Computing accounts, data access and analysis etc

Please find some useful information about the tools for data access and analysis mainly - but not only - for our photon science facilities.

In particular for new users of the PSI facilities sometimes the denomination and function of the various computing accounts might be somewhat puzzling. Below we try to shed some light on this and to explain the different terms: 

The Digital User Office DUO is the central web tool of the PSI User Office to administrate the user operation. Per DUO you can submit proposals, experimental reports or order a badge and a room in the guesthouse for your next stay at PSI. In short: DUO helps you to manage your user activities at PSI. 

To enter the system you can create a local DUO account, alternatively you can use DUO with your existing Umbrella account or PSI account. 

PSI staff members do obtain a full PSI account including a PSI email address (firstname.lastname@psi.ch) and access to the PSI Intranet. PSI accounts may also be coupled with DUO accounts such that PSI staff do not need to remember a local DUO account. 

For many different purposes (e.g. data access) our external users do need a temporary PSI account. Those account names contain the string "-ext" and are called ext-accounts. To request such an account you should send an email to your beamline manager indicating your DUO account name. The ext-accounts may also be used for DUO login. ext-accounts do have a limited lifetime but may be re-activated again at a later stage e.g. for your next experiment.

In short: ext-accounts are temporary PSI accounts with limited functions for our external users.

Please note: PSI accounts are always personal accounts. Password sharing between different people is not allowed.

umbrellaID is the federated identity system for the users of the (European) neutron and photon facilities. The direct advantage of the umbrellaID environment and the umbrella account for the user is that he/she has only one account for all partner facilities and once logged in he/she can access the services at these partner facilities without a need for a new identification (Single Sign On).

More and more services at the various facilities such as PSI DUO are already or will be attached to umbrellaID in the future.

p-groups are lists with PSI or ext-accounts that are used to distribute access rights (e.g. data access). p-groups (e.g. "p16234") can be maintained and modified by each main proposer (for her/his particular proposal) or by the respective beamline manager. At the photon science facilities (SLS/SwissFEL) p-groups are created together with the invitation email after scheduling the beam time.

They also determine the access rights to measured data in the PSI Data catalogue during the Embargo period.

The neutron and muon facilities  intend to make use of p-groups as well as soon as the SINQ/SμS data are part of the data catalogue (ongoing project).

At PSI e-accounts are used at SLS only. e-accounts are (non-personal) group accounts (e.g. "e17111") that allow to access certain computers and directories during and after the experiment. As p-groups they are also created per default for each experiment and do have a limited lifetime. Beamline managers are able to administrate e-accounts and extend their lifetime if necessary.