Remote Graphical Access

We really don't want to encourage this too much since it depends on network performance especialy on slow links. In ORBIT, remote graphical access is a two step process: tunneling from your local machine to the console of the domain you are working on that is followed by tunneling from the console to the node. Assumption is that one is using Linux baseline images and thus ​X Window System (X11) based graphical environment.

Remote X11 Access For Linux

Simply use the -X or -Y flags, e.g. for remote graphical access to node1-1.sb1.orbit-lab.org:

ssh -Y -t sb1.orbit-lab.org ssh -Y -t root@node1-1

If you get an error about ssh keys not matching, you MUST follow the instructions for configuring your ssh keys; you will not b able to do X11 forwarding until this problem is fixed.

Remote X11 Access For Windows

In addition to ssh client, remote X11 access on Windows requires installation of X11 Server. Number of open source or free servers is available including:

1. ​VcXsrv
2. ​Xming
3. ​mobaXterm (includes ssh client)

to name a few.

As an illustration, we will use configuration based on Putty and VcXsrv and connect with remote graphics capability to the node1-1.sb1:

• Install Putty and make sure you can log into ORBIT gateway or console
• Install VcXsrv and make sure it is running say on display 1 (without any applications)
• Start Putty and load the appropriate session
• Configure X11 forwarding under "Connection→SSH→X11":
  • Check mark on "Enable X11 forwarding"
  • Set "X display location" to: 127.0.0.1:1 (note matching display number)
• Save the session
• Open the session to SB1 i.e. connect to the console.sb1.orbit-lab.org
• On the console execute

    ssX -Y -t root@node1-1
  

and connect to the node.

Remote X11 Access For MAC

1. Mac: You must use an X11 capable ssh client such as FIXME, or install a standalone X11 client such as FIXME
   1. Start x11 capable client
   2. SSH to console
   3. SSH to node