Accounts and Access¶
User Account¶
User accounts are created during the initial registration step in the UPEX portal. At this point the account can only be used for the UPEX itself. If the user account is associated to the accepted and scheduled proposal, then the account is upgraded 4 weeks before the first scheduled beamtime of the given user. For the first early user period, the time between the upgrade of the accounts and the start of the experiment can be shorter. The upgraded account allows the user to access additional services such as the online safety training, the metadata catalog, and the computing infrastructure of the European XFEL.
By default upgraded user accounts are kept in this state for 1 year after the user's last beamtime. An extension can be requested by the PI.
On-site guest WLAN (WiFi) is provided for all users. For those users with eduroam accounts provided by their home institute, access is straightforward. For those without eduroam account, a special registration procedure must be conducted to obtain guest access for the limited time period. After connecting to the XFEL-Guest network (also when using a network patch cable) and opening a web browser, the user will be able to register for the usage if guest network. The registration is valid for 10 days and 5 devices.
Before and During Your Beamtime¶
At different stages of the proposal, users are granted access to different services:
| Stage | Access provided | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Proposal submission | Access to User portal (UPEX) | |
| Approval of proposal and scheduling | Lightweight account | ca. 2 months before beam-time start |
| Preparation phase | Access to Metadata catalog and beamtime store filesystem. LDAP account upgraded for members of all accepted proposals. | First-time users: once A-form is submitted and accepted. Deadline for A-form submission is normally 4 weeks before beam-time start. |
| Beam time | Access to catalogs and dedicated online and offline services | |
| Data analysis | Access to catalogs and shared offline computing resources, initially limited to 1 year time period after beamtime. |
Importantly, first-time users should aim for a timely A-form submission. This ensures that they will have a time window of several weeks prior to the start of their beam-time when access to the Maxwell computing resources and the associated storage system (GPFS) is granted. An additional benefit of such access is that working with example data becomes possible, in order to get accustomed to the peculiarities of EuXFEL data and workflows.