How to Use NoMachine 4.4

Transcription

1 How to Use NoMachine 4.4 Using NoMachine What is NoMachine and how can I use it? NoMachine is a software that runs on multiple platforms (ie: Windows, Mac, and Linux). It is an end user client that connects to a remote desktop session running on the engineering NoMachine Cluster. Each time you connect to a NoMachine session the user will be given a full CentOS 6.6 Redhat Linux desktop to use. The NoMachine Cluster is a multi-node cluster, and is load balanced between all nodes. Which means when you connect or start a new NX connection the user will be placed on the server (node of cluster) with the most available resources. To give some examples of what can be done from the NoMachine Linux desktop. A user can start Cadence, MATLAB, Mathematica, or even compile written programs then save output to their home directory. Users can connect USB Drives to their workstations and manage files in their home directory. Workstations include client PC's or Mac's as well as Zero-Clients located in various open access labs. The NoMachine cluster is a shared resource between all of the engineering students of UTD. Please keep this in mind when writing large files out to /tmp or processor intensive programs as an example. The NoMachine Cluster is not a research tool to be used on large research projects. This document covers how to use the NoMachine client to connect to the Department of Engineering NX cluster. 1. Open the NoMachine client application. Find NoMachine in the Start Menu and Start the client application. 2.

2 2. The next two screens are informational only. Once you're familiar with the NoMachine client you can check the Don't show this message again button and then click the Continue button to avoid seeing these screens in the future.

3 3. Once NoMachine starts you will need to add a new connection in the NoMachine connection list to access the NX cluster.

4 4. The connection protocol should be set to NX. This is a faster protocol than the SSH protocol but still secure.

5 5. Enter engnx.utdallas.edu as the host to connect to and leave the port at the default of 4000.

6 6. Set the authentication method to Password.

7 7. No proxy is needed so leave the Proxy setting to Don't use a proxy and continue on.

8 8. The last step is to give the connection a name. This is just a name that should be familiar and makes sense to you. Enter a new name or leave the default and then click Done.

9 1. Opening the new connection Highlight the connection server by clicking on it once if not already highlighted then click Connect.

10 2. Enter your login information and click OK. You may wish to save your login information by checking the Save this password in the connection file box.

11 3. Creating your virtual desktop. Highlight Create a new virtual destop by single clicking the icon and then Continue.. You can also double click the connection name to skip the Continue click.

12 4. Note this information screen. will bring up the options screen. You may want to keep this splash screen as a <Ctrl - Alt - 0> reminder about exiting or making screen setting changes once inside the NX Client otherwise check Dont show this message again then click OK.

13 5. On the next screen near the bottom you have the option to select the Window Size used. These are toggle buttons so you can turn on or off the selection by clicking the option a second time. From left to right: (Fit to window) (Resize remote screen) (Full-screen) (Full-screen on all screens) (Minimize) (Change settings). If left unchanged the default is to keep the NX client in a floating window.

14 6. Select the image quality. A quick reminder about image quality. If you are connecting remotely from the internet (depending on your connection speed) you may have degraded screen refresh speeds, and you may want to use a smalled1:4 ratio quality. The images will not be as clear if you chose the lower settings. Clicking Done to start your desktop once you type in your password

15 to unlock your screen. Reconnecting to a running NX Session If you fell like you taking a break or returning to your work later you can easily resume or reconnect to a running NX Session. Please do not use this as an alternative to saving your work. Your work will not be saved it is only left running the back ground. 1. Just closing the Window where the NX Client is running. The NX client will automatically send your session to the background and prep the connection to be resumed later on the server.

16 2. Take the normal steps of Connecting to the NX cluster as stated above and your session will resume.

17 Terminating the connection You may wish to terminate your connection if you are going to be logged off an extended period of time, or you my just want to refresh your desktop to start over on a task from scratch. 1. To terminate or fully log out of your NX session. Click the "Log Out" button which is the green man running next to the system menu pull down then click log out on the following window

18 2. You can also terminate your session through the command line with pkill -KILL -u <netid>. {engnx11:~} pkill -KILL -u netid Common issues connecting to NX for Windows 1. The most common problem that users typically have when trying to log into the NX cluster is due to a full home directory. At least 20 MB need to be free in the user's home directory in order to start an NX session. The total amount of usable space depends on where the home directory is located. There are multiple home directory servers on campus, but the two main servers are engstor and olympus. Olympus is the generally available home directory server for campus. Most undergraduate students will have a home directory on this server. The home directory quota limit is 300MB. Engstor is the home directory file server for the Department of Engineering. Most graduate students and sponsored students will have a home directory on engstor. The home directory quota limit is 1GB. To determine which server your home directory is on run the command echo $HOME {fury:~} echo $HOME /home/eng/n/netid After running the above command, if your home directory starts with /home/eng then you are on the engstor system with the default quota of 1 Gig. If your home directory starts with /home/004 or /home/005 then your home directory is on olympus with the default quota of 300MB. The space available is the total data you own on the entire storage system. This does not only count the space in your home. For example if you moved a 750 Meg file to a friend's temp space where you have write access. It will still count against your quota even though it is not in your home. You will only have 250 meg available to write data into your home directory.

19 2. For users that have a HOME directory which resides on the olympus server please look at the following page. u/ir/howto/quotas/ To check the size of your home directory log into the Giant or Fury server and run a quota command to confirm space used and limit of your home. {fury:~} /sbin/quota -v Disk quotas for netid (uid #######): Filesystem usage quota limit timeleft files quota limit timeleft /home/eng The /sbin/quota -v command will display used and available disk space in kbytes on a Solaris server. The quota and limit fields are the same, this is how much space you are allowed to use total not the remaining space available. Reminder if your quota is full you will not be able to use the NoMachine client to access the one of the NX nodes, but Giant and Fury do not reject connections if your home directory is full. The NX Cluster is using CentOS 6.5, and you can check your quota while logged into one of the NX nodes directly if you wish to do so. Use the following commands to check from CentOS Linux. $ quota -m -A -s {engnx11:~} quota -m -A -s Disk quotas for user netid (uid ######): Filesystem blocks quota limit grace files quota limit grace engstor:/export/home/ 4419M 6144M 6144M Users are not allowed multiple logins simultaneously to the NX Cluster. Unless a user is planning to resume a running session they should terminate their connection first when exiting the NX client. At the end of the semester all connections will be terminated for patching and standard maintenance. The permissions of ~/.ssh should never be altered. SSH will stop working if these permissions are changed. Permission of the.ssh directory in a users HOME directory should be set to drwx or numerically this is equivalent to 700. If by accident these permissions are ever changed they can be corrected by typing this command from a Linux or UNIX terminal when in the HOME directory. {engnx11:~} chmod 700 ~/.ssh