Here you can find how to mount the CVMFS repositories which deliver our applications to you. Think of CVMFS as a filesystem that you can mount - except a really fast andefficient one !

• Repository information
• Quickstart Guide
  • Prerequisites
  • Mounting the repo - private mounts
  • Using our modules
• Information for site managers
  • Mounting the repo - HPC clusters
  • Feedback and suggestions
• Footnotes

Repository information

We currently provide two repositories, which contain all of the applications ¹ -

Quickstart Guide

If you want to skip ahead to the fun bits, start here. This is a quick summary of the information in the CVMFS Technical Report on how to mount repositories.

Prerequisites

1. We only support Linux - specifically CentOS or Debian. ²
2. You need to have the CERN repos in your configuration : Install the CVMFS Release package for your system.
3. Install the client :
   1. yum install cvmfs cvmfs-config-default (RedHat derivatives)
   2. dpkg -i cvmfs.deb cvmfs-config-default.deb (Debian and Ubuntu)
4. Download the repo keys ³

Mounting the repo - private mounts

Mounting the repositories can be done either in “local” or “system” mode.

• System-level : A mountpoint is defined by the system administrator and is managed by autofs, usually /cvmfs/
• Local mounts : A user can make private mounts of a repository by issueing cvmfs2 -o config=myparams.conf apprepo.sagrid.ac.za
  • In this case, the minimum content of the params.conf file should be something like :

                
                  CVMFS_CACHE_BASE
                  =
                  /home/user/mycache
                  CVMFS_CLAIM_OWNERSHIP
                  =
                  yes
                  CVMFS_RELOAD_SOCKETS
                  =
                  /home/user/mycache
                  CVMFS_SERVER_URL
                  =
                  http://apprepo.sagrid.ac.za/cvmfs/apprepo.sagrid.ac.za
                  CVMFS_HTTP_PROXY
                  =
                  DIRECT
                
              

The repository will be intelligently cached locally, by simply attempting to access files in it :

                ls /cvmfs/devrepo.sagrid.ac.za/generic/u1404/x86_64/atlas  cmake  fftw3  gmp  hdf5    mpc   numpy    python            scipyboost  fftw   gcc    gsl  lapack  mpfr  openmpi  quantum-espresso  zlib
              

Using our modules

We will soon provide bash modules in order to set your environment correctly to use the applications in CVMFS ⁴ .

Information for site managers

Site managers can apply the CVMFS configuration by executing the cvmfs.yml playbook in the AAROC DevOps Repository

Manual configuration is also possible. See the client configuration section of the CVMFS technical report.

Mounting the repo - HPC clusters

CMVFS is usually controlled by autofs, so if you have autofs on your site, simply add the CVMFS mountpoint to cvmfs.master :

                +auto.master/cvmfs /etc/auto.cvmfs
              

You can mount the repository on each of the worker nodes indepdendently, or on a local cache, then export it to the worker nodes via NFS.

Feedback and suggestions

Footnotes