Why Use SSH
SSH allows you to access remote servers command line interface. You will need an SSH client. For windows we recommend PuTTY, which is installed on all lab machines and can be download from the link below. For Linux and Mac machines you can just type:
>ssh username@remoteServer
How to use PuTTY
Launch PuTTY, and type login.secs.oakland.edu or the IP address of the server you wish to connect to, select SSH as the protocol and port 22 (should be the defaults), then hit Open. You will be asked for a username and password. Use your SECS credentials if connecting to login.secs.oakland.edu.
Using SSH with a GUI (advanced)
If you would like to forward X connections (have GUI programs launched on the remote host launch on your machine), use ssh -X user@host (see below).So for example, if you want to connect to login, the command would be: $ ssh yourusername@login
and from offcampus, you would need the full name $ ssh yourusername@login.secs.oakland.edu
Graphical ApplicationsOccasionally, you may want to launch a program over ssh such as Matlab or Firefox that is graphical. If you are using a UNIX/Linux based system, this is easy, since Linux systems use X to display windows. To set it up so graphical applications launch on your local machines, use: $ ssh -X yourusername@login.secs.oakland.edu. But most of us don't use Linux environments at home, so you need a X client running on your windows computer. Visit
Displaying SSH with Cygwin/X for more info.
Tips for running long jobs
Use screen, it allows your job to run without maintaining a connection to the server. See
this friendly tutorial or the screen man page for more details.
Your home directory is served out to all the servers over the network, as a result, if you are running a program that makes use of lots of files, sometimes the operation can become network bound instead of CPU bound. The directory/tmp is on a local disk, feel free to use it to dump data files on it if you feel that running your operation out of your home directory is too slow. NOTE: The /tmp directory is cleaned out on every reboot, the onus is on you to backup files that you place in there.
Download PuTTY here
X11 (Mac)
The recommended method for connecting to a remote server using a Mac would be to use X11 or XMing. X11 is an app that comes standard on all Macs since version 10.5. It can be found in Applications -> Utilities -> X11.app.
Note: If your Mac does not have X11 on it, you can download it from the
XQuartz website.
To use X11:
1. Start the application located in your Utilities folder. It will be called either X11 or XQuartz.
2. Type "ssh -X beatles.secs.oakland.edu"
3. To launch a program, type the to path of the executable followed by an ampersand (&) such as "/APPS/eclipse &". This will open a session of the application but still leave the X11 window available for more commands. You can also run multiple instances of the program by using the ampersand. Some programs already have scripts written for them so you only have to type the name of the program followed by the ampersand. For instance, "matlab &"
4. You can also type "gnome-session" to open up the GUI for that session.
5. When you are done with a program, make sure you kill the process. You an check to make sure it is closed out properly by typing "ps -a".