SSH Client
The most important software to connect to HPC systems is the Secure Shell (SSH) client.
Windows
If you are already on Windows 10, you may already have ssh
included in your OS.
Windows users now have multiple options to choose from.
Putty is the easiest software for new users to get started.
More advanced users are recommended to use MobaXTerm.
Native SSH client (Windows 10 and later)
To access the ssh client in your own machine,
please launch the command prompt
(Press Win+R, type cmd,
then Enter).
Once the command prompt appear, type ssh and
press Enter.
If a message that starts with something like:
usage: ssh [-1246AaCfgKkMNnqsTtVvXxYy] [-b bind_address] ...
appears, then you can use this SSH client and not install anything!
PuTTY SSH client
For Windows, the easiest client to use is PuTTY, which can be downloaded from the following link: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/. There is an installer version and single executable version of the program. Installer version is recommended to get the complete suitable available at your fingertips. If you do not have an admin right to install programs on the computer, then please download the individual “putty.exe” file. (For file transfer, you will also want “pscp.exe”.) Save the executable file(s) on a location that’s easy to access, such as your Desktop.
PuTTY manual page: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/docs.html. Useful reference to know all the features of the program, and contains guidance to troubleshooting.
MobaXTerm
There is a more powerful remote access program that you can also use on Windows, named MobaXterm. The Home edition is sufficiently good for most people: https://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/download-home-edition.html. MobaXTerm is more than just an SSH client! It also include X11 display server (to display remote applications via X11 protocol), remote desktop client, and even a local UNIX-like environment via Cygwin.
When installing newer versions MobaXTerm (around version 12 or so),
please also download the CygUtils.plugin from
the Plugins download page
so that you can have local UNIX shell environment.
Later you may find it helpful to have the ability to operate
in a UNIX-like environment even on Windows.
Mac OS X and Linux
Mac OS X and Linux computers already have openssh installed.
To test, open your terminal and type ssh.
The command should return a help message like this:
usage: ssh [-1246AaCfgKkMNnqsTtVvXxYy] [-b bind_address] [-c cipher_spec]
[-D [bind_address:]port] [-e escape_char] [-F configfile]
[-I pkcs11] [-i identity_file]
[-L [bind_address:]port:host:hostport]
[-l login_name] [-m mac_spec] [-O ctl_cmd] [-o option] [-p port]
[-R [bind_address:]port:host:hostport] [-S ctl_path]
[-W host:port] [-w local_tun[:remote_tun]]
[user@]hostname [command]
Hands-On Files (Optional)
Your instructor may ask you to download the hands-on packages from the following web address:
(Independent learners also need to download this file in order to perform the hands-on exercises.)
We recommend that you create a folder called CItraining in your home directory,
After downloading, unzip the file above to the CItraining folder.
This process will create a subfolder called module-hpc inside CItraining.
If all is well, inside module-hpc you should see folders like
results, Spam_bash, and Unix, and possibly others.