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[If you're using v8.7.0, see the v8.7.0 instructions. These instructions are for v8.7.1. If you're using v8.7.2, see the v8.7.2 instructions.]

This guide assumes that you already have an AWS account, as well as a log-in account on a Linux machine with a public address and a system administrator who's willing to open a port for you. All the terminal commands (shown on a grey background) and file edits (shown on a green background) take place on the Linux machine. You can perform the web-based steps from wherever is convenient, although it will save you some copying if you can run a browser on the Linux machine.

Before using condor_annex for the first time, you'll have to do three things:

  1. install a personal Condor
  2. prepare your AWS account
  3. configure condor_annex

Instructions for each follow.

Install a personal Condor

We recommend that you install a personal condor to make use of condor_annex; it's simpler to configure that way.

These instructions assume that it's OK to create a directory named condor-8.7.1 in your home directory; adjust accordingly if you want to install HTCondor somewhere else.

Start by downloading the 8.7.1 release from the "tarballs" section that matches your Linux version. (If you don't know your Linux version, ask your system administrator.) These instructions assume that the file you downloaded is located in your home directory on the Linux machine, so copy it there if necessary.

Then do the following:

$ mkdir ~/condor-8.7.1; cd ~/condor-8.7.1; mkdir local
$ tar -z -x -f ~/condor-8.7.1-*-stripped.tar.gz
$ ./condor-8.7.1-*-stripped/condor_install --local-dir `pwd`/local --make-personal-condor
$ . ./condor.sh
$ condor_master

Testing

Give HTCondor a few seconds to spin up and the try a few commands to make sure the basics are working. Your output will vary depending on the time of day, the name of your Linux machine, and its core count, but it should generally be pretty similar to the following.

$ condor_q
- Schedd: submit-3.batlab.org : <127.0.0.1:12815?... @ 02/03/17 13:57:35
OWNER    BATCH_NAME         SUBMITTED   DONE   RUN    IDLE  TOTAL JOB_IDS

0 jobs; 0 completed, 0 removed, 0 idle, 0 running, 0 held, 0 suspended
$ condor_status -any
MyType             TargetType         Name

Negotiator         None               NEGOTIATOR
Collector          None               Personal Condor at 127.0.0.1@submit-3.bat
Machine            Job                slot1@submit-3.batlab.org
Machine            Job                slot2@submit-3.batlab.org
Machine            Job                slot3@submit-3.batlab.org
Machine            Job                slot4@submit-3.batlab.org
Machine            Job                slot5@submit-3.batlab.org
Machine            Job                slot6@submit-3.batlab.org
Machine            Job                slot7@submit-3.batlab.org
Machine            Job                slot8@submit-3.batlab.org
Scheduler          None               submit-3.batlab.org
DaemonMaster       None               submit-3.batlab.org
Accounting         none               <none>

You should also try to submit a job; create the following file

~/condor-annex/sleep.submit
executable = /bin/sleep
arguments = 600
queue

and submit it:

$ condor_submit ~/condor-annex/sleep.submit
Submitting job(s).
1 job(s) submitted to cluster 1.
$ condor_reschedule

After a little while:

$ condor_q


-- Schedd: submit-3.batlab.org : <127.0.0.1:12815?... @ 02/03/17 13:57:35
OWNER    BATCH_NAME         SUBMITTED   DONE   RUN    IDLE  TOTAL JOB_IDS
tlmiller CMD: /bin/sleep   2/3  13:56      _      1      _      1 3.0

1 jobs; 0 completed, 0 removed, 0 idle, 1 running, 0 held, 0 suspended

Configure public interface

The default personal Condor uses the "loopback" interface, which basically just means it won't talk to anyone other than itself. For condor_annex to work, your personal condor needs to use the Linux machine's public interface. In most cases, that's as simple as adding the following lines to ~/condor-8.7.1/local/condor_config.local.

~/condor-8.7.1/local/condor_config.local
NETWORK_INTERFACE = *
CONDOR_HOST = $(FULL_HOSTNAME)

Restart HTCondor to force the changes to take effect:

$ condor_restart
Sent "Restart" command to local master

Repeat the steps under "Testing" to make sure that this configuration works for you, and then proceed onto the next section.

Configure a pool password

In this section, you'll configure your personal Condor to use a pool password. This is a simple but effective method of securing Condor's communications to AWS.

Add the following lines to ~/condor-8.7.1/local/condor_config.local.

~/condor-8.7.1/local/condor_config.local
SEC_PASSWORD_FILE = $(LOCAL_DIR)/condor_pool_password
SEC_DAEMON_INTEGRITY = REQUIRED
SEC_DAEMON_AUTHENTICATION = REQUIRED
SEC_DAEMON_AUTHENTICATION_METHODS = PASSWORD
SEC_NEGOTIATOR_INTEGRITY = REQUIRED
SEC_NEGOTIATOR_AUTHENTICATION = REQUIRED
SEC_NEGOTIATOR_AUTHENTICATION_METHODS = PASSWORD
SEC_CLIENT_AUTHENTICATION_METHODS = FS, PASSWORD
ALLOW_DAEMON = condor_pool@*

You also need to run the following command, which prompts you to enter a password:

$ condor_store_cred -c add -f `condor_config_val SEC_PASSWORD_FILE`
Enter password:

Enter a password.

(For more details, see HowToEnablePoolPassword.)

Tell HTCondor about the open port

By default, HTCondor will use port 9618. If the Linux machine doesn't already have HTCondor installed, and the admin is willing to open that port, then you don't have to do anything. Otherwise, you'll need to add a line like the following to ~/condor-8.7.1/local/condor_config.local, replacing '9618' with whatever port the administrator opened for you.

~/condor-8.7.1/local/condor_config.local
COLLECTOR_HOST = $(FULL_HOSTNAME):9618

Activate the new configuration

Force HTCondor to read the new configuration by restarting it:

$ condor_restart

Prepare your AWS account

The condor_annex tool now includes a -setup command which will prepare your AWS account.

Obtaining an Access Key

In order to use AWS, condor_annex needs a pair of security tokens (like a user name and password). Like a user name, the "access key" is (more or less) public information; the corresponding "secret key" is like a password and must be kept a secret. To help keep both halves secret, condor_annex (and HTCondor) are never told these keys directly; instead, you tell HTCondor which file to look in to find each one.

Create those two files now; we'll tell you how to fill them in shortly. By convention, these files exist in your ~/.condor directory, which is where condor_annex -setup will store the rest of the data it needs.

$ mkdir ~/.condor
$ cd ~/.condor
$ touch publicKeyFile
$ touch privateKeyFile
$ chmod 600 publicKeyFile privateKeyFile

The last command ensures that only you can read or write to those files.

To donwload a new pair of security tokens for condor_annex to use, go to the IAM console; log in if you need to. The following instructions assume you are logged in as a user with the privilege to create new users. (The 'root' user for any account has this privilege; other accounts may as well.)

  1. Click the "Add User" button.
  2. Enter name in the User name box; "annex-user" is a fine choice.
  3. Click the check box labelled "Programmatic access".
  4. Click the button labelled "Next: Permissions".
  5. Select "Attach existing policies directly".
  6. Type "AdministratorAccess" in the box labelled "Filter".
  7. Click the check box on the single line that will appear below (labelled "AdministratorAccess").
  8. Click the "Next: review" button (you may need to scroll down).
  9. Click the "Create user" button.
  10. From the line labelled "annex-user", copy the value in the column labelled "Access key ID" to publicKeyFile.
  11. On the line labelled "annex-user", click the "Show" link in the column labelled "Secret access key"; copy the revealed value to privateKeyFile.
  12. Hit the "Close" button.

The 'annex-user' now has full privileges to your account. We're working on creating a CloudFormation template that will create a user with only the privileges condor_annex actually needs.

Running the Setup Command

The following command will setup your AWS account. It will create a number of persistent components, none of which will cost you anything to keep around. These components can take quite some time to create; condor_annex checks each for completion every ten seconds and prints an additional dot (past the first three) when it does so, to let you know that everything's still working.

$ condor_annex -setup
Creating configuration bucket (this takes less than a minute)....... complete.
Creating Lambda functions (this takes about a minute)........ complete.
Creating instance profile (this takes about two minutes)................... complete.
Creating security group (this takes less than a minute)..... complete.
Setup successful.

Undoing the Setup Command

There is not as yet a way to undo the setup command automatically, but it won't cost you anything extra to leave your account setup for condor_annex indefinitely. If, however, you want to be tidy, you may delete the components setup created by going to the CloudFormation console and deleting the entries whose names begin with 'HTCondorAnnex-'. The setup procedure also creates an SSH key pair which may be useful for debugging; the private key was stored in ~/.condor/HTCondorAnnex-KeyPair.pem. To remove the corresponding public key from your AWS account, go to the key pair console and delete the 'HTCondorAnnex-KeyPair' key.

You're ready to run condor_annex! Return to HowToUseCondorAnnexWithOnDemandInstancesEightSevenOne.