BMRC Remote Desktops
A guide to graphical remote desktops at BMRC
OpenOnDemand is now available at BMRC and is the recommended method for HPC resource access. It is much easier than VNC to setup and mange. It allows you access BMRC cluster computing resources via your web browser such as a terminal shell, view cluster job monitoring and applications like Matlab, R-Studio and fsleyes. It functions on desktops, laptops and iPads.
Those less confident of using the terminal command line may find Open OnDemand advantageous.
Access using https://ondemand00.bmrc.ox.ac.uk:12000 from within the Univeristy network and VPN ranges (there's no longer any requirement to be specifically on the FMRIB VPN, though that will still work).
When logging in the password box needs your BMRC password with your BMRC MFA code appended.
There are now generic options to run Remote Desktop, RStudio and Jupyter notebook/lab. It avoids the requirement of creating SSH tunnels for RStudio/Jupyter.
How to use the legacy VNC service at BMRC
Instructions for connecting to the WIN VNC server on BMRC (win001).
We strongly recomment the use of Open On Demand for remote desktop use. These instructions are kept for historical interest
Set up a VNC session on win001
Log into cluster1
ssh win001 vncserver -PlainUsers <BMRC-USERNAME>
This will give you a session number ':N'. Use this to calculate your port number with this formula.
<PORT> = 5900 + <N>
Set up an ssh tunnel for VNC on win001 to your laptop
ssh -L <PORT>:localhost:<PORT> <BMRC-USERNAME>@cluster1.bmrc.ox.ac.uk -t ssh -L <PORT>:localhost:<PORT> <BMRC-USERNAME>@win001.hpc.in.bmrc.ox.ac.uk
You should be asked for your BMRC username and password (First and Second Factors.
Connect with the client on your laptop
On your laptop, in your TigerVNC client, Connection Details, VNC Server:
localhost:<N>
or
localhost:<PORT>
You will be asked for your BMRC username and password. For the password you will give it your password and your second factor together as a single string (no spaces or separators).