Getting access to the cluster

Before you can start using the Donders HPC cluster, there are a number of administrative steps to complete.

Step 1: Complete a pre-form and sign a contract

(ask PI)

• Fill out the form
• Submit your personal info
• Sign the contract

Step 2: Ask for VPN access

(ask the secretary)

• The VPN belongs to Radboud University.
• It is necessary in order to access the cluster and to access its folders.
• You should automatically receive an email to create a Donders account / VPN account.

Step 3: Set up passwords

(ask the secretary)

There are many passwords to set and remember:

• Radboudumc account / email (z-nr)
• Donders account / VPN (E-nr)
• Access to the shared network folders in the cluster - It needs a username and password (not an email). You should receive an email with your username and an initial password. (Note: in the past, this step has gone wrong.)
• Putty + TigerVNC — this is asked when using PuTTY for the first time.

Step 4: Ask for permission to access the data folder

(ask PI)

• This folder is part of the shared network folders in the cluster but it requires separate permission.
• It includes datasets.
• Permission is granted by the PI manually.

Step 5: Enable running interactive jobs on the cluster

(ask the secretary)

• This needs to be done by the secretary. It assigns a U-nr to the user. (Note: in the past, this step has gone wrong.)
• After this is fixed, you should see the following in the cluster terminal:

$ sacctmgr show assoc user=$USER format=user,account,partition,qos
      User       Account        Partition          QOS
----------      ----------       ----------      -------
<your-username>   preclineu                       normal