TRACE contains two broad categories of nodes: compute nodes, which handle the production research computing, and login nodes, which are used for managing files, submitting batch jobs and launching interactive sessions. Login nodes are not suited for production computing.
When you connect to TRACE, you are connecting to a TRACE login node. You can connect to TRACE using an ssh client.

Note: To access the login nodes, you much be on the CMU campus network either by being on campus or through the VPN.  See the Computing Services VPN documentation.

See the Running Jobs section of this User Guide for information on production computing on TRACE.

Connect to a command line interface using SSH

You can use an ssh client from your local machine to connect to TRACE using Andrew userID and password.  The hostname is trace.cmu.edu.

SSH is a program that enables secure logins over an unsecure network. It encrypts the data passing both ways so that if it is intercepted it cannot be read.
SSH is client-server software, which means that both the user's local computer and the remote computer must have it installed. SSH server software is installed on all the TRACE machines. You must install SSH client software on your local machine.

Free ssh clients for  Macs, Windows machines and many versions of Unix are available. Popular ssh clients (GUI) include PuTTY for Windows and Cyberduck for Macs. A command line version of ssh is installed on Macs  by default; if you prefer that, you can use it in the Terminal application. You can also check with your university to see if there is an ssh client that they recommend..

Use ssh to connect to TRACE using Andrew userID and password:

1. Using your ssh client, connect to hostname trace.cmu.edu 
2. Enter your Andrew userID and password when prompted.

Password-less ssh to connect to TRACE:

TRACE supports ssh public/private key pair password-less logins.

1. Browse  to :
   
   https://allocations.engineering.cmu.edu
2. Login with your CMU credentials. You'll see a tab on the screen titled, My SSH Public Keys.
3. Click on that tab and enter your public key.

Your key should be installed within an hour of submission.

Using Andrew Kerberos Ticket forwarding to connect to TRACE:

If you are connecting from a system that is using Andrew Kerberos authentication, you can forward these tickets to TRACE and then log in to TRACE without re-entering your password.

To enable this feature, add these lines:

GSSAPIDelegateCredentials yes

GSSAPIAuthentication yes

To your ssh config file in your home directory:

$HOME/.ssh/config