Nimrod3

Getting access

Once you have been onboarded, you should be able to authenticate using your University credentials.

rtis-physics-nimrod3.uod.otago.ac.nz can also be reached via its alias: nimrod3.uod.otago.ac.nz.

SSH

  • From a terminal window, connect using SSH:

ssh <username>@rtis-physics-nimrod3.uod.otago.ac.nz

(Or use your favourite SSH client, specifying rtis-physics-nimrod3.uod.otago.ac.nz as the host.)

  • Authenticate using your University credentials.

FastX

FastX is a proprietary commerical remote desktop solution that allows users to run GUI applications or connect to a remote Linux desktop using a web browser on any device. It is a fast, low-bandwidth alternative to X2Go or other VNC solutions.

FastX is conveniently accessed via any modern browser: https://rtis-physics-nimrod3.uod.otago.ac.nz:3300 Alternatively a FastX native client can be used as well.

When running a full desktop, we recommend XFCE as it is the more lightweight window manager.

X2Go

The free & open source remote desktop application X2Go can be used to securely set up a graphical remote desktop session, in order to remotely run interactive GUI tools. X2Go provides much better performance than X11 forwarding or conventional VNC servers on Linux hosts, has inherent security, and supports advanced features (such as audio support).

Please refer to the X2Go website for installation and configuration instructions.

Non-default settings:

  • Host: rtis-physics-nimrod3.uod.otago.ac.nz

  • Login: <username>

  • Session type: choose XFCE as the window manager

Here are a few settings to tweak within XFCE that could resolve some issues we have come across before:

  • under Settings > Screensaver, turn off screen saver, and lock screen

  • under Settings > Power Manager: turn off System and Display power management

  • under Settings > Window Manager Tweaks, > Compositor; disable display compositing

Another problem you may run into: Stuck, suspended X2Go sessions may not get properly terminated, and cause reconnecting to fail. In that case, use SSH to login, and list the current X2Go sessions with x2golistsessions. The second field listed is the session identifier. Use this to terminate the session with: x2goterminate-session <session-identifier>.

MATLAB

In a non-graphical environment, matlab will start the commandline interface. e.g. to run a script: .. code-block:: bash

matlab -nodisplay < MATLAB_job.m

The MATLAB GUI can be remotely started with matlab from within the terminal of a FastX, X2Go or otherwise X-enabled session. To force the MATLAB commandline without the GUI, run matlab -nodisplay;

Additional MATLAB Toolboxes are managed centrally and can be requested to be installed.

MATLAB R2011a

The legacy MATLAB R2011a (v7.12) can be explicitly started with /opt/matlab/R2011a/bin/matlab from an X-enabled terminal (e.g. via FastX or X2Go).

Accessing HCS shares

The sci-physics-space HCS share can also be accessed via the /mnt/sci-physics-space symlink, which will auto-mount the share upon access.

There are a number of ways to mount and access HCS shares as a regular user without needing elevated privileges;

  • There is an HCS automount path set up at /mnt/auto-hcs/. Though the /mnt/auto-hcs/ directory may appear to be empty, when you access /mnt/auto-hcs/<hcs_share> the specified share should get automatically mounted (with the privileges of your logged-in user).

If you are having trouble getting the share to appear, try issuing a kinit first, to re-issue an authorisation ticket.

For storage.hcs-chc or storage.hcs-wlg shares, use /mnt/auto-hcs-chc/ and /mnt/auto-hcs-wlg/ respectively instead.

  • With gvfs/fuse:

    gio mount smb://storage.hcs-p01.otago.ac.nz/<sharename>

    This will by default make the share available for your user at /run/user/<userid>/gvfs/smb-share:server=storage.hcs-p01.otago.ac.nz,share=<share_name>.

  • If you are accessing the server through a graphical user interface, generally the file manager should allow you to access SMB shares. For example, on an Xfce desktop: open File Manager, and in the location bar go to smb://storage.hcs-p01.otago.ac.nz/<share_name>. Select registered user, Enter your University credentials and domain registry if you have a staff account, or domain student for students.