Access

Access to all the systems requires Password Authentication or Public Key Authentication. By default, both options are enable, however, is recommended to use Public Key Authentication. The standard and recommneded method to access is by Secure Shell (SSH). In addition, SSH also includes support for the file transfers utilities scp and sftp. Wikipedia is a good source of information on SSH.

However, you can also access a graphical user interface (GUI) by using the NoMachine app. Keep in mind that GUI sessions requires to start at least 100MB and to run from 100MB to 300MB depending on the applications used. There are many advantages to use NoMachine, specially if you are not familiar with the Linux Bash commands and terminal. Drag and drop of files is enabled to transfer from your local session to the login node.

Caution

GUI sessions uses x20 times more resources than a non-GUI session. Use it wisely. This is a feature in testing stage and subject to changes. In addition GUI session is not available in the Compute Nodes.

Before you can connect to the server, make sure you are connected to the UTSA Student or Staff Network if you are on campus. However, if you are not located within the UTSA installations, you will need to use the UTSA VPN in order for you to reach the login-node. A good tutorial and information about UTSA VPN is located in this link.

Note

Avoid using the UTSA Guest Wi-Fi since you are not going to be able to reach to the login node. Use the UTSA Student or Staff Wi-Fi.

Once you are connected to UTSA Network, you should be able to reach the Login-node (you can test it with the command ping 10.3.12.42).

To open a SSH session, you can use the command ssh <username>@10.3.12.42 to login using password authentication replacing the <> with your username. In addition you can use public key authentication by appending -i <relative path to private key> to the previous command.

If you want to use a GUI session using NoMachine, verify the NoMachine is installed and running in your local PC. You can download the latest version in this link. Your credentials should correspond to the username and the password provided in addition to the IP of the Login-node. Once you are logged in, you are going to be presented with a XFCE desktop. For more information about XFCE, see this link.

Use the “ssh” command to connect to the server. Access SSH from your system’s terminal. If you are using Windows, a SSH client that supports the SSH-2 protocol is needed.

Access the server with the following login command: