Getting-started

 

Log in to the Cluster

SSH for Unix/Linux

On most all Unix or Linux based systems, SSH is usually already installed. From a command prompt the syntax is:

[user@hpcc.williams.edu ~]$ ssh username@hpcc.williams.edu

This will connect to the remote computer using an encrypted connection.

It’ll give you a command prompt and allow you to execute commands.

SSH on Mac OS X

Mac OS already has SSH installed. Use the “Terminal” application found in Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal.app in the Finder.

 [user@mac ~]$ ssh username@hpcc.williams.edu

SSH on Windows

For Windows platforms, you generally need to install a “terminal” application that can set up an SSH connection. There are a few options but most commonly are Putty and Cygwin. Putty is more of a terminal type application whereas Cygwin is a windows based package manager that will install lots of different popular Unix program (that have been compiled to run on a PC).

Putty

PuTTY: a free SSH and Telnet client

Cygwin

Cygwin

Cygwin is:

a large collection of GNU and Open Source tools which provide functionality similar to a Linux distribution on Windows.
a DLL (cygwin1.dll) which provides substantial POSIX API functionality.

Please visit https://hpcc.williams.edu/ for more information on:

  • Submitting Jobs to the queue
  • Monitoring performance
  • Loading software
  • Slurm, Linux and Bash Shell command tutorials

Transfer files to a Cluster

You can transfer files between your local computer and the cluster using an FTP client, such as FileZilla, WinSCP. You will need to configure the client with your hpcc account as User, the cluster login node hpcc.williams.edu as Host. Set the Protocol to SFTP – SSH File Transfer Protocol. Here is an example configuration of FileZilla on Windows as shown below.

In addition to SFTP, the cluster also supports SSHFS (tutorial on how to use SSHFS to mount remote file systems), SCP and SMB protocol