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The Login ....
To login to LXPLUS, you have several possibilities:
- The recommended way of login onto LXPLUS is by using SSH. SSH
is also available on Windows machines (PUTTY). If you run an X
Server on your local machine (X or Exceed), you can configure the
SSH to tunnel X, to be able to run X applications (like xemacs,
xterm ,etc...) on LXPLUS: To enable X-11 forwarding in PUTTY,
select Connection->SSH->Tunnels on startup of PUTTY and check
Enable X11 forwarding
- It is also possible to connect directly to LXPLUS with your X
Server, like Exceed, or with an XTerminal.
For Exceed, use Start->All Programs->Hummingbird->Cern
Settings->predefined X Connections->LXPLUS
Please be aware that these direct X connections are not encrypted
and therefore insecure
- If you want to use Exceed on Windows but you do not want to do
without a secure connection, you can try this:
- Run Exceed only as a local X Server: Start->All
Programs->Hummingbird-> Exceed -> Exceed
- Use Putty or any other SSH like program to connect to
LXPLUS, and make sure that X-11 tunneling is switched on
- Once logged on to LXPLUS, you can use any X application
within the SSH window.
The Environment ...
All interactive and batch systems are built on top of the CERN
standard Unix Environment. This uses the HEPiX scripts to define
the user environment, which comprises the variables necessary
applications to correctly operate in CERNs environment of services
and gateways and to find any necessary auxiliary tools. This
is a multilayered environment, where the CERN defaults can be
further customized by the Group or the individual.
A wide range of shells are made available, which fall broadly
into two types, the C-shell like and the Bourne-shell like, and
for each family there is a recommended choice; tcsh and zsh respectively.
With the move to fully Linux based facilities the bash shell is
now gaining popularity. It is possible to open X-sessions on these PLUS servers also.
The LXPLUS machine can not be used to store long term data. They
have large local directories for temporary storage (/tmp) but
these are by necessity cleaned regularly, and therefore the data
lifetime is not guaranteed at all there. Instead the machines
all have access to the AFS file system for home directories, group
space and some degree of scratch space, all of which are accessible
through normal file system commands like
cd /afs/cern.ch/user/m/me.
In addition for physics and bulk data there is the CASTOR service
which is accessible through put/get operations of the 'rf'
commands like rfcp and rfdir.
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