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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 /etc/blah.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

Configuring the Job Queue Location

See this section of the OSG installation guide for information on separating the job queue log from the SPOOL directory.

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