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:


CCR OnDemand is an easy to use web-based portal that provides users access to CCR's HPC resources without the need to install additional client software or web-plugins.  Users can transfer files, access a shell environment on the cluster front-end login server, launch interactive, and remote visualization sessions, and monitor jobs.  

Login:  https://ondemand.ccr.buffalo.edu

More documentation



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

See this knowledge base article for more details on displaying graphics




Log in using MobaXterm: New Setup

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"



Log in using MobaXterm: Existing/Saved Setup

If you've previously setup the connect to CCR as described above, you can simply double click the name of the session or right-click on it and choose "Execute" to open a new connection to that server.



File Transfer: 

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.  



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