Connecting to the Slurm preview cluster with SSH¶

Important

This page is for the Slurm preview cluster only. To connect to the production Hoffman2 Cluster, use Connecting/Logging in.

The Slurm preview cluster is reached through a different login host:

$ ssh login_id@login.hoffman2.oarc.ucla.edu

where login_id is your Hoffman2 Cluster user name.

The Slurm preview cluster uses a different operating system environment from the production cluster. Your $HOME, $SCRATCH and project directories, if any, are shared with the production cluster, but the system software environment is different and applications are provided from a new location under /u/local/apps.

Terminal and SSH clients¶

Use a terminal application with an SSH client on your local computer:

On Linux, use your preferred terminal application and the system ssh command.
On macOS, use Terminal or another terminal application with the system ssh command.
On Windows, use Windows Terminal, PowerShell, Command Prompt, Windows Subsystem for Linux, MobaXterm, Git Bash, PuTTY or another SSH client.

For general client setup notes, see Connecting via terminal and SSH and Setting up SSH clients for Windows. Use the Slurm preview hostname shown on this page instead of the production hostname when configuring the client.

First SSH connection to the Slurm preview cluster¶

The first time you connect, SSH may ask you to confirm the authenticity of the host. Verify the host key fingerprint before accepting the connection. See Public hosts hostkey fingerprints.

After the host key is accepted and authentication succeeds, your shell prompt should show that you are on the Slurm preview login environment.

SSH configuration example¶

You can add a shortcut for the Slurm preview cluster to your local $HOME/.ssh/config file:

Host hoffman2-slurm-preview
  HostName login.hoffman2.oarc.ucla.edu
  User substitute_your_H2_login_id_here
  ServerAliveInterval 30
  ServerAliveCountMax 5

After saving the file, connect with:

$ ssh hoffman2-slurm-preview

Production and Slurm preview login hosts¶

Hoffman2 login environments¶
Environment	Login host	Scheduler documentation
Production	`hoffman2.idre.ucla.edu`	Computing with Altair Grid Engine on the production cluster
Slurm preview	`login.hoffman2.oarc.ucla.edu`	Computing on the Slurm preview cluster

Use the Slurm preview login host only for the Slurm preview cluster. Commands and software paths may differ from production because the operating system and application stack are different.