NOTE: You must be on the UB or Roswell Park networks to connect to most CCR servers. If you are off-campus, please use the UB VPN to connect
Access to most CCR servers is only available through SSH or the OnDemand portal. If you do not use the OnDemand portal, you must install a SSH client on your computer. CCR recommends the MobaXterm program for command line and file transfer access and FileZilla for file transfers.
OnDemand portal:
Login: https://ondemand.ccr.buffalo.edu
Command line SSH client:
Windows users can download PuTTY or MobaXTerm for command-line access to the CCR servers. For graphics rendering with putty, use in conjunction with Xming. Instructions for connecting using a PuTTY and Xming combination are available here (Note: use the connection information below in lieu of "ctm.geo.mtu.edu" in the example). To check that the PuTTY/Xming combination is working correctly: launch a putty terminal after separately launching xming as a background task. Now type "xclock" from the putty terminal. If you get a display error, it's not working. If a clock pops up then you know it's working properly.
MobXTerm does not require additional software for graphics rendering and it is, therefore, recommended over PuTTY.
Users must use SSH keys to connect to CCR servers using SSH/SFTP/SCP. Please follow these instructions to upload your SSH key to the CCR identity management portal before attempting to connect to CCR's servers.
Connection information
hostname:
vortex.ccr.buffalo.edu (academic, faculty, and industry cluster front end login nodes)
NOTE: this will log you into one of a pool of nodes: vortex1.ccr.buffalo.edu, vortex2.ccr.buffalo.edu)
transfer.ccr.buffalo.edu (for uploading/downloading data to/from CCR filesystems only)
username:
CCR username
port (specify in FileZilla):
22
SSH key: You will need to point to the location of your SSH private key (see session setup below)
Displaying Graphics:
Check the box next to 'X11-Forwarding' in the session setup if you need to display graphics
Launch MobaXterm create a new session.
1. Click the Session button, then click the SSH icon:
See the highlighted sections in the screenshot above to make sure you enter all the correct info.
2. Enter remote host (server name):
vortex.ccr.buffalo.edu (pool of front end login nodes for the academic, faculty, and clusters)
or
transfer.ccr.buffalo.edu (data transfer node for uploading/downloading data)
3. Click the "specify username" checkbox and enter your CCR username
4. Ensure the port is 22
5. Make sure the "X11 Forwarding" box is checked if you want to forward your graphics
6. Click the "Use private key" box and browse to where you saved your private key ending in .ppk to select it
7. If you'd like to set a name for this session, click the "Bookmark settings" tab and enter a session name.
Click OK and this will launch the session
You should be logged into the system without having to enter your password. This is a one time setup process so now when you go to connect to the server, you only need to double click on the session name or right-click on it and choose "Execute"
If you need to change any settings, right-click on the session name and choose "Edit session"
Users can use the OnDemand Files app or a GUI-based file transfer app such as FileZilla, WinSCP or Cyberduck. All provide a secure file transfer using a drag and drop interface.
- Download and install FileZilla or WinSCP or Cyberduck
- See connection information above
- We provide docs on using SSH keys with FileZilla here. Other documentation for using SSH keys is available from these software vendors on their sites - WinSCP can be found here and Cyberduck here
For large files or large amounts of data to transfer:
Please use the data transfer server: transfer.ccr.buffalo.edu
For the fastest transfer speeds, do not connect to the UB VPN before connecting to the transfer server
NOTE: The data transfer server is not to be used for compiling code or submitting jobs to the cluster. If you have modules sourced in your login files, you will get an error message when you login as modules are not supported on the data transfer server.
CCR also offers a Globus endpoint. Globus allows you to transfer your large data very fast and in a very secure way. To learn how to get started with Globus, please view the following articles:
Connecting to CCR endpoint and browsing files
Creating a share and sharing it with users
Setting up a personal endpoint on a desktop and transferring files
Sharing data through Globus with a non-UB user