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Installing and Maintaining HTCondor-CE

NOTE: If you are installing an HTCondor-CE for the Open Science Grid, consult the OSG-specific installation guide

The HTCondor-CE software is a job gateway for a grid Compute Element (CE). As such, HTCondor-CE is the entry point for jobs coming from the grid - it handles authorization and delegation of jobs to your local batch system. See the OSG HTCondor-CE Overview for a much more detailed introduction.

Use this page to learn how to install, configure, run, test, and troubleshoot HTCondor-CE from the HTCondor Yum repositories.

Before Starting

Before starting the installation process, consider the following points (consulting the Reference section below as needed):

There are some one-time (per host) steps to prepare in advance:

Installing HTCondor-CE

  1. Install the appropriate HTCondor-CE package for your batch system:

If your batch system is... Then run the following command...
HTCondor yum install htcondor-ce-condor
LSF yum install htcondor-ce-lsf
PBS/Torque yum install htcondor-ce-pbs
SGE yum install htcondor-ce-sge
Slurm yum install htcondor-ce-slurm

  1. Install the certificate revocation list updater available from EPEL:

# yum install fetch-crl

Configuring HTCondor-CE

Configuring Authorization

To authorize the local HTCondor-CE daemons and job submission from external users and VOs, edit the contents of /etc/condor-ce/condor_mapfile by following the comments.

NOTE: condor_mapfile.rpmnew files may be generated upon HTCondor-CE version updates that should be merged into condor_mapfile.

Configuring Non-HTCondor Batch Systems

HTCondor-CE requires a shared filesystem between the CE and the worker nodes to support file transfer for non-HTCondor batch systems. See the documentation here for details.

HTCondor-CE uses the Batch Language ASCII Helper Protocol (BLAHP) to submit and track jobs to non-HTCondor batch systems. To work with the HTCondor-CE, modify /usr/libexec/condor/glite/etc/batch_gahp.config using the following steps:

  1. Disable BLAHP handling of certificate proxies:

blah_disable_wn_proxy_renewal=yes
blah_delegate_renewed_proxies=no
blah_disable_limited_proxy=yes

  1. (Optional) If your batch system tools are installed in a non-standard location (i.e., outside of /usr/bin/), set the corresponding *_binpath variable to the directory containing your batch system tools:

If your batch system is... Then change the following configuration variable...
LSF lsf_binpath
PBS/Torque pbs_binpath
SGE sge_binpath
Slurm slurm_binpath

Optional Configuration

If your site needs to report to BDII, consult the HTCondor-CE BDII Provider documentation.

See this section of the OSG installation guide for additional optional HTCondor-CE configurations. Note that the "Accounting with multiple CEs or local user jobs" and "HTCondor-CE monitoring web interface" sections are both OSG specific and can be safely ignored.

Using HTCondor-CE

See this section of the OSG installation guide for how to use HTCondor-CE, including starting and stopping of services. Note that Gratia is accounting software specific to the OSG and can be safely ignored.

Validating HTCondor-CE

See this section of the OSG installation guide for steps to validate your HTCondor-CE.

Troubleshooting HTCondor-CE

See this OSG guide for troubleshooting tips and strategies.

References