Connecting to Sandia HPC Platforms

For a list of the current Sandia platforms, with links to documentation, please see https://computing.sandia.gov/platforms. Access to these pages require authentication with your username@spectrum.llnl.gov and the 1-day Kerberos password obtained at https://lc.llnl.gov/getkrbpw/.

Note: New users may be required to complete a Sandia HPC training module before they can log in.

Classified Access

Login to a classified LC machine as usual.
Authenticate with Kerberos credential forwarding.
kinit -f
When prompted, enter your LC password.
SSH to the Sandia classified machine where you have an account using your Sandia userid. Example:
ssh -l sandiauser cayenne.sandia.gov

If everything is working, you should be logged in without entering a password.

Copying Files between LLNL and Sandia Classified Machines

After logging in to a classified machine at either site, and authenticating with kinit -f, you can use FTP or SCP. The FTP command is parallelized and will preauthenticate you to Sandia machines. The SCP command works as usual. For example, copying thisfile from LLNL to thatfile at Sandia:

scp thisfile sandiauser@lynx-s.sandia.gov:thatfile

Beyond simple FTP/SCP, optimized Tri-lab file transfer scripts are available, including file transfer to storage systems. These scripts use hsi, htar and pftp protocols. For details see Tri-lab high bandwidth file transfers over SecureNet.

Unclassified Access

Connecting to an unclassified Sandia machine from LLNL is a complicated, multiple-step process involving several different hosts and authentication methods, as described below.

Generate a 1-day Kerberos password.
- Go to the LLNL Web page at https://lc.llnl.gov/getkrbpw/
- Authenticate with your LC user ID, PIN, and OTP.
- Save the 16-character Kerberos password for step 5 below.
Login to an unclassified LC machine as usual using your LC user ID and OTP.
SSH and login to Sandia's unclassified gateway machine srngate.sandia.gov using your Sandia user name. For example:
ssh -l joesandia srngate.sandia.gov
When prompted for a password, enter your Sandia CRYPTOCard password.

Connect to unclassified machines from srngate.

After logging into srngate, you will be presented with a menu as shown below.

   Welcome joesandia to the ssh gateway

              1 -  ssh session
              2 -  kinit Acquire kerberos credentials
              Q -  Quit

   Enter a selection from above:

Select option 2

You will then prompted for a password. Enter your LLNL Kerberos password generated in step 1 above.

The ssh gateway menu will appear again:

   Welcome joesandia to the ssh gateway

              1 -  ssh session
              2 -  kinit Acquire kerberos credentials
              Q -  Quit

   Enter a selection from above:

Select option 1
Log into an unclassified Sandia machine
- When prompted, enter the machine you wish to access. Note that you must have a valid account on this machine. When prompted for user name, just hit return. You should then be automatically logged into the machine you chose. For example:
```
System Name: serrano
Username [joesandia]: 
```

Copying Files between Unclassified LLNL and Sandia Machines

The Sandia iHPC nodes mount local file systems, including home directories and parallel scratch file systems. This makes copying files between LLNL and Sandia unclassified systems relatively easy:

Login to an LLNL unclassified machine and authenticate locally using kinit -f and your LLNL credentials.
Use scp to copy files to/from LLNL. No password is required. For example:
Copy thisfile on LLNL machine to thatfile on Sandia machine:
scp thisfile sandiauser@ihpc.sandia.gov:thatfile
Copy thatfile on Sandia machine to thisfile on LLNL machine:
scp sandiauser@ihpc.sandia.gov:thatfile thisfile

Without using the iHPC nodes, file transfers aren't quite as simple, because of the srngate gateway. FTP and SCP from LLNL to a Sandia cluster is impossible, and FTP from Sandia (and all outside sources) into LLNL is not permitted. The only choice is SCP from the Sandia machine to an LLNL CZ machine. To do this, you must first log in to your Sandia machine as described above. Then, use SCP as usual. For example:
Copy thisfile on Sandia machine to thatfile on LLNL machine:
scp thisfile llnluser@cab.llnl.gov:thatfile
Copy thatfile on LLNL machine to thisfile on Sandia machine:
scp llnluser@cab.llnl.gov:thatfile thisfile

Help at Sandia

Email: HPC-Help@sandia.gov
Phone: Call HPC OneStop at 505-844-9328
Web: computing.sandia.gov