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.

Virtual training cluster

We provide a virtual training cluster called a “Magic Castle” for doing exercises and playing with example code. Using the Magic Castle means you and all the other students will have the same environment, which means easier troubleshooting when things go wrong— which they sometimes do. The Magic Castle will be destroyed at the end of the course, so you don’t need to worry about messing up your work environment and you can experiment freely.

Alliance Account

If you already have an Alliance account and access to any Alliance HPC cluster, you can log into itto follow along. If you use your Alliance account you’ll be able to continue to play with the example code even after the workshop has ended and we’ve destroyed the Magic Castle.

Ensure you can open a terminal

The only setup required on your laptop is ensuring you can open an SSH terminal.

Windows

You can use Windows PowerShell or Windows Cmd tool if your Windows version is not too old. Open either one and type ssh -V. You should see a response something like “OpenSSH_for_Windows_9.5p2, LibreSSL 3.8.2”. The precise version doesn’t matter, so long as it isn’t too old.

If you have a very old version of Windows or if you get an error from ssh -V, then we recommend MobaXterm. Download and install MobaXterm home installer edition. Once you have MobaXterm installed, start it and then “start local terminal” therein.

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 our virtual cluster

To connect to our virtual training cluster, follow the instructions given in the “Magic Castle Username and Password” item on the course page, or follow the course instructor’s guidance in the first few minutes of the course.

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 Nibi cluster for example you would use the command below.

$ ssh nibi.alliancecan.ca