.  You will receive your account information by postal mail within 1-2 weeks.  If you do not have an account, but you are working for a PI who does, the PI will need to request that you be added as a user under his/her account by submitting an NPACI account extension request.
   
   

   If you have not received your account material in 2 weeks, please notify NPACI Grid consulting via the NPACI Consulting Web page form (http://www.npaci.edu/Consult).  Fill in the following fields: NPACI Resource: NPACI Grid Type of Problem:  Accounts Summary:  have not received account info Description of Request field: date of initial application; machines for which you requested account; your comments

   
   
2. If you have an NPACI account, familiarize yourself with the resources available on the NPACI Grid.
   
3. If there are resources listed in step 2 where you do not have an account but would like one, submit an NPACI account extension request.
   
4. Once you obtain your accounts, verify your access to each system.  The first one listed below is blue horizon at SDSC.  Skip any systems where you do not have an account.

% ssh tf004i.sdsc.edu -l <your-username>
% ssh longhorn.tacc.utexas.edu -l <your-username>
% ssh hypnos.engin.umich.edu -l <your-username>
% ssh morpheus.engin.umich.edu -l <your-username>
% ssh griddle.sdsc.edu -l <your-username>




If you have an account but cannot remember your password, you will need to submit a request for a new password If you have problems logging in, please send a request via the NPACI Consulting Web page form (http://www.npaci.edu/Consult).  Fill in the following fields: NPACI Resource: NPACI Grid Type of Problem:  Password Summary:  login problems Description of Request field: machine where the problem occurred; your comments Exact Error Message

Configuring your environment

To use the NPACI Grid and the NPACKage software stack, you need to set up the right environment.  To accomplish this, you will need to place a few commands in your shell initialization files (i.e., .cshrc, .bashrc) on each NPACI Grid resource.  These commands differ depending on the shell you use (i.e., csh, bash, tcsh) and the operating system on a particular host.  For AIX systems (longhorn and horizon), copy the contents from the appropriate file listed below into your shell initialization file:

• AIX C-shell initialization
• AIX bourne shell initialization

For linux-based systems (hypnos, morpheus, and griddle), use these:

• Linux C-shell initialization
• Linux bourne shell initialization

Don't forget to place these commands in the startup files on all NPACI Grid resource sites. 

!   N.B. tf004i, tf005i, and the B80 machines at SDSC all share the same home directory, so it is necessary to configure the environment for these machines only once as a group. A table of login hosts is available for your convenience.

Obtaining and setting up certificates

To participate in the grid computing environment that NPACI provides, you will need to obtain a digital certificate.  Digital certificates are used on the grid for authentication and encryption purposes by GSI (Grid Security Infrastructure) enabled software.  This certificate will give you single sign-on capabilities across NPACI Grid resources once you have copied the certificate information to each resource. 

If you do not have an NPACI certificate:

Once you have your accounts, follow the instructions on the Certificates page to obtain your NPACI digital certificate.  By the end of this process, you should have your certificate copied to each NPACI Grid resource where you have an account.  Return to this page to continue "Getting Started."

If you already have an NPACI certificate:

If you have not yet copied it to all resources, you will need to copy your .globus directory to all NPACI Grid hosts for which you have received accounts and where your certificate doesn't currently exist.  Instructions available on the Certificates page.

• tf004i.sdsc.edu (Blue Horizon)
• griddle.sdsc.edu (For Condor-G)
• longhorn.tacc.utexas.edu
• morpheus.engin.umich.edu
• hypnos.engin.umich.edu

Once you have obtained and copied your certificate, it may take up to an hour for your certificate information to be propagated to each of the resources on the NPACI Grid.  The following are estimates on the maximum amount of time this should take:

• 
  SDSC - 15 minutes
• Texas - 1 hour
• Michigan - 1 hour

!  If you are an SDSC employee whose username on blue horizon is different than your NPACI Grid username, please see the Certificates page for special instructions on activating your certificate at Texas and Michigan.

Verifying access and configuration

This section requires that your certificate information has been propagated to each NPACI Grid resource.  If you are not sure of this, refer to Certificates.

1. To verify your access to each of these resources, login to one of the NPACI Grid nodes and then do the following:

% grid-proxy-init

2. Verify your access to each NPACI Grid resource where you have requested allocations:

% globusrun -a -r tf004i.sdsc.edu
% globusrun -a -r longhorn.tacc.utexas.edu
% globusrun -a -r morpheus.engin.umich.edu
% globusrun -a -r hypnos.engin.umich.edu

For each resource, you should see the message:

GRAM Authentication test successful

If, on the other hand, you see the message below, the resource has probably not been configured to accept your certificate.

GRAM Authentication test failure: authentication with the remote server failed

If the time estimates stated above have been exceeded and you still do not have access to one or more resources, please send a request via the NPACI Consulting Web page form (http://www.npaci.edu/Consult).  Fill in the following fields: NPACI Resource: NPACI Grid Type of Problem:  Certificates Summary:  certificate not recognized Description of Request field: names of the machines which are not recognizing your certificate; when you copied your certificate to the resource; your NPACI Grid username Exact Error Message:  Any error message you received when testing with globusrun

Once you have successfully established your account and have set up your environment and certificates, you are ready for the Tutorial.