NorduGrid client installation instructions

This is a short client installation description, for a more detailed instruction please consult the relevant section of the NorduGrid User Manual.

Option 1:

installing the standalone client locally (non-root)

Pre-requisite: you are being logged into a Linux 2.x machine (RH6.2 and above, Mandrake 8.x and above, Debian 3.0, SuSE 8.1 and above, Fedora 1.0 are tested)

The standalone NorduGrid client contains the required Globus components and does all the necessary initial configuration and setup.

Below, numbers in brackets "< >" should be substituted with actual version numbers, depending on the distribution you downloaded.

Installation procedure:

get pre-compiled standalone binary tarball from the NorduGrid Downloads area, "NorduGrid Toolkit" section, "releases" or "tags" – "standalone" package, for your platform.
put the tarball in a directory of your choice and execute
tar xvzf nordugrid-standalone-<x.y.z>.tgz
This will create a new directory nordugrid-standalone-<x.y.z>, and the tarball can be safely removed
enter the NorduGrid directory: execute
cd nordugrid-standalone-<x.y.z>
set up the environment by executing, for bash or zsh:
source setup.sh
for csh or tcsh:
source setup.csh
for ksh or any other shell where the source command is not defined:
. ./setup.sh
Upon first execution, this will print a lot of informational output. Make sure there are no "error" or "failure" messages.
Always use the source command or ., because the setup has to affect variables in your current shell!
.
Make sure you have a personal Globus certificate (typically located at $HOME/.globus/usercert.pem) and a private key ($HOME/.globus/userkey.pem), or request one, as described below.
IMPORTANT: NorduGrid software is based on the Globus toolkit. That means it uses PKI for authentication between client and services. Hence You need the credentials of that certificate authority (CA) which signed, or will sign, your personal certificate. Also, you need the credentials of all the CAs which certified the services You want to use. For example, if your personal certificate is issued by a German CA, and you are going to access files in France, using CPUs in Sweden, you need the German, French and NorduGrid CA credentials. Many such credentials are included in the NorduGrid standalone client installation, under nordugrid-standalone-<x.y.z>/share/certificates. Most of known certificates are also available at the NorduGrid Downloads area (look for "CA certificates"). For more information about certificates and related things read "Grid Certificate Mini How-to".
request your NorduGrid certificate:
grid-cert-request -int -ca
or fire up your existing one
grid-proxy-init
- NB: NorduGrid standalone installation is distributed with most known CA certificates. However, you should always check whether your issuing authority certificate is present, as well as those which resources you intend to use. If such are absent, please take care to install missing certificates in nordugrid-standalone-<x.y.z>/share/certificates/.
  Normally, you can only request a NorduGrid certificate using this installation. Although it is technically possible to request a certificate from any other CA, it is strongly advised to follow that CA procedures and NOT to use the NorduGrid distribution for this.
for a quick check, issue an ngtest command: e.g.
ngtest -t 7
If the last line says "Job submitted with jobid ...", the test is successful.
Have fun on the Grid!

Option 2:

installing the NorduGrid client from an RPM on a Linux 2.x box (no prior Globus installation)

you are going to install a pre-compiled Globus and a NorduGrid binary RPM. If you are not a system administrator, read our"RPM for everybody" guide.

Installation procedure:

install the Globus (preferably the latest release) onto your system by getting and installing the following RPMs in the given order:
1. Globus Packaging Toolkit
2. Globus Toolkit 2
To do this, go to the NorduGrid Downloads area and in "External software" choose "globus" and "gpt".
check that the variables GLOBUS_LOCATION, GPT_LOCATION are set according to your Globus installation: unless you forced installation in a specific location, default locations should be /opt/globus and /opt/gpt respectively.
get and install the NorduGrid client binary RPM for your system (nordugrid-client-<x.y.z-1>.i386.rpm). It is available via the NorduGrid Downloads area, "NorduGrid Toolkit" section, "releases" or "tags" – "client" link.
get and install the necessary Certificate Authority (CA) RPMs from the NorduGrid Downloads area, "CA certificates" section.
You need the credentials of that certificate authority (CA) which signed or will sign your personal certificate. Also, you need the credentials of all the CAs which certified the services You want to use. For example, if your personal certificate is issued by a German CA, and you are going to access files in France, using CPUs in Sweden, you need the German, French and NorduGrid CA credentials.
login into your user account, or, if you are being logged in, type
source /etc/profile.d/globus.sh
and
source /etc/profile.d/nordugrid.sh
If you are in a C-shell, use *.csh counterparts of the two scripts above. If source command is not defined in your shell, use
. /etc/profile.d/globus.sh
. /etc/profile.d/nordugrid.sh

Always use the source command or ., because the setup has to affect variables in your current shell!
If you have no personal certificate, you can request one from the NorduGrid. To do this, download and install the configuration package from the NorduGrid Downloads area, "CA certificates" section, "certrequest-config". After doing this, request the certificate with
grid-cert-request -int ca
If you plan to use the Virtual Organisation Membership Service (VOMS), follow the instructions on VOMS installation and usage.
fire up your certificate with
grid-proxy-init
or, if you installed VOMS clients,
voms-proxy-init
for a quick check, issue an ngtest command: e.g.
ngtest -t 7
If the last line says "Job submitted with jobid ...", the test is successful.
Have fun on the Grid!

Option 3:

installing the NorduGrid client as root on your Linux 2.x box, on top of an existing Globus installation

You should preferably have the latest Globus Toolkit 2 ^(TM) version on your machine. The NorduGrid middleware has to be re-built against this Globus installation.

Build and installation procedure:

check that the variables GLOBUS_LOCATION, GPT_LOCATION are set according to your Globus installation: unless you forced installation in a specific location, default locations should be /opt/globus and /opt/gpt respectively.
get from the NorduGrid Downloads area, "NorduGrid Toolkit" section, "releases" or "tags" – "source" the NorduGrid source RPM nordugrid-<x.y.z-1>.src.rpm and rebuild it:
rpm --rebuild nordugrid-<x.y.z-1>.src.rpm
Note: this will rebuild the entire NorduGrid middleware, not only the client.
install the created binary RPMs (for a client, you only need the nordugrid-client RPM)
install the CA packages and optionally request a certificate by following the procedure described above.
alternatively, you can get a tarball nordugrid-<x.y.z>.tar.gz, and follow the usual procedure:
cat INSTALL
tar -xvzf nordugrid-<x.y.z>.tar.gz
cd nordugrid-<x.y.z>
./configure
make
make install
WARNING: this will install the entire NorduGrid suite, not only the client.
If you have no personal certificate, you can request one from the NorduGrid. To do this, download and install the configuration package from the NorduGrid Downloads area, "CA certificates" section, "certrequest-config". After doing this, request the certificate with
grid-cert-request -int ca
If you plan to use the Virtual Organisation Membership Service (VOMS), follow the instructions on VOMS installation and usage.
fire up your certificate with
grid-proxy-init
or, if you installed VOMS clients,
voms-proxy-init
for a quick check, issue an ngtest command: e.g.
ngtest -t 7
If the last line says "Job submitted with jobid ...", the test is successful.
Have fun on the Grid!