Login via SSH

You can securely access your account and data from home via SSH. An active internet connection is required.

Connecting to the university network

To securely (i.e., encrypted) transfer data between your home computer and the university, the SSH protocol is used. It is available for all common operating systems (Linux, macOS, Windows).

Use the following server as your entry point:

ssh.mathematik.hu-berlin.de

Use your usual username and password to log in.

Important: Do not run compute-intensive programs (e.g., Matlab) on this login server. Please use the designated compute servers alpha, beta, eta, zeta, or theta instead.

Setting up SSH access

SSH stands for "Secure Shell" and provides secure terminal access. It is preinstalled on Linux and macOS systems. Windows users can download PuTTY.

Example login:

ssh yourusername@ssh.mathematik.hu-berlin.de

Once logged in, you can work in the terminal, start programs (non-graphical or graphical via -X with X forwarding), and access your files. Use exit to log out.

Running compute-intensive applications

For compute-intensive tasks, please use one of the following dedicated servers:

• alpha
• beta
• eta
• zeta
• theta

First connect to a login server, then to one of the compute servers:

ssh -X yourusername@alpha

Keeping programs running in the background

To prevent programs from terminating when your SSH connection is interrupted (e.g., due to network issues or closed terminal windows), use a terminal multiplexer like GNU Screen or tmux:

Option 1: Screen

screen -S mysession

To detach: Ctrl + a, then d
To reattach:

screen -d -R mysession

Option 2: tmux

tmux new -s mysession

To detach: Ctrl + b, then d
To reattach:

tmux attach -t mysession

To list all sessions:

tmux ls

Other options

• Byobu: a user-friendly interface for screen and tmux
• nohup: run processes detached from the terminal: nohup ./myprogram &
• disown: remove processes from the current shell session

Transferring files

The following tools are available for transferring files:

• scp: scp file user@server:targetpath
• sshfs: mount your home directory directly
• Konqueror/Dolphin: access via fish:// protocol
• WinSCP (Windows): graphical file transfer tool

scp example

scp yourusername@ssh.mathematik.hu-berlin.de:important/diplom.ps ./diplom.ps

To upload a file:

scp ./diplom.ps yourusername@ssh.mathematik.hu-berlin.de:important/

sshfs

sshfs yourusername@ssh.mathematik.hu-berlin.de: ~/my_uni_home

To unmount:

fusermount -u ~/my_uni_home

Graphical access on Linux

In the Dolphin file manager, use the following address:

fish://yourusername@ssh.mathematik.hu-berlin.de/

WinSCP

For Windows users, WinSCP provides a simple Explorer-style interface to access remote files.