ExCL Remote Development

Getting started with ExCL Remote Development.

Roadmap for Setup

If you are new to remote development on ExCL here is a roadmap to follow to set important settings and to get familiar with remote Linux development.

1. Access ExCL

2. Setup SSH: SSH Keys for Authentication | ExCL User Docs

   • Bonus: SSH-Agent and SSH Forwarding

3. Setup Git

   1. Git SSH Access | ExCL User Docs

   2. Setup Git access to code.ornl.gov | ExCL User Docs

4. Setup VS Code Remote Explorer: Visual Studio Code Remote Explorer | ExCL User Docs

   • Important: Make sure to check the setting Remote.SSH: Lockfiles in Tmp.

5. Setup FoxyProxy. This enables access to ThinLinc as well as any other web services running on ExCL systems.

6. Now you are ready to follow any of the other Quick-Start Guides.

Setup FoxyProxy

1. Launch SOCKS dynamic proxy forwarding to the login node using dynamic forwarding with SSH. On Linux or macOS, via the SSH flag -D

    $ ssh -D 9090 <Username>@login.excl.ornl.gov

   or in the ssh config add the DynamicForward option

   DynamicForward 9090

   On Windows, use MobaSSHTunnel to set up Dynamic Forwarding. See Jupyter Quickstart for more information on port forwarding in windows.

2. Setup FoxyProxy Install the FoxyProxy Chrome extension or Firefox extension.

   Setup FoxyProxy by adding a new proxy for localhost on port 9090. Then add the regular expression URL pattern .*\.ftpn\.ornl\.gov.* to forward ThinLinc traffic to ExCL. When available, make sure to check on the Proxy DNS option.

Foxy Proxy Settings

Reminder: You will need to re-do step 1 in Setup FoxyProxy each time you want to connect to ExCL to form the Dynamic Proxy tunnel via SSH to the ExCL network.

Note: If you are on a Mac system, you will need to check on the proxy DNS setting for the ExCL proxy config.