Accessing to hardware

How do I access the hardware?

Once you have an account, you may logon to the PDS Lab system. The email sent when your account was created indicates your account information. Users are welcomed the lab room to work on the multi-core cluster machine or can also remotely connect it from your existing computer. Use the login host: servername.ucdenver.pvt

  • To connect a workstation in Lab Room to PDS Lab cluster
    • Login to a workstation in Lab using student account (see instructions in PDS Lab Room).
    • Open Terminal from Linux menu
    • At the command line of terminal, type ssh username@servername.ucdenver.pvt (replace "username" by the your username. For example, alex@servername.ucdenver.pvt)
    • Enter your password and you can start your work here
  • To connect your existing computer to PDS Lab cluster,
    • Use VPN to connect Downtown Campus network
    • See below instructions for details on login to PDS Lab system.

How do I access the hardware from a Windows machine?

You would need SSH Secure Shell or PuTTY to connect to PDS Lab machine from your Windows machine. SSH Secure Shell or PuTTY provides a terminal window in which you can perform all your command.

How do I access the hardware from a Linux machine?

If you are using a Linux, we guess you already are a computer expert and know what to do. So use any terminal program and ssh with the following command: ssh username@servername.ucdenver.pvt (replace username by the your username. For example, alex@servername.ucdenver.pvt). 

How do I access the hardware from a Mac machine?

If you are using a Mac, use X11 terminal program and ssh with the following command, ssh -Y username@servername.ucdenver.pvt (replace username by the your username. For example, alex@servername.ucdenver.pvt).

How do I upload files from my Windows machine to cluster machine?

To upload files from your Windows machine to the home directory in the PDS Lab cluster machine, you can use WinSCP or SSH Secure Shell. See here for more details of using WinSCP. If you use SSH Secure Shell, select Window menu and then select New file Transfer.

Full list of accessing methods

These accessing methods were collected from http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/. The PuTTY and SSH Secure Shell were tested and work fine. Other methods are untested and provided as options for your selection.

Using SSH

Client Type Usage
Linux/Unix SSH clients ssh -l username servername.ucdenver.pvt   or   ssh username@servername.ucdenver.pvt
Windows SSH clients GUI-based apps that have some form of a dialog box where the user can fill in the info needed to connect to PDS Lab cluster.

SSH Software

SSH Clients Platform Description Pros Cons
OpenSSH Linux
Unix
MacOS
Solaris		 OpenSSH is available for Linux/Unix distributions, but any current Linux/Unix OS should have a ssh client by default, which should include the standard SSH, SCP and SFTP functionality.
  • More secure than regular FTP connection.
  • Permits a wide range of capabilities once the connection has been established.
  • File transfers(ssh based: sftp & scp) slower than ordinary FTP file transfers.
OpenSSH for Windows Windows The OpenSSH for Windows package provides full SSH/SCP/SFTP support.   SSH terminal support provides a familiar Windows Command prompt, while retaining Unix/Cygwin-style paths for SCP and SFTP.
  • More secure than regular FTP connection.
  • Permits a wide range of capabilities once the connection has been established.
  • File transfers(ssh based: sftp & scp) slower than ordinary FTP file transfers.
SSH Secure Shell Windows SSH Secure Shell allows you to securely login to remote host computers, to execute commands safely on a remote computer, and to provide secure encrypted and authenticated communications between two hosts in an untrusted network.   X11 connections and arbitrary TCP/IP ports can also be forwarded over the secure channel, expanding SSH Secure Shell’s usability even further.
  • More secure than regular FTP connection.
  • Permits a wide range of capabilities once the connection has been established.
  • File transfers(ssh based: sftp & scp) slower than ordinary FTP file transfers.
TunnTunnelier Windows Tunnelier is a SSH and SFTP client for Windows which incorporates, a graphical SFTP client, terminal emulation with support for the bvterm, xterm, and vt100 protocols, support for single sign-on using SSPI (GSSAPI) Kerberos 5 and NTLM user authentication, as well as Kerberos 5 host authentication, support for RSA and DSA public key authentication with comprehensive user keypair management, SSH port forwarding capabilities, including dynamic forwarding through integrated SOCKS and HTTP CONNECT proxy.
  • More secure than regular FTP connection.
  • Permits a wide range of capabilities once the connection has been established.
  • Scriptable command-line SFTP client (sftpc)
  • Scriptable command-line remote execution client (sexec) and a command-line terminal emulation client (stermc)
  • FTP-to-SFTP bridge allowing you to connect to an SFTP server using legacy FTP applications
  • File transfers(ssh based: sftp & scp) slower than ordinary FTP file transfers.
PuTTY Windows
Linux Linux		 PuTTY is an SSH client which allows you to log into a remote resources running SSH servers.   Using SSH you can upload/download files between your local machine and the remote resource.
  • More secure than regular FTP connection.
  • Permits a wide range of capabilities once the connection has been established.
  • Third-party GUI front ends can use this client's sftp and scp functionality.
  • File transfers(ssh based: sftp & scp) slower than ordinary FTP file transfers.
MyProxy-Logon
  with
GlobGlobus ToolKit
 Linux
Unix
MacOS
Solaris		 Grid Client Software Suite/PackagesLinux/Unix only) that allows users to interact remotley with Grid enabled machines.
  • More secure than regular FTP connection.
  • Permits a wide range of capabilities once the connection has been established.
  • Single Sign On functionality A mechanism that allows users to type a single password once and then allows the user to connect to multiple remote resources without having to type any additional passwords.
  • Customizable installations (able to only install what you need).
  • File transfers(ssh based: sftp & scp) slower than ordinary FTP file transfers.
  • Number of prerequisites can be large and the installation/configuration can become complex.
  • No sNo support for Windows.

Using Secure FTP Client

Client Type Usage
LinuLinux/Unix FTP clients ftp servername.ucdenver.pvt   or at the ftp prompt:   ftp> open servername.ucdenver.pvt
Windows FTP clients GUI-GUI-based apps that have some form of a dialog box where the user can fill in the info needed to connect to PDS Lab cluster.


Grid FTP Clients Platform Description Pros Cons
GridFTP.NET Windows GridFTP.NET is an implementation of a GridFTP client, that runs on the Microsoft .NET Framework and is interoperable with its GT4 counterparts.    GridFTP.NET provides a mechanism to move data to/from your Windows machine to other machines running the GridFTP service..
  • Supported client to connect to MSS.
  • More secure than regular FTP connection.
  • File transfers faster than ssh based(sftp & scp) transfer mechanism.
  • Tunable data transfers
  • Drop and Drag GUI
  • Single Sign On functionality A mechanism that allows users to type a single password once and then allows the user to connect to multiple remote resources without having to type any additional passwords.
  • Somewhat limited capabilities once the connection has been established.
GridFTP GUI Windows
Linux
Unix
MacOS
Solaris		 The Globus GridFTP GUI is a Java web start application. It provides an easy-to-use interface for connecting to GridFTP servers and transferring files. The GridFTP GUI has the following features: wing features:
  • Supported client to connect to MSS.
  • More secure than regular FTP connection.
  • File transfers faster than ssh based(sftp & scp) transfer mechanism.
  • Tunable data transfers
  • Drop and Drag GUI
  • Single Sign On functionality A mechanism that allows users to type a single password once and then allows the user to connect to multiple remote resources without having to type any additional passwords.
  • Allows you to browse the local file system and transfer files and directories between the local system and remote GridFTP servers and between two remote GridFTP servers (third-party transfers).
  • Supports file system operations such as creating, deleting and renaming files and directories.
  • Provides reliability by interfacing with the Globus Reliable File Transfer (RFT) service.
  • Somewhat limited capabilities once the connection has been established.
SGGC Windows
Linux
Unix
MacOS
Solaris		 SGGC is a graphical multi-platform (Windows, OS-X, Linux) Java program for file transfers using GridFTP. transfers using GridFTP.
  • Supported client to connect to MSS.
  • More secure than regular FTP connection.
  • File transfers faster than ssh based(sftp & scp) transfer mechanism.
  • Tunable data transfers
  • Drop and Drag GUI
  • Single Sign On functionality A mechanism that allows users to type a single password once and then allows the user to connect to multiple remote resources without having to type any additional passwords.
  • Somewhat limited capabilities once the connection has been established.