Secure Shell (ssh)
What is Secure Shell (ssh)
Secure shell is the usual way to gain shell access to CHPC Linux based systems, such as the HPC clusters. There are many choices of clients available depending on the system you are using to connect. We require ssh to connect as it encrypts the connection and is much more secure than other methods of command-line login.
WEe strongly encourage the use of FastX as the method of choice to access CHPC resources.
Note: We do not at this time allow the use of ssh "keys", which allows you to ssh to known hosts without typing your password.
Native ssh clients on Linux and Mac
If you are connecting to CHPC services from a Linux desktop or a Mac, you already have a native client. If you are not familiar with ssh, you might wish to look through an SSH Tutorial for Linux or you can also read the "man" page (type "man ssh" in your terminal window). A short training video also mentions SSH.
The steps are simple. 1) Open a terminal on your desktop or laptop; 2) execute the "ssh" command to the host. For example, to ssh into kingspeak:
ssh <uNID>@kingspeak.chpc.utah.edu
If you are going to be opening any XWindows applications, be sure to add the -Y flag to make sure X-forwarding is enabled. That would look like:
ssh -Y <uNID>@kingspeak.chpc.utah.edu
Windows Clients
If you are not familiar with ssh, you might wish to look through an SSH Tutorial for Windows. The first step on a Windows desktop is to download a client (such as FastX mentioned above) . There are many free clients available. Here are links to a few to choose from:
Next you would run the client, which will ask for a hostname. Put in the hostname of the Linux client you are trying to connect to, and your camus uNID in the "User Name" field. If you plan to run XWindows applications on our server, you will need to find the setting for "Xforwarding" and make sure it is checked.
Finally, you "connect" which will prompt you for a password and will open up a command line terminal.