##Getting Started
Who is eligible to become the user of OSG Connect?
Any researcher with an affiliation with an U.S. institution (college, university, national laboratory or research foundation) is eligible to become an OSG Connect user. Researchers outside US with affiliations to US groups may be eligible for membership if they are sponsored by a collaborator within the US. However, these potential users should contact us directly to discuss membership.
How do I become an user of OSG Connect?
Please follow the steps outlined in the Sign Up process.
##Software What software packages are available?
The available software are listed here. In general, we support most popular software that fits the distributed high thoroughput model and can add software upon request.
How do I load a specific software application?
Generally, you'll need to give the version of after the module name when loading the module. For example, there are three different versions of Gromacs available (4.6.5, 5.0.0, and 5.0.5). To load Gromacs 5.0.5, you would run:
$ source /cvmfs/oasis.opensciencegrid.org/osg/modules/lmod/current/init/bash
$ module load gromacs/5.0.5
See the section on Accessing Software using Distributed Environment Modules for details.
Are there any restrictions on installing commercial softwares?
We only provide software that is freely distributable. At present, we do not have or support most commercial software due to licensing issues.
Can I request for system wide installation of the open source software useful for my research?
Yes. Please contact [email protected].
##Running Jobs What type of computation is a good match or NOT a good match on OSG Connect?
It is important for the user to carefully check the computational requirements of his or her workflow. Please refer to "this section" for more details on how to determine if your computation matches up well with OSG Connect's model.
What job scheduler is being used on OSG Connect?
We use HTCondor to schedule and run jobs.
How do I submit a computing job?
Jobs are submitted via HTCondor scheduler. Please refer the QuickStart for more details on submitting and managing jobs.
How many jobs can I keep idle in the queue?
The preferred number of idle jobs is to not exceed 10k. If you have much more jobs than that, we recommend that you use HTCondor DAGMan to control it. Stick all the jobs in the DAG, and then submit with: condor_submit_dag -maxidle 10000 ... DAGMan will then maintain the 10k idle jobs for you.
##Data Storage and Transfer What is the best way to process large volume of data?
Use the Stash data system to store and process large volumes of data. Please refer the section Data Solutions for more details.
How do I transfer data from Stash to my system and vice versa?
You can transfer data using scp, rsync and globus. See the section on Transferring Data to OSG Connect for more details.
How do I run and manage complex workflows?
In order to deal with workflows that have multiple steps and/or multiple files to transfer, we advise using a workflow management system. A workflow management system allows you to define different computational steps in your workflow and indicate how inputs and outputs should be transferred between these steps. Once you define a workflow, the workflow management system will then run your workflow, automatically retrying failed jobs and transferrring files between different steps.
What workflow management systems are recommended on OSG?
We support and distribute DAGMan, Pegasus and Swift for workflow management.
##Workshops and Training Do you plan to offer training sessions and workshop?
We plan to offer workshops for the researchers on multiple locations. Please check our events page for further information about the workshop dates and venue.
Who may attend the workshop?
Workshops are typically open to students, post docs, staff and faculty.
What are the topics covered in a typical workshops?
We typically cover shell scripting, python (or R) programming, version control with git and distributed high throughout computing.
How to cite or acknowledge OSG?
Whenever you make use of Open Science Grid resources, services or tools, we would be grateful to have you acknowledge OSG in your presentations and publications.
For example, you can add in your acknowledgement section:
"This research was done using resources provided by the Open Science Grid, which is supported by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science."
We recommend the following references for citations
- Pordes, R. et al. (2007). "The Open Science Grid", J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 78, 012057.doi:10.1088/1742-6596/78/1/012057.
- Sfiligoi, I., Bradley, D. C., Holzman, B., Mhashilkar, P., Padhi, S. and Wurthwein, F. (2009). "The Pilot Way to Grid Resources Using glideinWMS", 2009 WRI World Congress on Computer Science and Information Engineering, Vol. 2, pp. 428–432. doi:10.1109/CSIE.2009.950.