User account
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.
Contents
Initial setup
- SSH login and change your password upon first login, using the command
passwd
.
After this, the user will have a folder on /home/[userID]
that can't be accessed by non-admins.
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 commandline
Just use matlab
on the commandline to start the interactive console.
See the MATLAB documentation for more options.
Guide to using VNC
A user must 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.
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 runningvncserver
- copy 2 config files from
/home/utility/vncstuff
into ~/.Xresources and ~/.vnc/xstartup - check your existing vncs with
vncserver -list
. Terminate them withvncserver -kill <N>
. - In case the desktop reports errors upon first 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 tryconda uninstall dbus
or deleting~/.config
.
The firewalls do not allow direct access on the VNC ports. To connect to the port you must first establish an SSH tunnel.
vncserver -kill
, and don't use uncompressed high quality video settings