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| title | keywords | last_updated | sidebar | permalink |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Requesting a Merlin Project | merlin project, project, snow, service now | 07 September 2022 | merlin7_sidebar | /merlin7/request-project.html |
A project owns its own storage area in Merlin, which can be accessed by other group members.
Projects can receive a higher storage quota than user areas and should be the primary way of organizing bigger storage requirements in a multi-user collaboration.
Access to a project's directories is governed by project members belonging to a common Unix group. You may use an existing Unix group or you may have a new Unix group created especially for the project. The project responsible will be the owner of the Unix group (this is important)!
This document explains how to request new Unix group, to request membership for existing groups, and the procedure for requesting a Merlin project.
About Unix groups
Before requesting a Merlin project, it is important to have a Unix group that can be used to grant access to it to different members of the project.
Unix groups in the PSI Active Directory (which is the PSI central database containing user and group information, and more) are defined by the unx- prefix, followed by a name.
In general, PSI employees working on Linux systems (including HPC clusters, like Merlin) can request for a non-existing Unix group, and can become responsible for managing it.
In addition, a list of administrators can be set. The administrators, together with the group manager, can approve or deny membership requests. Further information about this topic
is covered in the Linux Documentation - Services Admin Guides: Unix Groups / Group Management, managed by the Central Linux Team.
To gran access to specific Merlin project directories, some users may require to be added to some specific Unix groups:
- Each Merlin project (i.e.
/data/project/{bio|general}/$projectname) or experiment (i.e./data/experiment/$experimentname) directory has access restricted by ownership and group membership (with a very few exceptions allowing public access). - Users requiring access to a specific restricted project or experiment directory have to request membership for the corresponding Unix group owning the directory.
Requesting a new Unix group
If you need a new Unix group to be created, you need to first get this group through a separate PSI Service Now ticket. Please use the following template. You can also specify the login names of the initial group members and the owner of the group. The owner of the group is the person who will be allowed to modify the group.
-
Please open an Incident Request with subject:
Subject: Request for new unix group xxxx -
and base the text field of the request on this template
Dear HelpDesk I would like to request a new unix group. Unix Group Name: unx-xxxxx Initial Group Members: xxxxx, yyyyy, zzzzz, ... Group Owner: xxxxx Group Administrators: aaaaa, bbbbb, ccccc, .... Best regards,
Requesting Unix group membership
Existing Merlin projects have already a Unix group assigned. To have access to a project, users must belong to the proper Unix group owning that project. Supervisors should inform new users which extra groups are needed for their project(s). If this information is not known, one can check the permissions for that directory. In example:
(base) ❄ [caubet_m@merlin-l-001:/data/user/caubet_m]# ls -ltrhd /data/project/general/$projectname
(base) ❄ [caubet_m@merlin-l-001:/data/user/caubet_m]# ls -ltrhd /data/project/bio/$projectname
Requesting membership for a specific Unix group has to be done with the corresponding Request Linux Group Membership form, available in the PSI Service Now Service Catalog.
![Example: Requesting Unix Group membership]({{ "/images/Access/01-request-unx-group-membership.png" }})
Once submitted, the responsible of the Unix group has to approve the request.
Important note: Requesting access to specific Unix Groups will require validation from the responsible of the Unix Group. If you ask for inclusion in many groups it may take longer, since the fulfillment of the request will depend on more people.
Further information can be found in the Linux Documentation - Services User guide: Unix Groups / Group Management
Managing Unix Groups
Other administration operations on Unix Groups it's mainly covered in the Linux Documentation - Services Admin Guides: Unix Groups / Group Management, managed by the Central Linux Team.
Requesting a Merlin project
Once a Unix group is available, a Merlin project can be requested. To request a project, please provide the following information in a PSI Service Now ticket
-
Please open an Incident Request with subject:
Subject: [Merlin7] Project Request for project name xxxxxx -
and base the text field of the request on this template
Dear HelpDesk I would like to request a new Merlin7 project. Project Name: xxxxx UnixGroup: xxxxx # Must be an existing Unix Group The project responsible is the Owner of the Unix Group. If you need a storage quota exceeding the defaults, please provide a description and motivation for the higher storage needs: Storage Quota: 1TB with a maximum of 1M Files Reason: (None for default 1TB/1M) Best regards,
The default storage quota for a project is 1TB (with a maximal Number of Files of 1M). If you need a larger assignment, you need to request this and provide a description of your storage needs.
Further documentation
Further information it's also available in the Linux Central Documentation:
Special thanks to the Linux Central Team and AIT to make this possible.