How to remotely (and
securely) log onto SCE Linux Machines
The
School of Computing and Engineering maintains
several open labs that students can use to do their homework, research,
etc. We also maintain a number of Linux machines that are
available for remote login. These are generally used for specific
classes that do their assignments un a UNIX / Linux platform.
Access to those machines is only available through an encrypted login
(a secure shell) that encrypts all information that passes between the
remote user and the Linux machine.
To access these machines, you will need a secure
shell client program, available for free from at least 2 sources:
- http://sce.umkc.edu/~cotterr/SSHSecureShellClient-3.2.9.exe
- http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/
(I recommend the first,
however both will work. The department lab machines sre currently set up with PuTTY. Examples below will be based on ssh.)
Once you have downloaded and installed the client,
you are ready to remotely log into our machines. (If you are logging in
from outside the UMKC network, you will also need the University VPN
client software - available at: http://www.umkc.edu/is/support/services/VPN/. The VPN
client must be installed and running before you open ssh.) When
you open the secure shell client, you will get a window similar to the one below:
To
log onto a remote machine, select the "Quick
Connect" button. That will open up the dialog box shown
below:
As
shown above, enter in the domain name (or IP address) of the target
machine, as well as your UMKC single sign-on account name. (For CS420
students, please use the domain names shown in the email sent to you.) Leave
the Port number and Authentication Method fields with their
default values. When you select the "Connect" button, the client will
attempt to establish a connection to the remote machine. If this
is the first time that your local machine has connected to this remote
machine, you will see a dialog box that displays the public key of the
remote machine and asks if this is ok. In general it is safe to
select "Yes". This should bring up the password box shown
below. You should enter your single sign-on password.
If your password is verified, you should then have a
terminal window onto the remote machine. By default, you will be
logged onto your own personal directory ( of the form /home/xyzs8r ). At this point
you can execute Linux commands.
If you wish to upload files from your local machine
to the remote machine (for example if you have built a source file on
your local machine and wish to move it over to the Linux machine),
under the "Window" menu item,
select "New File Transfer in Current
Directory".
This will open up
another window that will allow you to move files between your two
machines securely and simply.
When
you have completed your work on the remote machine, you may terminate
the connection by selecting the "Disconnect" menu item under the "File"
item, or simply close the windows.
Bob Cotter
Last updated 8/30/2012