Provide a template for "Dear admins - please install Singularity" email

[chrisgorgo]

This idea was originally suggested by @KirstieJane who is struggling with this issue currently. Even though I personally got Singularity installed at all systems I needed it I know there are other users having difficult conversations with the admins of their systems (@danlurie) so I decided to act as a messenger.

The idea would be to provide an email template or talking points for users to use when asking administrators to install Singularity on their systems. This could include:

• reference to other well known systems already supporting singularity
• discussion of security concerns and how the security of Singularity is being vetted

[danlurie]

+1 I’ve given up on getting Singularity running on our department cluster, but this would have been very useful back when I still had hope. I’d be happy to dig up the email I wrote to this effect. Dan Lurie @danjluriehttp://danlurie.org <http://www.danlurie.org/> On October 18, 2017 at 1:10:56 PM, Chris Filo Gorgolewski ( notifications@github.com) wrote: This idea was originally suggested by @KirstieJane <https://github.com/kirstiejane> who is struggling with this issue currently. Even though I personally got Singularity installed at all systems I needed it I know there are other users having difficult conversations with the admins of their systems (@danlurie <https://github.com/danlurie>) so I decided to act as a messenger. The idea would be to provide an email template or talking points for users to use when asking administrators to install Singularity on their systems. This could include: - reference to other well known systems already supporting singularity - discussion of security concerns and how the security of Singularity is being vetted — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#142>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AByUzwYRqgMnxbekvF8SkpomJITG7fWzks5stltPgaJpZM4P-SdV> .

[vsoch]

aw @danlurie that makes me so sad ;( Did you reach out to others for help?

Definitely if you have a draft it would be a good start. I might put too many ascii art if I come up with the first shot!

[danlurie]

@vsoch I did. I coordinated a lot with @chrisfilo and @jbpoline, as well as consultants at Berkeley Research Computing. The main sticking point was that our departmental cluster admin didn't feel comfortable allowing SUID applications running as root, and felt that the risk of data loss was too high even given the widespread use of Singularity of much larger systems. One thing to mention is that our departmental cluster is tied directly into our file server, so in theory a buggy/compromised program running as root could do serious damage to many years of data and analysis for multiple users.

I looked around and all of my arguments were spread across multiple emails. Essentially they focused on:

1. The future is containerized, and anyone who can't run containers is going to be left behind.
2. Singularity is used in many large, well respected institutional clusters.
3. Although there are theoretically security concerns about SUID programs, A) the Singularity team has made an excellent effort to address these concerns, and B) It comes down to a risk/reward calculation.

One thing that I thought would be convincing (but ultimately wasn't) was an email sent to the Singularity development team from a Security manager at a very large, internationally recognized European research center. The message was to congratulate the team on their work securing the Singularity code, and called it "one of the best code I've seen from a security point of view". I don't want to get any more specific here, but I'm happy to give more details offline. (The message was forwarded to me by someone at Berkeley Research Computing).

[vsoch]

hey @danlurie @chrisfilo !

This will definitely need the additions of @gmkurtzer @GodloveD , but I got us started on a general "guide" for those interested in asking for an installation:

http://singularity.lbl.gov/install-request

It's really just a condensed list of common resources, and a starting template email. I had started writing a section of question --> answers, but realized there would be a lot to write and we already had much of it in the FAQ page, so I chose that instead. For all - please provide feedback or pull request, whichever your preference.

@danlurie, I would be interested to see some of that correspondence. I'm one of the singularity developers (at least afaik, lol) and I searched my inbox and didn't find that particular email phrase. To the best of my knowledge, @gmkurtzer worked on this (mostly) on his own at Berkeley, and developers have been all of the place, so maybe the email was just routed to the wrong person / group.

Anyway, if this template can be a start to something helpful, I'm glad to get started on it! :)

[vsoch]

@gmkurtzer @danlurie @chrisfilo would you please review the template and provide feedback? When it meets your approval we can close this issue. Thanks!

[KirstieJane]

Hi @vsoch THANK YOU FOR THIS FANTASTIC RESOURCE!!

(and thank you so much @chrisfilo for passing on my request and @danlurie for providing your great feedback on this issue!)

Your page and the template email are absolutely spectacular - it's absolutely everything I was hoping for!

Maybe before we close the issue, I could send it to our systems administrator and see what happens? We aren't going to be able to make it one size fits all, but if it works for Cambridge Neuroscience, that seems like a pretty good test 😄

[vsoch]

Sounds good to me!

[gmkurtzer]

Just have to say....

I seriously, absolutely, completely, love this idea!

[KirstieJane]

@vsoch - email sent. It's 4pm on Friday so probably no reply until early next week (sorry I'm so behind with my emails!!) I'll update as soon as I hear anything 😄

[gmkurtzer]

Can't wait to hear how it goes @KirstieJane!

This is probably already on @vsoch's todo list, but I'd love to have this page linked in from our "How to install Singularity" pages, and also FAQ.

Thanks!

[vsoch]

I don't keep "todo" lists @gmkurtzer :)

[vsoch]

I just DO.

[GodloveD]

@vsoch's corporate sponsor.

[vsoch]

almost! More like:

[GodloveD]

Just do odle it!

[KirstieJane]

We could add the link to this sentence in the Quick Start guide:

This guide is intended for running Singularity on a computer where you have root (administrative) privileges. But if you are learning about Singularity on a system where you lack root privileges you can still complete the steps that do not require the sudo command.

to

This guide is intended for running Singularity on a computer where you have root (administrative) privileges. But if you are learning about Singularity on a system where you lack root privileges you can still complete the steps that do not require the sudo command (or check out our requesting an installation help page for information to send to your system administrator).

[vsoch]

Did somebody day dooooonut it?
🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩
Yes please!

[KirstieJane]

I’m on the train home and heading for a fireworks display 🎇🎆🌠🎆🎇, but I’ll put in a pull request on Monday. Thanks again ✨

[vsoch]

Ok! I've made the changes that you suggested, and it would be great to get feedback and tweaks when you chat with your group. Have fun at the fireworks!

[KirstieJane]

Hi - just a quick update. The Cambridge sysadmin (Stuart R) has already installed singularity on one of our high performance computing clusters, but we're waiting on authorisation from the person in charge of our neuroimaging server. I've sent Stuart a link to this thread to see if he has any comments, but basically this is a "there's no update" update because we haven't heard anything back form the neuroimaging lead. I've sent a chasing email today 😺.

[KirstieJane]

So sorry to not report back to this issue in so long!

The letter is great (I've just recommended it in a workshop that @chrisfilo is leading!) and it worked for us!

I see it here (https://singularity.lbl.gov/install-request), but I can't see it on the new website? Let me know if there's anything I can do to help move it over (or maybe it's been dropped for a reason?)