Logging In¶

After getting your account from Research Computing, please navigate to ondemand.boisestate.edu, choose your university as the identity provider, and log in with your university credentials.

Once connected to Borah through OnDemand, you can access a terminal, view your files, access an IDE or Jupyter notebook, and much more! More information about OnDemand.

SSH¶

To connect to the cluster via Secure Shell (SSH) you will need to find/install a terminal application, set up your SSH keys, and be connected to the Boise State network.

Important VPN Notice

You can only connect to the cluster via SSH while on campus or connected to the Boise State VPN. All active university faculty, staff, and student employees have access to Boise State’s VPN service. Students and affiliates can get access per their instructor's or affiliate sponsor's request. Please reach out to the Help Desk to request access or get help using the VPN.

Terminal¶

Your terminal application varies depending on your operating system:

Windows:¶

There are many options, but we recommend MobaXTerm for terminal access on Windows. Go to the MobaXTerm download page and download the “Home” edition of MobaXTerm. This software is an emulator for a Linux shell that will allow you to utilize a Linux shell on Windows. There’s a tutorial available on the MobaXTerm demo page.

Mac and Linux:¶

Mac and Linux both have built-in terminals, just search "terminal".

Setting up your SSH keys¶

Once you have installed or located a terminal, the next step is to set up your SSH keys. SSH keys are tied to a single computer, so if you access Borah from multiple computers (e.g. laptop, home PC), you will need to do this process for each. However, you only need to add keys once for each machine.

Open your terminal (on MobaXTerm select "Start Local Terminal") and check whether you already have SSH keys by listing the contents of the .ssh directory:
```
ls ~/.ssh
```
If you see something like id_rsa (private key) and id_rsa.pub (public key) in that that folder, you already have SSH keys and don't need to regenerate the keys.
Generate SSH keys for your local machine:
```
ssh-keygen
```
This command has many options, including supplying a passphrase to protect your private key, but it is not mandatory. To accept the default settings, press Enter without specifying a filename.

Security Warning

If you do not protect your private key with a passphrase, anyone with access to your computer could SSH to your account on Borah. Do not set up SSH keys on shared computers.

By default, the key files will be stored in ~/.ssh/id_rsa and ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub on your local machine.

Copy your public key. Print the contents of your public key:

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

The output will look something like this:

ssh-rsa XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX= user@localmachine

Select and copy the output.

In your browser, navigate to ondemand.boisestate.edu and log in with your Boise State username and password.
Once logged on to OnDemand, go to "Clusters" on the top toolbar. Click "Borah Shell Access" and you will be able to see the terminal.
On Borah, make a directory in your home called .ssh and open a file called authorized_keys:
```
mkdir -p ~/.ssh
nano ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
```
Paste the public key you copied from your local computer into this file.

Navigating Nano

To exit nano, press Ctrl + X, press Y for yes when asked if you want to save, and hit Enter when it prompts for the filename.
Modify the file and directory permissions so they will be read correctly by ssh:
```
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
chmod 0700 ~/.ssh
```
And that's it—your key is added! To test if it is working, in your local terminal try to SSH to Borah:
```
ssh -XC (your Borah username)@borah-login.boisestate.edu
```
Reminder

If you are off campus, you need to be connected to the VPN in order to access Borah via SSH.

You should now be connected to the cluster!