SSH Authentication

For the authentication, you can

• use password-based or ssh-key-based authentication as a user from Paderborn University.

  • We recommend ssh-key-based authentication with password-protected ssh-keys.

• As an external user, you can only use ssh-key-based authentication due to security considerations.

  • Instruction on how to create an ssh-key can be found here: Managing SSH Keys.

System-Specific Access

Both, Noctua 1 and Noctua 2 provide a jump host which provides load balancing across the front end nodes of each cluster.

Noctua 1

The Jump-Host for Noctua 1 is fe.noctua1.pc2.uni-paderborn.de. Port 22 (SSH).

Interactive Sessions

We recommend the following combined command for an interactive session (replace USERNAME with your lowercase username):

ssh -t USERNAME@fe.noctua1.pc2.uni-paderborn.de ssh noctua1

Alternatively, you can put

Host noctua1
    HostName fe.noctua1.pc2.uni-paderborn.de
    User [USERNAME]
    RequestTTY force
    IdentityFile [PATH TO PRIVATE KEY]
    IdentitiesOnly yes
    RemoteCommand ssh noctua1

in your ~/.ssh/config and replace [USERNAME] with your username on Noctua and [PATH TO PRIVATE KEY] with the path to your private key of your ssh-key. Then you can use the short command ssh noctua1 to connect to Noctua. You will be asked for the password of your ssh-key when logging in instead of your user password.

If you want to connect to the last connected frontend, then use this command:

ssh -t USERNAME@fe.noctua1.pc2.uni-paderborn.de ssh noctua1-last

If you need to a run graphical application, the -X option should be used, which enables X11 forwarding with X11 SECURITY extension. The complete command is

ssh -X -t USERNAME@fe.noctua1.pc2.uni-paderborn.de ssh -X noctua1

Noctua 2

The configuration for Noctua 2 ist quite similar to Noctua 1, except for the hostnames. The Jump-Host for Noctua 2 is fe.noctua2.pc2.uni-paderborn.de. Port 22 (SSH).

Interactive Sessions

We recommend the following combined command for an interactive session (replace USERNAME with your lowercase username):

ssh -t USERNAME@fe.noctua2.pc2.uni-paderborn.de ssh noctua2

Alternatively, you can put

Host noctua2
    HostName fe.noctua2.pc2.uni-paderborn.de
    User [USERNAME]
    RequestTTY force
    IdentityFile [PATH TO PRIVATE KEY]
    IdentitiesOnly yes
    RemoteCommand ssh noctua2

in your ~/.ssh/config and replace [USERNAME] with your username on Noctua and [PATH TO PRIVATE KEY] with the path to your private key of your ssh-key. Then you can use the short command ssh noctua2 to connect to Noctua 2. You will be asked for the password of your ssh-key when logging in instead of your user password.

If you want to connect to the last connected frontend, then use this command:

ssh -t USERNAME@fe.noctua2.pc2.uni-paderborn.de ssh noctua2-last

If you need to a run graphical application, the -X option should be used, which enables X11 forwarding with X11 SECURITY extension. The complete command is

ssh -X -t USERNAME@fe.noctua2.pc2.uni-paderborn.de ssh -X noctua2