Research Administration Tasks

Adding users

As root on yamato, run
/usr/local/sbin/diradm.superadduser '$username' '$email' '$Fullname'
Note that a file named '$username' is created in your current directory with the template filled out for mailing (the same file is displayed onscreen).
For now, we must:

export DEBUG=1
DEBUG=1 /usr/local/sbin/diradm.superadduser ...

The password you are prompted for at the end is for hood
Add the newly-created user to our Research Mailing List

Adding groups

As root on hood, diradm groupadd
same syntax as groupadd(8).

Adding or removing users from a group:

same syntax as gpasswd(8)
As root on hood, diradm gpasswd (-a|-d) USERNAME GROUP

Adding projects

As root on hood:
diradm amadd -O $mapbase $key $src
'-O' means the default mount options for automount.
As root on yamato: create the $src directory now, and give it the approriate permissions. chgrp -R it, and chmod 2771 it.
Make the directory. mkdir -p $src
Set ownership. chgrp -R $group $src
Set permissions. chmod 2771 $src
If web content is being served: mkdir -p $src/htdocs ; chmod 2775 $src/htdocs

Adding CVS repositories

On hood, run diradm amadd -O auto.cvs ${foobar} 209.87.56.240:/export/cvs/${foobar}
- Replace ${foobar} with the name of the repository
On yamato, run (assuming there's a previously created group called ${foobar}:
- cvs -d /export/cvs/${foobar} init
- chmod -R 2770 /export/cvs/${foobar}
- chgrp foobar /export/cvs/${foobar}
- The chgrp command can instead be a chown command for a single user repository; group name and cvs repository name don't have to match, either.
To access CVS repo, use CVS_RSH="ssh" with URL being :ext:${user}@cvs.iat.sfu.ca:/var/cvsroot/${foobar}
Users must be in group cvs in addition to ${foobar} to access the repository!

Adding SVN repositories

On hood, run diradm amadd -O auto.svn ${foobar} 209.87.56.240:/export/svn/${foobar}
- Replace ${foobar} with the name of the repository
On yamato, run (assuming there's a previously created group called ${foobar}:
- chmod -R 2770 /export/cvs/${foobar}
- chgrp foobar /export/cvs/${foobar}
On nelson, run svnadmin create /var/svnroot/${foobar} --fs-type fsfs
Repo URL is svn+ssh://${user}@cvs.iat.sfu.ca/var/svnroot/${foobar}
Users must be in group cvs in addition to ${foobar} to access the repository!

General user management

diradm offers almost all regular POSIX commands, sometimes with a few extra frills. The only commands NOT completely implemented are gpasswd and passwd.
Gentoo update procedures (eg, how to update without ever messing up a machine).
- TODO
Welcoming new users; email template or typical wording you've used
- This is in the diradm.superadduser script, as it fills out the template.

To: $FULLNAME <$EMAIL>
Subject: Research account created - $NEWUSER

Hello $FULLNAME,

Your research account has been created.
Username: $NEWUSER
Password: $NEWPASS

Please visit http://research.iat.sfu.ca/network/changepassword.php to change
your password when you receive this email.

For support with the research network, please email:
help@research.iat.sfu.ca

And include a good description of the entire problem and a suitable subject
line.

Please note that this username/password pair is only valid for the SFU Surrey
Research Network, and is NOT tied into the main SFU authentication systems.

quotas
- TODO

Customizing Logwatch

There are two basic customizations which we often perform:

increase the header-information with machine-specific info (hardware, admininstrator(s), usage, etc):
adjust the order of the information - we care very much about disk-usage, and prefer it first

Start by ensuring logwatch is actually installed! A mail-transport agent (MTA) like Postfix must be installed and working (to receive the daily logwatch summary).

Logwatch Headers

Use this template, to create /etc/log.d/custom_header (ASCII, plain-text file)

Machine info:  Pentium4 2.4GHz, 1GB, GigE, 40GB+120GB, RivaTNT
 Running RedHat 9 Linux
 Located in Research Server Room A (Beta Space, Surrey Campus)
 Used by Davis Marques <dmarques@sfu.ca>
 Into service xxx.  Re-purposed Dec. 15, 2004
 Administered by Gordon Pritchard <gordonp+corsair@sfu.ca>

Another example:

Machine info:  Pentium4 dual-core 3GHz, 2GB, GigE, 80GB, ATI-R300-mobility
 Running Gentoo Linux
 Located in office  525 / The Axis (Beta Space, Surrey Campus)
 Used by Gordon Pritchard <gordonp+zero@sfu.ca)
 Into service September 6, 2005.
 Administered by Gordon Pritchard <gordonp+zero@sfu.ca>

To include this custom header, we now have to modify the main logwatch Perl script logwatch.pl to add the bold / red line:

on a RedHat 9 machine, this file is /etc/log.d/scripts/logwatch.pl
on a Gentoo machine, this file is /usr/sbin/logwatch.pl

   $printing = 'y';
   print OUTFILE "\n ################### LogWatch $Version ($VDate) #################### \n";
   print OUTFILE "       Processing Initiated: " . localtime(time) . "\n";
   print OUTFILE "       Date Range Processed: $Config{'range'}\n";
   print OUTFILE "     Detail Level of Output: $Config{'detail'}\n";
   print OUTFILE "          Logfiles for Host: $Config{'hostname'}\n";
   print OUTFILE "\n" . `/bin/cat  $BaseDir/custom_header` .  "\n";
   print OUTFILE " ################################################################ \n\n";
}

Logwatch Information Order

The scripts locate in /etc/log.d/scripts/ are run according to their file-name ordering. Simply renaming a file changes it's relationship to other information. We should move zz-disk_space to aa-disk_space to have our disk-usage appear right after the custom header; as root:

zero services # mv zz-disk_space aa-disk_space

But wait - there's more!! This disk-space script evolves through the various releases, often suppressing output if nothing prior is printed. And, (now) as the first entry, nothing prior will ever get printed :-O So, we'll strip out all the conditionals, and produce a pared-down script /etc/log.d/scripts/services which forever more will always give us our disk-usage as the first thing:

Gentoo:

#!/bin/bash
##########################################################################
# $Id: aa-disk_space,v 1.8 2005/02/24 17:08:05 kirk Exp $
##########################################################################
 
    echo
    df -hP | head -n1; df -kP | grep '^[/ ]'

RedHat 9:

#!/bin/bash
##########################################################################
# $Id: disk_space,v 1.1 2003/01/13 04:00:59 kirk Exp $
##########################################################################
 
   echo
   echo
   echo "------------------ Disk Space --------------------"
   echo
   df -h
   echo

One more thing to do - there is a corresponding configuration file which we simply move (rename) to align with the above:

on both Gentoo, and RedHat 9, this file is /etc/log.d/conf/services/zz-disk_space.conf

zero # mv /etc/log.d/conf/services/zz-disk_space.conf /etc/log.d/conf/services/aa-disk_space.conf

To test it all, invoke the daily logwatch cron-job manually:

zero # sh /etc/cron.daily/logwatch

Research Administration Tasks

Contents

Adding users

Adding groups

Adding projects

Adding CVS repositories

Adding SVN repositories

General user management

Customizing Logwatch

Logwatch Headers

Logwatch Information Order

Navigation menu

Research Administration Tasks

Adding users

Adding groups

Adding projects

Adding CVS repositories

Adding SVN repositories

General user management

Customizing Logwatch

Logwatch Headers

Logwatch Information Order

Navigation menu

Search