Archer:Global

From Grid-Appliance Wiki

Contents 1 Archer Global tutorial 2 First things first: Archer Express 3 Registering with Archer 3.1 Create an account with the Grid appliance portal 3.2 Register with the Archer GroupVPN 3.3 Create or Join a GroupAppliance 4 Connecting to Archer Global

Archer Global tutorial

First things first: Archer Express

This tutorial assumes you got to know the basics of the Grid Appliance already, so it's important that you first follow the Archer Express tutorial. If you haven't yet, take your time to go through the Archer Express tutorial before continuing.

Registering with Archer

In order to use Archer Global, we ask that you register with our system. This is important so we can ensure we have contact information for secure access to the system. The registration is a three phase process and takes only a few minutes. Here is an overview of the process:

• Create a user account for you on the Grid Appliance web site.
  • This step is automatic and does not require validation
  • However, make sure you create this account with a valid academic email address.
• Log in with your user account to the Grid Appliance web site and request to join the Archer VPN group
  • This step requires validation by Archer staff - you will need to wait until your request is approved to proceed.
• Create your own Archer priority group, or join our default group
  • This step requires validation by the owner of the group you wish to join (unless you are creating your own new group)

Create an account with the Grid appliance portal

First, you need to create an account with the Grid appliance portal. This account will let you log in to the Grid appliance portal and to add content to the Archer Wiki.

1. Click on the create an account link at the bottom left of the Grid appliance portal.
2. Fill in the information as shown in the screenshot below.
   1. Please use your institutional e-mail address (e.g. .edu or .gov) instead of a Web-hosted address (e.g. yahoo.com, gmail.com) to register to expedite the verification of your request
   2. Double-check that your email address is correct - you will receive a confirmation link in this address.
   3. The password you type will be sent to you in the confirmation email; you'll be able to change it later, so if you prefer you may use a temporary password at this point.
      
3. Click on Register.
4. An email will automatically be sent to you with a registration confirmation link.
   
5. Check your email client for the registration confirmation email from the sender Grid Appliance User Interface; click on the activation link and your registration will be completed.
   
6. If you'd like to change your password, log in and click on the "Your details" link under "User menu"

Register with the Archer GroupVPN

Once you have the Grid appliance account set up, the next step is to register with the Archer GroupVPN. This step requires that you provide additional information about your usage of Archer and agree to our terms of use.

Please be sure to describe the project you are planning to work on to expedite the verification of your request.

1. Log in to the Grid appliance portal with your account
2. Under "User menu", select "GroupVPN", select "join" for the "Archer" Group. You will be asked to provide additional information and agree to our terms of use.
3. Enter the requested information and click on "I agree".
4. Your request will need to be approved by the Archer administration before you can proceed using Archer Global. You will be notified by email.

Create or Join a GroupAppliance

Once you have been approved for Archer access, the next step is interacting with the GroupAppliance module. Through it, you may either request to join an existing resource pool for which a group already exists (e.g. if you are a UF / ACIS student you may want to join the ACIS Group) or create your own group (e.g. for your research lab). While any Archer Global user can potentially access any resource that is idle, the group you choose to join will have an impact on the priority your jobs have over other users in the case there is contention for a resource - in the example above, users in the ACIS group will have higher priority than other users for jobs running on Archer resources owned by ACIS.

GroupAppliance membership is managed by the owner of the group. Joining an existing GroupAppliance group requires admittance by an administrator for that group, whereas if you create your own group, you are the manager for the group and can immediately access the pool with priority only on your resources. This feature is useful if you are joining Archer with multiple machines within your research lab and want to assure priority access for you and your peers in your own resources (this features is effectively the same as the Team concept from previous version of Grid Appliance). To access GroupAppliances:

1. Log in to the Grid appliance portal with your account
2. Under "User menu" and select "GroupAppliances".
3. Here you can either join an existing group or create a new group.
   1. If you are not affiliated with any existing group, please request to join the "Archer Default" group

Connecting to Archer Global

Once you are a member of a group, you can now gain access to the system:

1. Start from a "fresh" grid appliance: check that you have the latest version downloaded from grid-appliance.org and uncompress it
2. Log in to the Grid appliance portal with your account
3. Under "User menu" and select "GroupAppliances"
4. Select the Group you'd like to connect with
5. Select a floppy disk configuration you'd like to download types (Client, Worker, and Server) and Architecture (x86, x64). The default (Client, x86) is recommended for typical end-user workstations
6. Click the Download Floppy Button
7. Extract floppy.img from the floppy.zip file. Replace the floppy.img file in your Grid Appliance folder with the one you just extracted.
8. (Optional) setup the appliance with the Simics module
   1. Go to the Grid Appliance download page. Make sure you are logged in to the Grid appliance site.
   2. Click on the "Archer i386" link for 32-bit image and "Archer Amd64" to download a Simics-enabled Grid appliance image
9. Turn on the appliance, as described in the Archer Express tutorial. The appliance will work the same way as in that tutorial, but now you are connected to a larger, private pool of registered Archer users where all communication is authenticated and encrypted.