Accessing PBIC
Each user, on being given an authorised login account, is restricted to logging into one central frontend machine. Users can login using their standard University usernames and passwords.
For PBIC the main frontend machine you should login to is called:
pbic.bham.ac.ukPlease note that the only access permitted to this machine through the firewall is via the SSH protocol (port 22). This means that only programs that use ssh (such as PuTTY or WinSCP) or that can tunnel over ssh (such as Hummingbird Secure Shell) can access PBIC.
There are several different ways that you may want to connect to pbic.bham.ac.uk
Connecting from a Windows PC
Running remote commands using ssh
If you only need to run commands at the command line and do not need any graphics, then you can connect to PBIC using an SSH client program. The one we recommend is called PuTTY and can be downloaded here free of charge. This is a simple binary file. Once you have downloaded and saved it on your local PC, double click to run it and enter "pbic.bham.ac.uk" in the 'Host Name' box as the name of the remote machine you are trying to connect to. Click on the 'Open' button. You will be prompted for your University ADF username and password. If it is the first time you are connecting to PBIC you may get a message box popping up informing you that the remote server's host key is not cached in the registry. Say 'Yes' to this so you do not get this message popping up each time you connect.
Copying files using scp
If you need to copy files between the PBIC cluster and your local PC, then you can run an SCP client program. For this we recommend a program called WinSCP which can be downloaded here free of charge. Once you have downloaded and saved the setup file, you will need to run it to install WinSCP on your local PC. Following this, when you run the WinSCP program itself you will have a similar menu to the PuTTY program. As above, you will need to enter the name "pbic.bham.ac.uk" as the name of the remote machine to connect to, and your username and password.
Graphical access using VNC
If you need to run graphical programs (such as any of the neuroimaging tools) then you will need to run software on your PC that is capable of displaying remotely generated graphical output. For this we recommend running SSVNC. The client part of this software can be freely downloaded. Further details about running SSVNC can be found here.
Connecting from a local Linux desktop (e.g. BIL machine)
If you are connecting from a Linux computer then by default most of the ssh connectivity tools that you need to connect from your Linux machine to the PBIC workstations should already be installed on the machine. You can use "ssh" to connect directly from a terminal window on your local machine to PBIC:
ssh -X username@pbic.bham.ac.uk
The -X option allows graphical output to be sent back to your local Linux machine.
You can use "scp" to copy files to and from your local machine to PBIC
scp localfile username@pbic.bham.ac.uk:remotedir/
In addition, graphical programs should just work, with graphical output appearing on the local Linux machine. It is also possible to use a VNC connection from your local Linux desktop. Follow the instructions here for initially setting up a VNC server session on pbic.bham.ac.uk. From a BIL machine, to connect to a VNC server session open a terminal window on the local desktop and type:
vncviewer pbic.bham.ac.uk:XX
where XX = the VNC session no of the remote VNC session.
Connecting from a Mac