If you are using a Mac or Linux machine, you will need to open a terminal window and then use the ssh command. ssh stands for secure shell and is a way of connecting to and interacting with remote servers. You will need to log in to the cluster using both ssh and a keyfile that has been generated for you.
Firstly, download the keyfile and open a terminal window. Then copy the keyfile into your home directory like so:
cp mark.pem ~
Then, you should be able to log in with ssh. You need to provide ssh with the path to your key, which you can do with the -i flag. This basically points to your identity file or keyfile. For example:
ssh -i "~/anna.pem" [email protected]
Note that you will need to change the log in credentials shown here (i.e. the username and keyfile name) with your own. Also be aware that the cluster IP address will change everyday. We will update you on this each day. You might be prompted to accept an RSA key - if so, just type yes and you will log in to the cluster!
Occassionally, we will need to transfer files between the cluster and our local machines. To do this, we can use a command utility called scp, which stans for secure copy. It works in a similar way to ssh. Let’s try making a dummy file in our local home directory and then uploading it to our home directory on the cluster.
# make a file
touch test_file
# upload to cluster
scp -i "~/anna.pem" test_file [email protected]:~/
Just to break this down a little we are simply copying a file, test_file in this case to the cluster. After the : symbol, we are specifying where on the cluster we are placing the file, here we use ~/ to specify the home directory.
Copying files back on to our local machine is just as straightforward. You can do that like so:
# download to local
scp -i "~/mark.pem" [email protected]:~/test_file ./
Where here all we did was use scp with the cluster address and path first and the location on our computers (in our working directory) second - i.e. ./
Alternatively, we can use Cyberduck, or similar software, to transfer data back and forth. Open Cyberduck, and click on 'Open connection' on the top left of the screen. Select 'SFTP (SSH File Tranfer Protocol)' from the dropdown menu and copy the IP address for the day in the Server field and your username for in the Username field. Leave the Password field empty, go down to SSH Private Key and add the Private Key Carlo sent you. Press Connect and you're connected!