Toolserver:User servers

User servers are servers into which Toolserver users can log. The Toolserver has two kinds of user servers: login servers for running non-web tools, and web servers, which run web-based tools (PHP, CGI, ...).

Web servers are accessible to users to aid in debugging web tools, viewing logs, etc., but should not be used to run non-web tools (e.g. bots). Login servers are used for all other tools. To access either kind of user server, you should log in using SSH.

There are currently four users servers, of which two are login servers and two are web servers:


 * nightshade.toolserver.org: original login server (Linux)
 * willow.toolserver.org: new login server (Solaris)
 * wolfsbane.toolserver.org: web server (Solaris)
 * ortelius.toolserver.org: web server (Solaris)

Users' home directories (/home) are shared between all servers, so your files will be accessible from anywhere.

Currently, the two login servers run different operating systems, but this will change on January 3rd, 2011, when nightshade will be converted to Solaris (more details). We recommend that you write tools which work on both Linux and Solaris, so that you can run them on either server, and will not have to make any changes when nightshade is reinstalled. However, if that's not possible, we recommend writing tools to run on Solaris.

Other than operating system, there is no difference between the two login servers, and it doesn't matter which server you run your tools on. If you use batch job scheduling to run tools, they will automatically be started on a suitable server.

Previously users were encouraged to use the alias login.toolserver.org. This has been deprecated.