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When you want to run Docker containers on the Fidis/Gacrux cluster

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clusters.

What is Shifter ?

Shifer allows to use Docker images in a shared computing environment in userland. It converts the docker image to the squashfs format that can be mounted and chrooted into as a user.

The SCITAS filesystems are also mounted inside the image so you can easily access your data. Please note that if your image has some files in /home there will not appear in the image and will be hidden.

Authentication

You can use public images without being authenticated (shifterimg login) in the following cases:

When using authentication, it's relative to the source you want to use (Dockerhub and c4science registry supported) and the authentication is saved per cluster.

You need to ask for an account on the c4science registry, see Account request.

NOTE: By defaut, shiterimg is pulling from c4science registry, you have to specify registry-1.docker.io/library/alpine:latest for Dockerhub

Upload an image to Shifter from Dockerhub using the registry.c4science.ch (preferred)

1. Get a docker image from dockerhub Dockerhub for instance (From local computer)

   Code Block
   theme Midnight
   $ docker pull alpine:latest $ docker images

   Account on the c4science registry
   Request an account

   
   

2. Change your password on https://registry.c4science.ch
   Set up your machine (From local computer)

   Login on the registry from your local Docker installation (you need an account, see Account request)

   Code Block
   theme Midnight
   $ docker login registry.c4science.ch Username (username): username Password: Login Succeeded

   
   

3. Upload a Docker image to the registry (From local computer)

   • On the web interface, create a Project on the registry (private or public)

   • Tag the image you want to upload on your local machine and push it to the registry
     NOTE: Do not use the `-` character in the tag name, only letters, numbers and underscore

     Code Block
     theme Midnight
     $ docker tag alpine:latest registry.c4science.ch/yourproject/alpine:latest $ docker push registry.c4science.ch/yourproject/alpine:latest

     
     

4. Pull an image on Shifter and specify a user or group ACL (From cluster login node)
   
   

   • From a each cluster frontend (i.e.: fidis.epfl.ch), login to the registry, pull the image and check it's was pulled OKwith success.

     Code Block
     theme Midnight
     $ shifterimg login default username: <username> default password: $ shifterimg pull yourproject/alpine:latest $ shifterimg images tcm docker READY 9797e5e798 2018-03-15T16:00:59 yourproject/alpine:latest

     
     

   • You can specify one or multiple (separated by a comma) LDAP username and/or group so the image is only available to those people

     Code Block
     theme Midnight
     $ id $ shifterimg --group scitas-ge --user aubort,user2 pull yourproject/alpin

     
     

   • To update the user/group ACL you can re-run the pull command
   • The images are unique for each cluster (deneb, fidis, helvetios, izar)

   • To view the full info about the images (warning: JSON):

     Code Block
     theme Midnight collapse true
     $ shifterimg -v images Message: { "list": [ { "ENTRY": null, "ENV": [ "PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin" ], "WORKDIR": "MISSING", "groupACL": [], "id": "9797e5e798a034d53525968de25bd25c913e7bb17c6d068ebc778cb33e3ff6e5", "itype": "docker", "last_pull": 1536842228.15727, "status": "READY", "status_message": "", "system": "fdata2-int.fidis", "tag": [ "scitas/alpine:latest" ], "userACL": [] }, [...]

     
     

Upload an image directly from Dockerhub to Shifter

Optional (needed for private images only)

$ shifterimg login registry-1.docker.io

Get the image from Dockerhub by specifying the image account (optional for official image) and name

$ shifterimg pull registry-1.docker.io/alpine:latest
# OR
$ shifterimg pull registry-1.docker.io/library/alpine:latest

$ shifterimg images
fidis      docker     READY    4a28aef4f8   2020-10-16T14:52:41 registry-1.docker.io/alpine:latest
fidis      docker     READY    d0877b767c   2020-09-16T15:26:31 registry-1.docker.io/library/busybox:latest

$ srun --pty -p debug -N 1 shifter --image registry-1.docker.io/alpine:latest /bin/sh
~ $ cat /etc/alpine-release 
3.12.0

Run the image on the clusters

You can submit the following Slurm script with the sbatch command

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FEEDBACK is welcome as this feature is experimental.

Anchor
Account_c4science_registry Account_c4science_registry

Account on the c4science registry

• Request an account
• Change your password on https://registry.c4science.ch

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