{"id":23,"date":"2026-10-08T17:17:57","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T17:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hep.wisc.edu\/cms-comp\/?page_id=23"},"modified":"2026-10-12T15:29:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T15:29:22","slug":"accounts","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.hep.wisc.edu\/cms-comp\/userdoc\/accounts\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Started &amp; Setting up Account at Wisconsin"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 class=\"wp-block-post-title\">Getting Started &amp; Setting up Account at Wisconsin<\/h1>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-contrast-light-background-color has-background is-layout-flow wp-container-core-group-is-layout-200b7975 wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\" style=\"border-radius:0.5rem;padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);box-shadow:none\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-default has-large-font-size\">On this page<\/h2>\n\n\n<ul style=\"grid-template-columns:1fr 1fr\" class=\"group-of-links-spacing-condensed wp-block-uw-blocks-group-of-links\"  >\n\t\t\n\n<li class=\"wp-block-uw-blocks-uw-link\">\n\t<a target=\"_self\"\n\t href=\"#cern\">\n\t\t<span class=\"uw-link-text-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"uw-link-text\">CERN Account<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"wp-block-uw-blocks-uw-link\">\n\t<a target=\"_self\"\n\t href=\"#hep-wisc\">\n\t\t<span class=\"uw-link-text-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"uw-link-text\">Wisconsin account<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"wp-block-uw-blocks-uw-link\">\n\t<a target=\"_self\"\n\t href=\"#grid-cert\">\n\t\t<span class=\"uw-link-text-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"uw-link-text\">Grid Certificate<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"wp-block-uw-blocks-uw-link\">\n\t<a target=\"_self\"\n\t href=\"#cms-vo\">\n\t\t<span class=\"uw-link-text-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"uw-link-text\">CMS Virtual Organization (VO)<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n<\/li>\n\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignfull has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These are the steps for getting getting an account on Wisconsin computers and getting credentials so that you may run jobs on many computers<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<h1 id=\"cern\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">CERN Account<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To join CMS and get a CERN computing account, fill out this <a href=\"https:\/\/cms.cern.ch\/iCMS\/user\/registration\">registration form<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The form will be sent for approval to your faculty advisor and then approved by the CMS Secretariat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Then follow these instructions: <a href=\"https:\/\/cms-secretariat.web.cern.ch\/cms-computing-account\">CMS computing account<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here is more information about <a href=\"https:\/\/twiki.cern.ch\/twiki\/bin\/view\/CMSPublic\/WorkBookGetAccount\">CERN computing accounts<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<h1 id=\"hep-wisc\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">hep.wisc.edu Account<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Email <a href=\"mailto:help@hep.wisc.edu\">help@hep.wisc.edu<\/a> to get a hep.wisc.edu account on Wisconsin machines. Include your CERN user name. Then<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>ssh login.hep.wisc.edu\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and type the command<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>kpasswd\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">to change your password.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<h1 id=\"fermilab\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Fermilab Account<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To get a computing account at Fermilab, follow these <a href=\"https:\/\/uscms.org\/uscms_at_work\/computing\/getstarted\/index.shtml\">instructions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<h1 id=\"grid-cert\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Grid Certificate<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A grid certificate gives you authorization to run jobs on many computers in the world-wide LHC Computing Grid and to access files stored in CMS storage elements, such as the HDFS system in Wisconsin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To get a certificate, you must be a registered user at CERN for the CMS experiment and should have a valid CERN email address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To get a grid certificate:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>On the <a href=\"https:\/\/ca.cern.ch\/ca\/\">CERN Certification Authority page<\/a>, under \u201cGrid Certificates\u201d, click on <a href=\"https:\/\/ca.cern.ch\/ca\/user\/Request.aspx?template=EE2User\">New Grid User certificate<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Enter the requested information and download the new certificate. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Import the certificate into your browser by following <a href=\"https:\/\/ca.cern.ch\/ca\/Help\/?kbid=040111\">instructions for your browser<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Copy the certificate file to one of the login machines. If your computer has the \u2018scp\u2019 command (available under windows via cygwin), you could do it like this: <code>scp mycert.p12 username@login.hep.wisc.edu:private\/mycert.p12<\/code><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Now, ssh to login.hep.wisc.edu and enter the following commands. The openssl commands will prompt for passwords, so don\u2019t paste all the commands at once.<br><code>mkdir -p ~\/.globus<\/code><br><code>mkdir -p ~\/.globus\/private<\/code><br><code>chmod 700 ~\/.globus\/private\/<\/code><br><code><br>if pwd | grep -q ^\/afs; then fs setacl -dir ~\/.globus\/private -acl $USER rlidkwa -clear; fi<br><br>ln -fs ~\/.globus\/private\/userkey.pem ~\/.globus\/userkey.pem<br>openssl pkcs12 -in ~\/private\/mycert.p12 -clcerts -nokeys -out ~\/.globus\/usercert.pem<br>openssl pkcs12 -in ~\/private\/mycert.p12 -nocerts -out ~\/.globus\/private\/userkey.pem<\/code><br><code><br>chmod 0600 ~\/.globus\/private\/userkey.pem<br>chmod 640 ~\/.globus\/usercert.pem<br>rm ~\/private\/mycert.p12<\/code><br><br>When prompted for a PEM pass phrase, enter a password to use to encrypt your private key. You must use this password in the future whenever you run a command that needs access to the private key.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Verify that your grid certificate is installed correctly, type at the command prompt: <code>voms-proxy-init<\/code> The output should ask you for your password and will look like:<br><code>Enter GRID pass phrase:<\/code><br><code>Your identity: \/DC=ch\/DC=cern\/OU=Organic Units\/OU=Users\/CN=mohapatr\/CN=659205\/CN=Ajit Kumar Mohapatra Creating proxy ................... Done Your proxy is valid until Sat May 3 03:55:56 2025<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>You are <em>not<\/em> done yet!<\/strong> Getting a grid certificate only gives you an identity. It doesn\u2019t automatically register that certificate as a recognized member of the CMS Virtual Organization (VO), unless it\u2019s issued by CERN. To verify the validity of your CMS VO membership, please follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hep.wisc.edu\/cms\/comp\/accountSetup.html#cms_vo\">register your certificate<\/a>. Once verified, please send your certificate identity name (the output of the \u201cvoms-proxy-info -identity\u201d command) i.e.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>voms-proxy-info -identity \n\n\/DC=ch\/DC=cern\/OU=Organic Units\/OU=Users\/CN=mohapatr\/CN=659205\/CN=Ajit Kumar Mohapatra<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">to <a href=\"mailto:help@hep.wisc.edu\">help@hep.wisc.edu<\/a> to get your certificate mapped to your account in the hep.wisc.edu storage system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A \u201cvoms proxy\u201d is simply a temporary identity that is signed by your grid certificate. Various grid commands use this proxy to identify you to grid services. Using <code>voms-proxy-info<\/code> you can see how much time is left on your proxy. Once the time runs out, you need to renew the proxy with <code>voms-proxy-init<\/code> in order to continue using it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>NOTE<\/strong> : Certificates expire in a year, you will be emailed a reminder a month before your certificate expires. See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hep.wisc.edu\/cms\/comp\/accountSetup.html#renewing_cert\">Renewing Your Grid Certificate<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<h1 id=\"cms-vo\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">CMS Virtual Organization<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you are a valid CMS member with a CERN computer account you are automatically registered in CMS Virtual Organization (VO) with the CERN certificate corresponding to your CERN primary account (almost all people have only one account and do not need to care what primary means).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a new user you need to sign the Grid Acceptable Usage Policy (AUP), and to sign it again every year. If you have not done it or your signature expired, when you do \u201c<em>voms-proxy-init -voms cms<\/em>\u201d you will see this message : \u201c<em>User \u2026 needs to sign AUP for this organization in order to proceed<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To sign the Grid AUP (and to verify your CMS VO membership) use your browser to visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/cms-auth.cern.ch\">cms-auth<\/a> server (a.k.a. CMS IAM server) and login using CERN\u2019s SSO. Here are more detailed instructions from the \u201cHow to get access to WLCG\u201d twiki page for <a href=\"https:\/\/twiki.cern.ch\/twiki\/bin\/view\/CMSPublic\/SWGuideLcgAccess?redirectedfrom=CMS.SWGuideLcgAccess#How_to_register_in_the_CMS_VO\">registering in the CMS VO<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With a valid CMS VO membership, you should be able to start using your grid certificate to access various CMS grid services with a CMS voms proxy. Please see instructions below on how to create a CMS voms proxy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you need to write files to the Wisconsin storage cluster, then you must perform another step. Do the voms-proxy-init command as mentioned above and then do voms-proxy-info. Copy the output of that command and paste it in an email to <a href=\"mailto:help@hep.wisc.edu\">help@hep.wisc.edu<\/a> to request HDFS access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Using your certificate<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To create a CMS voms proxy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Log into lxplus or one of the HEP login servers: ssh login.hep.wisc.edu<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Run voms-proxy-init:<br><code>voms-proxy-init -rfc -valid 144:00 -voms cms<\/code><br><code>Enter GRID pass phrase:<\/code><br><code>Your identity: \/DC=ch\/DC=cern\/OU=Organic Units\/OU=Users\/CN=mohapatr\/CN=659205\/CN=Ajit Kumar Mohapatra<\/code><br><code>Creating temporary proxy ...............<\/code> <code>Done<\/code><br><code>Contacting voms-cms-auth.cern.ch:443 [\/DC=ch\/DC=cern\/OU=computers\/CN=cms-auth.cern.ch] \"cms\" Done<\/code><br><code>Creating proxy ........................ Done<\/code><br><code>Your proxy is valid until Thu May 8 16:12:59 2025<\/code><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>To check your proxy:<br><code>voms-proxy-info -all<\/code><br><code>subject : \/DC=ch\/DC=cern\/OU=Organic Units\/OU=Users\/CN=mohapatr\/CN=659205\/CN=Ajit Kumar Mohapatra\/CN=136360294<\/code><br><code>issuer : \/DC=ch\/DC=cern\/OU=Organic Units\/OU=Users\/CN=mohapatr\/CN=659205\/CN=Ajit Kumar Mohapatra<\/code><br><code>identity : \/DC=ch\/DC=cern\/OU=Organic Units\/OU=Users\/CN=mohapatr\/CN=659205\/CN=Ajit Kumar Mohapatra<\/code><br><code>type : RFC compliant proxy<\/code><br><code>strength : 2048 bits<\/code><br><code>path : \/tmp\/x509up_u10032<\/code><br><code>timeleft : 143:59:35<\/code><br><code>key usage : Digital Signature, Key Encipherment === VO cms extension information === VO : cms subject : \/DC=ch\/DC=cern\/OU=Organic Units\/OU=Users\/CN=mohapatr\/CN=659205\/CN=Ajit Kumar Mohapatra<\/code><br><code>issuer : \/DC=ch\/DC=cern\/OU=computers\/CN=cms-auth.cern.ch <\/code><br><code>attribute : \/cms\/Role=NULL\/Capability=NULL<\/code><br><code>attribute : \/cms\/compute\/Role=NULL\/Capability=NULL<\/code><br><code>attribute : \/cms\/compute\/scope\/Role=NULL\/Capability=NULL <\/code><br><code>attribute : \/cms\/country\/Role=NULL\/Capability=NULL<\/code><br><code>attribute : \/cms\/country\/us\/Role=NULL\/Capability=NULL<\/code><br><code>attribute : \/cms\/uscms\/Role=NULL\/Capability=NULL<\/code><br><code>timeleft : 143:59:35<\/code><br><code>uri : voms-cms-auth.cern.ch:15000<\/code><br><br>Note that your grid proxy is valid for the time given by the \u201c-valid\u201d parameter. In this example, the period is 144 hours (6 days). If your jobs have to continue running past the expiration time, you will need to renew your proxy before the time runs out.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Renewing Your Grid Certificate<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To renew a CERN grid certificate:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the <a href=\"https:\/\/ca.cern.ch\/ca\/\">CERN Certification Authority page<\/a>, under \u201cTools &amp; Downloads\u201d, \u201cMy Certificates\u201d, click on <a href=\"https:\/\/ca.cern.ch\/ca\/user\/MyCertificates.aspx\">My User certificates<\/a>. Click on <a href=\"https:\/\/ca.cern.ch\/ca\/user\/Request.aspx?template=ee2user\">New Grid User Certificate<\/a>. Follow the instructions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Once the new certificate has been generated, you need to download it, import it into your browser, and put the new certificate in your .globus directory. The procedure is the same as when you first got a new certificate. See <a href=\"#grid-cert\">Grid Certificate<\/a> instructions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When you follow the above procedure and create a new certificate before the old one expires, you DO NOT need to reregister with the CMS VO, because your certificate name is unchanged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Need Help ?<\/strong> Please contact <a href=\"mailto:help@hep.wisc.edu\">help@hep.wisc.edu<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On this page These are the steps for getting getting an account on Wisconsin computers and getting credentials so that you may run jobs on many computers CERN Account To join CMS and get a CERN computing account, fill out this registration form. The form will be sent for approval to your faculty advisor and &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":27,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_uw_migration_status":"in-progress","_uw_gutenberg_post_content_before_migration":"","_uw_seo_meta_title":"","_uw_seo_meta_description":"","_uw_seo_twitter_card_type":"summary_large_image","_uw_seo_meta_image":"","_uw_seo_meta_image_url":"","_uw_seo_meta_image_sizes":[],"_uw_seo_custom_meta_tags":[],"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-23","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hep.wisc.edu\/cms-comp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hep.wisc.edu\/cms-comp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hep.wisc.edu\/cms-comp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hep.wisc.edu\/cms-comp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hep.wisc.edu\/cms-comp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.hep.wisc.edu\/cms-comp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120,"href":"https:\/\/www.hep.wisc.edu\/cms-comp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23\/revisions\/120"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hep.wisc.edu\/cms-comp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hep.wisc.edu\/cms-comp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}