Virtual Organization of Belle II members

The virtual organization of Belle II members, called belle VO, is used by grid/web services to identify who is authorized to use them. Each person is identified by a personal certificate.

The instructions below explain how to get a personal grid certificate and become a member of the belle VO.

Note: If you are using a Mac it is strongly recommended to use Firefox instead of Safari for all steps below. If you are using Chrome you should make sure that the key generation feature is enabled (which is not by default) because some CAs use it to provide the certificate to you.

Get a personal certificate

Personal certificates are issues by the Certification Authority (CA) of your home institute that can verify your identity via your home institute. Each country has its own CA.

Go to the web page of the CA of your country and follow the procedure to get a personal certificate. (If that link does not work, see the list at the bottom of this page instead). The procedure is different for each CA. Consult the help page of the CA or ask a colleague from your country for help if you run into problems.

The procedure to get a certificate may take some time and may involve steps to prove your identity.

Import your certificate in your browser

Depending on the CA your certificate may be imported automatically in your browser when you get it from your CA.

If this is not the case you have to import it. You may find instructions at the web page of your CA. The CA at KEK also provides instructions for importing your certificate and for converting it to the PKCS (.p12) format if you obtain it in pem format from your CA.

Register as belle VO member

  1. Download the KEK GRID CA certificate file KEK-Grid-CA.cer and/or refer to the KEK GRID CA Web Repository.
  2. Import the downloaded file KEK-Grid-CA.cer to your web browser as a "Certificate Authority". The procedure is similar to the importing of the personal certificate, but select "Authorities" instead of "Your Certificates".
  3. Go to the VO management service page, click Registration (Phase I) and fill out the form.
  4. You will receive an email - click the confirmation link.
  5. Fill out and submit the Phase II form.
  6. Your request will be approved by an administrator who can confirm that you are a Belle II member and you will receive an email.

More details about certificates, e.g. how to renew them, can be found here.