What's on this page:

1. VPN connection
2. Log in with SSH
3. GUI access

After you have registered up for HPC access, you will be provided with a local USERID and PASSWORD, different from your college login credentials, which you can use to log into psychp01 using ssh (secure shell).
To access the cluster, you need to be in the campus network.
If you are connecting form a Windows computer on campus, you are already in the campus network.
If you are on campus and connecting from a Linux or Apple computer or if you are off campus, you will need VPN access to the campus network and then connect to psychp01.
If you don't have VPN access, please submit a ticket to the IT help desk.

1. Windows PC:
   1. On campus:
      1. Establish an ssh connection

1. Off campus:
   1. Connect to VPN
   2. Establish an ssh connection

1. Mac or Linux:
   1. Both on and off campus:
      1. Connect to VPN
      2. Establish an ssh connection

For Windows, you will need to have installed an SSH client.

Finally, there is also a GUI option, which, however, is not for computing purposes.

See here for a step-by-step guide to install the VPN client GlobalProtect.

An ssh client (Secure SHell) allows you to connect to psychp01 from your terminal. An ssh client provides secure encrypted communications between two hosts over an insecure network.
If you already have ssh installed on your UNIX-like system (Linux or Apple OSX), have a user account and password, login may be as easy as opening a terminal and typing ssh cluster_name into a terminal window. For instance:

ssh psychp01.rhul.ac.uk

If your username on the cluster differs from your username on the local machine, use the -l option to specify the username on the machine to which you connect. For example:

ssh cluster_name -l your_cluster_username

or alternatively,

ssh your_cluster_username@psychp01.rhul.ac.uk

Hence, if my cluster username is “gbellucci”, I would type the following to access the cluster:

ssh gbellucci@psychp01.rhul.ac.uk

If you need X-forwarding (see X11 Forwarding in Linux Quickstart), you must log in like this:

ssh -X cluster_name

For Interactive sessions, for example MATLAB, you should add -Y to your ssh command:

ssh -Y username@psychp01.rhul.ac.uk

where the command -Y enables trusted X11 forwarding.
Once you have hit entered, you will be asked to provide your password. Once you entered your password, you will be connected to the cluster. You will see some basics information about the cluster printed out in the terminal like:

Linux psychp01 5.10.0-24-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 5.10.179-5 (2023-08-08) x86_64
The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/ */copyright.
Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent
permitted by applicable law.
Last login: Fri Oct 6 19:08:37 2023 from 10.40.65.14

At the beginning of your terminal line, you will see your username and the server name like that:

username@psychp01:~\$ 

When you are done, you can close the connection just by typing exit in the command line. Please see page 15 of the pdf version of the manual here for a short video that demonstrates that.

On Windows, you can use PuTTYgen that comes with PuTTY. More information on ssh.com. Further, the cmder console emulator works nicely with Windows 10/11 and is available open source here. Please download the full version to get built-in installation of git-for-windows along with it. If you have any queries, please get in touch with the IT.
At the OpenSSH page, you will find several SSH alternatives for both Windows and Mac.
Please note that Mac OS X comes with its own implementation of OpenSSH, so you don’t need to install any third-party software to take advantage of the extra security SSH offers. Just open a terminal window and jump in.
To learn more about using SSH, please also consult the OpenSSH page and take a look at the manual page on your system by typing the following on your terminal:

man ssh

Alternatively, for allowing GUI access, the cluster comes installed with Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). From a Windows and Apple computer, use the Microsoft Remote Desktop App. From Linux computers use Remmina. You should use the server location as psychp01.rhul.ac.uk and use the local userid and password provided by Psychology IT for logging in through RDP. The advantage of RDP is that your desktop will be preserved between logins, across network disconnects, etc, until the cluster is reset.
IMPORTANT: Be aware that the GUI access could be useful for visual inspections (but see Displaying images in command line to inspect images without GUI access). However, you should not run anything from the GUI. All analyses need to be run using the batch system. Processes that do not use the batch system will be killed.

Linux QuickStartRunning analyses on psychp01
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