Dartmouth Research Computing & Data (RCD)

Logging into the Cluster

2 min read • 260 words

Using SSH

For logging into and executing commands on a remote machine, we use the SSH client ssh.

Note

To be able to log into the Research Computing systems, you must be on the Dartmouth network. This includes being on-campus wifi (Dartmouth Secure) or on VPN if coming from off-campus.

On OSX machines, this client is available using the Terminal application. On Windows machines, we can use the MobaXTerm application to start ssh sessions.

There are a couple of tools that are available on both platforms:

Secure shell extension for Chrome

This option allows you to open a ssh session without having to install any software on your machine.

FastX This option is an ssh client that renders graphical output from remote Unix/Linux servers. Useful for applications, e.g., Matlab, that are usually used through an interactive, graphical interface.

Usage

Discovery cluster

ssh <my netID>@discovery.dartmouth.edu

Andes8

128 cores, 1.5TB memory

ssh <my netID>@andes8.dartmouth.edu

Polaris8

192 cores, 1.5TB memory

ssh <my netID>@polaris8.dartmouth.edu

With X11 forwarding

ssh -Y <my netID>@discovery.dartmouth.edu

What is X11 forwarding?

X11 forwarding is what allows you to run a GUI (Graphical user interface) from the command line. For example, you can launch firefox, or run Matlab interactively. Another use case for X11 forwarding would be to display a graph, or an image.