4. Administering WebMapReduce on EC2

Once your cluster is set up, WebMapReduce should be available by visiting the master node in your web browser:

http://<ec2-public-hostname>/

Where ec2-public-hostname is the Public DNS name of the master node.

You should be prompted with a login screen with an option to register for a new account. This registration system is enabled by default, but can be disabled if you would like to create accounts manually as an administrator.

Before creating an account for yourself, you should change the password on the administrator account that is created by default.

4.1. Changing the administrator password

WebMapReduce grants special privileges to administrators. Administrators can create Public Datasets that other users can easily select as input for their jobs. Administrators are also allowed to add and remove user accounts and inspect the activity of other users through a special interface.

By default, an administrator account is created with the following credentials:

username: admin

password: admin

You should log in to the administration interface and change this password as soon as possible:

1. Visit WebMapReduce on your new cluster:

   http://<ec2-public-hostname>/

2. Log in using the credentials above.

3. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click the administration link. This will bring up the special administration interface.

4. Click on the Users link.

5. Click on the “admin” account in the list of users.

6. Under the Password box, find and click the link to the change password form.

7. Enter a new password in both boxes, and then click the Change Password button to save your changes.

Now that your password is changed, you can look through the rest of the administration site. It is fairly empty at this point, and some of its features are not particularly useful [1]. However, you should be aware that you can:

• Create and delete user accounts
• Change passwords
• Add, view, and modify Public Datasets and Saved Configurations. (This is possible in the main interface as well, although the administration site gives more advanced control).

When you are finished, you can return to the main interface by clicking on the word WebMapReduce in the site header.

Footnotes

[1]	The administration site is automatically generated by the Django web framework, which powers the WebMapReduce frontend.

4.2. Registering for an account

Next, try registering for a normal user account. Go back to the main site, and if you are still logged in, click log out in the top right. Then click log in to bring up the login screen.

1. Bring up the registration form by clicking register in the top right or Create an account next to the submit button on the login form.
2. Enter your account information (at least an email/username and password) and click Register. You should now be logged in to your new account.
3. Try logging in again by clicking logout, then login, and entering your email and password.

Notice that this registration system is fairly primitive, and it is open to anyone with access to the URL. This setup keeps configuration fairly simple, but you might decide that you want to disable this system and add user accounts manually through the administration site. If so, proceed to the next section.

4.3. Disabling registration

If you decide to disable registration:

1. Log in to the master instance via SSH (see Logging In)

2. Issue the following commands:

   ubuntu@<...>$ cd /opt/wmrfrontend
   ubuntu@<...>$ sudo su
   root@<...># echo "REGISTRATION_ENABLED=False" >> settings_local.py
   root@<...># apache2ctl restart
   root@<...># exit
   ubuntu@<...>$ exit
   

Now, if you visit WebMapReduce again and log out, you should see that there is no longer a “register” option in the upper left.

To add user accounts manually, proceed to the next section.

4.4. Adding accounts using the admin site

If you disable the registration form, you will have to manually add accounts for your users:

1. Log in (if you aren’t already) to the WebMapReduce administration site using the process described in Changing the administrator password.
2. From the main page of the Administration site, click the Users link.
3. Click the Add User button on the top right of the screen.
4. Enter a username and password for the new user.
5. Click Save (or Save and add another).

Back on the user listing page, you can click on the account(s) you just created to add any additional details.