Python for Bioinformatics: XgridLite and more on passwords

Saturday, November 7, 2009

XgridLite and more on passwords

XgridLite is available here. It is a preference pane or plug-in for System Prefs.

We'll use it to change the passwords that the controller requires from the client and agent. The client-controller password is in:

/etc/xgrid/controller/client-password

I changed it to 'abcd' using XgridLite.

Let's see what we have:

sudo cp /etc/xgrid/controller/client-password ~/Desktop/clientpw

use the Finder getInfo to change permissions on the file.

run the pw.script.py from yesterday on it

         6   1   6   2   6   3   6   4
abcd: 01100001011000100110001101100100
 key: 01111101100010010101001000100011
file: 00011100111010110011000101000111

That looks right. What's in the file is an XOR of the key and 'abcd'.

xgrid -h localhost -p abcd -job run /usr/bin/cal

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It works! So, I guess I just screwed it when I tried it yesterday. Now, go back to XgridLite and change the agent-controller password to 'wxyz'.

sudo cp /etc/xgrid/controller/agent-password ~/Desktop/agentpw

change permissions and examine it:

         7   7   7   8   7   9   7   a
wxyz: 01110111011110000111100101111010
 key: 01111101100010010101001000100011
file: 00001010111100010010101101011001

That looks right.

sudo xgridctl c status

daemon                  state                   pid                     
======                  =====                   ===                     
xgridcontrollerd        running | enabled       1747

Different pid as expected, since we told XgridLite to restart the controller in order to make the password change effective:

xgrid -h localhost -p abcd -job run /usr/bin/cal

And it hangs... Go back to XgridLite and change the agent password back to 'mypw'. It still hangs...

sudo xgridctl c status

daemon                  state                   pid                     
======                  =====                   ===                     
xgridcontrollerd        running | enabled       1935

Grab a text copy of the manual (without repeats of some characters---what is that about?)

man xgrid | col -bx > ~/Desktop/man.txt

xgrid -h localhost -p abcd -grid list

{
    gridList =     (
        0
    );
}

xgrid -h localhost -p abcd -grid attributes -gid 0

{
    gridAttributes =     {
        gridMegahertz = 0;
        isDefault = YES;
        name = Xgrid;
    };
}

That looks like we are hooked up properly...

Try cp:

sudo cp /etc/xgrid/agent/controller-password \
/etc/xgrid/controller/agent-password

And now it works.

xgrid -h localhost -p abcd -job run /usr/bin/cal

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XgridLite is described as open-source. I'll have to grab a copy of the source and figure out what it's about. In any event, the most likely explanation seems to be that the controller should provide the agent-password to the agent, and it is either not doing that, or the agent is improperly using the password it requires, when it authenticates with the controller. Just a guess.

However, that doesn't explain why the reset using XgridLite failed. But perhaps I screwed up (<sigh> again).