Orbit > GettingStarted

How to get started

First, you will need an ORBIT account. Please check the usage policy if you are eligible. Typically, in order to get an account,one would have to ​register for an account and get it approved by the PI in charge of the project/institution they wish to be part off. If particular institution is not available, the appropriate PI can ​http://www.orbit-lab.org/userManagement/orgReg register for an institutional account.

A typical experiment requires the following five steps:

• Creating reservation: before you can access the testebed,you need to ​make a reservation and get it approved by the Documentation/Scheduler reservation service. First time users are highly encouraged to reserve time on a sandbox instead of the main grid, and start with the built-in Hello World experiment (including ability to access all 400 nodes in the grid)
• Login into reserved domain: after you receive the confirmation email, you can access the reserved domain by ssh-ong into the corresponding console.
• Loading an Image on the ndoes
• Running the experiment
• Analyzing the results

Reservations

First time users are highly encouraged to reserve time on a sandbox instead of the main grid, and start with the built-in Hello World experiment (including ability to access all 400 nodes in the grid).

Login into reserved domain

During your approved time slot, you will be able to ssh into the console of the respective domain. A console is a dedicated machine that allows access to all resources in that domain.

For example, to access the sandbox1:

yourhost>ssh username@console.sb1.orbit-lab.org

Using username "username".
Authenticating with public key "xxxxxxxxx"
Welcome to Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS (GNU/Linux 3.2.0-36-generic x86_64)

 * Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com/

  System information as of Mon Jan 28 20:25:50 EST 2013

  System load:  0.0               Processes:           93
  Usage of /:   2.7% of 69.43GB   Users logged in:     0
  Memory usage: 6%                IP address for eth0: 10.50.18.10
  Swap usage:   0%                IP address for eth1: 10.18.0.10

  Graph this data and manage this system at https://landscape.canonical.com/

9 packages can be updated.
0 updates are security updates.

|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
|                 *** For authorized use only ***                 |
| This system is for the use of authorized users only.  All users |
| are expected to comply with the "Acceptable Use Policy" availa- |
| ble at http://www.orbit-lab.org/AUP.html                        |
| Individuals using this computer system, are subject to having   |
| all of their activities on this system monitored and recorded   |
| by system personnel.                                            |
|                                                                 |
| Anyone using this system expressly consents to such monitoring  |
| and is advised that if such monitoring reveals possible         |
| evidence of criminal activity, system personnel may provide the |
| evidence of such monitoring to law enforcement officials.       |
|                                                                 |
| Email question, comments or problems to help@orbit-lab.org      |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|

username@console.sb1:~$ 

Loading an Image

When you have successfully logged in, you can start an experiment using the Orbit Management Framework (OMF).

5. The imageing process will turn the nodes back off after completing imageing. At this point the nodes disks are imaged with the basline image and need to be turned back on before proceeding.

   username@console.domain:~$ omf tell -a on -t all
   

   Give the nodes a couple of minutes to turn on / boot, then check their status with omf stat.

Where to go from here

If you are still unsure what Orbit is, please read the FAQ and the Tutorial, otherwise go ahead and ​register.