How to Connect

You need an SSH client to connect to Arrow. No other connection protocols are supported. There are 4 general purpose login nodes that you can connect to:

• login1.arrow.tracc.anl.gov
• login2.arrow.tracc.anl.gov
• login3.arrow.tracc.anl.gov
• login4.arrow.tracc.anl.gov

When connecting, please pick a random entry from the above list to evenly distribute users over multiple machines.

For users that work at Argonne or that have an actual Argonne ANL Domain account, you use your assigned account name and password to connect to these login nodes. Just use the ANL Domain user name, without the ANL prefix.

For external collaborators, the bulk of our users, you want to use your external collaborator account that was assigned to you when you applied for an account. These accounts all start with the letters "ac" followed by a period, and then followed by a specific account name. The entire account name, including the leading "ac." portion must be used to connect.

Passwords expire on a regular basis (every 6 months or so), and you will need to update your password with Argonne Account Services. You can call 630-252-9999 if you need any help or detailed instructions.

You will not be able to connect until we have your public IP address on file in our system. Your account will be linked to a few machines with known IP addresses, and if you need to connect from another machine, please contact us to add that machine to your account. Details can be found below.

How to Connect: Details

SSH

• Access to the TRACC cluster requires use of an SSH client. Free SSH clients are available for Windows, are included or available for MacOS, and all varieties of Linux or UNIX. SSH clients can be terminal applications to work with command lines (e.g. Putty on Windows), or they can be file transfer utilities (WinSCP, FileZilla). In any case, cluster connections are all using the SSH protocol (including sftp).

• If you're using a simple graphical application on the cluster through an SSH connection and you are either connecting from a Mac or Linux desktop machine or you have an X server installed on your Windows machine, you may want to enable X11 forwarding to your client. This is a method that uses strictly the old X protocol, and performance is very limited (due to the SSH encryption overhead). You should consider using one of the remote GUI options listed below instead if you can. If you want to keep it simple though, you can do this (using typically a corresponding check box in Windows clients):

ssh -X [email protected]

• Alternatively, client software like the NoMachine NX client can be used to connect, providing a full graphical user interface. This requires the installation of the free NoMachine client software.

• Another alternative is the free X2Go client, which provides a near identical user experience. Details can be found here.

Access restricted to authorized hosts

• Access to the cluster is currently restricted to pre-approved hosts. Please contact us clicking to send email or via telephone at 630-252-8224 with the hostnames of the systems from which you would like to access the cluster. Argonne users with Argonne Domain accounts can connect through Argonne's VPN service; please contact us by clicking to send email or via telephone: 630-252-8224 for details.

• Under Windows, you can find out your host name with the command "ipconfig". Note that IP addresses beginning with "10." or "192.168." are private addresses assigned by your home router, and those are not accessible from outside your home network. If you have such an address, you can usually find your public IP address at (for example) http://whatismyip.com.