Log in to HPC

Whether you are on-campus or working remotely, this page will walk you through the various methods available to access and interact with our HPC and HTC resources. Your connection options will depend on your location (on-campus or off-campus) and the operating system you are using.

Once your account is set up, you will be able to log in using your university credentials. After logging in, you will be directed to the login node, where you can manage your jobs, edit files, and access network storage.

If you are unsure whether you have access to the HPC clusters, please refer to the instructions on Getting access to HPC.

On-campus access

Learn how to connect using Open OnDemand, Secure Shell (SSH), and the Remote Labs Web portal.

Open OnDemand (via web browser)

Open OnDemand provides a user friendly web interface for you to interact with and use the HPC cluster. Simply log in with your usual credentials to get started. This is the recommended method of accessing the cluster for people who are new to HPC.

The following clusters have Open OnDemand and can be accessed via your web browser:

• Eureka2: https://eureka2-ondemand.surrey.ac.uk/

• AISURREY: https://aisurrey-ondemand.surrey.ac.uk/

Screenshot of the Eureka2-ondemand home page

Tip

If you wish to use Open OnDemand off-campus, you are required to use the VPN - Global Protect to connect.

Secure shell (SSH) access

Our HPC and HTC systems can be accessed via SSH.

The following table shows the host names of the login nodes for connecting to the different clusters. You will need to use the appropriate hostname in your SSH command.

Cluster	Login node hostname
Eureka2	eureka2.surrey.ac.uk
AISURREY	aisurrey-submit01.surrey.ac.uk
Eureka	eureka.surrey.ac.uk
Kara02	kara02.surrey.ac.uk

SSH via terminal on Linux | macOS | Windows 10/11SSH via alternative Windows tools

Users can connect to the clusters through any standard Unix / Linux or macOS terminal. The Windows Command Prompt or Windows Powershell work too since Windows version 10.

Simply open a terminal or command prompt and connect using the following command:

$ ssh <username>@<hostname>

As shown below, you will be asked for your password:

Example: Connecting to Eureka 2

abc123@myhost:~$ ssh abc123@eureka2.surrey.ac.uk
Password:
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
     Welcome to Surrey's Eureka2 HPC Cluster
               Based on Rocky 8
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Documentation for HPC users is located at:
https://docs.pages.surrey.ac.uk/research_computing/

Eureka2 can also be accessed via a web GUI:
https://eureka2-ondemand.surrey.ac.uk/

[abc123@login1 (eureka2) ~]$

See instructions on Generating SSH Keys to learn about how to set up cryptographic keys for your login.

RemoteLabs web portal

The RemoteLabs web portal is another way users can connect and interact with some of the HPC clusters. It only requires a web browser and enables access to a remote desktop on multiple clusters as well as a browser based terminal.

The following HPC clusters are available via remotelabs:

• Eureka2

• Kara02

• various Linux LABs

The portal can be accessed through the address https://remotelabs.eps.surrey.ac.uk/#/ and you can log in using your university credentials. Once logged into RemoteLabs select the relevant connection e.g. Eureka2 Vis for a remote desktop session Eureka 2.

Since Remote Labs allows a low Latency RDP connection, it is well suited for visualisation and use of GUI applications like MATLAB, Paraview, Spyder etc.

This approach can also save a lot of time if you tend to copy your data to your local desktop to open, this way you can interact with it remotely.

Screenshot of an interactive remote desktop session via RemoteLabs

Note

The RemoteLabs web portal is available for use when off campus however you will need to connect to the University of Surrey VPN first to access the site.

Off-campus access

There are multiple ways users can connect and interact with Surrey’s clusters when you are working off-campus. Like when on campus, the details will differ slightly depending on the operating system you use.

Generally speaking, there are different methods of accessing the university network remotely.

1. Using the University’s VPN, which will allow you to access our clusters as if you were on campus.

2. Using the SSH gateway service, which will give you command line / terminal access only.

FTP access is also possible for the transfer of data to and from the HPC clusters file systems.

University of Surrey VPN

To access a cluster via the VPN, you need to install the Global Protect VPN client on your computer, see instructions here .

Once you are connected to the VPN, you can access the cluster as discussed in teh sections above:

• Open OnDemand (via web browser) (recommended if you are new to HPC or Linux)

• Secure shell (SSH) access

• RemoteLabs web portal

Diagram of a connection to the HPC cluster using the VPN and SSH

SSH gateway

To access clusters from your workstation off-campus without a VPN, you can use the SSH gateway service (see additional information here).

SSH Gateway	Hostname
access.eps	access.eps.surrey.ac.uk

If you are using Linux, macOS, or newer Windows versions, open a terminal or command prompt and connect using the following ssh command, replacing <username> with your username, e.g. ab123,

$ ssh <username>@access.eps.surrey.ac.uk

If you are using PuTTY or MobaXTerm’s pseudo-terminal on Windows, you will need to provide the hostname of the gateway server to connect.

Once connected to the gateway, you can connect to the cluster you wish to access with the command

$ ssh <username>@<hostname>

For a list of hostnames see the section Secure shell (SSH) access above.

Diagram depicting off-campus connection to the HPC cluster.