Accessing the SMU HPC Cluster

Overview

Teaching: 15 min
Exercises: 0 min

Questions

• How can I access the SMU HPC cluster from my local machine?

Objectives

• Logging into ManeFrame3/SuperPOD from a local Mac / Windows computer.

To be able to run commands on the M3/SuperPOD from your own machine, you will first need to be able to log in to the M3/SuperPOD. This is known as a remote login.

Open Visual Studio Code, and click on Terminal to open new terminal window:

ssh <your username>@superpod.smu.edu
ssh <your username>@m3.smu.edu

When logged in, you are presented with a welcome message and the following “prompt”:

[username@slogin-01 ~]$

The prompt in a bash shell usually consists of a dollar ($) sign, and shows that the shell is waiting for input. The prompt may also contain other information: this prompt tells you your username and which node you are connected to - slogin-01 is the “login” node.

It also tells you your current directory, i.e., ~, which, as you will learn shortly, is short for your home directory. We will mostly refer to the prompt as just $, i.e.,

$

Let’s enter our first command!

Type the command whoami, then press the Enter key (sometimes marked Return) to send the command to the shell. The command’s output is the ID of the current user.

$ whoami

Key Points