GridPP and the CERN VM service

Introduction

This is a (work-in-progress) guide to setting up a CERN VM (Virtual Machine) using the CERN VM service and the GridPP CERN VM context. Following this guide, you should be able to quickly(!) setup a User Interface (UI) for running grid jobs via gLite or DIRAC.

Requirements

• A valid grid certificate;
• A CERN VM online account (anyone can register here) or a CERN account;
• VirtualBox or similar software for running Virtual Machines (see this page for a list of compatible VM images).

Overview of the process

• Download the CERN VM SL6 image;
• Create a new guest VM with this image;
• Enable shared folders and add a shared folder;
• Start the VM;
• Pair the VM with the GridPP context;
• Log in to the VM (username: gridpp password: gridpp);
• Add the gridpp user to the vboxsf security group (for Shared Folder access);
• Log out and log in again;
• Run the grid UI initialisation script;
• Download the GridPP VOMS directories;
• Generate a proxy to test it's all working!

Useful links

• The CERN VM homepage;
• The CERN VM image downloads page - get your VM images here;
• The CERN VM online service - log on or create an account here;
• The CERN VM conttext marketplace - find VM contexts;
• VirtualBox homepage - other Virtual Machine systems are available!