Technology for accessing ARC systems remotely (off-campus)

The following resources are available to help you bring your university work to you. These are based on information provided at the ITS Remote Resource guide.

Connect to university research resources: A U-M Virtual Private Network (VPN) is required to access all ARC services including Great Lakes HPC Cluster, Armis2 HPC Cluster, Lighthouse HPC Cluster, ThunderX Cluster, ConFlux, and Yottabyte Research Cloud (YBRC). Be aware that performance may be slower due to the different internet capacity of home networks.

Alternatively to VPN, use secure shell (SSH) to login.itd.umich.edu, and then SSH again to appropriate ARC resources. To use login.itd.umich.edu, you must have AFS storage. Follow the command line documentation for the specific ARC resource:

Access research data storage: Contact ARC at arcts-support@umich.edu to arrange alternative access to your data if you cannot access data stored on Turbo Research Storage, Locker Large-File Storage, or Data Den Research Archive if you cannot use your usual method.

Data transfer: For reliable file transfers with or without VPN, use Globus File Transfer to access your research data. Globus is supported on the Great Lakes HPC Cluster, Lighthouse HPC Cluster, ConFlux, and the ThunderX Cluster. For other systems continue to use scp/sftp or other supported transfer. Contact arcts-support@umich.edu for help.

Michigan Medicine VPN: Most ARC services are accessible from the Michigan Medicine VPN. Known exceptions are Yottabyte Research Cloud (YBRC) and CIFS exports on Turbo or Locker storage services.

If you are using the Michigan Medicine VPN and you cannot access ARC resources, try disconnecting from the Michigan Medicine VPN, and then connecting to the U-M VPN. If that does not work or you have questions, contact ARC at arcts-support@umich.edu.

Great Lakes On-Campus Queue: Log in to the on-campus login node to access the software provided there. The usual access off-campus restrictions will be temporarily lifted to match the regular, Great Lakes HPC Cluster queues.

Connect to OSiRIS (Open Storage Research Infrastructure): Use the U-M Virtual Private Network (VPN) to access the OSiRIS infrastructure management tasks. Log in via your previously federated accounts to access this page. More information can be found on the OSiRIS wiki page. Email osiris-help@umich.edu for help.

General tips for conducting research remotely:

  • Set up and test a Virtual Private Network (VPN) if you anticipate having to work remotely.
  • Alternatively to VPN, use login.itd.umich.edu to SSH to ARC services. Review the instructions to provision your AFS storage space required to access login.
    • Protected health information (PHI) cannot be used on login.itd.umich.edu.
    • Data cannot be moved via login.itd.umich.edu, but it can be used as a jump host. (A jump host is a system on a network used to access and manage devices in a separate security zone.)
  • Set up a Globus Personal Connection for data transfer to you local computer.
  • For easy re-establishment of your SSH connections to greatlakes, Armi2, or Cavium-ThunderX, use tmux or screen utilities. If the VPN breaks your connection, you can reconnect later.

More information about connecting remotely can be found in the ITS Remote Resource Guide.