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GSISSH

The RSA One-Time Password is the preferred way to log in to Kraken since it is the most secure and it allows access to the NICS HPSS without further authentication. When this method is unavailable, GSISSH can be used as an alternative.
More information on myproxy and grid authentication may be found here.



TeraGrid Portal

The simplest way to access Kraken is to use the SSH terminal on the TeraGrid Portal

  • Go to the XSEDE Portal, and log in
  • Go to My TeraGrid -> Accounts, and connect to Kraken
  • A Java applet should load, and you should see the Kraken prompt

Standalone Java Terminal

You can use myproxy with a similar method:

  • Start the Java client, available here. By default, myproxy.teragrid.org uses your TeraGrid password, myproxy.ncsa.uiuc.edu uses your NCSA password. The applet runs in your browser, the "Web Start Version" starts a standalone Java GUI.
  • Go to File -> New Connection, and type kraken-gsi.nics.utk.edu in the pop-up box.
  • An authentication window pops up, enter your username and password for the TeraGrid portal or NCSA as appropriate (it may look at your local username and try to guess).
  • You should get a prompt. File transfer is available under the Tools menu.


Logging in using using Globus

To Install a Globus Client

  • Linux, Unix, Mac: If you already use a POSIX environment, you could install a Globus client on your machine, which would allow you to use GSISSH as you would use SSH. You can try the beta installer for the TeraGrid Client Toolkit (TCT). Some versions of Linux require some tweaking, this should be described in the README, there have also been some issues with Mac OSX, apparently due to a bug in the existing SSH. If you wish, you may also see the old instructions. If you have any issues with this, let us know.

If you have installed a client with the previous step, or you are coming from a system that already has Globus installed (eg, another TeraGrid site), it is easy to use the client. First, get a proxy certificate as described here.

If TeraGrid certificates are not already taken care of (eg your computer), you need to use the -T flag with myproxy-logon, which downloads all of the TeraGrid certificates to ~/.globus/certificates. If certificates are already taken care of for you (eg any NICS resource), do not use -T as it will prevent gsissh from looking in the site-wide location for certificates.

Next use "gsissh kraken-gsi.nics.utk.edu" to connect to the resource you wish to use. If the resource you are trying to connect to accepts GSI authentication, it will log on. If not, it will probably fall back on another authentication method (prompting for an OTP passcode). At NICS, the GSI nodes (eg kraken-gsi.nics.utk.edu) accept GSI authentication, other nodes only accept OTP authentication.