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BrainPortal Setup

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Pierre Rioux edited this page Feb 26, 2018 · 4 revisions

Introduction

This document is the second section of three explaining how to install the CBRAIN platform:

Common Setup -> BrainPortal Setup -> Bourreau Setup

To get a general overview of these documents, please refer to the section, "Overview of installation process", in the Setup Guide.

This particular document explains how to install the UNIX environment and files specific to the BrainPortal Rails application.

Table of contents

  1. Files configuration
  2. Database connection
  3. Application name
  4. Database schema initialization
  5. Assets compiling
  6. BrainPortal console checks
  7. Interface configuration
  8. Time zone configuration
  9. Data cache configuration
  10. For more help

1. Files configuration

We assume at this point that you have deployed all the files as described in the Common Setup document.

Most of the configuration steps in CBRAIN are done within the interface. An exception to this is the initialization of the MySQL database, as well as the step of setting up a few files which we will do right now. Both of these steps are necessary before it is possible to launch the interface.

i. Database connection

The database connection is defined by a single file that only needs to exist on the BrainPortal side. Look in the BrainPortal/config directory for the template for Rail's database connection file, called database.yml.TEMPLATE.

Copy it to database.yml and edit it with your favorite text editor.

cd BrainPortal/config
cp database.yml.TEMPLATE database.yml
$EDITOR database.yml

There are three sections in this file, development, production and test, which correspond to three Rails environments. Each environment needs its own MySQL database, with its own database user. Enter the name of the MySQL server, the database name and the user for each of the sections that you plan to use. These values correspond to the configuration of the database server, as described in the preceding Common Setup document.

For a programmer planning to use his own workstation for development, it is acceptable to point the development and production environments to exactly the same database and have a separate database for test. For a full production setup, you can configure the production connection profile and remove the other two.

ii. Application name

Each BrainPortal application has a name that it uses to find itself in the MySQL database when it runs. The name needs to be configured as a file that the application loads.

Go to the BrainPortal/config/initializers subdirectory and copy the file config_portal.rb.TEMPLATE as config_portal.rb. Note: Do not simply rename it, since the TEMPLATE file is also used by the database seeding process, described below.

Edit 'config_portal.rb'. There is a single assignment for a constant named CBRAIN_RAILS_APP_NAME. Give the application a simple name, such as 'AstroPortal' or 'MyDev'.

Whenever the Rails application boots, it looks up this name in the database; both need to be kept in sync if you ever change the name.

iii. Database schema initialization

Rails provides a mechanism to initialize your database. It creates the full set of tables needed by your applications and populates them with the minimal amount of data necessary to get started. You only need to do this once and only on the BrainPortal side (Bourreaux do not have their own database, they use one set up on a BrainPortal elsewhere).

cd BrainPortal
rake db:schema:load RAILS_ENV=development   # creates tables

You need to adjust the RAILS_ENV value of these commands to correspond to the environment you set up.

We assume here that the database has already been set up, as explained above in the MySQL section.

Seeding the database is also performed by a rake task:

cd BrainPortal
rake db:seed RAILS_ENV=development # initializes the tables

This creates three ActiveRecord objects in the database:

  • It reads the name of the application from the config file which was set up above and creates an entry for the application in the database (FYI: table=remote_resources, type='BrainPortal'). This entry is incomplete and is completed later using the web interface.

  • It creates a special default Projects called 'everyone', which is used to assign resources that everyone can access (FYI: table=groups, type='EveryoneGroup').

  • It creates the main admin user and assigns it a password (FYI: table=users, type='CoreAdmin').

The seeding process creates the password for the admin user. Please write it down, since you need it to connect to the web interface. However, if you do forget it, you can re-run the rake task later to reset the password.

iv. Assets compiling

This step is particularly important if you are deploying your portal in Rails' production mode.

cd BrainPortal
rake assets:precompile

Note that if your shell's umask is set too restrictive, the precompiled assets may not be readable for whatever web server is supposed to provide them. Make sure you reset them with:

chmod -R go+rX BrainPortal/public/assets

v. BrainPortal console checks

The Rails console is a great tool to inspect the entire CBRAIN system. For the moment, we start it once in order to initiate a set of validation checks.

cd BrainPortal
rails console development     # note: for the console, no RAILS_ENV=

which should produce something similar (but not identical to) this:

(Excerpt from the boot log)
C> CBRAIN BrainPortal validation starting, 2015-03-10 15:33:27 -0400
C> Rails environment is set to 'development'
C> CBRAIN instance is named 'PID-13978'
C> Hostname is 'prcent'
C>      - Note:  You can skip all CBRAIN validations by temporarily setting the
C>               environment variable 'CBRAIN_SKIP_VALIDATIONS' to '1'.
C> Ensuring that this CBRAIN app is registered in the DB...
C>      - This CBRAIN app is named 'cportal' and is registered.
C> Setting time zone for application...
C>      - Warning: time zone not set properly for this Rails app, setting it to UTC.
C> Making sure we can track file revision numbers.
C> Cleaning up old SyncStatus objects...
C>      - No SyncStatus objects are associated with obsolete resources.
C>      - No SyncStatus objects are associated with obsolete files.
C> Checking to see if Data Provider cache needs cleaning up...
C>      - SKIPPING! No cache root directory yet configured!
C> Current application tag or revision: 3.2.0-56
C> Checking for pending migrations...
C> Checking if the BrainPortal database needs a sanity check...
C>      - Error: You must check the sanity of the models. Please run this
C>               command: 'rake db:sanity:check RAILS_ENV=development'.

Notice that the last message is an error indicating that a sanity check needs to be run. Run the command provided in the message:

rake db:sanity:check RAILS_ENV=development

Once this is done, you can start the console again:

rails console development

and you should get the console's prompt. You can type 'exit' to get out of the system, unless you are familiar with Rails and want to explore it a bit.

There are a few other important lines printed with the "C>" prefix during the boot process. Notice that there is a warning about a missing cache root directory and once you started the console it also proceeded to create a SSH key, create a SSH Agent and create a SSH Agent Locker:

(Excerpt from the boot log)
C> Checking to see if Data Provider cache needs cleaning up...
C>      - SKIPPING! No cache root directory yet configured!
(...)
C> Making sure we have a SSH agent to provide our credentials...
C>      - Created new agent: PID=4610 SOCK=/home/user/cbrain/BrainPortal/tmp/sockets/ssh-agent.portal.sock
C> Making sure we have a CBRAIN key for the agent...
C>      - Creating identity file '/home/user/.ssh/id_cbrain_portal'.
C>      - Added identity to agent from file: '/home/user/.ssh/id_cbrain_portal'.
C> Starting automatic Agent Locker in background...
C>      - No locker processes found. Creating one.

Let's examine these items one by one.

  • The cache root directory is something which is configured with the web interface in the next section.

  • The SSH identity file is created once for the entire lifetime of a particular CBRAIN installation and is used to authenticate all requests, local and remote, among its BrainPortal and Bourreau components.

  • The SSH Agent is a UNIX subprocess that is involved in the authentication system; there only needs to be ONE such agent for the entire CBRAIN installation, even if multiple instances of the BrainPortal are running (such as in a production environment). Whenever an instance of the BrainPortal application is started, it auto discovers the SSH agent and uses it.

    This is a pretty standard UNIX 'ssh-agent' process, by the way, which can be found by running the following UNIX command:

    ps auxww | grep $USER | grep ssh-agent

  • The AgentLocker is also a separate UNIX process and is also unique to the whole CBRAIN installation. It is a Ruby program that regularly 'locks' the SSH Agent. The Programmer Guides have more information about it. It can be found using this UNIX command:

    ps auxww | grep $USER | grep AgentLocker

2. Interface configuration

At this point it is possible to configure everything else from within the CBRAIN interface. First, start a local BrainPortal server:

cd BrainPortal
rails server puma -e development -p 3000

If all is well, more or less the same boot messages appear as were shown earlier when launching the console. But this time the server sets up a network socket listening on port 3000. Open up a Web browser and connect to the URL for the server:

http://localhost:3000/

You are prompted to login; the main administrative user is called admin and the password is the one given to you when you ran the rake db:seed task above (which you can re-run if you forget the password).

Once connected, the full administrative interface is visible. For the moment we need to configure two parameters for the BrainPortal application: the time zone and a path to the portal's data cache.

Go to the 'Servers' tab. This is the index page for all the BrainPortal and Bourreaux on your system. A table is displayed, with a single entry for the current BrainPortal which is being used. Click on its name to view the information page for the BrainPortal, where each section and input field can be edited.

i. Time zone configuration

Click on the (Edit) link in the top Info section and change the Time zone to match the current time zone. Click Update to apply the change.

#### ii. Data cache configuration

Create an empty directory on your computer, on a filesystem where it is possible to store a large amount of scratch data. Use your best judgement to choose the name and location for this directory, remembering that its purpose is to store copies of official CBRAIN data files for the BrainPortal, for operations such as transfering data or viewing data with the BrainPortal interface. It is not simply scratch space, but it is not used to store important data files either.

Now, return back to the interface and the BrainPortal page you were just editing, and find the section Cache Management Configuration. Click the (Edit) link and enter the full path to that cache directory in the field Path to Data Provider caches .

Note: This directory's content is NOT TO BE TOUCHED by external processes. Do no create or remove files from the cache directory manually. The content should only be managed by CBRAIN's BrainPortal and not shared with other Rails applications, even within the CBRAIN installation.

3. Moving on

At this point this is a functional BrainPortal application. It is possible to perform a number of typical actions, such as creating user accounts and projects. However, there is still no way to store data files anywhere and there are no execution servers to process them.

  • Consider adding a few Data Providers to the installation as an admin. Aside from having to create an empty directory, most of the configuration is done right from within the interface.

  • It is now also possible to install a Bourreau Rails application. There can be more than one for each BrainPortal and usually they are installed on remote supercomputer sites, but you can start by configuring the one that is right beside your BrainPortal as a local execution server. Follow the instructions in the Bourreau Setup document.

4. For more help

Refer to the Troubleshooting and FAQ documents for hints and general help about common issues. If these documents do not answer your questions, you might consider contacting us. Our contact information is at the bottom of the Home page.

Note: Original author of this document is Pierre Rioux

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