NZCMS - Setting up CMSSW

Start with the CMS Offline WorkBook. The section on Installing CMS Software provides guidance. Basically want Scientific Linux CERN 4, SLC4.

What we need

Want to run CMSSW 1_6_0 and more recent releases. Basically CAS07 is the latest data simulation exercise which is unlikely (almost impossible) to be compatible with releases older than 1_6_0. Production is being specifically carried out with CMSSW_1_6_0, and this is the current release used in the CMSSW WorkBook and recent tutorials.

For this need to run Scientific Linux CERN 4, SLC4. SLC4 is built on Scientific Linux 4, with CERN-specific add-ons, and includes stuff like ROOT, GEANT, and CERN libraries. SL4 is in turn built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.

Differences between SLC3 and SL3

How to install and setup SLC4 (not yet finalized)

More detail

While it would be nice to run on Blue Fern, the new supercomputer, there are difficulties, as that runs mainly AIX, and certainly doesn't run SLC4. Maybe we can install it on some nodes - that needs to be investigated.

BeSTGRID provide resources including 100 TB storage - it would be useful to take advantage of this.

Shopping list

I would like to purchase a quad-core machine on which to install SLC4, to install CMSSW_1_6_0, and to try to run some small production, as well as get a toy analysis up and running.

At the moment Orlon estimates a cost of about $NZ2K/CPU

Storage: 1TB external disk available from TasTech - would enable download of data onsite at CERN to save lengthy time delays in accessing data over internet.