Systems

Guides / documentation for CBL hardware

cbl1 (or cbl1.3me.tudelft.nl)

cbl1 is currently the only CBL workstation. It is a high-end machine that has been configured for batch-processing long-running simulation jobs.

This guide uses cbl1 (the short name) and cbl1.3me.tudelft.nl (the internet name) interchangeably: they mean the same thing.

Quickstart (Windows)

This assumes you already went through the extensive walthrough below and just want to reconnect:

• Open windows terminal
• Run ssh -L 59000:localhost:<your vpn port> username@cbl1.3me.tudelft.nl
• Type in your password (remember, you can't see it being typed in)
• Open VNC viewer on your Windows machine
• Use your VNC password to connect
  • You can reset your VNC password from an SSH terminal with cbl_vnc-passwd

Walkthrough (Windows)

This walkthrough essentially sets up:

• Using ssh to connect a terminal to cbl1
• Launching a personal VNC server on cbl1
• Opening an SSH tunnel to the VNC server
• Using VNC Viewer to connect to the tunneled VNC server

1. Connect to the server with SSH

Note: this assumes you have been given SSH credentials by (e.g.) an admin. Your credentials will be a username + password combo. This combo differs from your general TU Delft credentials. Once you have logged into cbl1.3me.tudelft.nl, you can change your password in the terminal with passwd

All connections to cbl1.3me.tudelft.nl must go via an SSH tunnel. SSH is a standard method for creating a secure connection to a remote machine. By "SSHing" into a server, you gain access to a terminal that can be used to run things on the server (via a command prompt).

You always need an SSH connection to connect to cbl1 - even if you actually want a GUI (e.g. a remote desktop). Later steps in this guide describe setting up a remote desktop via the SSH connection.

• Open a Windows PowerShell window

  • SHIFT + right-click on your Windows desktop

  • Click "Open PowerShell Window Here"

• SSH into the server with your login credentials by typing ssh username@cbl1.3me.tudelft.nl

• Enter your password. Note: you can't see any changes while typing the password in (it's a security feature)

• You should now have an SSH connection to cbl1.3me.tudelft.nl. It will print a welcome message, etc.

• If you only need terminal access, you can stop reading this walkthrough - you're done :smile:

2. Boot a VNC server on cbl1

A VNC client is used to "remote desktop" connect to a VNC server on cbl1.3me.tudelft.nl. Each user runs their own VNC server on cbl1.

• In your SSH session (established above) run cbl_vnc-start. If necessary, type a new VNC password. You can change the password later with cbl_vnc-passwd.

• The cbl_vnc-start command should, before completing, print some help documentation. From this, you need to rememeber:

  • The VNC password you set
  • this is different from your SSH password
  • It is limited to 6 characters
  • It does not need to be secure, because your VNC connection always goes via your (secure) SSH connection
  • The VNC server's port, printed in the terminal (e.g. 6901)
  • The cbl_vnc-start should print this in a large banner, or some explanation text

• A VNC server is now running on cbl1. However, it is hidden behind cbl1's firewall, which only permits SSH connections.

3. Setup a SSH tunnel to the VNC server

cbl1 only allows external connections via SSH. All services (e.g. VNC) must connect via an SSH tunnel. This step sets up a tunnel through the SSH connection through to the VNC server you booted in the previous step.

• Exit the SSH connection to cbl1 that was used in previous steps by either:

  • Typing exit in the terminal (to exit the SSH session)
  • Pressing CTRL+D to interrupt+exit the terminal
  • Closing the Powershell window

• Open a new SSH session to cbl1 with tunelling enabled by running the command below (note: <your VNC server port> is printed during the previous step):

ssh -L 59000:localhost:<your VNC server port> username@cbl1.3me.tudelft.nl

# example: ssh -L 59000:localhost:6901 adam@cbl1.3me.tudelft.nl

• You should now have a new SSH session open that looks exactly like the previous one. It is essentially the same, but now also tunnels any connections to localhost:59000 on your machine to <your VNC server port> on cbl1.

4. Install + setup VNC client on your machine

• Download a VNC client. I used VNC Viewer, from here

• Other VNC clients (e.g. Remmina) also seem to work, but I only tested with VNC Viewer on Windows

5. Use the client to connect to the VNC server via the tunnel

• In your VNC client, connect to localhost:59000, which is the local-side of your (opened in the previous step) SSH tunnel to your VNC server (also a previous step) on cbl1

• If you receive warnings about connection security (e.g. encyption) you can ignore these. The connection between the VNC client and localhost:59000 is insecure, but local (to your machine). The actual data is transported via the (encrypted) SSH tunnel, which is secure - the VNC client doesn't "know" that's whats happening.

• Use your VNC password when connecting to the machine with the VNC client.

  • Note: you can change your password in the SSH session with cbl_vnc-passwd

  • Note #2: VNC passwords are usually max. 6 chars, so your usual password might've been truncated

• Once connected, you should see a (somewhat rough-looking) Linux desktop

You're done! woohoo! :smile:

Hardware

High-end (in 2020) consumer-grade hardware. Specs: Ryzen9 3950X (16-core processor), 32 GB RAM (16 GB swap), GeForce2080 RTX, Samsung NVMe 1 TB SSD hard drive.

More details can be found from a terminal (e.g. SSH):

cat /proc/cpuinfo  | head
processor   : 0
vendor_id   : AuthenticAMD
cpu family  : 23
model       : 113
model name  : AMD Ryzen 9 3950X 16-Core Processor
stepping    : 0
microcode   : 0x8701013
cpu MHz     : 2195.876
cache size  : 512 KB
physical id : 0

lspci | grep -i vga
0b:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation TU102 [GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Rev. A] (rev a1)

cat /proc/meminfo
MemTotal:       32874652 kB
MemFree:        12174576 kB
MemAvailable:   22365668 kB
Buffers:         1182340 kB
Cached:          8620264 kB
SwapCached:       479168 kB
Active:         14064448 kB
Inactive:        4162512 kB
Active(anon):    7577676 kB
Inactive(anon):  1010192 kB
Active(file):    6486772 kB
Inactive(file):  3152320 kB
Unevictable:         208 kB
Mlocked:             208 kB
SwapTotal:      16383996 kB

lspci | grep -i ssd
01:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd NVMe SSD Controller SM981/PM981/PM983

df -h | grep '/$'
/dev/nvme0n1p2  938G  164G  727G  19% /

Software

Barebones Ubuntu 20.04 install. python is assumed to be the scripting language that most people will use. For biomech-specific software, opensim, scone, and opensim-moco are currently installed.

CBL-specific scripts have also been put onto the system. These are always prefixed with cbl_ and are generally ad-hoc quality-of-life scripts (e.g. reset VNC, reset password).

cbl1's firewall has been configured to only allow inbound connections to the SSH server. If you need to host anything (e.g. a webserver, VNC server, etc.) clients will only be able to access those services by tunneling via an SSH connection.