Starting the Client

The UNICOREpro Client is distributed as a (gziped) UNIX tar file which has to be unpacked by the appropriate tools (UNIX: gunzip, tar. Windows: winzip). In principle, you can install the software anywhere you like, providing that the directory structure remains unchanged. However, the name of the installation directory should not contain any special character like e.g. a blank ' '.

Starting under UNIX

Start the Client by executing the 'UNICOREpro_Client/bin/unicore' script. You may use a relative or absolute path to the script. The script tries to find out the path to the installation by itself. This will fail if you have set a link to it which you want to use for the start up. In this case you should edit 'bin/unicore' to set the environment variable UNICORE directly in the script.

Starting under Windows

For the Windows operation systems it is sufficient to click on the file 'lib/client.jar'. You may also link this file to your desktop by the usual procedure and start the UNICORE Client from there.

Both starting procedures set the Java CLASSPATH automatically.

Start Options

You can specify two start options when starting the Client in GUI (Graphical User Interface) mode. Both parameters can be combined in any order.

Configpath

You can specify a different than the default configuration directory for storing your user defaults etc. by using the configpath parameter which is provided as a system property to the Java Virtual Machine (JVM):

java -Dcom.pallas.unicore.configpath=<mypath> -jar client.jar

Java Security Manager

The Client is prepared to use a security manager to control the access of code modules to other modules or your file system. To deploy this feature you have to copy the file UNICOREpro_Client/.java.policy first into the directory where the configuration directory .unicore is created. On UNIX systems this will be $HOME, on Windows your user directory. If you have already a $HOME/.java.policy file due to another Java program you have to add the entries from UNICOREpro_Client/.java.policy. To enable the Java security manager you have to specify the corresponding system property:

java -Dcom.pallas.unicore.security.manager -jar client.jar

CAUTION: The use of the security manager will slow down the performance of the UNICOREpro Client.

Command line interface

A command line interface is available which can be used to submit stored jobs without starting the graphical user interface. It can be used after you have performed a first time installation and saved a job to disk. The syntax of the command line interface is:

java -jar client.jar -nogui -password <password> [-keystore <keystore>] [-jobs <job1#job2#...>]

Several jobs can be submitted with one command by separating them with a hash '#'. A job is executed on the Vsite which has been stored internally.

First time installation

Configuration directory

In case of a first time installation you will be informed that a directory '.unicorepro' with a sub-directory according to your login name will be generated in your HOME directory, i.e. $HOME/.unicorepro/$USER on a Unix system. On a Windows 2000 system "HOME" is identified with your USER directory in C:\Documents. However, the meaning of HOME depends on the Windows version, on a Win NT 4.0 system it will be your profile directory which is part of the Windows system directory.

The UNICOREpro Client will then generate your 'user defaults' file in the just created directory. Finally, the UNICOREpro client will start up with most menu items disabled until the security setup procedure has been passed. The text "UNICOREpro" should appear in the window's title bar and the lower left status information.

Plugins

A part of the client software is provided as plugins. The plugins will not be loaded before the security setup. The reason for this is that the plugins are signed by the certificate of the distributor and the certificate will be stored in the client keystore which does not exist before the security setup.

Log file

The client produces a lot of log information. In case of a first time installation the log information is automatically redirected to the file $HOME/.unicorepro/$USER/client.xml and the log format is XML. This may be set in the User Defaults menu to your preferences.

Client GUI

The client GUI has four essential parts:

The contents of the main window will change according to the actions you select with respect to the preparation or monitoring of jobs

The additional icons in the Job Preparation and Job Monitoring windows offer fast access to functionality of the related menus. Move your cursor over the icons to be informed by tool tips.




The icon in the left lower corner will inform you whether you are connected to any UNICOREpro site or not . In particular, this will indicate that you are working in offline mode.

Right from the connection icon you will always see the alias name of the certificate which you are using currently.

The status message field in the lower middle will keep you informed about what is going on in Client.

The status bar to the right will graphically show you the progress of certain operations.

In the lower right corner the memory usage is reported as the relation of used to currently allocated memory. If you move the mouse pointer over it, the maximal allocatable memory will be indicated. This is a JVM specific value which can be modified at start-up by a corresponding parameter option.