• Configuring Moab to Store STDERR/STDOUT Files in a Samba Share

Configuring Samba is optional. Moab will send $HOME/dir as the user's working directory to MSMHPC. MSMHPC will look up the user's home directory in Active Directory and translate $HOME to that directory.

MSMHPC will attempt to start the job in the same directory where it was submitted on the Linux head node (usually the user's home directory). If you want, you can specify another directory via msub at job submission time. To run the job correctly, you must export your home directory and other common directories to the HPC cluster.

Alternatively, you can mirror your directory structure on the HPC head node. Note, though, that if you follow this process, files you may need to run jobs might not be available. To mirror the directory structure, create a tree of directories on the HPC head node mirroring your home directory and share the new directory with the name of the root directory.

For example, suppose there is a user named test. In test's home directory there is a directory named jobs that test uses to submit jobs. The full path of the directory must be created on the Windows head node. Create a folder named home at the root, C:\home, for example. Within the home folder, create another folder named test and another folder inside that one named jobs. Doing so yields the full path \home\test\jobs, the same as on Linux. The home directory would then need to be shared as home.

To configure Samba, do the following on the head node:

1. Install a Samba server, configure the service to run on startup, and change the Samba configuration file that is typically located at /etc/samba/smb.conf. For Red Hat and SLES, do the following to configure the service to run on startup:
chkconfig --level 3 5 smb on
2. Open the smb.conf file and ensure that the following line is included (where you replace <ACTIVE DIRECTORY DOMAIN NAME> with your active directory name):
workgroup = <ACTIVE DIRECTORY DOMAIN NAME>
3. Add a "home" share so that the Windows nodes can create output files at the user's home directory; to do so, add the following to the end of the smb.conf file:

   [home]
      comment = home
      path = /home
      browseable = yes
      read only = no

4. Start Samba and set up users on all of the Windows and Linux systems so that they all have the same user ID, group ID, password, and home directory. To add users to Samba, issue the following command and type in the same password for the Windows and Linux systems:
smbpasswd -a username

2.2.1 Configuring Moab to Store STDERR/STDOUT Files in a Samba Share

An administrator can configure Moab to store STDERR/STDOUT files in a Samba share, instead of on the compute node. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, Administrative Tools, and then Active Directory Users and Computers
2. Double-click the user you want to modify.
3. Click the Profile tab.
4. Change the Home folder settings to a network drive associated as the user's home directory (by pointing to the user's remote shared address).