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Remote shell and file transfer (SSH/SFTP)

A shell account refers to a text-mode interface where commands can be run interactively. All OCF accounts include shell account access. You can access your shell account over an encrypted connection in the OCF lab or remotely via SSH/SFTP.

We support the following commonly used shell account tools (to name a few):

  • Subversion, Git, and Mercurial: version control
  • cron and at: execute commands on a periodic or scheduled basis
  • vim and emacs: powerful and extensible text editors

Most SSH/SFTP clients will prompt you to accept an unknown key when you first connect. Our SSH fingerprint can be used to verify that you're connecting to the correct server:

1024 SHA256:xz0N4OqJtabwVvdAy6AvmXSG/Ct1cVyoSv7Ag75eYg8  tsunami.ocf.berkeley.edu (DSA)
1024 MD5:7e:19:bc:fd:b5:cd:5c:e3:42:a4:a5:74:eb:ce:5d:2e tsunami.ocf.berkeley.edu (DSA)
256  SHA256:h6Rnqg1tyl6VMFrotrR+DSnNW6DF8wQylVllkp03DIw  tsunami.ocf.berkeley.edu (ECDSA)
256  MD5:a2:4b:d5:17:43:2e:a7:ea:50:d7:ab:1f:63:45:a9:6c tsunami.ocf.berkeley.edu (ECDSA)
256  SHA256:queQQ1NML1znAVQTaYirF/R5WKEVSAPnRXjEVQug7Xw  tsunami.ocf.berkeley.edu (ED25519)
256  MD5:c6:dc:62:4f:51:8b:b1:c3:72:cf:d4:63:65:92:6f:2d tsunami.ocf.berkeley.edu (ED25519)
2048 SHA256:X5sl/Pw8Knjl4evLlFyC9kkq02aVZjaIIsubMN/NZ8s  tsunami.ocf.berkeley.edu (RSA)
2048 MD5:55:0a:e3:4f:4b:2c:15:f8:d4:7d:f9:93:bf:a0:41:21 tsunami.ocf.berkeley.edu (RSA)

SSH​

Your shell account can be controlled remotely using SSH. The server name is ssh.ocf.berkeley.edu (tsunami).

From your browser​

If you just need to access SSH quickly, you can use our web-based SSH interface from your web browser.

Mac OS X or Linux​

On Mac OS X or Linux, enter in the terminal:

ssh username@ssh.ocf.berkeley.edu

Windows​

On Windows, use PuTTY (download the putty.exe file):

  • Host Name: ssh.ocf.berkeley.edu
  • Port: 22

Mosh​

We also support Mosh, an SSH alternative with improved support for laggy or roaming connections:

mosh username@ssh.ocf.berkeley.edu

SFTP​

You can transfer files to your account using SFTP. To transfer files you can use the command line utility sftp, or a graphical program such as FileZilla (Linux, Mac, Windows), WinSCP (Windows), or Cyberduck (Mac, Windows).

Otherwise, use the following information in your SFTP client.

  • Protocol: SFTP (or SSH)
  • Host Name: ssh.ocf.berkeley.edu
  • Port: 22

Disk quotas {disk_quotas}​

Currently, accounts are limited to 5 GB of disk usage under the home and web directories. You can check your disk usage by running quota -v over SSH or [[from your browser|commands]].

Unattended processes {unattended_processes}​

You are welcome to run unattended processes on the OCF. However, you are ultimately responsible for ensuring that your unattended processes do not unduly interfere with others’ ability to use the shared computing resources.

In particular, if you are going to run a batch job which may require a lot of computing power, you are advised to run it under nice and/or ionice to lower its CPU priority and I/O priority respectively. OCF staff reserve the right to terminate or otherwise decrease the resource usage of processes which are consuming too many resources.

If you’re trying to run a webapp or other kind of server process on the SSH login server (ssh.ocf.berkeley.edu), please note that the SSH login server is firewalled and what you’re trying to do unfortunately won’t work. If you’re a group and you’re trying to run a webapp, you may want to consider apphosting instead.