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Windows - Using MobaXTerm

Windows - Using MobaXTerm

Overview

This tutorial is describes and demonstrates how to use the ssh client MobaXTerm on a Windows computer to log into an HPC system. By the end of this Tutorial you should be able to know how to find, download and install MobaXTerm on Windows as well as creating a ssh session to a HPC system.

Introduction

MobaXterm, a very handy terminal and ssh tool for Windows that’s incredibly easy to use. MobaXterm offers support for many protocols, such as SSH, VNC, FTP, SFTP and has a tabbed interface for easy access to all of your sessions. MobaXTerm also has X11 forwarding enabled right out of the box for graphical applications when PuTTY requires additional steps to enable X11.

Downloading & Install MobaXTerm

  1. Go to the MobaXterm website.

  2. Click on ‘Download’ and you’ll see two different versions, Home and Professional. The Home edition is free and will work just fine for what we need. You’ll also notice that there will be two Editions of the Home version, Portable and Installer. In our case we’ll use the installer edition.

  3. Once the app is downloaded, extract the compressed file and double click the installer .msi file to open the installation Wizard. Click through the install, accepting the default options.

  4. You can launch the application by double clicking the desktop icon or find the application by searching for it in the Windows search bar.

 

Configure your SSH Key on your Windows Computer

SSH Key Authentication

 

Configuring MobaXTerm for ARCC HPC Login (using ssh password-free authentication)

These instructions assume you already have your ssh key set up correctly and verified your key file configuration by opening a new command prompt window and ssh’ing to the HPC with the following command replacing <username> with your UWYO or ARCC HPC username and <clustername> with the HPC name: ssh <username>@<clustername>.arcc.uwyo.edu. (ex: ssh cowboyjoe@beartooth.arcc.uwyo.edu). If your key is configured correctly, you will be logged into the cluster without having to enter your password or authenticate over 2 factor. If you have not yet set up an SSH key for login to our HPC resources, please see this page.

Once you have the MobXterm application open, you’ll have a number of tools and options available to you:

Start an ssh session in MobaXTerm, by:

  1. Selecting ‘Session’ from the top menu.

    sessions.png

     

  2. This will open up a new “Session settings” window. Click the ‘SSH’ tile.

  3. In the ‘Remote host’ field, enter the fully qualified hostname of the system you want to connect to. For example: medicinebow.arcc.uwyo.edu.

  4. You may specify a username, if you wish.

  5. Click on Advanced SSH settings to bring up options for specifying access to the cluster using a private key.

  6. Check the box to use a private key, then click on the small file icon on the right side of the text box to browse for your key in the location in which you placed it. (usually this is in C:\Users\<yourusername>\.ssh)

  7. Browse to the location of your key file on your computer. Select the id_ecdsa file you downloaded from the OnDemand key manager (not the PUB file).

  8. Click Open.

  9. Then Click ‘OK’ to exit out.

  10. To test the configuration, you should be asked to try and connect. Select the option to do so.

    1. Note that a new entry appears in the left-hand pane under ‘User sessions’ - you can use this as a shortcut to start a new session with your saved host and username. You may right click on this session to start a connection.

    2. If you are prompted for approval to connect to the new connection, choose the affirmative.

    3. If MobaXTerm is configured properly, you should be logged into the cluster without having to enter a username, password, or authenticate using 2 factor.

Graphical Applications with MobaXTerm

The good news is that by default MobXTerm has X11 forwarding enabled. You can turn this on or off as you wish, but there are no additional steps to enable it.

Enabling the Terminal on your Local Windows Computer

If you’re familiar with Command Line Interface (CLI) and utilizing a terminal, you may want to allow one to run on your local windows computer. This is easily done with MobaXTerm.

  1. Set a persistent home directory

    1. Go into MobaXTerm Settings, and choose “MobaXterm Configuration”.

    2. In the General Tab, browse to the directory in which you’d like your “home” directory to launch from.

    3. At this time you can also configure your terminal /root directory.

    4. Once configured, hit OK.

  2. Click on “New Session” in the main window of MobaXTerm when it starts up. You will be prompted for Session Settings.

  3. Choose the Shell option from the options available at the top of the window.

  4. Proceed with default basic shell settings unless you have a preference for a different terminal shell and startup directory.

  5. Next hit the OK button.

  6. You may receive a message that CygUtils plugin is not installed on the system. To install it, go here: https://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/CygUtils.plugin or click the link in the alert window (for security, users should check that the link directs to mobaxterm’s website and domain).

  7. This URL will download the plugin. Open the plugin from your downloads and copy it to the same location as your MobaXterm executable is located.

Summary

In this tutorial we learned:

  • What an ssh client is

  • That MobaXterm has more functionality out of the box than other clients like PuTTY

  • How to download & Install MobaXTerm

  • How to create an ssh session and login to an HPC system

Next Steps

MobaXTerm has a lot more functionality that is beneficial for users including enabling SFTP data transfers while you are logged into an ssh session. Look for more Tutorials on using MobaXTerm with ARCC’s HPC services.

See Also

Logging into HPC from Windows using the Command Prompt