Getting Started

This document will help you get started with requesting a user account as well as accessing any of the supported RSS clusters. Please follow all of the instructions to help expedite the account request process.

Get an Account

You need to request an account for using Lewis cluster. Following are the steps to get an account:

Step 1: Open a terminal

Open your favorite terminal app. For our Windows users we recommend MobaXterm.

Step 2: Find or create your SSH Public Key

Find your existing SSH public key with the command cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub. If you don't have a key you will need to create a new SSH Key Pair.

Step 3: Request an account

Fill out the Lewis Account Request Form.

Note: contact us if:

  • You have an account and have any issue to login Lewis (do not resubmit the form)
  • You do not have a University of Missouri System login

Step 4: Check your email

You will get an email from Research Computing once your account is ready.

Logging into Lewis

To log into Lewis, type the following in a local terminal:

ssh <username>@lewis.rnet.missouri.edu

The first time you log in you will see a message like this:

[<username>.<your_computer_name_here>] ➤ ssh <username>@lewis.rnet.missouri.edu
Warning: Permanently added 'lewis.rnet.missouri.edu' (ECDSA)
to the list of known hosts.
Enter passphrase for key '/home/mobaxterm/.ssh/id_rsa':
Last login: Fri Aug 19 13:08:52 2016 from mu-092185.dhcp.missouri.edu
* ********************************************************************
* Welcome to lewis4-r710-login-node223.cobalt.lan, CentOS, 7.6.1810
* Archive of news is available in /etc/motd-archive
* University of Missouri Division of IT Research Computing Support Services
*
...
   <message of the day will appear here>

[<username>@lewis4-r710-login-node223 ~]$

That warning is telling you that you are logging into a computer you have never seen before - it is expected on your first login. The passphrase is the one created in step 3.

Logging into Clark

To log in Clark cluster, you only need a UM username and password. Open your favorite terminal app, for our Windows users we recommend MobaXterm, and type:

ssh <username>@clark.rnet.missouri.edu

Transfer Your Data to the Cluster

There are multiple ways to transfer your data to the cluster. On Windows drag and drop files into your MobaXterm window. For Linux and Mac OS use the rsync or scp commands to copy data to the cluster.

Transfers to/from the cluster that include large files (gigabyte or larger) and/or many files (hundreds or more) will need to use one of Data Transfer Nodes (DTN). Review Data Transfer to learn more.

Next Steps