Connecting to HPC (On Campus)

This guide details how to connect to HPC facilities whilst you are connected to one of the Newcastle University networks (i.e. you are connected to Newcastle WiFi, or are physically connected via an ethernet cable in your office or lab space).

• Connection Details - Our connection details common to all SSH clients
• Linux and Mac OS - Configuring SSH client applications on Linux or Mac OS
• Windows - Configuring SSH client applications on Windows
  • Windows 10 / 11 SSH Client
  • PuTTY
  • Mobaxterm
• Advanced SSH Topics

To understand how to connect to our HPC facilities whilst you are away from Newcastle University (i.e. at home, whilst travelling) please see our Connecting to HPC (Off-Campus) guide. You are strongly encouraged to have read and understood this On-Campus guide first.

The connection details for our HPC facilities are listed in the table below:

Note: Your Newcastle University IT account is normally of the format n1234 (for staff) or b1234567 (for students). You do not need to use your email address.

No special configuration is needed to access Rocket from a Linux or Mac OS client. Use the standard command line ssh application as you would for any other unix server you wanted to connect to.

Requirements:

• Membership of an existing HPC Project
• Completed the HPC Driving Test
• Your Newcastle University username and password
• SSH client (e.g. OpenSSH or similar)

Example command line to connect to Rocket (user your real username; normally of the form n1234):

$ ssh n1234@rocket.hpc.ncl.ac.uk

Example command line to connect to Comet (user your real username; normally of the form n234):

$ ssh n1234@comet.hpc.ncl.ac.uk

When prompted, enter your normal University password. An example command line ssh login to Rocket is shown below:

$ ssh n1234@rocket.hpc.ncl.ac.uk
n1234@rocket.hpc.ncl.ac.uk's password: 
Last login: Fri Mar  7 14:10:09 2025 from 10.1.2.3
 
Your Lustre usage is:  1.91M
 
/nobackup is 94% full
[n1234@login02 ~]$

The standard SSH client for Linux and Mac OS can be configured to work whilst off-campus. See our Connecting to HPC (Off-Campus) guide for more details.

Until recently an SSH client was not supplied as standard with Windows operating system, though this has changed with later versions of Windows 10, and now 11. Common applications that our users run to connect to HPC services include PuTTY and MobaXterm.

PuTTY in particular should be available to all users as an installable option from within Software Centre, but is limited in that it does not have a built in file transfer component, nor native X11 (graphics) forwarding facility. Many people prefer to use Mobaxterm since it bundles all of these features together.

Requirements:

• Membership of an existing HPC Project
• Completed the HPC Driving Test
• Your Newcastle University username and password
• SSH client (e.g. Mobaxterm, PuTTY, command line SSH in latest Windows 10/11 versions)

We have listed several of the most common Windows SSH connection methods below, but there are many alternative SSH software packages available. We cannot offer support for every variation, but the hostname, protocol and port settings listed on this page should be common to all.

Earlier versions of Windows had no built-in support for SSH, but this changes with Windows 10. Both Windows 10 and 11 have a basic, command line SSH client available. Note that this client does not feature file transfer or X11 display tunneling feature; it is similar to the Linux and Mac OS ssh command in that it only offers a connection/terminal interface.

To connect to our HPC facilities using this utility, you must first open a CMD window and then enter the ssh command with the following syntax:

ssh n1234@HOSTNAME

Where n1234 should be replaced with your University IT account, and HOSTNAME should be the actual hostname of the HPC facility, as listed above.

Examples are shown below for both Comet and Rocket:

When prompted, supply your normal University password.

PuTTY is a SSH client application for Windows. It is very small (a single .exe file) and does not need to be installed. The main putty.exe file only supports connection/terminal interfaces; file transfer and X11 forwarding are not part of the application.

PuTTY is available on most Newcastle University Windows desktops/laptops, as well as theWindows Virtual Desktop. If you don't have PuTTY installed on your Newcastle University device, then please request it via the IT Service desk.

PuTTY can also be freely downloaded direct from the author: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html

Note: The RSE team are not able to install this (or any other) software on your devices.

To configure PuTTY to enter the correct Hostname or IP Address of the required HPC facility as the server name (as listed above) and select SSH on port 22. When you click Open and are prompted for a username please enter your real university username (normally of the form nabc123). See the examples for both Comet and Rocket, below:

When prompted, enter your normal University password.

It is non-trivial to configure PuTTY to work whilst off-campus, and we do not reccomend the use of PuTTY for that specific purpose for our Windows-based users. See the Connecting to HPC (Off-Campus) guide for alternative methods for Windows.

Mobaxterm is an SSH client for Windows with a range of additional functionality, including file transfer, remote X11 application display and more. Mobaxterm is not installed by default on Newcastle University devices, but is available for individual users direct from: https://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/download.html

It should be possible to run the portable version by unzipping it to any directory on your device; it does not need to be installed.

Note: The RSE team are not able to install this (or any other) software on your devices.

First, navigate to the menu bar and open the Sessions menu. Then choose New Session:

To add a session entry select the SSH option from the list of available session types, and then enter the correct hostname of the required HPC facility as the Remote Host (as listed above), tick Specify Username and enter your real university username (normally of the form nabc123)) and ensure that port 22 is set.

See the examples for both Comet and Rocket, below:

When prompted, enter your normal University password.

It is possible to configure Mobaxterm to work whilst off-Campus, see our Connecting to HPC (Off-Campus) guide.

This page is intended to address the basic login / connection requirements of the broadest range of users of the HPC facilities. However if you are interested in learning about password-less logins (key-based authentication) or setting up X11 forwarding for graphical applications, please see our advanced SSH topics areas:

• Password-less authentication using SSH keys
• X11 Forwarding for graphical applications

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