Archer:FAQs
From Grid-Appliance Wiki
Archer Frequently Asked Questions
Contacting Archer users and developers
Is there a user's group or mailing list where I can ask questions about Archer?
Yes; follow this link to join the Archer user's group. You can also follow this link to join the Grid appliance user's group.
How do I contact the Archer PIs?
Check our Archer:People page for Web sites and contact information of the Archer PIs.
Archer infrastructure uses
Is Archer free to use?
Yes.
Can Archer be used by applications other than computer architecture?
Yes, but only Archer Local; Archer Global is restricted to computer architecture applications.
Can Archer be used for commercial purposes?
Archer Local kind of pools may be used within your own enterprise for commercial purposes. However, the community infrastructures Archer Express and Archer Global are limited to academic research and education use only.
Is Archer available to users outside the United States?
Yes - users from across the world are welcome to join Archer.
What is Archer Express?
It's a small-scale Archer pool that is quick to join and use - no user accounts or registration is needed, and communications are not encrypted. It's meant for first-time users to test-drive the system. Click here for a self-guided tutorial for Archer Express.
What is Archer Global?
It's the main wide-area Archer pool, where hundreds of CPUs will be available beginning in the Fall of 2008. It is meant for academic educators, researchers, and students. You can connect with resources of your own and seamlessly contribute cycles to the community when idle. Registration is required, and all communications are encrypted. Management is handled in a centralized fashion by Archer staff. Click here for a self-guided tutorial on Archer Global.
What is Archer Local?
It is a local area network deployment of the Archer software, independent from the wide-area pool. Management is not handled locally, not by Archer staff.
Archer software stack
Is Archer open-source?
Yes. The baseline Archer software is based on Linux, Condor and IPOP, all of which are open-source projects.
What distribution of Linux is used in Archer?
Currently, mini Debian (MD4).
What is the role of VMs in Archer?
They provide sandboxing of applications for security/isolation purposes, and facilitate packaging and dissemination of software as virtual appliances.
Which VMs are supported by Archer?
Currently: VMware, KVM, and VirtualBox
What job scheduler is used by Archer?
Condor, a robust system widely used around the world. click her to read some of Condor success stories in applications domains including computer architecture
What applications can run on Archer?
In the typical case, Linux 32-bit x86 binaries work on Archer, unmodified. Examples of computer applications that run in the system include SESC, Simics, SimpleScalar, Cacti, SPIM.
Joining and Contributing to Archer
How do I register?
First, click here to create a user account on the Grid appliance portal. Once you log in to this account, a link named Archer user panel will be shown to you in the list of links user User Menu (second blue box from top to bottom on the left-hand side). Enter the additional information requested to become a registered Archer user.
Can I contribute with content to the Archer Wiki?
Absolutely. We do require that you create an account through the main Grid appliance portal. We do this in order to avoid spam. We use MediaWiki, a popular Wiki implementation. For help editing pages, click here.
Can I contribute with resources to Archer?
Absolutely. If you are an industrial sponsor contributing with VMs to Archer, we will be glad to acknowledge your contribution in our sponsors page.
Acknowledging Archer
What URL should I use to point to the main Archer site?
How do I acknowledge Archer in publications?
If you use Archer, please reference the paper: R. Figueiredo et. al, "Archer: A Community Distributed Computing Infrastructure for Computer Architecture Research and Education", in Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Collaborative Computing (CollaborateCom), Orlando, FL, Nov. 2008.
(This paper is an extended version of technical report arXiv:0807.1765v1).
Security in Archer
How are virtual machines authenticated to use Archer?
In Archer Global, a public key cryptography infrastructure is used: VMs need to be loaded with signed X.509 certificates signed by Archer management in order to join the Archer Global pool.
In Archer Express, anonymous usage is allowed.
What privilege does a job from remote user "X" have when running in my resource?
Remote jobs run as UNIX user "nobody" within a virtual machine sandbox. Archer staff has access to the UNIX root account on Archer Global and Archer Express resources (not Archer Local) through SSH for remote management purposes.
What software provides access control to resources connected to Archer?
Access control is mediated by Condor. Users do not have direct access to your virtual machine, except through Condor.
Can Archer jobs access non-Archer resources within my network or on the Internet?
No. Archer jobs can only send packets to other virtual machines within the Archer virtual network. Packets sent to other Internet hosts are blocked by a firewall. We sandbox virtual network traffic to avoid the use of Archer to launch denial-of-service attacks.
