Getting ATLAS Computing Accounts

Getting account at CERN

Note: Many E-mail addresses below contains the insertion of NOSPAM in the address to avoid auto web page snifers to snatch that address for spams. You need to remove the NOSPAM in actual usage. 

The steps for getting a CERN computing account:

• Complete the ATLAS Registration Form
  Some items in the form in case they are unclear what to fill:
  • If you are not sure if you should be listed in ATLAS authorlist, please check with Su Dong or Charlie Young.
  • CERN address should be CERN hostel Meyrin, if you are starting with short trips to CERN.
  • Signup to some of the relevant mailing list at the bottom could be useful, and they generally have rather low traffic carrying only major announcements.
• The new procedure (since Dec/07) for computing account is simply to E-mail Kate Richardson of the ATLAS secretariat to request computing account. Please also notify Su Dong or Charlie to send the verification at the same time. Some specific info you could already give at the request:
  • Your primary E-mail address (this is important - some service systems will only take requests from this E-mail so that e.g. if primary is address is at SLAC, it may not accept E-mails from CERN nodes)
  • Your preferred userID. The default userID will be of the form JSmith for John Smith which could be useful for anyone not knowing your ID to get it right in a first guess. Setting it to the same as SLAC ID has the advantage of easy ssh/cvs/klog when operating from SLAC. 
  •  Request for all 3 of the following:
    • AFS/PLUS: The is the AFS and UNIX account.
    • NICE/MAILSERV: Windows account and mail account. This is still necessary for some administrative purposes and access for nodes in the experiment and meeting rooms etc.
    • AIS/EDMS: Administrative Information Service for access, online store etc.
• Follow the instructions to E-mail Atlas.Secretariat@cernNOSPAM.ch your request and FAX the filled forms and copy of your passport to ATLAS Secretariat, Bldg. 40-4-D01, FAX= + 41 22 767 8350. The user registration form needs to be signed by a team leader (Su Dong or Charlie for SLAC) and accompanied by an employment verification letter (to be issued by the SLAC international office for SLAC employees). You must carry the form and letter with you for the first trip to CERN to get your CERN badge at the user office in person as the first thing when you arrive at CERN. 
• You should receive two separate E-mails after a few days, one informing you the account establishment and another containing the initial password (same for all 3 platforms).
  

• Access to CERN computers:
  • UNIX (PLUS) login: ssh lxplus.cern.ch
  • Windows (NICE) login: Web Windows Terminal Server
    "Remote Desktop Web connection" on top center of WTS Tools section. You need to do a trivial one click registration first through the "Register here to use the Service" link just below at first login.
• At the creation of your accounts, all passwords are set to the same initial strings. However, there are really 5 separate passwords for the 3 platforms: AFS/PLUS (2 passwords), NICE/MAIL, AIS/EDH (2 passwords: AIS/EDH login share the same AIS password, but there is a separate EDH authorization password). To avoid confusion, it is probably wise to change all passwords to the same together as sometimes you encounter a web form prompt for password, it may not even be clear it is the NICE or AIS password. The change of passwords for NICE/MAIL and AIS can be done following the IT security/password page. The passwords for the UNIX side can be changed from the UNIX command line after login to lxplus. However, note that there are TWO separate passwords here also, one for the UNIX account and one for AFS. For the AFS password, you need to use the kpassword command.
• There is still an anomaly regarding the AIS/EDH password. The AIS/EDH login password can be changed from the AIS login password page, with EDH login sharing the same password. However, there is a separate EDH authorization password which you will encounter when make an EDH request e.g. purchasing from online store. This can be changed at this page after logging in to AIS/EDH, but it is unclear whether you can initialize that yourself for the first time. May have to request ais.support for resetting it to get it initialized.
• The UNIX account setup default shell is zsh. In case you want to change it, you have to go to the account database through the web page http://cra.cern.ch (need your AIS password to access). There is a small box for PLUS shell to modify the default UNIX shell.
  
• The default disk allocation on UNIX is tiny which you need to request to atlas-support@cernNOSPAM.ch  and ask for expanded quota and scratch space.
• For E-mails to some of the main services and mailing lists like atlas-support@cernNOSPAM.ch, you can only send them from your default primary E-mail ID, as registered at the AIS when creating the computing accounts. For example, if you registered your CERN computing account with default E-mail at SLAC, they won't be accepted if you send them from your CERN account directly, even you think that might have more chance to succeed.

Getting account at BNL

• BNL life/Guest No.: most likely you don't have one and need to following link on the top of the form page to apply for a guest number. This unfortunately is a long multipage process. The temporary GR**** number will allow you proceed with the computing account processing, and some weeks later you will receive the proper guest ID of Y****.   
• Contact: Howard Gordon; gordon@bnlNOSPAM.gov; x3740

Getting the GRID Certificate

This is unfortunately way too complicated than it needs to be and the instructions are very confusing. This is in part due to several separate GRID organizations. The first step is to obtain a personal Digital Certificate (sometimes called a PKI or X509 certificate) from an US national GRID organization, in our case is DOE GRID. The DOE GRID certificate service has some links leading to actual request forms, but it is a rather disorientating page. The Particle Physics Data GRID (PPDG) page has more precise instructions relevant for SLAC people for actually making request for personal GRID certificate. Note that SLAC's affiliation is OSG/SLAC and the sponsor is Arla LeCount as instructed in step 2. You will receive an E-mail a few days later with a PKI assigned, for which you have to use the same computer and the same browser as you submitted the certificate request from to 'import the certificate' following the instructions in the E-mail. You then have to extract the certificate for GRID use by 'export' your certificate and the pair of keys for GRID use, following these instructions, from the browser into a file. This file can then be moved to the Linux nodes and extracting two files into ~/.globus for actual GRID usage. There has been a recent attempt (Jul/06) on an improved guide of the GRID usage on the US ATLAS page. There is unfortunate one more step after the GRID certificate to join the ATLAS VO to gain access to ATLAS dataset. For which you can follow the US ATLAS instruction for joining ATLAS VO, which will take a day or two complete.