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Connecting

Important

Before trying to log in to any of the C3SE systems you need to be equipped with the following:

  • Your username, called Chalmers ID (CID) with associated password. We give this to all users who lack it when they apply
  • An account on each C3SE system you are going to use (i.e. Vera or Alvis). Everyone has to apply for an account, even if you already have a CID

If you lack any of this, please read the instructions on how to get access.

VPN

We don't allow all networks to directly connect.

  • Vera is accessible via Chalmers and GU local network
  • Alvis is accessible via SUNET networks (i.e. most Swedish university networks)

If you are on any other network (inside or outside Sweden) then you should use VPN to access. For Alvis, you can use your own Swedish university VPN if it is actually configured to send traffic via the VPN. You can test your VPN by checking that your public IP address matches your university.

Your own University VPN should always be the first choice and have your university IT-support help you with any issues. Only in cases where this is not possible, there is also a possibility to ask the Chalmers IT to be added to the Chalmers' eduVPN (email support@chalmers.se).

NOTE You may first want to check the legality of using VPN in your location

Connection options

There are three primary options for connecting to the cluster environments. ** NOTE ** These connections are not meant for file transfer. Please check our pages on file transfer on how to do that.

  1. OpenOndemand portal for interactive compute sessions;
  2. Thinlinc connection to the login nodes for light-weight graphical work, such as preparing jobscripts, submitting jobs, etc;
  3. SSH connection for command line access;

OpenOndemand portal (web access)

The OpenOndemand portals allows you to connect via a browser, access login node terminal, edit text files, view the queue and launch interactive apps directly on the compute nodes:

  • Jupyter
  • MATLAB
  • VS code (codeserver)
  • RStudio
  • CARTA
  • Tensorboard
  • Desktop (with access to all the software we have installed!)

This should be your primary way to access nodes for interactive work.

The portals are great way to primarily run interactive jobs. You can directly and easily start Jupyter notebooks, MATLAB, VS-code, or even entire desktop sessions directly on the compute nodes.

Note: Significant data transfer should be done with a dedicated and not via the portal.

ThinLinc (graphical access)

Instead of connecting through a terminal, you can also access to the cluster through ThinLinc which gives you a graphical connection to a login node.

You can use this to prepare and then submit jobs to the queue, or do lighter pre and post processing work, but you still need to prepare jobscripts and submit them to the queue with sbatch. Do not run simulations directly on the login node.

SSH (shell access)

The conventional way to connect to clusters is using the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol. Every cluster have a one or more so called "login nodes" that is accessible from the internal network on Chalmers University of Technology, and follow the hostname convention:

alvis1.c3se.chalmers.se or alvis2.c3se.chalmers.se
vera1.c3se.chalmers.se or vera2.c3se.chalmers.se

If you are connected to the Chalmers local network you can login directly by running:

ssh CID@cluster.c3se.chalmers.se

where you have to replace CID with your CID username and cluster with the name of the cluster frontend you want to connect to, eg. vera1, vera2, alvis1, alvis2.