How to access the clusters

The DCSR maintains 2 general purpose clusters (Curnagl and Wally) which are described here. Wally has reached the end of its life whereas Curnagl is a brand new cluster (put in service in May 2021) and, as such, users are strongly encouraged to work on Curnagl. Researchers needing to process sensitive data must use the air gapped cluster Jura.

There are 3 requirements to be able to connect to the clusters Curnagl and Wally:

To be part of a PI project
To be on the UNIL network (either physically or using the UNIL VPN if you work remotely)
To have a SSH client

Step 1: Be part of a PI project

To access the clusters, your PI will first need to request resources via: https://conference.unil.ch/research-resource-requests/. Then the PI must add you as a member of one of his project. Within 24 hours your access should be granted.

Step 2: Activate the Unil VPN

Unless you are physically within the UNIL network you need to activate the UNIL VPN (Crypto). Documentation to install and run it can be found here.

Step 3: Open a SSH client

On Linux and Mac environments, a SSH client should be available by default. You simply need to open a terminal.

Windows users can either use PowerShell if they are on Windows 10, or install a third party client such as PuTTy or MobaXterm.

Step 4: Log into a cluster

where <username> is your UNIL username name. You will have to enter your UNIL password.

Note: we strongly recommend you to establish SSH keys to connect to the clusters and to protect your SSH keys with a passphrase. See Part3 in http://wally-head.unil.ch/courses/pdf/linux_intro.pdf for details.

Cluster	Login command	Example
Curnagl	`ssh -X <username>@curnagl.dcsr.unil.ch`	ssh -X ulambda@curnagl.dcsr.unil.ch
Wally	`ssh -X <username>@wally-front1.unil.ch`	ssh -X ulambda@wally-front1.unil.ch