HPC-novice

Logging in

Learning Objectives

• Explain logging in to a remote computer.
• Download putty for Windows and log in (for all OSes present)

How you log in to a remote system depends on what kind of computer you are using. We’ll cover Windows, Linux and Mac.

Windows

• If you are logging into cowboy from a Windows machine, you will need to install a program called putty. You can download putty here: http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/latest/x86/putty.exe
• Once you have downloaded putty, you can place the file on your desktop and double click it to launch the program.
• In the box labeled Host Name, type the hostname of the system you want to log in to: cowboy.hpc.okstate.edu.
• Check to make sure that the Connection Type is ssh and the Port number is 22.
• To save your session for next time (so you don’t have to retype each time) type a name into Saved Sessions and click Save. Next time you log in, all you will need to do is double click on the saved session name.
• Click Open to open a connection with Cowboy. You will be asked for your user name and password. No characters will appear when you type in the password. This is a security feature. Don’t worry, just type the password you received when you set up your account and hit <enter>.
• You should now have a command prompt. Prompt is a unix term that means the words followed by the $ sign. This tells you that the terminal is waiting (prompting) for you to enter a command. To log out, simply type exit or logout and hit <enter>.

Linux

Launch a terminal, type the following and hit enter:

ssh username@cowboy.hpc.okstate.edu

In the above example, username is your user name. For example, if your user name was monkey, you would type:

ssh monkey@cowboy.hpc.okstate.edu

Macintosh

Since the Macintosh OS is based off of Unix just like Linux, logging into Cowboy is very similar to logging in from a Linux computer:

• Double click on the Hard Drive icon.
• Double click on the Applications folder.
• Double click on the Utilities folder.
• Double click on Terminal.

Now that you have launched the terminal, follow the same directions as logging in with a Linux computer.

Changing your Password

The first time you log in, you should change your password from the default password assigned when your account was created to a more secure (and easier to remember) password of your choosing. Type the following and hit enter:

$ passwd

You should see the following text (for the purposes of this tutorial we will use the example user name monkey):

Changing password for user monkey.
Current Password:

Type in your current password (currently the default password assigned to you) and hit <enter>. You will then be prompted to enter a new password twice. From now on, you will log into the system with this new password. Please choose a STRONG password.

Logging Out

To log out just type:

$ exit

You can also use the key combination Ctrl-D.

You’re now ready to move on to Submit first job