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Accessing CREATE HPC

Secure shell (SSH) access to the login nodes is available to access the login nodes both inside and outside the KCL network. To access CREATE HPC you will need:

Preliminary steps for all operating systems

  1. A pair of SSH keys: (MacOS and Linux or Windows).
  2. To have added the public part of the key to the e-Research portal

Connecting to CREATE HPC using ssh on Mac OS and linux

Take note

  1. When you connect for the first time, make sure the host fingerprints match ours. You can find our hosts' fingerprint at https://docs.er.kcl.ac.uk/CREATE/tools/ssh_clients/#host-fingerprints

  2. You will need to authenticate your SSH access on the e-Research portal at https://portal.er.kcl.ac.uk/mfa/.

    • This will need to be done when you first access and then whenever your IP address changes or each week for users with more static IPs.

Assuming your key file is in the default location (e.g. it will be if you followed the Preliminary steps for all operating systems at the top of this page) you will be able to access CREATE by entering the following command in your terminal:

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ssh <your k-number>@hpc.create.kcl.ac.uk

where <your k-number> is replaced with your k-number, e.g. k1234567@hpc.create.kcl.ac.uk.

Using an ssh config file (Mac OS and linux)

A configuration file can also be created which simplifies login, create or edit the ~/.ssh/config file with the command editor ~/.ssh/config and add the following:

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Host create
    Hostname hpc.create.kcl.ac.uk
    User <your k-number>
    PubkeyAuthentication yes
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Using this config file will shorten the access command to: $ssh create

ssh will check the config file and see that to get to the Host labelled create.

Info

Note, that your connection to hpc.create.kcl.ac.uk will be automatically re-directed to one of the two login nodes: erc-hpc-login3.hpc.er.kcl.ac.uk or erc-hpc-login4.hpc.er.kcl.ac.uk. Both nodes should be identical in terms of configuration and available software.

Connecting to CREATE HPC using ssh on Windows

Take note

  1. Before you connect for the first time, make sure the host fingerprints match ours. You can find our hosts' fingerprint at https://docs.er.kcl.ac.uk/CREATE/tools/ssh_clients/#host-fingerprints

  2. You will need to authenticate your SSH access on the e-Research portal at https://portal.er.kcl.ac.uk/mfa/.

    • This will need to be done when you first access and then whenever your IP address changes or each week for users with more static IPs.

Assuming your key file is in the default location (e.g. it will be if you followed the Preliminary steps for all operating systems at the top of this page) you will be able to access CREATE by entering the following command in your command prompt:

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ssh -m hmac-sha2-512 <your k-number>@hpc.create.kcl.ac.uk

where <your k-number> is replaced with your k-number, e.g. k1234567@hpc.create.kcl.ac.uk.

Using an ssh config file (Windows)

A config file can be used in a similar method to on Mac OS and linux machines, this is particularly useful if you want to scp files from a windows machine to CREATE

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Host create
    Hostname hpc.create.kcl.ac.uk
    MACs hmac-sha2-512
    User <your k-number>
    PubkeyAuthentication yes
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Using this config file will shorten the access command to: $ssh create

Info

Note, that your connection to hpc.create.kcl.ac.uk will be automatically re-directed to one of the two login nodes: erc-hpc-login3.hpc.er.kcl.ac.uk or erc-hpc-login4.hpc.er.kcl.ac.uk. Both nodes should be identical in terms of configuration and available software.