Available Clients

Access to the HPC systems is possible via an SSH (Secure Shell) client. Under Linux, Mac and recent Windows 10 versions, a command-line SSH client is pre-installed and available via Terminal/Console/PowerShell.

MobaXterm (Windows)

If you want to have a graphical user interface, you can use third-party clients like MobaXterm. We do not recommend using PuTTY due to limitations in the available SSH configuration.

Installation notes

After downloading and installing MobaXterm, it is recommended to change the default temporary home directory to a persistent home directory. Go onto Settings -> Configuration -> General -> Persistent home directory and choose a location for your home directory.

Per default, your ssh configuration will be placed in this directory in the .ssh folder.

SSH Key generation

There are two possible ways to generate an ssh key: either use the graphical interface MobaKeyGen or use the command line to generate an ssh key.

Open the graphical tool by going to Tools -> Network -> MobaKeyGen (SSH key generator). As the type of key, either use rsa with a length of 4096 bits, ecdsa with 521 bits or EdDSA with 255 bits (1). Click on the Generate button (2). Move your mouse to generate some randomness. Select a strong passphrase in the Key passphrase field for your key (3). Do not leave the passphrase empty!

Save your public and private key files (4). Copy the public key directly from the tool (5) and paste it into the HPC Portal as described here.

Configuring connection settings

Help for the general configuration of MobaXterm is available in the official documentation. Here, only specifics on how to connect to the NHR@FAU systems are shown.

Click on the Sessions button to start a new session. Select SSH on the second screen. Enter the full hostname of the cluster frontend you want to connect to, e.g. alex.nhr.fau.de. Specify your HPC username as listed in the HPC portal under Your accounts -> Active accounts.

In Advanced SSH settings, check the Use private key box. Select your previously generated private key (e.g. <keyname>.ppk).

The next step is only necessary if you are connecting from outside the FAU university network. Go to network settings -> SSH gateway (jump host). In the window that opens, specify csnhr.nhr.fau.de as the Gateway host and your Username and SSH key as previously. Confirm by clicking OK.

Confirm the session configuration by clicking OK. You should now be successfully connected to the specified cluster frontend.

Your previous sessions are saved and can be accessed via the menu entry Sessions -> User sessions or in the left sidebar.