Skip to content

First login to the HPC cluster

This page helps you connect to the HPC service for the first time and explains what you can (and cannot) do on the login node.

Prerequisites

Before you connect, make sure you have:

  • An approved access request (account enabled for the HPC service)
  • Your institutional credentials ready
  • An SSH client installed
  • An SSH key pair configured (recommended)

Connection details

You will connect to a login node, which is the entry point to the cluster.

  • Host: login
  • Username: <username>
  • Port: 22

Connect from Linux / macOS

ssh <username>@login

The first time you connect, you may be asked to confirm the host fingerprint. Verify it and type yes.

Connect from Windows

Windows Terminal / PowerShell

ssh <username>@login

PuTTY

  1. Open PuTTY
  2. Host Name: login
  3. Port: 22
  4. Connection type: SSH
  5. Click Open

Check existing keys

ls -la ~/.ssh

Create a new key

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "<your.email@unibo.it>"

Send the public key to administrators

cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

After login: sanity checks

whoami
hostname
pwd

You should be located in your home directory.

What you can do on login nodes

  • Edit code and scripts
  • Compile software
  • Submit and monitor SLURM jobs

What you must NOT do on login nodes

  • Run CPU- or GPU-intensive workloads
  • Launch long computations
  • Train ML models

All heavy workloads must be submitted through SLURM.

Next steps