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Computing Resources for ABP and OMC Members

This page combines information and links to computing resources for OMC members.

The Dev & Optics Servers

A few special servers are available OMC members. Access should be granted to your account by default when added to the OMC e-group.

The dev servers are powerful machines used to run applications when in the CCC, and can be ssh'd into at the cs-ccr-dev[1-4].cern.ch addresses.

The optics servers are high-end machines on which the OMC GUIs run their computations when in the CCC. When not in use during shifts they are available to OMC members to run computations on. The optics machines are available at the cs-ccr-optics[1-2].cern.ch addresses.

The servers are hooked on to the Technical Network and can only be ssh into from lxplus nodes.

Convenient SSH Configuration Tricks

The following ssh config elements provide a convenient setup for users to access these machines. Remember to replace your_username below with your CERN username. 

Host cern
    User your_username  # replace with your lxplus username
    Hostname lxplus.cern.ch
    ForwardX11Trusted yes
    StrictHostKeyChecking no

Host technet1
    User your_username  # replace with your lxplus username
    Hostname cs-ccr-dev1.cern.ch
    ProxyCommand ssh -X cern -W %h:%p 2> /dev/null
    ForwardX11Trusted yes
    StrictHostKeyChecking no

Host optics1
    User your_username  # replace with your lxplus username
    Hostname cs-ccr-optics1.cern.ch
    ProxyCommand ssh -X technet1 -W %h:%p 2> /dev/null
With this configuration, one can use the command ssh cern to log into lxplus (your password may be asked). As a proxy command is set up, one can directly connect from local into, say, the optics1 machine with ssh optics1.

HTCondor

CERN provides a batch service based on HTCondor. Computing jobs that run on individual nodes with up to 32 CPU cores per node can be submitted to the CERN batch service. A good documentation can be found on the batch docs website. The OMC team maintains a python package, pylhc_submitter, that can be used to submit jobs to the HTCondor batch service.

Monitoring

Monitoring tools are deployed through Graphana that allow to get an overview of the batch system and the jobs running on it:

  • The gives access to various pages displaying information about various parts of the batch system (log in with CERN SSO on this page).
  • The is an overview of the batch jobs for a given user (selectable in a dropdown menu at the top left).

ABP Computing Resources

Various resources are accessible to ABP members, from special e-groups with higher HTCondor priority to dedicated high-end GPU equipped machines on which to run your jobs.

Information on ABP-specific resources can be found on the dedicated website, tab Computing resources.

CERN OpenStack Machines

CERN provides an Infrastructure-as-a-Service as part of their private cloud, which any member can access. Through OpenStack CERN allows users to create virtual machines on their computing infrastructure. Using self-service portals one can rapidly request virtual machines for production, testing and development purposes, accessible through an ssh connection.

The machines can be of different capacities and run a variety of Windows or Linux operating systems. For details, see both the website and its documentation pages.