HPC Cluster Getting Started

Who Can Access the ELSA HPC Cluster

Currently, anyone with a TCNJ login and password can activate their account on the cluster. This may change in the future if there is contention for the resource.

How Do I "Activate" My TCNJ Account on the Cluster

Activating your account creates some critical files that are needed before you can use the cluster. This only need to be done once. It estabishes your HPC home directory which is a space for you to store your personal files, programs and their configurations. It also creates SSH keys which are used by to encrypt network traffic between computers.

1. To begin, point your web browser to https://elsa.hpc.tcnj.edu:4200/. This step needs to be done from an on-campus computer (wired or wireless) or from an off-campus computer utilizing the TCNJ VPN.
2. At the elsa login: prompt, enter your TCNJ username
3. At the password: prompt, enter your TCNJ password (the same one you use to access email, Canvas, etc.)
4. Once successful, you should see messages similar to the following (this assumes you haven't set up your account previously).

   Creating directory '/home/hpc/your_username'.
Creating ECDSA key for ssh

5. At the $ prompt, type exit and close the browser window/tab.

You are now ready to access your cluster account using Open OnDemand or an SSH shell.

Accessing the Cluster via Open OnDemand

Once you have activated your account, you can use the web portal to access common functions on the cluster. This web portal is called Open OnDemand and can be accessed at https://ondemand.hpc.tcnj.edu/ from an on-campus (wired or wireless) computer or from off-campus using the TCNJ VPN. Use your existing TCNJ login and password when prompted. To logout of Open OnDemand, you must fully quit your browser.

Accessing the Cluster via SSH

Coming soon

Transferring Files To and From the Cluster

Coming soon