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User Guide for Grid Resources

Get a Grid Certificate

In order to use grid resources, you'll first need to acquire a personal grid certificate. Follow Obtaining a Grid Certificate.

Join a Virtual Organization

After obtaining a grid certificate, you'll need to become a member of a virtual organization (VO) , or to add your grid certificate to the membership list on a VOMS (Virtual Organization Management System) server. Follow Joining a VO.

Use Grid Resources

The following steps are prerequisites to submitting grid jobs:

  1. Install your grid certificate in your home directory and web browser. Follow Installing a Grid Certificate.
  2. Establish a grid environment, which is usually specific to your site or experiment. For example, ATLAS users need to export grid-specific environment variables and run a setup script; see https://twiki.cern.ch/twiki/bin/view/AtlasComputing/WorkBookSetAccount, or the following commands may suffice:
# set your local ATLAS environment:
export ATLAS_LOCAL_ROOT_BASE="/cvmfs/atlas.cern.ch/repo/ATLASLocalRootBase"
alias setupATLAS="source ${ATLAS_LOCAL_ROOT_BASE}/user/atlasLocalSetup.sh"
# Adding the `-3` flag to `setupATLAS` sets up in a newer Python v3 environment.
# To use the older Python 2 environment, omit the `-3` flag:
setupATLAS -3
# Set up your DDM environment:
export RUCIO_HOME="/cvmfs/atlas.cern.ch/repo/sw/ddm/rucio-clients/latest"
export RUCIO_AUTH_TYPE="x509_proxy"
# Export your CERN user name as your DDM nickname:
export RUCIO_ACCOUNT="nickname"
# Set up a Rucio client:
lsetup rucio
# or use the older Rucio alias instead: localSetupRucioClients
  1. Create a VOMS proxy. See http://italiangrid.github.io/voms/documentation/voms-clients-guide/3.0.3/#voms-proxy-init, or use the voms-proxy-init command:
voms-proxy-init --voms=atlas -hours 240

User Information

Some basic BNL-specific grid information can be found Usatlas.

BNL's OSG gatekeepers are:

  • gridgk01.racf.bnl.gov
  • gridgk02.racf.bnl.gov

These gatekeepers can be used to submit batch jobs to the grid.

In order to log into the gatekeepers and use grid client software, you must have an SCDF account. Request one at https://useraccount.sdcc.bnl.gov/new-user.

Troubleshooting

If access to one or more grid resources fails after setting up a grid environment, enter the following commands and follow the interactive prompts to check your setup, permissions, files, and other access factors:

setupATLAS -3 # should have already done this previously
diagnostics
gridCert

Tutorials