HPRC:Access:Windows

NOTE: In the following instructions/pages, replace "ada" (.tamu.edu) with the hostname of the system you wish to access (e.g. "crick", "curie", "neumann").

Note

Note, the illustrations/instructions below use the hostnames ada.tamu.edu but please use the hostname for the system you wish to access e.g. ada.tamu.edu. See the details for our systems for the appropriate hostname(s).

Access from Windows

Using MobaXterm (Recommended)

MobaXterm is an enhanced terminal for Windows with a built-in X11 server, tabbed SSH client, built-in file editor, SFTP functionality, and other useful features. It is available from: http://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/download.html

You will need to choose which license (free Home edition, or professional) and then select the Portable or Installer edition. The Installer edition works best on your personal machine, when you have the privileges to install software. The portable version may be necessary when using a lab workstation, for example. (Be sure to check if MobaXterm is already installed in the Windows Start menu.)

Local Terminal

1. Open MobaXterm and start a local terminal:



2. From the local terminal, connect to the cluster using SSH:

SSH Session

1. Open MobaXterm and open the Session settings:



2. Enter the hostname in the "Remote Host" field, check the box for "Specify username" and enter the proper username for the cluster you are connecting to, ada.tamu.edu in this case:

   

3. Once you click OK you will be prompted to enter your password. Enter the proper password for the cluster you are connecting to.

Using PuTTY

PuTTY is a full-featured, SSH v1.x, v2.x compliant client for Windows. You can get PuTTY as well as PSCP (a tool for encrypted remote file transfer) at: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

1. After installing PuTTY, open PuTTY to get a window similar to the following:



2. Enter the host name of the remote machine you want to connect to. In this case, we are attempting to connect to ada.tamu.edu at the TAMU Supercomputing Facility. The settings we are configuring for this connection can be saved as a session profile by PuTTY if we give this session a name and click on the "Save" button on this initial window. We have called this session "ada", but we will not yet save the profile since we still need to modify other parameters before we are ready to establish the connection.
3. Make sure the SSH parameters are correct. Click on SSH in the category tree (this is found under the "Connection" branch). Verify that the preferred SSH protocol version is "2 only" and the preferred encryption algorithm is AES.



4. Next, go to the "Auth" portion of the GUI and make sure that the settings are configured as follows:



5. Next, in the "Tunnels" window, enable X11 forwarding:



6. Since now we have configured all the parameters as we want them, we can go back to the sessions window and click on the "Save" button to save these settings under the session name of "ada".



7. To establish a connection to the cluster, we can now simply highlight the session and click on "Open."
8. Finally, you should be presented with a window with a command line interface and will be asked to supply your login name and password:



9. Enter the proper credentials for the cluster you are connecting to.

NOTE: If this is the first time you are attempting to connect to the remote machine, PuTTY will warn you that it doesn't know the machine's public key and give you the option of continuing or not. Just click on "Yes". Once this is done, you won't see this message again for this machine unless the public key on the remote machine changes for some reason.

Remote Display of Programs with Graphical Interfaces

MobaXterm has a built-in X11 server, no extra software is needed to display programs with graphical interfaces if you are using MobaXterm. If you are using PuTTY, you will need an X server like Xming.

Xming is an X Server for Microsoft Windows. Although the latest version requires a contribution (approximately $20 USD) there is also an older (free) Public Domain Release (version 6.9.0.31) which can be found at: http://www.straightrunning.com/XmingNotes/

1. After installing Xming (or Xming-mesa if you need OpenGL support), start Xming using the installed shortcut.
2. Make sure your desired PuTTY session is configured with X11 forwarding as described above.
3. Login to the desired supercomputer via PuTTY.
4. Start an xterm window with the following command:

xterm

If a new xterm terminal window for the remote system pops up on your Windows desktop, then X11 forwarding is working correctly.