General BioHPC Setup

Instructions for logging into BioHPC/Web-Terminal and adding SSH key to your Git profile. The latter is required to clone Github repos from the dorsolab group.

Logging into BioHPC

There are two options for connecting to BioHPC.

• Web Visualization Terminal
• Linux/Mac Terminal

If you're a Windows user and do not want to install the Linux subsystem, use the Web Visualization Terminal.
If you're a Linux/Mac user, you can connect to BioHPC via your local terminal or using the Web Visualization Terminal.

Logging into BioHPC via Web Visualization Terminal

Log into the Portal BioHPC page. Use your Portal username/password (not your UTSW credentials).

Click on Web Visualization under Cloud Services

Download and install TurboVNC

Click on Launch Job

Wait for PENDING

When Completed you should see

Click on Connect with VNC Client.
This will download a file called BioHPCxxx.vnc.
Click on the VNC file to launch your Web Visualization Terminal.

Logging into BioHPC via Linux/Mac Terminal

Open up a Linux/Mac terminal. In the terminal, type

ssh username@nucleus.biohpc.swmed.edu

where username is your individual user account name. Then type in your password to complete the login process. If you have forgotten your password, you can reset it here.

After logging in, go to your individual project folder.

cd /project/SCCC/DOrso_lab/username

In order to download Github repos from the dorsolab group, you must provide authentication in the form of a SSH key. The key is added to your secure profile.

Log into your profile on UTSW's Github page. To login, use your Portal or BioHPC username/password.

Complete instructions to add SSH key to your Github Profile are found here.

You can follow an abbreviated version of it below. To generate a SSH key for your BioHPC account, type

ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "your.email@example.com" -b 4096

where your.email@example.com should be replaced with your UTSW email. After typing in the above command, you will see a few prompts. Press Enter when it ask for the default directory and to save a passphrase - Press Enter at both passphrase prompts.

To view your SSH key, type

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

You should see the following

ssh-rsa ... = your.email@example.com

where ... is a long alphanumeric key that spans multiple lines. Highlight the entire ssh key - starting from ssh and ending with .com - and copy it to the clipboard. Then navigate to the SSH Keys tab in your Profile Settings and paste your key in the Key section and give it a relevant Title.