Note:  To access FAU’s High Performance Computing Clusters users must first request access using the “Request Support” page.

To connect to the Unix resources you will need a good quality SSH client. In the HPC group we prefer to use Putty.

To connect start Putty and enter the fully qualified domain name of the resource you would like to connect to. (Example: koko-login.hpc.fau.edu)

Click Open

Click Accept if prompted to accept the hosts certificate.

 

Enter your FAU NetID and Password

You are now connected to the resource.

SSH login without a Password:

 

Windows Machine:

For windows machine you can setup your PuTTY to ssh without using a password by opening your PuTTY Key Generator.  In your startup menu type PuTTYgen to open the program.

You can leave the default settings for the parameters (SSH-2 RSA) and the number of bits (2048).

Click the Generate button and move the mouse randomly on Putty Key Generator field window in order to produce the SSH Keys.

Once done select the save public key button and save it as a text file.  Then select the save private key button and make sure to save it as a .ppk file.  When saving the private key select no when asked to confirm without a Passphrase.

 

Login to koko-login.hpc.fau.edu and type in the following commands

mkdir -p .ssh
chmod 700 .ssh
vim .ssh/authorized_keys

From the PuttyGen copy and paste the generated puble key to the vim editor.  Then save and exit.

Next edit the permissions with the command:

chmod 644 .ssh/authorized_keys

Now exit and open Putty so we can configure it to use the new generated keys.

In Putty go to Connection > SSH > Auth.

In the private key file box hit browse and locate where you saved the private key (.ppk) you saved.

Go back to the main Putty page and login in like you would normally.  After clicking open it will log you into Koko without prompting you for a password.

 

Linux/MacOSX Machines:

To setup your SSH to be password less you have to generate a pair of authentication keys on your local host and Koko

To generate the authentication keys, log into your local host and run the command:

ssh-keygen -t rsa

Do not enter a passphrase and just press enter through all the prompts until it shows your key fingerprint.  After you need to create a directory in koko with the command:

ssh userID@koko-login.hpc.fau.edu mkdir -p .ssh

*note: it’s fine if the directory already exist.

When prompted input your password into Koko.

Lastly use the following  command to append the local hosts new public key to the directory in koko:

cat .ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh userID@koko-login.hpc.fau.edu 'cat >> .ssh/authorized_keys'

Enter your password when prompted.

You should be able to ssh into koko without using your password from now on.