Access and Login

Owned by Holger Nitsche
Last updated: Oct 02, 2023 by Rohde
2 min read

Apply for Access

To access our systems you need to be member of an active compute-time project at PC2. You can apply for a compute-time project via https://pc2.uni-paderborn.de/hpc-services/our-services/system-access-application . If there already is a compute-time project that you want to be added to as a member you should do one of the following

  • If you are a member of Paderborn University, please contact the principal investigator (PI) of the compute-time project and ask him/her to add your account to the project.

  • If you are not a member of Paderborn University, apply for a user account via Application for a user account.

Easy Access for Employees

If you are an employee of Paderborn University, you can also get a limited amount of resources each month on Noctua 1 without a formal application (the above-mentioned compute-time project). These resources are limited monthly, personal and not bound to a compute-time project, and refreshed at the beginning of every month.

To request access, log into the IMT Service Portal, navigate to "Benutzerverwaltung" → "Additional Services / Weitere Dienste" and activate "HPC Easy Access (PC2)". Please note that the approval process can take several hours.

How to Access

Overview

We offer different routes to access our cluster systems. All require that you are either in the university network (wired or wireless) or use the VPN connection. For more information on how to set up the latter, see https://upb-pc2.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PC2DOK/pages/1903406 .

User

VPN needed

SSH Authentication

User

VPN needed

SSH Authentication

Member of Paderborn University

  • no, when connecting from university network (wired or wireless)

  • yes, otherwise

  • ssh-key-based recommended

  • password-based possible

External user

yes

  • ssh-key-based only

System

Jump-Host

to get to login nodes

System

Jump-Host

to get to login nodes

Noctua 1

fe.noctua1.pc2.uni-paderborn.de

ssh noctua1

Noctua 2

fe.noctua2.pc2.uni-paderborn.de

ssh noctua2

SSH Authentication

For SSH authentication, you should use ssh-key-based authentication. Instruction on how to create an ssh-key can be found at hpc wiki. Only keys that are password-protected are allowed to be used in the context of PC² cluster systems.

  • For users from Paderborn University, we also allow password-based authentication but recommend against it.

  • External users must use ssh-key-based authentication for security reasons. If you have not yet deposited a key, please send us the public key of your SSH keyring to pc2-support@uni-paderborn.de. We can then install it for you.

For practical information on how to use ssh to log in to our clusters, e.g., how to modify your .ssh/config, see https://upb-pc2.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PC2DOK/pages/1903462 .

Additional Access Options

We offer additional ways to access our cluster systems:

  • via Jupyter Hub (including web-based remote terminal and remote desktop functionality)

  • through certain applications that support it like, e.g., Visual Studio Code or MATLAB

  • via export servers for access to data on the parallel file systems

Further information