Accessing the System

The Campus Cluster can be accessed via Secure Shell (SSH) to the head nodes using your official University NetID login and password. Generally, Unix/Linux based systems have an SSH client by default, however desktops/laptops running versions of Windows prior to Windows 10 version 1803 do not. There is third party software available for Windows users to access the Campus Cluster. Please see this non-exhaustive list of SSH clients that can be used to access the Campus Cluster.

Below is a list of hostnames that provide round-robin access to head nodes of the Campus Cluster instances as indicated:

Hostname to access Campus Cluster head nodes

Access Method	Hostname	Head Node
SSH	cc-login.campuscluster.illinois.edu	namehN (ex. cc-login1,golubh1)

SSH

A variety of SSH-based clients are available for accessing the Campus Cluster from your local system. There are two types of SSH clients, clients that support both remote login access and data transfers, and clients that support data transfers only.

SSH clients

SSH Client	Remote Login	Data Transfer	Installs On
MobaXterm is an enhanced terminal with an X server and a set of Unix commands (GNU/Cygwin) packaged in the application.	Yes	Yes	Windows
SSH Secure Shell allows you to securely log in to remote host computers, to execute commands safely on a remote computer, and to provide secure encrypted and authenticated communications between two hosts in an untrusted network.	Yes	Yes	Windows
Tunnelier is a flexible SSH client which includes terminal emulation, graphical as well as command-line sftp support, and ftp-to-sftp bridge, additional tunneling features including dynamic port forwarding through integrated proxy.	Yes	Yes	Windows
PuTTY is an open source terminal emulator application which can act as a client for the SSH, Telnet, rlogin, and raw TCP computing protocols and as a serial console client.	Yes	Yes	Windows Linux Mac OS
FileZilla is a fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTPS, and sftp client with lots of useful features and an intuitive graphical user interface.	No	Yes	Windows Linux Mac OS
WinSCP is an open source free sftp client, FTPS client, and FTP client for Windows. Its main function is file transfer between a local computer and a remote computer. Beyond this, WinSCP offers scripting and basic file manager functionality.	No	Yes	Windows

See the Storage and Data Guide for information on transferring files/data to and from the Campus Cluster.

Network Details for Illinois Investors

The Campus Cluster is interconnected with the University of Illinois networks via the Campus Advanced Research Network Environment (CARNE) and is addressed out of fully accessible public IP space, located outside of the Illinois campus firewall. This positioning of the Campus Cluster outside the campus firewall enables access to regional and national research networks at high speeds and without restrictions. This does mean, however, that for some special use cases where it is necessary for Campus Cluster nodes to initiate communication with hosts on the Illinois campus network (e.g., you are hosting a special license server behind the firewall).

You will need to coordinate with your department IT pro to ensure that your hosts are in the appropriate Illinois campus firewall group. Outbound communication from Illinois to the Campus Cluster should work without issue, as well as any communications from the Campus Cluster outbound to regional and national research networks.