Network requirements
The workshop will be delivered through the Zoom Video Conferencing and interactive X sessions (FastX). The minimum network requirements to participate successfully in the workshop are 1.5 Mbps bi-directional (download and upload speed; you can check your network speed for example here).
Attending Q&A sessions - remote connections
TBA
NRAO Computing Resources
If you have requested NRAO resources for your tutorial work, you should have received email from us with your temporary NRAO account. Here are details on how to connect to the resources.
FastX is a commercial product that provides remote access to Linux systems by giving you a full graphical interface within your browser. No software is required on your machine except the browser. This service is available from anywhere that has a reasonable internet connection.
A note of caution however. You should avoid accessing this service from public machines such as at hotels or conferences as these machines are highly likely to be compromised and will record your login credentials.
Point your browser https://ssh.aoc.nrao.edu:3443/. You will be prompted for a username and password. This should be your NRAO username you received from us and your Unix password.
Once logged in you should be seeing screen as such one:
Click on the Launch Session button. Make sure that if you have Pop Up blocked enabled it is switched off for this window (the new session will be opened in a new tab or window of your browser). You have now two options as detailed below. Please note, at present the KDE sessions are extremely slow and we are investigating this issue. You may still try it, and it may work for you, but if it seems stuck, please just proceed with the Xterm session (option 2)
Option 1 (KDE)
Choose KDE from the sessions options, and click Launch. If you want to work on more than one session, choose Multiple instead of Single, but please note that the connection may be very slow.
Once the KDE session is open (in separate window or tab), you should see screen like this:
At this stage what you need to do is the following. Open a terminal or konsole (right-click and choose the app). Once it opens, type ssh -X nmpost-0xx (use the actual node name you were assigned instead of xx); you may be prompted again for your password.
Option 2 (Xterm) - currently preferred
Choose Xterm on nmpost-master from the sessions options, and click Launch. The session will open in a separate tab/window; you should see a white terminal window on a black background. In the terminal window type ssh -X nmpost-0xx (use the actual node name you were assigned instead of xx).
In the terminal window type the following (the lines will start with something like nmpost025$). To open the right software for your tutorial type the following commands highlighted in bold below.
For ALMA tutorials (this will open CASA 5.6.1-8):
nmpost0xx$ casa
For VLA tutorials (this will open CASA 5.5.0-149):
nmpost0xx$ casa -r 5.5.0-149
For AIPS tutorials:
nmpost0xx$ aips tv=local
When prompted to choose a printer just hit Enter on your keyboard. Hit enter on your keyboard again, and now you should see the following text:
AIPS 1: Enter user ID number?
Type any number larger than 1. Remember that number as this is your AIPS session number where your workspace will be, and all your files will be stored as you work through the tutorial.
To exit CASA just type:
exit()
To exit AIPS type:
kleenex()
To close your FastX session(s) return to the main tab/window of your FastX, click on the image with the session you want to close, and either hit X in the right top corner of that image, or select Terminate through the Actions button.
To exit FastX completely, click on your username in the top right corner of the window, and select Sign Out.