[HTCondor-users] comments on installing Personal Condor

[Ian Cottam <Ian.Cottam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

Just some comments on installing Personal Condor...

I'll be helping with some Condor training towards the end of next month. It's likely that attendees will use Personal Condor. To that end, I have done installs of Personal Condor on macOS, Linux (Ubuntu 18) and Windows 10/64. Here are some observations from someone who hasn't done this for many years.

1. Linux and macOS were extremely simple: in part this is due to the option --make-personal-condor.
I found it in the manual under condor_annex, which a newbie might not find.
The Linux version I installed on my Windows 10 laptop under WSL2 (Windows Subsystem Linux 2 pre-release), where it works fine. I have both Linux and Windows Personal Condors on the same machine. (In fact the hardware is a MacBook Air, so I could put the macOS version on it too.)

2. Under Windows 10/64, with the msi file, there is equivalent to --make-personal-condor. I knew what answers to give the setup wizard, but again a newbie might not. It would be good if the first step was "Do you just want a Personal Condor setting up?".
About a decade ago I remember commenting that it was ironic that the easiest install of Condor was under Windows (when it is developed under Linux), perhaps not the case anymore - especially for Personal Condor.

3. It would be nice if dynamic slots were the default. Any reason why not, apart from history?

Keep up the great work!
-Ian
-- 
Ian Cottam  | Head of Research Software Engineering | Research IT  | B43 Sackville Street Building  | The University of Manchester  |  M13 9PL  | +44(0)161 306 1851