Logging in for the first time¶

Log in with SSH¶

An SSH client (Secure SHell) is the required tool to connect to Stallo. An SSH client provides secure encrypted communications between two hosts over an insecure network.

If you already have ssh installed on your UNIX-like system, have a user account and password on a Notur system, login may be as easy as typing

ssh <machine name>         (for instance: ssh stallo.uit.no)

into a terminal window.

If your user name on the machine differs from your user name on the local machine, use the -l option to specify the user name on the machine to which you connect. For example:

ssh <machine name> -l [username]

And if you need X-forwarding (for instance, if you like to run Emacs in it’s own window) you must log in like this:

ssh -X -Y <machine name>

No matter how you login, you will need to confirm that the connection shall be trusted. The SHA256 key fingerprint of stallo.uit.no is:

SHA256:YJpwZ91X5FNXTc/5SE1j9UR1UAAI4FFWVwNSoWoq6Hc

So you should get precisely this message the first time you login via ssh:

The authenticity of host 'stallo.uit.no (129.242.2.68)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is SHA256:YJpwZ91X5FNXTc/5SE1j9UR1UAAI4FFWVwNSoWoq6Hc.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?

If you see this message with precisely this code, you can continue by typing yes and pressing Enter. If you connect to Stallo for the first time and ssh does not show you this key, please contact support@metacenter.no immediately.

Log in with an ssh key¶

To avoid entering your password every time you login and to increase security, you can log in with an ssh keypair. This keypair consists of a private key that you have to store on your computer and a public key that you can store on Stallo. On Linux or OSX simply type:

ssh-keygen

and follow the instructions on the screen. Please use a good passphrase. You will have to enter this passphrase the first time you log in after a reboot of the computer, but not anymore afterwards. To copy the public key to Stallo, type:

ssh-copy-id <username>@stallo.uit.no

To learn more about ssh keys, have a look at this page.

On Windows, you can use PuTTYgen that comes with PuTTY. More information on ssh.com.

SSH clients for Windows and Mac¶

At the OpenSSH page you will find several SSH alternatives for both Windows and Mac.

Please note that Mac OS X comes with its own implementation of OpenSSH, so you don’t need to install any third-party software to take advantage of the extra security SSH offers. Just open a terminal window and jump in.

Learning more about SSH¶

To learn more about using SSH, please also consult the OpenSSH page page and take a look at the manual page on your system (man ssh).

Obtain a new password¶

When you have been granted an account on stallo.uit.no, your username and password is sent to you separately. The username by email and the password by SMS. The password you receive by SMS is temporally and only valid for 7 days.

The passwd command does not seem to work. My password is reset back to the old one after a while. Why is this happening?¶

The Stallo system is using a centralised database for user management. This will override the password changes done locally on Stallo.

The password can be changed here, log in using your username on stallo and the NOTUR domain.

Logging on the compute nodes¶

Information on how to log in on a compute node.

Some times you may want to log on a compute node (for instance to check out output files on the local work area on the node), and this is also done by using SSH. From stallo.uit.no you can log in to compute-x-y the following way:

ssh -Y compute-x-y     (for instance: ssh compute-5-8)

or short

ssh -Y cx-y        (for instance: ssh c5-8)

If you don’t need display forwarding you can omit the “-Y” option above.

If you for instance want to run a program interactively on a compute node, and with display forwarding to your desktop you should in stead do something like this:

first login to Stallo with display forwarding,
then you should reserve a node through the queuing system

Below is an example on how you can do this:

1) Log in on Stallo with display forwarding.

   $ ssh -Y stallo.uit.no

2) Reserve and log in on a compute node with display forwarding.
   (start an interactive job.)

   $ srun -N 1 -t 1:0:0 --pty bash -i

3) Open a new terminal window, type squeue -j <jobid> (it shows you which node(s) was allocated
   to that specific job). Then ssh -Y <nodename> to that node and start your preferred gui.

Graphical logon to Stallo¶

If you want to run applications with graphical user interfaces we recommend you to use the remote desktop service on Stallo.

If you have a new account and you have never logged in on Stallo before, first log in with a classical ssh connection (see above). Afterwards you can use the graphical logon. Otherwise it can happen that your /home will not be created and you will get an error message of the type: “Could not chdir to home directory /home/your_user_name: No such file or directory”

Important:

If you are connecting from outside the networks of UNINETT and partners you need to log into stallo-gui.uit.no with ssh to verify that you have a valid username and password on the Stallo system. After a successful login the service will automatically allow you to connect from the ip-address your client currently has. The connection will be open for at least 5 minutes after you log in. There is no need to keep the ssh-connection open after you have connected to the remote desktop, in fact you will be automatically logged off after 5 seconds.