Galaxy at Stony Brook: FAQ Ramble

  • How to log on to Galaxy?
    Only secured connections to the Galaxy system is supported. From any computer, issuing the command
     % ssh galaxy.ams.sunysb.edu 
    will prompt the user of his/her password and get connected to the Galaxy system.
    At the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, SUNY, almost all computers are installed with SSH.
    All insecure methods of connection (rlogin, rsh, telnet) are disabled. If your local computer system does not support SSH, please install the software before connecting to Galaxy. SSH software can be found at the websites of Open SSH (http://www.openssh.com) or SSH (http://www.openssh.com). You may also consult the system administrator(s) of your local computer system for help.

  • How to change password?
    Use the command
        % yppasswd 
    Every user is recommended to change the password at his/her very first login to the system, as well as at regular intervals.

  • How to move data between Galaxy and another computer system?
    There are several secured methods to use. Examples are scp, sftp, and passive ftp.
    Using "scp", you can use be very flexible in moving data from one computer system to another. For example, if you want to copy files from the system where you issue the command to a remote destination system, you may use the command
         % scp filename user@remotehost:/dest/dir/for/file/ 
    An example of this would be when you copy your files from Galaxy to an AMS computer, such as poincare. In that case, you can issue the command on starzero:
         % scp filename user@poincare:/dest/dir/for/file/
    You may also copy a directory recursively, using the option "-r", for example,
         % scp -r a_directory user@poincare:/dest/dir/

    Of course, using "scp" you can also copy files from a remote system to the computer you are logged in. The command would be

         % scp user@remotehost:/dir/remotefile /dest/dir/file


    Another powerful tool for file transfer is "sftp". Not only "sftp" is secure, it is also much more convenient due to its recursive transfer of directories. On the machine where you are logged in (such as Galaxy), just issuing the command
         % sftp remote_host 
    will establish the connection. Then, if you use the sftp command
      sftp> get a_directory 
    you will get all the files under the direcotry recusively. The sftp commands are very similar to the conventional "ftp". The only thing one should pay particular attention to is that "sftp" must be connected to a machine which is running ssh2 service. Currently, on the AMS network, the machine "stoker" is installed by the Galaxy staff, and it is know to be sure running ssh2. You can certainly sftp to that machine to or from Galaxy.

    Though it is not encrypted, the old "ftp" protocal can still be used to transfre data to and from Galaxy, but it must be in "passive" mode in order to garantee security. So, once the ftp connection is established, the first command to use must be "passive". Only after that, the data transfer can be conducted.

  • What should I read for new changes?
    Read the login message of the day (motd). This is one forum where important changes are announced. We also send out annoucement to all users by e-mail about important modifications (such as software upgrade) of the system. We also annouced planned system downtimes beforehand so that users can get prepared. For new users, we also recommend everybody to browse the web page, including this FAQ, to familiarize themselves with the system.

  • How do I get in touch with anyone?
    All Galaxy users: users@galaxy.ams.sunysb.edu
    Galaxy staff: staff@ams.sunysb.edu

  • Where is Galaxy located?
    The Galaxy Lab and the staff can be found in room 1-125 in Stony Brook's Mathematics Building. All of the nodes are located in this room.

  • How do I get a Galaxy account?
    Fill in the form off the galaxy web page. This will send mail, and you will get a response.

  • Are data stored on Galaxy secure?
    Not really. The raid system on which most of the user accounts are located is very robust. Some accounts are currently on single drives, which may fail.

  • Are data stored on Galaxy automatically backed up?
    All the data are backed up by the Galaxy staff biweekly on a tape drive. Nevertheless, we should emphasize the different levels of importance of computer data. Most of the data on Galaxy are generated by programs, and could be regenerated, in case of necessity. The source code, on the other hand, are very precious to the developers, and could not easily be regenerated. The users are highly recommended to do everything possible for ensuring those critical material (programs etc.) never be lost. For example, the users should keep multiple copies of these important files on different computer systems, including users' local system. Use scp or sftp to move your data off Galaxy.
  • Where can I run X-windows applications from?
    Normally, only from starzero, the Galaxy front-end. This includes: emacs, vim, etc. Please realize that these applications soak up considerable bandwidth. Having to share bandwidth is one of the reasons such applications do not always run smoothly. Starzero is also a relatively slow machine. Too many users running many jobs on it at the same time can make the load impossible to be handled by starzero.

    It is now possible to run X programs directly off a compute node using ssh. If you are running an X server on your workstation and you use it to connect to galaxy via ssh, ssh will create a virtual display on starzero which all your X-programs will connect to, and ssh will then forward the X connections to your real X server. You may use the following procedure to use a node for many interactive work (assuming you are already on starzero at the beginning):

  • Step 1: Before logging on to a node, use the command
     % echo $DISPLAY 
    This will give you the display channel you are using on starzero, for example, it could be
     starzero:20.0 
    Here the number "20.0" is just an example, it usually a different number, let use "starzero:??.?" in the next steps to indicate the number you get from here.
  • Step 2: Using qsub to connect to a node: If you would like to use any node assigned by PBS, just issue the command:
    % qsub -I
    If you want to specify a node, use the command
    % qsub -I -l nodes=NODENAME:ppn=1
    where NODENAME is the name of the desired node. For example, if you want to use star6, just use
    % qsub -I -l nodes=star6:ppn=1
  • Step 3: Set the display: Using the command in csh or tcsh:
    % setenv DISPLAY starzero:??.?
    Please note that in "starzero:??.?", the "??.?" should be replaced by whatever channel you get in Step 1.
  • Although almost all X-window applications work on the nodes after setting up the display, we did notice that the debugger "ddd" does not function well on the nodes. So, "ddd" can only be run on starzero. Or, users can debug their code on their local machines using "ddd".
  • What can I do to reduce my use of storage?
    Remove what you don't need, habitually zip (bzip2, gzip, or zip), learn about CVS. Suggestion: follow any fclose in your programs with a system call to a zip program. Another suggestion: many people use the same binaries... check to see if your program is already installed before putting loads of source code in your home directory.

  • Email on Galaxy?
    You can send email from galaxy, and Galaxy can send email to you. You should have a .forward file in your galaxy account which directs mail to your local account.

  • Installing Software on Galaxy?
    Please minimize the installation of downloaded software for personal use. If it is reasonable software to have, it should be installed in /usr/ or /usr/local. Please send e-mail to staff@galaxy.ams.sunysb.edu to request software that you need to use.

  • I hate the shell I got, how to change it?
    Use the command:
    % chsh 

  • How to find something on Galaxy?
    Linux has a utility called locate, which creates periodically a database of all the system files (/usr/, /etc/,..) and their path on the system. locate searches that database, which is updated nightly.

  • scp
    SSH has been installed on Galaxy, as well as most other AMS computers. "scp" is the secure and recommended way to move data between the Galaxy system and other computers.

  • How is Galaxy Sponsored?
    Galaxy is sponsored through funds from the Department of Energy (including Los Alamos National Laboratory), the National Science Foundation, and the University of Stony Brook. In addition a number of companies (Foundry Inc., and Storage Computers Inc.) have been very helpful in our obtaining some of their equipment.

  • IP Tunneling
    Please see this page for info on our IP Tunneling project with Brookhaven Nation Laboratory
  • Last updated on December 1, 2001 by Dahai Yu