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Globus 1.1.3x quick-start guide for NIKHEF users

The NIKHEF Grid Micro Test Bed has been discontinued.
This local setup information is pertinent only to local NIKHEF users who use Globus 1.1.3* on the NIKHEF public testbed. If you use Grid tools on the EDG testbed, please refer to the EDG documentation on marianne.in2p3.fr. Users from other organizations should contact their local Globus administrator.

Your environment settings

The Globus software at NIKHEF is installed in "/global/globus/globusversion". A `default' version exists as `/global/globus/globus' - this symbolic link will usually point to the latest beta-version of globus, as used in the DataGRID and Virtual Lab testbed. You need to modify your environment to include, somewhere in your profile settings:
 
for sh-likes (/bin/sh, bash, ksh) GLOBUS_INSTALL_PATH=/global/globus/globus
export GLOBUS_INSTALL_PATH
test -f $GLOBUS_INSTALL_PATH/etc/globus-user-setup.sh && \
    . $GLOBUS_INSTALL_PATH/etc/globus-user-setup.sh
for csh-lines (/bin/csh, tcsh) setenv GLOBUS_INSTALL_PATH /global/globus/globus
if ( -f $GLOBUS_INSTALL_PATH/etc/globus-user-setup.csh ) then
    source $GLOBUS_INSTALL_PATH/etc/globus-user-setup.csh
endif

This will enable you to locate the Globus software. Just beware that the Globus toolkit is installed on a limited number of platforms only:

  • sparc-solaris-2.6: most SUN workstations and servers are running this. Notable exceptions are nikhefh, nikhapo and the new Ultra workstation with clock speeds higher than 419 MHz.
  • sparc-solaris-2.8: this configuration runs on the new SUN Ultra workstations (kilogram, meter, ...)
  • i686-pc-linux-gnu: all recent RedHat Linux 6.2 systems, based on libc6 (a.k.a. glibc2). Some client tools (grid-proxy-init etc.) have been found to work on SUSE Linux 6.3 as well, but there's no guarantee, e.g., some SuSE systems seem to lack ASIS support.
It is explicitly not supported on any system running MS Windows, nor on HP's, SGI', NeXT's and `old' Linux systems (SuSE 5 and below) The systems needs to be `NIKHEF' localized.

The user certificate

Next, generate your certificate request with the "grid-cert-request" command. Note that your FullName (as defined in the password file) will be used as your Common Name in the certificate. If needed, change your FullName using the "passwd" command (or the equivalent on your system, e.g., "passwd -r nis -g"), or provide your common name to the script explicitly with the "-cn" option.
Choose a passphrase to protect the private key associated with your certificate.  Make it strong, since the single-signon technology will allow access to many systems with this certificate. There are some explicit requirements associated with your certificate, see the NIKHEF CA policy document for details.
Your common name is printed at the top of your certificate request. Please verify it! It should contain your real name, including in full both your given name and your family name. In particular, your login-name is not adeqate.

Mail the resulting certificate request to the nikhefCA, per instructions witten to the screen.  You will get your signed certificate, after your identity has been verified. The applicable NIKHEF CA policy is available here.  Install your certificate in "$HOME/.globus/usercert.pem". You may safely delete any empty file with this name that is alreaddy there. The CA's e-mail address is "ca@nikhef.nl".

Getting accounts

Contact "gridadm@nikhef.nl" to get an account on the micro testbed. Include the your certificate "subject" and your local username. Your distinguished name will be added to the grid mapfile for some (or possily all) gridded hosts at NIKHEF. The reply you get back from the gridadm will state which hosts are available to you.

After you got your account, try authenticating with the test host:
 

    % grid-proxy-init
    now give the passphrase you used to protect your certificate's private part (PEM passphrase)
    ......................+++++
    ..........+++++
    % globusrun -a -dryrun -r bilbo.nikhef.nl
    this should tell you: ``GRAM Authentication test successful''

Now, you can try running your first grid job, say, /bin/ls, on this host:

    % globus-job-run bilbo /bin/ls

This should result in a listing of all files in your home directory. If that's indeed the case: congratulations! You can now start, for example, with the user tutorial examples from the Globus site (they are available locally from `/global/ices/grid/techn/globus-tut').

On globus-setup-test

Are you running globus-setup-test from the install directory in /global/globus/globus/tools/...../bin/globus-setup-test? Are you getting errors like: 
error:8006A06F::lib(128) :proxy_local_create:Problems creating proxy
file:/global/globussrc/globus-20010312/Security/gssapi_ssleay/sslutils.c:3261
        Open failed for File=/global/globus/globus/tmp/test_proxy.17237.pem
.........................................failed!

The version of this test program in the install directory has some bugs; you should use the one from a deploy directory, so login to one of the systems on which Globus has been deployed and run: 
        /opt/globus/sbin/globus-setup-test
See also globus-discuss message 1148 for related problem messages.

Information Index Services

The WCW employs a central information index service (GIIS) to register the globus hosts at NIKHEF and the UvA.  This host is called `giishost.nikhef.nl' and can be contacted on port 30001. The standard scripts (grid-info-search) can be used to browse this `MDS' service. Alternatively, use an LDAP browser like LBE to get a graphical overview. At NIKHEF, this browser is installed as /global/ices/toolset/ldapbrowser/lbe.sh and select the NIKHEF public GIIS service.
Please note that, although a lot of resources are visible, you will in general only have access to NIKHEF systems (i.e., those below `/O=Grid/dc=nl/dc=nikhef/*').

Programming Globus

For the default globus version (1.1.3 beta 14), the development libraries were built in both a threaded and non-threaded version. Solaris has solaris threads only, Linux only POSIX threads. Look at the examples for more detailed information.

I'm stuck!

Try some lubricant, or contact me at gridadm@nikhef.nl, telephone 2179.
Comments to David Groep