Workbook for SLD Offline Users - First Day: Getting an Account

VMS runs on clusters of workstations known as VAXes and Alphas. SLAC's SLD group uses two such clusters, one called SLACVX and one called SLD. SLACVX is the primary cluster used for offline software work (the SLD cluster is reserved for data acquisition work). Other SLD collaborating institutions have their own VMS clusters loaded with the full set of SLD software.

Get an Account

If you do not already have an account on a VMS cluster that runs SLD offline software, your first step is to get one. If you are not at SLAC, ask your fellow group members for the name of the VMS cluster that you should use. If you are at SLAC, you can get an account on the SLACVX VMS cluster as follows.

Get a new user form from the service desk in the lobby of the SLAC computer center.
Fill it out and have it signed by one of Richard Dubois, Terry Schalk, or Karen Heidenreich.
Return it to the SCS Service Desk.
They typically take one or two days to create the account.

Wherever you get your account, be sure to specify that you want it to be configured for SLD offline software use.

Log on

It is now time to start working in VMS. You can log on to VMS from either a DECTERM or an XTERM window. Create one of these windows by selecting the appropriate item from your Session Manager's Applications menu. The window will come up logged on to the same host as your Session Manager.

If this window is already logged on to your offline software VMS host, you are all set.
If this window is logged on to a different VMS host, type SET HOST followed by the name of the host you want to use. You will then be prompted to log on.
If this window is logged on to a non-VMS host, type telnet followed by the name of the host you want to use. You will then be prompted to log on.

The VMS operating system is NOT case sensitive. In the following examples, VMS commands are written in upper case, but you can actually type them any way you like.

The next few steps will help you confirm that you are logged on to an appropriate VMS host and that your account has been correctly configured.

Check that you are on a suitable VMS host

Type SHOW LOGICAL DUCSROOT

If the result is something like

   "DUCSROOT" = "$255$DUA0:[DUCS.]"

you are on a VMS host that is suitable for running SLD Offline software.

If the result is something like

   %SHOW-S-NOTRAN, no translation for logical name DUCSROOT

the VMS cluster you are logged on to does not contain the SLD offline software. Ask your collaborators for the name of the appropriate VMS cluster.

Check that you have a suitable LOGIN.COM file

Type DUCS Q

The result should be something like

   AFBCH   :PROD  HEAVY   :PROD  MCHRWG57:PROD  ONLCRID :PROD  TAU     :PROD
   CART    :PROD  IDA     :PROD  MCHWK   :PROD  ONLDC   :PROD  TRACK   :PROD
   CATSRV  :PROD  IDA3    :PROD  MCKORZ  :PROD  ONLERR  :PROD  TRIGGER :PROD
   CERNV   :PROD  JAZELLE :PROD  MCL63   :PROD  ONLLAC  :PROD  UDUC    :PROD
   CETI    :PROD  JAZQAPT :PROD  MCL72   :PROD  ONLVTX  :PROD  UEDT    :PROD
   CRDRAWD :PROD  KAL     :PROD  MCL73   :PROD  ONLWIC  :PROD  UEVE    :PROD
   CRID    :PROD  KON     :PROD  MCL74   :PROD  PAW     :PROD  UGRA    :PROD
   DATACAT :PROD  LAC     :PROD  MCLEPT  :PROD  QCD     :PROD  UHIS    :PROD
   DC      :PROD  LUM     :PROD  MCLUND  :PROD  QPOL    :PROD  UMOR    :PROD
   DISPLAY :PROD  MC      :PROD  MCMUBG  :PROD  RECON   :PROD  UTIL    :PROD
   DOC     :PROD  MC1TRK  :PROD  MCRADC  :PROD  RECVRT  :PROD  UTPU    :PROD
   DST     :PROD  MCBEAM  :PROD  MCSUSY  :PROD  REXX    :PROD  UVAXSRV :PROD
   DSTUTIL :PROD  MCBHAG  :PROD  MCTWOG  :PROD  RTH     :PROD  UWRI    :PROD
   DTAG    :PROD  MCBHLM  :PROD  MCUCLA  :PROD  RTOFF   :PROD  VMUTIL  :PROD
   DUCSNEWS:PROD  MCBREM  :PROD  MCYFS   :PROD  SDISPLAY:PROD  VTX     :PROD
   ELECWEAK:PROD  MCBZ    :PROD  MFIT    :PROD  SGNL    :PROD  VXFNDTMP:PROD
   EMI     :PROD  MCCOS   :PROD  MIDAS   :PROD  SLD     :PROD  VXFNDUTL:PROD
   ERRLOG  :PROD  MCDIAG  :PROD  MORTRAN2:PROD  SLDMIDAS:PROD  WIC     :PROD
   EXAMPLES:PROD  MCEEG   :PROD  NAMES   :PROD  SMON    :PROD  WMATCH  :PROD
   FASTMC  :PROD  MCEP    :PROD  NAPL    :PROD  STATUS  :PROD  WUTIL   :PROD
   GEANTSLD:PROD  MCHRWG54:PROD  NETIDA  :PROD  SWIM    :PROD  ZXFIND  :PROD

If you got the above result, it means that your account is correctly configured to use SLD offline software. We'll get back to the details of DUCS later.

If you did not get anything like the above result, it means that your account is not correctly configured to use SLD offline software. Ask your system manager to configure your account for SLD offline software use. They will at least need to make some changes to your LOGIN.COM file. If they don't already have one handy, they can start with the example in SLACVX::$255$DUA0:[DUCS.UTIL]LOGIN.COM.

Check your disk quota

Check to make sure you have a reasonable amount of space available on your disk (the disk that comes up as default when you log on).

Type SHOW QUOTA

You will either get a response that quotas are not in effect on your disk or you will get a response that you have a certain number of blocks used, available and authorized. A block in VMS is 512 Bytes. For your initial work, 10,000 blocks is a reasonable amount of space. Later, when you get to the section of the workbook on Writing Code, you may want more like 30,000 blocks.

For now, if you have less than 5,000 blocks authorized, check with your system manager.

A note about JTQUOTA

There is another type of quota called JTQUOTA, which can cause trouble for users running SLD offline software. Unfortunately, this is not a quota which general users can check for themselves. So just be aware that if at any time running SLD offline software you get a message about "Logical name table" being "full," ask your system manager to increase your JTQUOTA. The standard SLD offline value is JTQUOTA=10240.

Create Some Useful Directories

If you got this far, you are on the right VMS cluster and your account has been correctly configured. Your next step, before you can run SLD code, is to define a place where the SLD software system can keep some files. On VMS, files are organized into what are called directories. One directory, called your "login directory," was created for you by your system manager when your account was created. By default you are in that directory as soon as you log in.

A detailed tutorial on the VMS operating system will come later in this workbook. For now, just keep typing the commands we tell you. We are rushing past the detailed description so that you can get your hands on some real data before the day is done.

You should run your SLD offline software jobs from subdirectories of your login directory. Create your first subdirectory.

Type CREATE/DIRECTORY [.subdirectory_name] including the brackets. For example, CREATE/DIRECTORY [.FIRST].

While you are at it, also create a directory on the scratch disk where the SLD offline software can store any temporary files it needs to make.

Type CREATE/DIRECTORY $SCR:[your_account_name] including the brackets. For example, CREATE/DIRECTORY $SCR:[FRED].

One VMS hint we will tell you now. VMS is very friendly about accepting abbreviations for commands. In the above examples, you could have typed CRE/DIR instead of CREATE/DIRECTORY. If you have supplied too few characters for VMS to tell what the command should be, VMS will ask you to supply more characters. And remember, as we mentioned before, case does not matter in VMS commands.

To see what files are in the current directory, type DIRECTORY or just DIR.

Joseph Perl
31 May 1995