Difference between revisions of "CVMFS"

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CVMFS is an infrastructure to distribute software world-wide. However, the uploader host should not be used for the purposes of building and compiling it prior to distribution. The right approach is for you to have your own local building environment, and use the uploader host only to upload the new content for distribution.  
 
CVMFS is an infrastructure to distribute software world-wide. However, the uploader host should not be used for the purposes of building and compiling it prior to distribution. The right approach is for you to have your own local building environment, and use the uploader host only to upload the new content for distribution.  
  
If you have non-relocatable software, then you will need a /cvmfs/<myrepo>/ directory on your building host. One option is to use an actual CVMFS client, so you have ready all the existing content being already distributed by CVMFS. By default, the /cvmfs/ directory on a CVMFS client host is read-only, but that can be solved using [https://cvmfs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/cpt-enter.html an ephemeral container]
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If you have non-relocatable software, then you will need a /cvmfs/<myrepo>/ directory on your building host. One option is to use an actual CVMFS client, so you have ready all the existing content being already distributed by CVMFS. By default, the /cvmfs/ directory on a CVMFS client host is read-only, but that can be solved using [https://cvmfs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/cpt-enter.html an ephemeral writabel container]

Revision as of 09:02, 3 August 2021

This page is about the CVMFS service at RAL.


As described in the official documentation, CVMFS provides a scalable and reliable software distribution service. It is implemented as a POSIX read-only file system in user space, where files and directories are hosted on standard web servers as single source of data, and mounted in the universal namespace /cvmfs.

The STFC Scientific Computing Department at RAL maintains one of these single sources of data, or Stratum-0, for several communities:

  • GridPP
  • EGI
  • IRIS

This documentation is for the VO content managers.

Official CVMFS pages

Request the creation of a new repository

In the case of a new repository for EGI, steps are described here

For non-EGI repositories, simply send a request to cvmfs-support@gridpp.rl.ac.uk

Onboarding new Content Managers

Steps for a new VO Content Manager to be granted access to the Stratum-0 at RAL.

Request access

Request access to the service sending an email to cvmfs-support@gridpp.rl.ac.uk In the email, include the following information:

  • Name of the VO or CVMFS repository.
  • Distinguish Name (DN) from your X509 grid certificate.

Mailing list

All VO content managers should join the CVMFS-UPLOADER-USERS mailing list in JISCMAIL.

Relevant documents

Read these documents:

Distributing new content

To login to the service, make sure you have a valid X509 proxy (with the same DN provided in this step), and execute the following command:

gsissh -p 1975 cvmfs-upload01.gridpp.rl.ac.uk

If you are the Content Manager for more than one repository, you would need to specify explicit which account you want to login to:

gsissh -p 1975 <myreposgm>@cvmfs-upload01.gridpp.rl.ac.uk

To copy data:

gsiscp -P 1975 <source> cvmfs-upload01.gridpp.rl.ac.uk:<destination>

After login, you will find a single directory in the home directory:

[myreposgm@cvmfs-uploader02 ~]$ ls
cvmfs_repo

Add to that directory the new content you want to distribute.

Files and directories cannot be distributed with CVMFS if they are not world-wide readable. You may want to ensure they have the right permissions with the following commands:

find . -type d -exec chmod go+rx {} \;
find . -type f -exec chmod go+r {} \;

Building your software

CVMFS is an infrastructure to distribute software world-wide. However, the uploader host should not be used for the purposes of building and compiling it prior to distribution. The right approach is for you to have your own local building environment, and use the uploader host only to upload the new content for distribution.

If you have non-relocatable software, then you will need a /cvmfs/<myrepo>/ directory on your building host. One option is to use an actual CVMFS client, so you have ready all the existing content being already distributed by CVMFS. By default, the /cvmfs/ directory on a CVMFS client host is read-only, but that can be solved using an ephemeral writabel container