Users

Only Mufasa users (i.e., people with a user account on Mufasa) can access the machine and interact with it.

Creating new Mufasa users

Enabling a person to run jobs on Mufasa requires two steps:

Step 1

the person must be assigned a new Linux user on Mufasa

Creation of new Linux users is done either by Job Administrators or by specially designated users within each research group

Step 2

the new Linux user must be registered in SLURM's accounting system

This operation must necessarily be performed by Job Administrators

Step 1 enables the person to interact with Mufasa via SSH and to execute basic activities, such as uploading data and code in their /home directory. The second operation is needed to enable the person to fully exploit Mufasa's computational resources, which requires using SLURM.

Requesting user creation and/or registration

To request the creation of a new Linux user and/or to ask for its registration in SLURM's accounting system, a person belonging to the academic staff in charge of Mufasa should write to Giulio Fontana.

The request needs to specify what follows:

• name and surname of the person that the Linux user is associated to
• email of the person
• if such person is an M.Sc. student or a researcher (the latter include Ph.D. students)
• what research group the person belongs to, among those listed in Group names
• (if already created) name of the Linux user corresponding to the person

Creating a new Linux user

Job Administrators and specially designated users within each research group can create new Linux users on Mufasa.

User creation is done with command

sudo  /opt/share/sbin/add_user.sh -u <username> -g users,<research_group>

where <username> and <research_group> are chosen as explained below (see Usernames and Group names).

For instance, in order to create a user on Mufasa for a person named Mario Rossi belonging to research group CartCasLab, the following command will be used:

sudo /opt/share/sbin/add_user.sh -u mrossi -g users,cartcas

At first login, new users will be asked to change the password initially assigned to them. For security reason, it is important that such first login occurs as soon as possible after user creation.

Usernames

Mufasa usernames have the form xyyy (all lowercase), where x is the first letter of the first name of the person, and yyy is their complete surname. For instance, a person called Mario Rossi will be assigned username mrossi.

If multiple users with the same surname and first letter of the first name exist, those created after the very first one are given usernames including a two-digit counter: mrossi, mrossi01, mrossi02 and so on.

Group names

On Mufasa, Linux groups are used to identify the research group that a specific user is part of.

In the command above, <research_group> must be one of the following:

• cartcas for research group CartCasLab (prof. Cerveri);
• biomech for research group Biomechanics Research Group (prof. Votta);
• nearmrs for research group Medical Robotics Section of NearLab (prof. De Momi);
• nearnes for research group NeuroEngineering Section of NearLab (prof. Ferrante);
• bio, for BioEngineering users not belonging to any of the research groups listed above.

The person cited within brackets is the faculty who is in charge of Mufasa for each group.

Note that by using the command above, all users are also assigned group users, which is common to all Mufasa users corresponding to physical people.

Providing a user with access to SLURM

New users are not able to execute jobs via SLURM until they are properly registered in SLURM's accounting system. This operation must necessarily be performed by Job Administrators.

See Requesting user creation and/or registration for details.