GridPP and the CERN VM service

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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

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);
  • Put your grid certificate files in ~/.globus;
  • 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!

Your Grid UI VM

Rather than try to configure your own system - i.e. your laptop, university cluster, etc. - to use the grid, people have gradually converged on the rather neat idea of creating a guest Virtual Machine (VM) that's pretty much ready to go once booted up and configured. The CERN VM team have done something even smarter - rather than having to install an experiment's software onto a bunch of guest VMs, a VM can be linked to the CERN VM File System (CVMFS) which has everything the experiment needs to run. These next steps will show you how to create your own CERN VM on your own system ready for use with GridPP resources.

  • Download the CERN VM SL6 image: visit this page and select your image. We will use VirtualBox (which you will need to install) iso from here.
  • Create a guest VM with this image: choose a suitable name, amount of system memory, virtual hard disk size (30GB?).
  • Start the VM: on VirtualBox, this is done by pressing the large "Start" button.

You will be presented with the CERN VM login screen for the guest (CERN) VM.

Pairing with the GridPP VM context

The CERN VM service offers the ability to contextualise a VM with pre-defined settings, environment variables, CVMFS repositories, etc. that are put in place when the VM is first booted. This is known as pairing the VM. You can create your own contextuallisations, but it is also possible for individuals to create public contexts (e.g. for experiments, open data initiatives, etc.) that anyone can use. We have created such a context for GridPP - it's a work in progress, but you can use it to get going with the grid. Importantly, you do not need a CERN account to do this, so it is possible for anyone with a grid certificate to use it!

  • Visit the CERN VM context Market Place: this can be found here.
  • Pair with the GridPP context: select "Experimental" from the panel on the right, and then choose the gridpp_test_004 context. Then click on the "Pair" button from the panel on the right. This will generate a six-figure pin number.
  • Apply the context to your VM: enter the pin number (preceeded by a hash, as instructed in the login). The CERN VM webpage will now update indicating the VM has been successfully paired. Your VM will then be contextualised.


Useful links

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