User account

User accounts are required for shell access to our HPC nodes

Account creation

User accounts for the GPU cluster must be created by someone with administrative-level access to the servers. Currently (March 2020) Cao Peng is designated Admin.

The standard process is:

• Request account from Admin
• Receive ID and password via email or WhatsApp.

After this, the user will have a folder on /home/[userID] that can't be accessed by non-admins.

Change your password (optional)

• SSH login and change your password upon first login, using the command passwd.
• Recommended if your account was not automatically generated with a random password.

Deactivate your anaconda environment (optional)

The Anaconda base environment may be activated by default when you first log in. To prevent this automatic activation type: conda config --set auto_activate_base false

Guide to using MATLAB

On the commandline (headless mode)

Just use matlab on the commandline to start the interactive console. See the MATLAB documentation for more options.

GUI version

Run MATLAB in a VNC session. The GUI may look a little different compared to Windows.

currently not installed systemwide, see HKU MATLAB for installation notes

Guide to using VNC

VNC gives users a remote desktop Graphical User Interface. Our VNC server requires a VNC viewer application of your choice.

To connect, a user must first start a running vnserver process and connect to it: vncserver -name <sessionname> :<N> where <N> is an integer. E.g. vncserver -name bobsvnc :23 will create a session at display number 23, which means they have to connect to port 5923. The port formula is 5900+N. Ports occupied by others are not available, so if 23 was taken in the previous example it would have tried 24, etc. Users may request a permanent VNC on a fixed display number, if they use it alot.

To minimize bandwidth and cpu usage, do not use too many sessions, kill redundant sessions with vncserver -kill, and don't use uncompressed high quality video settings

Before a user can run a VNC session, they must have proper configurations, including setting a vnc password:

• set a vnpcpasswd
• check if the folder ~/.vnc exists, if not try running vncserver
• copy 2 config files from /home/utility/vncstuff into ~/.Xresources and ~/.vnc/xstartup
• check your existing vncs with vncserver -list. Terminate them with vncserver -kill <N>.
• run a display using vncserver and connect using your client of choice.
• The firewalls do not allow direct access on the VNC ports. To connect to the port you must first establish an SSH tunnel.

In case the remote desktop reports errors upon first (successful) login: replace the last line in ~/.vnc/xstartup with dbus-launch xfce-session. This seems to be a bug related to xfce and/or anaconda. If that fails try conda uninstall dbus or deleting ~/.config.