Connecting to Triton

Most of the information on this page is also available on other tutorial sites. This page is essentially a condensed version of those sites, that will only give you a recipe how to quickly set up your machine and the most important details. For more in-depth information, please have a look at the linked pages for each section.

There are three suggested ways to connect to Triton, as detailed in the table below, with more info found at the connecting tutorial.

Method	Description	From where?
ssh	Standard way of connecting via command line. Hostname is `triton.aalto.fi`. More info. >Linux/Mac: `ssh USERNAME@triton.aalto.fi` >Windows: WSL+Linux/Mac instructions or use Powershell, which works very similar to linux shell.	Connections only from Aalto networks (VPN, most wired, internal servers, `eduroam`, `aalto` only if using an Aalto-managed laptop, but not `aalto open`). `kosh.aalto.fi` is a good proxy host if you are outside: `ssh -J USERNAME@kosh.aalto.fi USERNAME@triton.aalto.fi`
VDI	“Virtual desktop interface”, https://vdi.aalto.fi, from there you have to `ssh` to Triton (previous row) and can run graphical programs via SSH. More info.	Whole internet
Jupyter	https://jupyter.triton.aalto.fi provides the Jupyter interface directly on Triton (including command line). Get a terminal with “New → Other → Terminal”. More info.	Whole internet
Open OnDemand	https://ood.triton.aalto.fi, Web-based interface to the cluster. Includes shell access and data transfer. “Triton Shell Access” for the terminal. More info.	VPN and Aalto networks
VSCode	Available via OpenOnDemand (row above). Desktop-based “Remote SSH” allows running on Triton (which is OK, but don’t use it for large computation). More info.	Same as SSH above

Get an account

First, you need to get an account.

Connecting via ssh

Prerequisites

This section assumes that you have a basic understanding of the linux shell, you know know, what an ssh key is, that you have an ssh public/private key pair stored in the default location and that you have some basic understanding of the ssh config. If you lack either of these, have a look at the following pages:

Setting up ssh for passwordless access

The following guide shows you how to set up the ssh system to allow you to connect to Triton from either outside of the Aalto network or from within using an ssh key instead of your password. In the following guide USERNAME refers to your Aalto user name and ~/.ssh refers to your ssh config folder. (On Windows, you can use GIT-bash, which will allow you to use linux style abbreviations. The actual folder is normally located under C:\Users\currentuser\.ssh, where currentuser is the name of the user). First, create the file config in the ~/.ssh folder with the following content, or add the following lines to it if it already exists. Instead of kosh you can also use any other remote access server (see Remote Access)

Host triton
    User USERNAME
    Hostname triton.aalto.fi

Host kosh
    User USERNAME
    Hostname kosh.aalto.fi


Host triton_via_kosh
    User USERNAME
    Hostname triton
    ProxyJump kosh

Next, you have to add your public key to the authorized keys of both kosh and Triton. For this purpose you have to connect to the respective servers and add your public key to the authorized_keys file in the servers .ssh/ folder.

# Connect and log in to kosh
ssh kosh
# Open the authorized_keys file and copy your public key.
nano .ssh/authorized_keys
# Copy your public key into this file
# to save the file press ctrl + x and the confirm with y
# afterwards exit from kosh
exit

Now you do the same for Triton by using our defined proxy jump over kosh.

# Connect and log in to kosh
ssh triton_via_kosh
# Open the authorized_keys file and copy your public key.
nano .ssh/authorized_keys
# Copy your public key into this file
# to save the file press ctrl + x and the confirm with y
# afterwards exit from Triton
exit

Now, to connect to Triton you can simply type:

ssh triton
# Or, if you are not on the aalto network:
ssh triton_via_kosh