Windows Compute Intensive Systems

Getting Started

What are the Windows Compute Intensive Systems?

The PSU Windows Compute Intensive Systems are three servers designed for intense computation in the Windows environment.

Accessing the Windows Compute Intensive Systems

What you will need

To get started, you’ll need to have the following:

1. Approval to use the system. Interested users need to request access.
2. Have access to campus internal network.
  1. - You can safely ignore this if you are working on campus.
    - If you are working off campus, you’ll need to connect via the VPN.

Connecting

1. To get started, go to https://apps.oit.pdx.edu and sign in with your Odin account. Once you’re signed in you will be able to access your remote apps.
2. Next you’ll want to click “Research Desktop - VDI”. This will configure and establish a connection to access the Windows Compute Intensive Systems.
3. Once the Windows OS screen loads, you can access the system application software by clicking on the Windows Icon on the bottom left.

Once you successfully login, you’ll have access to the remote cluster.

Step 1 - Login

Step 2 - Click "Research Desktop - VDI"

Step 3 - Click Windows Icon (bottom left) for application Software

Step 4 - Type the application name to search or scroll through the list of applications to launch something.

Disconnecting vs. Signing Off

IMPORTANT: Disconnecting and signing off are two different processes. Disconnecting will stop your connection to the server, but will keep your processes running while you’re offline. To fully end your session, make sure you (step 1) click the Windows Icon, then your name, then sign out. Then (step 2) click the user icon in top right corner and sign out. Lastly, disconnect from the VPN (if applicable).

Step 1: Sign Out of Research Desktop (fully end Windows Intensive Compute session)

Using the Windows Compute Intensive Systems

Networking

For security purposes, the Windows Compute Intensive Systems can only connect the campus internal network. This means it can only access pdx.edu services hosted on campus. The Windows Compute Intensive Systems is ONLY for computational processing; your project shouldn’t need to access anything outside the local network.

Jobs

Running jobs on Windows Server is very similar to running jobs on your laptop with a few exceptions. While your process is running, you can disconnect your session and have your processes running while your offline. When you're finished processing, make sure to Sign Out.

Note: Refer to Disconnecting vs. Signing Off section above for more information.

Software

The following is a list of some of the software that you can access on the cluster:

Scientific and Spacial

ENVI
ArcGIS Pro
PFC2D
PFC3D
AZtec
INCA
Envi-Met
Fire Behavior Simulator
Julia

Math and Statistics

Matlab
RStudio
Mplus Editor
Stata
SAS Foundation
IBM SPSS

Development Tools and Utilities

VS Express for Desktop
PowerShell
Notepad++
PuTTY
WinSCP
PuTTYgen
Google Drive for Desktops

If a particular software is not on this list, you can install it in your home directory and run it from there. If you have software that needs to be installed globally (or with administrator permissions) you may submit a software request to help-rc@pdx.edu.

Need more help?

We have a full team ready to help you with Research Computing related questions. Send us an email to help-rc@pdx.edu. In your email, be sure to include as much information as you can so we can better assist you.

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