Connecting to the clusters#
SCITAS offers two categories of clusters, each tailored to specific usage scenarios:
- Academic Purpose Clusters (Helvetios and Izar ): exclusively accessible with student or course accounts and are intended for academic purposes only (e.g., Master projects, coursework or theses).
- Research Purpose Clusters (Jed and Kuma ): available only for pay-per-use accounts and are designed for broader research purposes, including industrial or external collaborations.
Account
Ensure you have the appropriate account type for the cluster you intend to use. If you need assistance determining your eligibility or setting up access, please contact the support team.
Connection to the clusters using SSH#
Before being able to connect to one of SCITAS' clusters, you will need:
- A valid EPFL GASPAR account
- An approved SCITAS account
- A client computer inside the EPFL network, or a VPN connection
To connect using SSH:
For GUI usage, enable X11 forwarding: Replace<username> with your GASPAR username and <cluster> with kuma, jed, izar, or helvetios.
EPFL Network
Please note that from outside of the EPFL network, you will need to connect to the VPN.
SSH clients
macOS and Linux: SSH clients are available by default on this systems
MS Windows: We recommend Git Bash or Windows Subsystem for Linux.
SFTP: We recommend FileZilla
Setting up a passwordless connection#
Generate a cryptographic key pair if not already done:
Overwriting your current SSH key
If you already had generated ssh keys, do not repeat this procedure at the cost of overwriting them. You can simply reuse the ones you have already generated.
id_ed25519.pub: Your public key (shareable).id_ed25519: Your private key (keep secret).
Export your public key to the clusters:
EdDSA Key
Here, we use the EdDSA (elliptic-curve cryptography) key type.
Export your public key to the clusters:
Test the setup by connecting to a cluster. You may need to enter your passphrase once.Security risk
Do not set up passwordless connections on public computers.
WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED!#
If you see this error, verify the server's legitimacy by contacting the administrator.
Remove the old key and accept the new one:
Check the current fingerprint, against the list you can find below:
If the fingerprint doesn't match, remove the offending key (in this example for
jed.hpc.epfl.ch):
Cluster fingerprints:#
MOTD#
Upon connection on one of our clusters you will be greet by a Message Of The Day (MOTD):
Last login: Wed Dec 4 14:50:52 2024 from vpn-252-138.epfl.ch
########################## Welcome to KUMA ###########################
https://go.epfl.ch/kuma-spec
──────────────────────────────── Tips ────────────────────────────────
Check job status with "squeue".
- View status of all jobs: squeue
- View status of specific job: squeue -j jobid
https://scitas-doc.epfl.ch/user-guide/using-clusters/running-job
s/#squeue
Happy computing! 😊🚀
─────────────────────────── Announcements ────────────────────────────
No announcement
────────────────────────────── Pricing ───────────────────────────────
Rates valid starting November 2024
H100: CHF 0.5174/gpu/hour
L40S: CHF 0.2141/gpu/hour
────────────────────────────── Sausage ───────────────────────────────
USERNAME : ylopes
Global usage from 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31
╭────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ No data to display │
╰────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
sausage v0.12.1.2
─────────────────────────────── Infos ────────────────────────────────
Documentation ................... https://go.epfl.ch/scitas-doc
Usage statistics ................ https://go.epfl.ch/scitas-stats
Terms and conditions............. https://go.epfl.ch/scitas-terms
Need Help? Questions? Comments? 1234@epfl.ch
hpc_motd v0.12.0
The MOTD contains four main parts:
-
The header, which contains the cluster name, a link to its specification and sometimes other information. This part is different for each cluster.
-
The Tips for (re)discovering how to use our clusters.
-
The announcements, which contains multiple section. Each section can have multiple messages ordered by priority, high at the top. This part is different for each cluster.
-
The Pricing which contains the prices applied to the cluster.
-
The Sausage part, which displays your current consumption of all our clusters for the current month. This part is generic.
────────────────────────────── Sausage ─────────────────────────────── USERNAME : USER Global usage from 2024-12-01 to 2024-12-31 ╭────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮ │ No data to display │ ╰────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯ sausage v0.12.1.2 -
The infos part, which contains a list of links and contact to help you with SCITAS. This part is generic and displays also the name and the version of the software build by SCITAS to display this MOTD.
─────────────────────────────── Infos ──────────────────────────────── Documentation ................... https://go.epfl.ch/scitas-doc Usage statistics ................ https://go.epfl.ch/scitas-stats Terms and conditions............. https://go.epfl.ch/scitas-terms Need Help? Questions? Comments? 1234@epfl.ch hpc_motd v0.12.0