Frequently Asked Questions

If you can't find what you're looking for on this page, be sure to check the CTBP HOW-TOs before e-mailing ctbp-help. Additional (a bit obsolete) information is located here.

Please see this page. The accounts are distributed by kerberos, so an account on one machine will work on all machines.

The only way to remotely login to the CTBP servers and clusters is to use secure shell (ssh).

Please note that ssh logins to CTBP clusters (ctbp1 and ctbp1m) are allowed only from CTBP network. If you are connecting from outside you have to log in to our gateway, ctbp0.ucsd.edu, first and then to either ctbp1 or ctbp1m.

ctbp.ucsd.edu is the CTBP mail server - you can check your mail there either by login to the ctbp0.ucsd.edu (using ssh) or using web interface.

Login to the mailserver (ssh username@ctbp0.ucsd.edu) and execute this command: rm .forward (or rm /net/home/$USER/.forward). From now on all email addressed to username@ctbp.ucsd.edu will stay on ctbp0.ucsd.edu. To read your email either login to the mail server (ctbp0.ucsd.edu) or use webmail access and use your login name and password to log in. If you want to have your ctbp email redirected to other mailserver - just edit your .forward file.

If you would like to use IMAP access on ctbp.ucsd.edu, simply set ctbp.ucsd.edu as your incoming IMAP server. We do not have SMTP relaying enabled on that machine so you should use the campus wide smtp.ucsd.edu.

Use the passwd username command on ctbp0.ucsd.edu. After a brief delay, the password change should propagate to all of the servers. If it's been a month since your password expired and you have not changed it you will no longer be able to logon and need to reset the password in person - please contact ctbp-help.

See the available software page for a list of the software that is currently installed and some links to the software home pages.

If it's free software, just e-mail ctbp-help @ ctbp.ucsd.edu and let us know what you need and we'll try to get it installed.

The only platform for non-interactive computational work are the linux cluster (ctbp1.ucsd.edu and ctbp1m.ucsd.edu), please see the CTBP Cluster How-To for more information about this resource.

Every user has two directories on the clusters: /home/$USER as home directory and /gpfs/$USER for actually running jobs from.

The current quotas are:

The nightly updated list of quotas per user can be found here.

If your project temporarily requires bigger disk space allocation please email ctbp-help with a request to enlarge your quota,

Please see SGE How-To for more information.

Since no connection from outside of UCSD network are allowed on the cluster you need to set up a tunneling connection from your remote host to ctbp0.ucsd.edu and from there to ctbp1.ucsd.edu:

1. Open a terminal window on your remote computer and type:

ssh -f -N -L 2020:ctbp1.ucsd.edu:22 user@ctbp0.ucsd.edu

this will log you in to ctbp0.ucsd.edu and open an ssh tunnel to ctbp1.ucsd.edu

2. Then actually copy the file:

scp -P 2020 file_to_copy.tar localhost:

this will prompt you for your ctbp1.ucsd.edu password and will proceed with copying your file to ctbp1.ucsd.edu

ssh -f -N -L 2022:ctbp1:22 username@ctbp0.ucsd.edu

This sets up secure tunnel to ctbp1 through ctbp0. Then you can login directly to ctbp1:

ssh -p 2022 localhost

Essentially, the same method is used as above. If you get the following error:

channel 2: open failed: administratively prohibited: open failed
ssh_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host

try using IP addresses instead of host names.

Open Terminal.app and use:

ssh -f -N -L 2022:132.239.16.158:22 username@132.239.16.142

In this example, 132.239.16.158 is ctbp1 and 132.239.16.142 is ctbp0.

This sets up secure tunnel to ctbp1 through ctbp0. Then you can login directly to ctbp1…

In Terminal.app:

ssh -p 2022 localhost

You can also use various sftp/scp GUI apps such as Fugu and Cyberduck and connect by using localhost as the host name and 2022 as the port.

This page show how to setup a tunnel using putty.