You can connect for the first time via SSH from another ECMWF platform.

$> ssh aa
# or for users with no formal access to HPC service:
$> ssh ecs

See also HPC2020: Persistent interactive job with ecinteractive if you wish to customise the resource limits of your interactive session.

Upon logging in, please take a look at the message of the day displayed on the login nodes (or review /etc/motd). 


If you have not changed your password since 18 January 2021, password access may not work.

External access

If you are using Teleport, a chained ProxyJump could be configured as an interim measure. Below is a suggested entry which you need to place in your End User Device's ~/.ssh/config. It also includes the settings for X11 forwarding and to avoid your connections to drop after a period of inactivity. Note you must set your ECMWF username in the User option

Host aa aa.ecmwf.int ecs ecs.ecmwf.int
    User yourusername
    ForwardX11 yes
    ForwardX11Timeout 0
    ServerAliveInterval 60
    TCPKeepAlive yes
    # Temporary extra jump through ecgate until direct access is sorted
    ProxyJump shell.ecmwf.int,ecgate


If you wish to have passwordless access, you will need to add the following entry to your ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on the Atos HPCF:

cert-authority ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQC2QE49QKUUtlB4dakthb8yEV+oURpP6tZ4OtYNvItXRopxehywR2Dckx/FU4hAM3kMC2seG1bKZLCiSAK1srRwFZcc5QjWyNd7DzJerwe2jTy09/fFWPVB4cHA1UfQwhs/8s0Cl/pMIddpDYy1sGUzndX82L6C9DcnNKJcFyFpZnjTHpEgX7JWlp30py4aj3d7LgmgqYbng26fl0mWcDjV1R8rC6xz0IpZ50AzTAxk9ZWObOBNRq9gp62W6u6UenKuhycnnu4JSKE3mCS/LSGOQ2uvPyecMol4kz+IMvrtm0xqta2c+7wdcZu3tZk+oTCSsTK+9lR3KlF3iDO3XAznclustername=shell.ecmwf.int&type=user

Alternatively, if you have an ssh key pair on your end user device, you could also add your public key into ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on the Atos HPCF for the same effect.


Direct access from outside ECMWF through ECACCESS is not available. You must choose a valid host such as ecgate, and once there ssh into the desired host.

Password-less access from / to other platforms

If connecting from a different platform and to enable password-less connections and transfers between different platforms, you will need to enable ssh key authentication.

  1. Check if you have an existing ssh key pair on other ECMWF platforms:

    $> ls ~/.ssh/id_*
~/.ssh/id_rsa    ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

    If you don't, you may generate them like so:

    $> ssh-keygen                         # press 'enter' 3 more times


  2. Make sure it is added into the different platforms to be used

    If the key was already present in the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file, it will be duplicated.


    $> ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub ecgate
$> ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub cca
$> ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub aa
# or for users with no formal access to HPC service:
$> ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub ecs


  3. Copy also your private key onto those platforms so you can make the connections in both directions:

    $> rsync -av ~/.ssh/id_rsa cca:.ssh/
$> rsync -av ~/.ssh/id_rsa aa:.ssh/
# or for users with no formal access to HPC service:
$> rsync -av ~/.ssh/id_rsa ecs:.ssh/