Hippu consists of two HP ProLiant DL580 G7 servers (OS: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 6, 64-bit, 1 TB memory) and two HP ProLiant DL785 G5 servers (Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5, 64-bit, 512 GB). When logging into Hippu (hippu.csc.fi), by default one connects to one of the two G7 Hippu nodes (hippu3.csc.fi or hippu4.csc.fi), depending on their load.

To log in, normally one has to first access a local workstation (at university or some other site on the Internet) and then use an SSH program to connect to Hippu (hippu.csc.fi):

ssh hippu.csc.fi

ssh hippu3.csc.fi

It is recommended to use the new servers. It is possible (for the lifetime of the servers) to connect to each server directly, (e.g. to hippu1.csc.fi), if necessary.

If your user id on Hippu is different from your user id on the local computer, you must give your user id on Hippu as option to the ssh, e.g.:

ssh hippu.csc.fi -l user_id

or

ssh user_id@hippu.csc.fi

Your password on Hippu will then be asked.

After displaying the prompt, Hippu is ready to execute your commands.

ssh hippu

A SSH program must be used to connect to Hippu as well as to all the other CSC systems, because SSH creates a secure connection ensuring proper authentication and user and data privacy.

There are plenty of free versions of SSH programs, e.g., PuTTY SSH (Unix / Windows), OpenSSH (Unix), or TeraTerm SSH (Windows). These can be obtained from:

http://www.putty.org/

http://www.openssh.com/

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/

http://ttssh2.sourceforge.jp/

It is recommended to download the latest version.

If you are using an X terminal or an X server program, you can establish an X Window System connection to the Hippu directly. A X Window System connection to the Hippu system through an SSH connection running in local xterm is established by typing (the option -Y for ssh enables trusted X11 forwarding):

localhost% xterm -e ssh -Y hippu.csc.fi

The encrypted SSH connection takes care of all the necessary environment settings.

The Hippu provides the usual system services needed for program development and the preparation of the production runs, e.g., the compilers.