Summer student induction session
In order to do the necessary computational work we provide you with a networked computer running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.
The aim of this session is to enable you to get logged into that computer and understand a bit about the IoA cluster.
We now give you two pieces of paper related to the account that you will need in order to use that computer. If you are new to the university then you also have a third sheet giving instructions to access your university account
- User Application Form (UAF). Please read this, check the details, sign and return to us.
- Name and initial password and set up instructions for your IoA computer account
- Name and initial password and set up instructions for your university account
NB: You have two accounts, one for the IoA and one for the university, but they have both have the same name. This can lead to confusion.Your account name is some combination of your initials and some numbers. Generally, this is known as a CRSid.
Accessing your IoA account and changing password (essential)
At the login screen, enter the account name and then the password.
If the login is successful, the system should prompt you to change the password. Enter the initial password again and then a new password, twice. If the system does NOT prompt you to change the password then please change the password by using the passwd command.
Accessing your university account for the first time
Follow the steps on the other sheet of paper
This will enable you to:
• Create a new password
• Set up multi-factor authentication (MFA)
With these set up you are then able to:
• Access an online version of MS Office as well as other university provided software
• Connect to the Eduroam WiFi service on any laptop, tablet or smartphone that you own
• Set up the credentials to create an IoA VPN connection to allow you to access the cluster remotely (should you wish to).
Please note that if you are here just for the summer the university would not normally give you an @cam email address.
Your @ast email alias
Unless you are already a student at Cambridge you will not normally have an @cam.ac.uk email address. However we do create an email alias for every member of department (including you!). This will be of the form crsid@ast.cam.ac.uk and any email sent to that alias will forward to the personal email address provided by you (or the @cam address for existing staff and students)
Setting up Eduroam (optional but recommended)
Connecting to Eduroam should be straightforward on any device.
Setting up the IoA VPN (optional)
To access the IoA computers and the IoA intranet from a personal device you will need to set up the IoA VPN (which is actually managed by UIS, the central IT service). Start here.
This is usually straightforward but some flavours of linux can be troublesome.
Connecting to the cluster
From your personal device you can connect to any of the computers listed under Public Compute Servers on this page.
For example, user abc123 wanting to connect to cap001a from their Windows laptop on a command line the command would be:
ssh -Y abc123@cap001a.ast.cam.ac.uk
Free tools such as MobaXterm provide a better experience though.
Software on the cluster
We are now using environment modules to start all new science software packages. A module sets up your environment to run a particular piece of software, so that it finds the correct libraries.
Environment modules make software packages available for you to run and allow you to change versions easily.
You can use the command
module avail
to see what is available. The command
module help
will give the options for loading and unloading different software modules.Your supervisors can give more information about what software you will need to use.
Note that you do NOT have root or sudo access to any IoA computer. If you need help installing software then please email the IT helpdesk.
Storage space
Your home directory has a modest capacity of 5GB which is intended for ‘valuable’ files such as code. This directory is backed up frequently. If you need extra storage for data, simulations, etc then you can request this via the helpdesk. You will be allocated some storage on /data/CRSid (replace CRSid with your actual CRSid). Please note that this data is NOT backed up.
Printing
Your nearest printer is in the Kavli Building and called kavli-copier. It (and all the other printers) can be accessed from your desktop PC and from your laptop by following the instructions here. Responsible printing is free.
Common pitfalls and gotchas
Home directory exceeding quota. if you exceed your quota then a graphical login will fail with no error message being produced. To resolve this issue you can either:
1. Use ssh to connect to the network and then remove some files or
2. Email helpdesk@ast.cam.ac.uk for help.
No VPN connection when trying ssh remotely. The computers in this room form part of our network. Your laptop does not. It has to connect to the IoA VPN first in order to access an IoA computer.
IT Support
The IT helpdesk is located in Room 42 of the Hoyle Building. You can either visit IT there or email helpdesk@ast.cam.ac.uk.
IT can support you if there are issues with your computer or your account. We cannot provide debugging support for your code. For any issues with your research then please talk to your supervisor.
If you need IT support then please take a moment to provide as much useful information as possible. This may include the name of your computer, the name of your account, screenshots or copy/pastes of any error messages.
Useful links
The IoA public facing site particularly the computing pages.
The IoA Intranet.
The UIS (central computing service) webpages