CPP as a second language: Setup

We will be working on a Digital Research Alliance of Canada (the Alliance) high performance compute (HPC) or virtual cluster with all the tools we will need already installed. You will need a method of connecting to either an Alliance cluster, or our virtual cluster, which means you will need a method of connecting to them using SSH. SSH can be used from a terminal which we explain how to install and open in the Ensure you can open a terminal section below.

Alliance Account

If you already have an Alliance account you can log into an Alliance cluster to follow along. An Alliance account will allow you to continue to use the same environment that you used during the workshop after the workshop has completed.

Don’t have an Alliance account?

For those who do not have an Alliance account, we will provide a virtual cluster that you can use during the workshop, however you will loose access to it shortly after.

Ensure you can open a terminal

The only setup required on your laptop is ensuring you can open a Linux command line terminal.

Windows

MobaXterm is recommended for Windows computers. Download and install MobaXterm home installer edition. The portable version will not keep files from one session to the next. Verify you can run mobaXterm and “start local terminal”.

Mac/Linux

You already have a terminal built in.

To see how to open your terminal on your Mac see this youtube video.

If you are a Linux user running Ubuntu, you should be able to press the ctrl+alt+T keys to open a terminal. Alternatively the first 30 seconds of this youtube video shows you how to access the terminal on Ubuntu 14. If you are having trouble accessing a terminal on your laptop before you arrive we can help you at the beginning of the workshop.

Test your ssh connection

If using an Alliance account

If you are using your Alliance account make sure you can connect to an Alliance cluster. To connect to the Graham cluster for example you would use the command below.

$ ssh graham.computecanada.ca

If using our virtual cluster

Try connecting to our virtual training cluster by running the below command in your terminal.

$ ssh user01@legacy-lang.ace-net.training

You should get prompted for a password. Press Ctrl+C to exit without supplying a password. We will provide one for you at the beginning of the workshop.