How to obtain SLAC computer accounts for ATLAS

This information is for users with direct access to SLAC computers, not for GRID users.

Register as a SLAC user. This should be done before you apply for SLAC computer accounts. Charles C. Young will be your "SLAC sponsor who will confirm your information" on the SLAC User Information Form. If you can not find your home institute in the pull down list during the online registration, you should contact Charlie Young before registration.

SLAC provides several types of computer accounts. For ATLAS related work, you need a UNIX account. A Windows account is also useful if you will visit or stay at SLAC. A Microsoft Exchange e-mail account is the preferred way to use SLAC e-mail.

To obtain a SLAC computer account, follow the Guidelines for SLAC Computer Account Requests, print and fill the forms. Make sure to check the box for UNIX account (and other accounts if needed), and put Charles C. Young as the "Computer Czar" on the SLAC Computer Account Form. In the space for "Additional instruction or special group requirements", specify that you need membership of the UNIX secondary group "atlas". You obviously need to contact Charlie Young and provide the forms and the name of your ATLAS group PI. Remote users can fax the forms to Charlie. His fax number is 650-926-2923.

Once you obtained your initial password, you are required to change it as soon as possible. Please login to a SLAC UNIX machine such as noric.slac.stanford.edu or iris.slac.stanford.edu and use /usr/local/bin/password command to change your password.

Please set your UNIX .forward file so that automatically generated e-mail notifications from the batch system, cron jobs, etc. will be forwarded to your preferred address. Simply put a line "your_email@domain.earth" in $HOME/.forward will work. If your preferred address is a SLAC Exchange e-mail, this line will be "your_exchange_username@exchange.slac.stanford.edu".

The home directories of ordinary UNIX accounts are on Andrew File System (AFS). SLAC computing page has some very useful information about AFS. For comprehensive information about AFS, see OpenAFS home page.