Connecting to High-Performance Computing Systems

Learn how to connect to NREL's high-performance computing (HPC) systems.

NREL Employee on NREL Device

If you are an NREL employee using an NREL device and you are on the NREL network, then you can use secure shell (SSH) to get a shell on NREL HPC systems in the NREL HPC Data Center. In order to have access to a specific system, you must be a member of a project with an allocation on it.

Windows

You will need to install an SSH client.  Some free options include PuTTY, the Windows Subsystem for Linux, Powershell, Git Bash, Microsoft Visual Studio Code, and Cygwin.

For all except PuTTY or VS Code, use your SSH client to run the command:

$ ssh username@<hostname>.hpc.nrel.gov

For PuTTY, follow the detailed instructions for using <hostname>.hpc.nrel.gov as the host name.

For VS Code, please refer to the VS Code documentation for the Remote SSH Extension.

Mac or Linux

Use the built-in Terminal app to run the command:

$ ssh username@<hostname>.hpc.nrel.gov

Not an NREL Employee and/or Not on NREL Device

If you are not an NREL employee or not on an NREL device, you need to use one of the following methods, which use two-factor authentication. In order to have access to a specific system, you must be a member of a project with an allocation on it.

First, you will need to set up your account for two-factor authentication. See multifactor tokens. 

Prerequisite Software

Windows

You will need to install an SSH client. Some free options include PuTTY, the Windows Subsystem for Linux, Powershell, Git Bash, and Cygwin.

Mac or Linux

Use the built-in Terminal app.

Command Line Access

For command-line access to an HPC system, please use the following hostnames for ssh:

kestrel.hpc.nrel.gov – Kestrel SSH Access for NREL employees on the NREL network. See Kestrel cluster user documentation (GitHub).

kestrel.nrel.gov – Kestrel SSH access for external (non-NREL) user access outside of the NREL network.

swift.hpc.nrel.gov – Swift SSH Access, must be connected to the HPC VPN or the SSH Gateway. See Swift cluster user documentation (GitHub).

vs.hpc.nrel.gov – Vermilion SSH Access, must be connected to the HPC VPN or the SSH Gateway. See Vermilion user documentation (GitHub).

Non-Command Line Access

For non-command line access (for example, visualization and web apps) you should connect to the HPC VPN.

Visualization

FastX (GitHub) is available for HPC users to use graphical applications on Data Analytics and Visualization (DAV) nodes on Kestrel.

Also, see Visualization and Analytics Software Tools (GitHub).

If you will need to connect to an X11 application running on an HPC resource, an X11 Server application is required. 

In general, with an SSH client and X11 server running, connect with the -Y switch before running your application:

$ ssh -Y username@<hostname>.hpc.nrel.gov
$ glxgears