Axon is a Beowulf style cluster where a scheduler, in this case Slurm, is used to submit compute tasks, called jobs, to one or more nodes in the cluster. Jobs are submitted to the cluster via the login node (axon.rc.zi.columbia.edu) as show in the example below.
The login node (axon.rc.zi.columbia.edu) is not for computation only preparation!
The login node is for preparation of compute jobs, please don't run any cpu intensive tasks on the login node. Compute intensive preparation can be done via Slurm interactive jobs on the compute nodes.
Connecting via SSH
SSH (Secure Shell), a secure protocol to used primarily to connect to Linux servers, is the way to connect Axon to submit jobs. Connecting via SSH is typically done from the command line interface such as Command Prompt in Windows or Terminal on the Mac and running the command ssh as shown below. Windows users: SSH was only added to Windows 10 recently, so if you're somehow using an older version of Windows 10 a third party program such as Putty or MobaXterm is required to connect.
➤ ssh aa3301@axon.rc.zi.columbia.edu aa3301@axon.rc.zi.columbia.edu's password: Last login: Fri Dec 27 15:35:33 2019 from adm.rc.zi.columbia.edu [aa3301@axon ~]$
The login node is only accessible from wired connections inside the Columbia Morningside campus, secure wifi or the CUIT VPN at this time. While the login node is not currently accessible from the Internet, it is accessible from most parts of the Columbia so you can ssh from another host which is available on the Internet such as other HPC login nodes or Cunix.