Day 1 CheckList

Welcome to Mu2e!

This page describes ideas, tools and services that you should learn about on your first day working on Mu2e. This includes learning how to work safely. You don't need to follow every link on this page on your first day but you should read through the page to get an overview of what information is available and can make plans to follow up. We do recommend that on Day 1 your follow the links in the section #Communications and Collaborative Tools. This page covers also some jargon and logistics that you will need to know in order to work effectively. It concludes with some suggestions for your next steps.

What Are Fermilab Users and Affiliates?

This means all of the people working at the lab who are not employees or contractors. This includes all of the people working on Mu2e who are from one of our collaborating universiites or labs.

Fermilab Safety Training

Mu2e, Fermilab and the Department of Energy want you to be safe while doing your work at Fermilab. To teach you how to work safely, Fermilab has designed a series of safety training courses that we are required to take, including employees, contractors, Users and Affiliates. Please read about the RequiredTraining courses and, if you have not yet done so, sign up to take them.

Computer Accounts

You have two distinct computing accounts, your kerberos account that is used to log into computers and your services account, also called Single Sign On (SSO), that is used to access web based services. Both accounts have the same username, which is referred to as your "kerberos principal". You were asked to create distinct passwords for these accounts. Be aware of which password is needed where.

The passwords on your accounts expire periodically. Watch for email messages telling you that your passwords will soon expire; these emails contain instructions on how to renew your password. To reset an expired psssword you need to contact the ServiceDesk desk and arrange a meeeting, either in person or via zoom, during regular business hours, US Central time; you will need show some identification before they will reset your password.

There are other sorts of authentication that you may, or may not, need to use for your work at Fermilab. This is beyond the scope of this Day 1 exercise. If want to look ahead, see Authentication.

Communications and Collaborative Tools

Read the page Communications_and_Collaborative_Tools. Then:

• Check if you are on the mu2emailing list Communications_and_Collaborative_Tools#Listserv_Mailing_Lists; if you are not, then request to be added.
• Join slack and hypernews and sign up for channels/forums of interest to you; you are welcome on all of them.
• Speak with others in your working groups to learn other channels, forums and listserv lists you should sign up for.
• Verify that you can access, DocDB, the internal wiki and the internal web site. These use your SSO password.

Fermilab Online Phone Book

Fermilab maintains an [online phone book] that contains information for all current Fermilab employees, Users, Affiliates and contractors. This is also linked from the [Mu2e@Work web page]. Some information is only shown if your computing is on a lab network or on Fermilab VPN.

Service Desk

The Fermilab Service Desk is the way to request help for services and equipment that are provided by Fermilab. When you do the Mu2e computing tutorials you will be told where to ask questions about Mu2e computing and software.

Check your Fermilab Email Forwarding

All Fermilab Users and Affiliates have email forwarding setup by the lab: email sent to your_kerberos_principal@fnal.gov is configured to forward to the email address that you used to sign up for your Fermilab ID. If you stop reading email at that email address, you need to open a Service Desk ticket to request that the the email forwarding be redirected to your new email address.

Since 2022 this email forwarding is fragile. It is guaranteed to work only for email from Fermilab employees and for email generated by Fermilab services, such as reports that a grid job has completed. In practice is continues to work for email from most other senders but the rules for when it will fail are complex and time dependent. So we recommend that people who wish to contact you should send email to your email address at your home institution or another preferred email address, such as gmail.

Mu2e Computers

If you will be using the Mu2e interactive computers, check that you can log in and open an xterm back to your local computer; see LoginTutorial. This login in needs your kerberos password.

Electronic Control Room Log Book (ECL)

Check with the people with whom you will be working to learn if you need an ECL account. If you do, follow the instructions at ECL to apply for one.

Young Mu2e

Learn about Young Mu2e. If you are “young”, please join.

INSPIRE and ORCID

If you have not already done so, get an ORCID and claim your INSPIRE profile. See Communications_and_Collaborative_Tools#INSPIRE_and_ORCID.

Make a note to yourself to check your entry in the Mu2e Collaboration List about a month after the next collaboration meeting (the list is updated a few weeks after each meeting). Contact the IB chair to correct information or to add missing information.

Get Started

There is a lot of material on the Mu2e wiki. Our advice is that the first time through you should skim it to learn the big ideas and know where to look up details. As you work, look up the details as you need them. We suggest that you start at the Mu2e wiki Main_Page and drill down. You can also go directly to the ComputingTutorials.