Register with the ALICE Virtual Organization

In order to register with WLCG and use JAliEn, each user must complete the following 4 steps:

Step 1: Cleanup old/expired certificates

If you have old or expired certificates and are registering a new one, make sure to follow these steps:

  1. Remove your old certificate from your browser. Most of the new certification authorities (CAs) install the new certificate directly in the browser from which you do the request;
  2. On the computer(s) you use to do 'alien-token-init from:
  • Remove the .pem files from $HOME/.globus. You will need to create new set with from your new certificate; 
  • Remove /tmp/x509up_* - these are temporaty proxy certificates created from the .pem keypair and may interfere with the new certificate.

     3. To create a new .pem keypair once you have your new certificate, follow the instructions published here

Step 2: Obtain a valid X509 certificate

To obtain a valid personal digital certificate (also known as PKI or X509 certificate), refer the Certificate instruction provided by WLCG.

Step 3: Load certificate into browser

Load your personal certificate into the browser (instructions may also be found here). Quite often, the procedure to obtain personal digital certificates from the Certification Authorities (CAs) includes automatic loading it into the browse. Make sure you don't have any leftover old certificates there (see step 1).

Step 4: Register your certificate in VOMS-Admin

NOTE: this step is only needed when you are a new user in ALICE or when you will need to use a new certificate with a different subject DN.

This step will only work if you have the certificate properly loaded in the browser.

The registration in the ALICE Virtual Organization (VO) now goes via the VOMS-Admin service which normally is available on either of these equivalent pages:

Try the second page if the first one seems to be unavailable.

Registration instructions

  1. Make sure your (correct) certificate is loaded in your browser. It must have a valid remaining lifetime.
  2. Go to a VOMS-Admin service page as explained above.
  3. Your CERN HR DB e-mail address should normally appear automatically. If not, you may try to supply it yourself, but the registration will most likely fail: the CERN HR DB then needs to be corrected first. In that case you need to contact the ALICE secretariat.
  4. Click the "Submit" button. If your record was found correctly, click the button "It's me".
  5. A new page appears with various fields whose contents have been copied from the HR DB. The fields with a grey background are read-only. You can correct your phone number and office location ("address"), but it would be best to have them corrected in the phonebook instead.
  6. Read the Acceptable Usage Policy (scroll down!), tick the confirmation box, then click Submit.
  7. You should then receive a confirmation e-mail: click on the confirmation link (the first link) in the message and the VO admin will be informed of your registration request.
  8. When the VO admin has taken the necessary actions, your registration will be confirmed via e-mail.