New account request process for HPC clusters

Introduction

After the cyber attack of 15 May 2020, the HPC clusters of ETH were reinstalled from scratch, access for all existing cluster accounts was blocked and new accounts were no longer created automatically.

We are now introducing a new process for requesting an account for the HPC clusters of ETH. Please note that this change only affects new cluster accounts. For existing cluster accounts that have already been verified, no action needs to be taken.

Timeline

The new process was activated on Leonhard Open on 14 January 2021 and on Euler on 18 January 2021.

Requesting an account for the HPC clusters of ETH

With the new mechanism for requesting a cluster account, the first login of a new user triggers a process that sends a verification code to the user's registered ETH email address. The user is then prompted to enter the verification code and by entering the correct code, the cluster account of the user is created.

An access code has been sent to your registered email address.
Enter the access code at the prompt below.
If you have not received the access code within a few minutes,
then contact us by opening a ticket at
http://smartdesk.ethz.ch

Access code (ending on ******qV):

Prerequisites

For requesting an account for Euler or Leonhard Open, your ETH account needs to have the email service enabled (important for ETH guest accounts) and the alias USERNAME@ethz.ch needs to exist (with USERNAME being your ETH account name), such that the verification code can be sent.

Troubleshooting

In the troubleshooting section, we will document potential issues with the new mechanism and their resolution.

I did not receive the email with the verification code

Please check the spam folder in your mailbox. Maybe the mail has been filtered by your spam filter

Requesting an account for the Leonhard Open cluster does not work for my ETH account

Please note that access to the Leonhard Open cluster is restricted to members of shareholder groups that invested into a share of the Leonhard Open cluster. There are no guest accounts on Leonhard Open. If you are a member of a Leonhard Open shareholder group and your request for a Leonhard Open account does not work, then please contact cluster support.

Requesting an account for the Euler cluster does not work for my ETH account

A request for an Euler account is only required if you use the cluster for the first time. Please clarify if you already have access to the Euler cluster. If this is not the case, then please contact cluster support.

I don't get any prompt to enter the verification code

Certain settings in your SSH config can cause an issue, where you don't get any prompt to enter the verification code after entering your password. Please try again to login to the cluster using the following additional SSH options:

-o PreferredAuthentications=keyboard-interactive -o PubkeyAuthentication=no