Setting Up Accounts and Environments

 

RCF Accounts:

Before you can do anything in STAR Offline Computing you must have two accounts at the RHIC Computing Facility.

1.

To obtain a general STAR user UNIX account at the RCF, start from the STAR Home page on the World Wide Web (WWW) which is located at the URL:

http://www.rhic.bnl.gov/star/starlib/doc/www/welcome_star.html

then select ``how to'' from the frame on the left side, then select ``Getting Started,'' then select ``apply for one'' in the first paragraph and follow the instructions. Upon receiving your new account you will be given a default password. Please be sure to change your default password as soon as possible after being notified of your new account. Login to any RCF machine (see list below) and use the UNIX command yppasswd to change your password. You are required to use a non-trivial, unobvious password name.

Note that the RCF UNIX and AFS accounts are valid on all RCF machines which are available for interactive use. Similarly, the disks and UNIX directories are shared among all RCF interactive machines in a way that is totally transparent to the user (i.e. you will see the identical directories and files from any RCF computer that you login to).

2.

AFS, the Andrew File System (see following sections for an expanded description), is a file management tool used by the RCF to both facilitate and restrict file access for RCF users. When new UNIX accounts are issued for the RCF, an AFS account is also issued automatically. If you already have a UNIX account at RCF but do not have an AFS account then you must get one to do the tutorials and any useful STAR simulations and analysis software work. The STAR software library has access limitations which the AFS software manages. To find out if you have an AFS account login to any RCF machine, then enter klog, followed by your AFS password (if you think you have one) or your UNIX password if you are not sure. Then enter tokens to see if you were issued an AFS token. If so, then all is well and you can proceed with the tutorials. If you do not get an AFS token, but do have a RCF UNIX account then you will need to get an AFS account. To do so please send an e-mail request to

          Edward Nicolescu

          e-mail: edward@bnl.gov

          Office: Physics Dept. Bldg., Room 2-167

          Phone: (516) 344-2072

and explain that you are working in STAR software. It would probably help to mention the software group and the leader for that group which you plan to work with. Of course, you should contact the software group leader to be sure he/she will support your request for a STAR AFS account if asked (which does happen).

Assumed Background Experience:

For these tutorials it is assumed that the new STAR user is already somewhat familiar with basic UNIX commands, for example

     ls, cd, mv, cp, rm, mkdir, pwd ...

and is able to use a UNIX file editor such as vi or emacs. Please refer to the UNIX-CERN guide at the URL:

http://wsspinfo.cern.ch/file/doc/unixguide/unixguide.html

Some familiarity with PAW is also assumed. An introductory PAW tutorial is available at the URL:

http://wwwinfo.cern.ch/asd/paw/tutorial/tut_index.html

Architecture Dependences

The tutorials and examples in this document do not necessarily run on all platforms and operating systems at the RCF, e.g. SGI - irix, IBM - aix, SUN - sun4os5, INTEL Pentium-Solaris - sun4os5pc, etc. For each of the following tutorials please take note of the recommended platform-OS and be sure that you are logged into the proper machine. This information is listed at the beginning of each tutorial page.

Setting up the STAR-SL97b Environment:

STEP 1: Login to the RCF computer of your choice via telnet or rlogin. Possible machines include the following:

• SGI - irix: rsgi0X.rhic.bnl.gov where X = 0, 1, 2, 3 and 5.
• IBM - aix: ribm0X.rhic.bnl.gov where X = 0, 1 and 2.
• INTEL Pentium Pro 200 - Solaris - sun4os5pc: rpro00.rhic.bnl.gov and rpro01.rhic.bnl.gov.
• SUN - Solaris - sun4os5: sol.star.bnl.gov.

STEP 2: Assuming you have an AFS account, login to the STAR AFS Cell by typing:

klog

followed by your AFS password. If you were issued a default AFS account password you should immediately change it using the kpasswd command. Note: the klog step is unnecessary on SGI-irix if your UNIX and AFS accounts both use the same password. It is recommended that you use the same passwords for the UNIX and AFS accounts. If your AFS account is in proper order you should now have an AFS ``token.'' To verify this type:

tokens

and you should get a message similar to the following:

User's (AFS ID 1433) tokens for afs@rhic [Expires Feb 13 19:40]

STEP 3: Edit your .cshrc file in your home directory and insert the following lines:

     setenv STAR_SYS_LEVEL SL97b

     source /afs/rhic/star/login/star_login.csh

Release your AFS token by typing unlog, logout by typing logout, login again and now you should see, among other things, the STAR banner, the system level variable set to SL97b and the CERN level set to pro. To verify these environment variables you may enter:

     echo $STAR_SYS_LEVEL

     echo $CERN_LEVEL

You also need to check your UNIX path to verify that you have access to the CERN Libraries. To do so type:

     which cernlib

If your PATH is sufficient then you should get the response:

     /cern/pro/bin/cernlib

If you get back ``Command not found'' then type the following at the UNIX prompt:

     setenv PATH /cern/pro/bin:$PATH

or add this to your .login file.

If these are set correctly you are in good shape to proceed with the tutorials. When you are finished working and ready to logout, remember to unlog to release your AFS token before typing logout.