Connecting to the HPC

Background

Once you have your QUT Account enabled for access to the HPC, you can connect to the Head Node and start working.

Since the HPC is physically located in a special datacenter with physical security, we do not walk up and use the HPC directly, we connect remotely over the network.

The technology used for this connection is SSH (Secure Shell - Wikipedia)

“The Secure Shell Protocol (SSH) is a cryptographic network protocol for operating network services securely over an unsecured network.”

The Head Node is called lyra.qut.edu.au and runs a SSH server that allows connections from an SSH client.

Windows, MacOS, and Linux have command line SSH clients built in. For a graphical SSH client on Windows, we have a few choices.

Installing and using PuTTY

PuTTY (Download PuTTY - a free SSH and telnet client for Windows) is a popular Windows based SSH Client and we will use that today.

There are a few options for installing PuTTY on a managed QUT Machine:

Download PuTTY from its web site and install it manually, or
Install the QUT PuTTY package from ITassist|Install Software|Search: PuTTY

Once PuTTY is installed, go ahead and start it.

PuTTY starts with the Configuration page:

Enter lyra.qut.edu.au into the HostName (or IP address) box and click Open (Or press Enter on the keyboard)

The 1st time you connect to a server, PuTTY presents a Security Alert:

This is telling us we have not connected to this server before and it is asking us if we trust it is really Lyra.

If you are on campus, or connecting via the VPN, it is ok to click Yes here. In future, this warning will not pop up.

If you do see this popup again, check you are really connecting to Lyra.

PuTTY opens a Window with a login as: prompt.

Enter your QUT login name and press Enter

Take note of the conditions of access to the HPC then enter your QUT password at the prompt. It will look like your password is not being typed. The password is not shown on the screen (no dots etc).

After login you are shown the “Message of the Day” and other information such as how many hours until the next maintenance period.

To see this demonstrated, see this video:

https://mediahub.qut.edu.au/media/t/0_3lsesd22

Saving PuTTY sessions

That was quite a bit of information to type in. PuTTY can save the settings to make connections to regular machines easier.

Settings for Lyra:

Open PuTTY Configuration

In the Connection|Data section, either enter your QUT username into the Auto-login username box, or chose the Use system username ( )

Go back to Session and enter lyra.qut.edu.au into the Host Name box

Before pressing Enter or clicking Open enter lyra in the Saved Sessions box and click Save

When you press Open, you are taken to the password prompt.

When you return to PuTTY in another session, click lyra then Load, then Open

To see this demonstrated, see this video:

https://mediahub.qut.edu.au/media/t/0_jvmuoyac