Accessing your SCS account

Table of Contents

Access to SCS desktop, classroom, and cluster workstations from outside of the SCS network is only allowed by connecting first to either pamd.scs.fsu.edu or to the SCS VPN (Virtual Private Network) server.

Secure Shell (ssh) access

To connect to the pamd server from a Unix, Linux or Mac machine, open a terminal window and type:

ssh userid@pamd.scs.fsu.edu

If your machine does not have an ssh client, you can download one for Macintosh, Unix/Linux, and Windows at the FSU user services web site:

http://sl.us.fsu.edu/free.html

Good ssh clients are also available for a number of platforms at:

http://www.openssh.com/

More information regarding ssh can be found at UsingSSH.

Virtual Private Network Server

The SCS VPN will allow you to join the SCS network even when you are working off campus. VPN clients for Macintosh, Windows, and Linux machines and the instructions to configure the VPN clients are available at:

• VpnSetup

File Transfer Utilities

Secure Copy, scp

The SCP program is a secure version of the RCP ("Remote Copy") command. The command can be thought of as working like a standard Unix cp command, with the additional feature that a username and hostname are part of the file specification. The SCP command automatically prompts the user for the necessary password information when it is time to access a remote machine.

Online documentation can be gotten by typing

man scp

or by typing the scp command without any arguments:

scp

A remote file name includes the username @ the hostname : the directory and filename. For example:

scp username@pamd.scs.fsu.edu:draft.lst

or

scp username@pamd.scs.fsu.edu:resources/forker.c

In an SCP command, the directory information may be omitted, in which case the current or login directory is used. The filename may be omitted when specifying the copy, in which case the name of the original file is used. If no information is specified for the copied file, then a period "." must be specified. A typical SCP command can copy a remote file to the local machine:

scp me@remote_machine:program.f .

(Copies the remote file program.f, making a local copy of the same name.)

scp me@remote_machine:files/prog.c local.c

(Copies the remote file prog.c, making a local copy called local.c)

or you can copy a local file to the remote machine:

scp program.f me@remote_machine:

(Copies the local file program.f to the remote machine.)

scp prog.c me@remote_machine:files/

(Copies the local file prog.c, making a remote copy in the files subdirectory of the same name)

scp prog.c me@remote_machine:files/remote.c

(Copies the local file prog.c, making a remote copy called files/remote.c)

but you can even use the command to copy a file from a remote machine to another place on the same remote machine, or even onto a third machine altogether:

scp me@remote_machine:program.f me@remote_machine:program.f90

(Makes a copy of program.f called program.f90.)

scp me@t3d.psc.edu:program.c me@csit1.fsu.edu:

(Copy program.c from the T3D? at the PSC to the SP3 at FSU.)

Note that the SCP command does not have any way of handling cases where a file is transferred between machines of significantly different architecture. In particular, a transferred text file may have the wrong end-of-line characters for the target machine, a problem that occurs when moving between Macintoshes, PC's and Unix machines. If such problems occur, use sftp instead.

Secure FTP, sftp

The SFTP program is a secure version of FTP ("File Transfer Protocol"). Typically, a user runs SFTP on a local machine, establishes a connection to a remote machine, and then uses put and get commands to move files back and forth.

Online documentation can be gotten by typing

man sftp

or by typing the sftp command without any arguments:

sftp

Here is a typical SFTP session:

sftp pamd.scs.fsu.edu

(pamd will request your username and password information.)

cd project/data

(On pamd, move to the project/data subdirectory.)

ls

(Get a list of the files in the current pamd directory.)

get oldstuff.txt

(Copy the file oldstuff.txt from the pamd to your local machine)

get folder/olderstuff.txt

(Copy the file olderstuff.txt, which is in a subdirectory

from the pamd to your local machine)

lcd ..

(Move up one directory on your local machine)

lls

(List the directory contents of local machine)

put newstuff.txt currentstuff.txt

(Copy the local file newstuff.txt to pamd and rename it currentstuff.txt)

quit

If you have many files to move, the mget and mput commands may help you:

mget *.C

(Make a local copy of all the remote files with extension ".C")

mput file.??

(Make a remote copy of all the local files whose names begin with file. followed by two characters.)

To avoid being asked to confirm every single transfer, you might try issuing the sftp command prompt first.

In some cases, the commands binary and text may be useful, if you wish to transfer binary or text files, especially when the remote computer has a different architecture than the local one. This is especially an issue when transferring text files between a Macintosh or PC and a Unix machine.

Changing Your Default Shell

Please contact ops@scs.fsu.edu to request a different default shell.