After your account has been created you will be given a username and a temporary password to login to the system. There are two methods of logging into the system: SSH and SCP.

Off-Campus Access: The ACG systems are visible from within the UMS networking system, but they are firewalled from outside traffic. In the past, when someone wanted to access the cluster from outside, they would email us to add an exception to our firewall. Now though, there is a better way.

The University of Maine System now has VPN service that is available to anyone with a maine.edu email account. Once connected to this VPN, you can connect to the ACG login nodes and CIFS servers. The URL for the VPN is:

https://vpn.maine.edu

and you can login to it with your maine.edu credentials (what you use for your email and other services).

SSH: terminal access via Secure SHell. 

SSH is a network protocol that allows you to connect to a remote machine in a secure, encrypted way. When you SSH to a machine, you end up with a text-based terminal session that allows you to type in commands and see the output of those commands. 

Whatever OS and SSH client you are using, you can probably combine your user name and the server name into a single string like:

username@katahdin.acg.maine.edu 

Linux, Mac and other (non-Windows): Use a Terminal and run the "ssh" command:

users should have an ssh client already installed. Just run the following command in a terminal:

ssh username@katahdin.acg.maine.edu

where "username" is the username that will be provided to you.

Windows

There are a number of Windows SSH clients. we recommend to the PuTTY program and run it in SSH mode using the same address above to connect. 

After entering the username@katahdin.acg.maine.edu in the Host Name (or IP address) field and enter something like "Katahdin" in the Saved Sessions field, click on the Save button to save this session. This will make it easier for connecting later on.

First login: Changing your password

The first time that you log into your account with ssh, you will immediately be prompted to change your password.  You will be asked for your original password again and then you will need to enter in a new password twice. After this you will be logged out. You will then be able to log into the system with your new password.

File Transfer: getting files to/from your cluster account

There are two ways to transfer data to/from your account on the cluster:

 1. SCP: Secure Copy

 On a Mac you can use Cyberduck or the command line (scp command). On Windows Filezilla (specify port 22 to use scp) and WinSCP are used a lot. On Linux, Windows and with Macs, the command line scp command be used in a Terminal or Command Prompt window.

 Examples of using the command line are:

scp -p file_name username@katahdin.acg.maine.edu:destination/directory

or for a full directory tree:

scp -pr dir_name username@katahdin.acg.maine.edu:destination/directory

First time use warning: if you have a new account and you have not used SSH to login yet you will not be able to use SCP to copy files to the system. This is because the first time you login to the system it will require you to change your password and you cannot do this with an SCP client.

2. CIFS Share: 

If you would like to be able to mount your home directory to a local share, like a Mapped Drive in Windows, via CIFS then please send an email to acg@maine.edu. In the future this will be set up automatically.