Chapter 1: Installing and Configuring Linux

Setting Up Accounts

Create an account that will run the container that the Globus grid services will run in and that will be used to install Globus. This should not be the root account. This should be done on:

nodeA – because it will represent a client machine running job submission tools and other tools so it needs to have Globus installed

nodeB – because it will represent a Linux cluster head node running various Globus web services, including WS GRAM and a GridFTP server

nodeC – because it will represent a Linux cluster head node running various Globus web services, including WS GRAM and a GridFTP server

Start by editing the file /etc/group and adding the line

globus:x:501:

You may choose a group ID number other than 501 if you wish, or another name other then 'globus', however, the instructions for this tutorial will refer to the name 'globus' and the group ID of 501. Change these at your own risk!

Next use the 'useradd' command to add the account for the 'globus' user:

In the command above you could have changed the group ID (value for option -g) to the one you put into /etc/group if you did not choose 501. You can also change the user ID (value for option -u) if you like, though it is best to be consistent with the group ID if you can. You can also change the login or username to something other then 'globus', but again it is easier to be consistent and make it the same as the group name.

Using the useradd command above with the options show will create the home directory for the user in /home.

Next create a generic user account. This account will be the one used to exercise the grid services and tools. This should be done on:

nodeA – because it will represent a user somewhere on a network exercising and using grid services and grid tools

nodeB – because it will be helpful for testing Torque (OpenPBS) installation

nodeC – because it will be helpful for testing SGE installation

Again you can use the 'useradd' command to add the user.

[root@nodeA]# /usr/sbin/useradd -c "Jane User" -g 100 -m -u 101 jane

This will create user 'jane' in group 'users' along with the home directory /home/jane. The group 'users' has group ID 100 on most FC4 systems.

You must also set the password for the "globus" and "jane" accounts by running the following two commands as root on all three systems.

passwd globus
passwd jane

For this demo the password for globus was set to globususer
For this demo the password for jane was set to janeuser