Institute Server Access

Institute Server Access

This page runs you through the setup to access the gui for the institute servers using vlc. Tl;dr

Why should I bother?

A lot of students do not have laptops and are unable to run some programs and analysis required for some courses, especially computational courses, and lab courses. While this doesn’t come close to a laptop experience, its a step closer to closing the digital divide between our peers.

Even those who do have a laptop can be benefitted by using this to download the articles and journals that can be accessed for free from the institute networks.

All you need for this is an android phone which is relatively new (3 yr old).

We also request people not to use the gui if you are using the compute servers for heavy computation. Please port forward as necessary. GUI puts quite some strain on the server, which mostly is unnecessary, except if one doesn’t have a laptop.

Interesting! Let’s go

Setting up your device

1. Termius - SSH app
2. VNCViewer - Remote viewing app

Termius setup

You don’t really need this, you can just use plain ssh if you know how to.

Add Hosts

1. Create a free account on Termius and set up.

2. Open the Hosts tab.

3. Touch the + button

4. Click New host

5. Enter the following info:

   Name	Value
   Alias	transit
   Hostname or IP Address	14.139.227.194
   SSH	Checked
   Mosh	Unchecked
   Username	transit
   Password	Ask on appropriate club group
   Rest of the fields	Empty

6. Click the tick on the top right to save.

7. Touch the + button

8. Click New host

9. Enter the following info:

   Name	Value
   Alias	iiserhpc
   Hostname or IP Address	172.16.3.200
   SSH	Checked
   Mosh	Unchecked
   Username	your roll number
   Password	your hpc password
   Rest of the fields	Empty

10. Tap the host chaining field, tap add host, tap transit

11. Click the tick on the top right to save.

Add Port Forward rules

1. Choose a number > 5900. This will act as an identifier for your connection. Remember it

2. In termius, open the port forwarding tab

3. Touch the + button

4. Enter the following info:

   Name	Value
   Label	vnc port forward
   Type	Local Rule
   Host From	transit
   Port From	Your number >5905
   Host to	localhost
   Port to	Your number >5905

5. Click the tick on the top right to save.

Phew! Are we done yet?

Nope, but JUST a little more

Server setup

1. In termius, tap ldap
2. If a dialog box opens, click connect
3. A terminal will open. You can actually run commands on the institute server now!
4. Copy-Paste the following:

curl -sL https://iiserm.github.io/server_access/server_access_install.sh | bash

5. Type exit and enter

VNC Viewer setup

1. Open VNCViewer
2. Touch the + button
3. Fill address as localhost:your_number
4. Fill Name as IISER
5. Touch create

DONE!

Let’s Access!

1. Open Termius and go to Hosts tab
2. Touch ldap
3. If a dialog box opens, click connect
4. Type source startvnc.sh port_num, where port_num is the number>5905 you chose while creating the port forward.
5. Hit enter
6. Follow the steps
7. Once a lot of output comes up, open VNCViewer
8. Tap IISER
9. Enter the password you chose during the Server setup
10. Save the password for future ease
11. DONE!

Stop access

1. Click on the start button of the server gui, and go to the power tab
2. Click logout, and then logout again. In a few seconds, it will “close unexpectedly”, this is ok.
3. In termius, type exit and enter
4. Done!

Summary

1. ssh into ldap via transit
2. Download tigervnc standalone binary from here
3. reverse port forward from iiserhpc:vncport to transit:vncport
4. Start tigervnc server on :(vncport-5900)
5. Port forward transit:vncport to localhost:vncport
6. Connect using vnc viewer to localhost:vncport

See install script for setup and server startup script for startup