For users

rterm is a simple (well some parts are tricky) script taking advantage of either lsload or condor_status information to open an X-terminal on th least loaded available node for your group. In other words, with rterm, you do not need to know which node is overloaded / not-loaded or which one belong to your experiment: it should do the right thing for you without further knowledge. At its basic level, it uses slogin  to connect to the remote processing nodes.

Basic help follows:

Syntax is

  % rterm [Options] [NodeSpec] [UserName]

Currently implemented options are :

  -i         interactive mode i.e. do not open an xterm but use slogin
             directly to connect.
  -p port    use port number 'port' to connect
  -x node    Exclude 'node' from possible node to connect to. May be
             a comma separated list of nodes.
  -funky     pick a color randomly
  -bg color  pick specific color

The 'NodeSpec' argument may be a node name (specific login to a given node)  or a partial node name followed by the '+' sign (wildcard). For example,

  % rterm rcas6+

will open a connection on the least loaded node amongst all available rcas6* nodes. By default, this command will determine the appropriate wildcarded node specification for your GroupID. However, if this help is displayed when the command '% rterm' is used, contact the RCF support  team (your group ID is probably not supported by this script).

The 'UserName' argument is also optional. If unspecified, it will revert to the current user ID.

Finally, you may modify the xterminal layout by using the following environment variables

  TERM_BKG_COLOR     sets the xterm background color
  TERM_OPTIONS       sets any other xterm options

For administrators

To make this script work, your cluster needs to

• If you are using LSF: add a static resource inter to the nodes which will be accessible interactively. Of course, we assume that access is restricted/allowed to nodes on your cluster via the usual mechanism (allow/deny files)
  Condor: have interactive_node matchmaking keyword in place
• be sure to have the lsload (LSF) or condor_status (Condor) programs installed and configured on your gatekeeper.
• perl is used for the -funky option (random color) but is not necessary.

rterm is now accessible through STAR CVS.