Holland Computing Center STAT802 Create and access Anvil Windows 10 SAS instance 01/23/2017

What is Anvil ? Anvil is the Holland Computing Center's cloud computing resource, based on the OpenStack software Anvil was created to address the needs of NU's research community that are not well served by a traditional batch-scheduled Linux cluster environment Examples of use cases that are well suited to Anvil include: A highly interactive environment, especially GUI applications Research requiring root-level access, such as kernel modification or virtualization work Alternate operating systems, such as Windows or other distributions of Linux Test cluster environments for various software frameworks, such as Hadoop or Spark Cluster applications that require a persistent resource, such as a web or database server

Steps for Anvil access Connect to the Anvil VPN Create SSH keys On Windows On Mac Add the SSH key pair to your account Create an Anvil Windows 10 SAS instance Connect to the Anvil Windows 10 SAS instance

Initial setup If you don’t have an HCC account, please fill the form, http://hcc.unl.edu/new-user-request Install the free Duo Mobile application on your phone or tablet from the Google Play Store, Apple App Store or Microsoft Store If you need help with the setup, please put a red sticky note at the top of your laptop. When you are done with the setup, please put a green sticky note at the top of your laptop.

1. Connect to the Anvil VPN For security reasons, both the Anvil web portal and the instances themselves are not generally accessible from the Internet The Anvil web portal is accessible while on campus, but the instances are not In order to access the Anvil web portal and the instance from on and off- campus, you will need to first connect to the Anvil VPN If you've already connected to the campus VPN service before, you'll already have the Cisco AnyConnect client installed and can use it to connect to Anvil VPN Otherwise, please click the following link,  https://vpn.unl.edu/

1. Connect to the Anvil VPN Cisco AnyConnect client: Click on https://vpn.unl.edu/ Group = Full Enter your Blackboard/Canvas username and password Click on the Login button

1. Connect to the Anvil VPN Cisco AnyConnect client:

1. Connect to the Anvil VPN Cisco AnyConnect client: Save the file in a convenient location Open the file and follow the installation steps

1. Connect to the Anvil VPN Open the "Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client" and connect to anvil-vpn.unl.edu

1. Connect to the Anvil VPN Login with your HCC username and password

1. Connect to the Anvil VPN Login with Duo

2. Create SSH keys OpenStack uses SSH key pairs to identify users and control access to the VMs themselves, as opposed to the traditional username/password combination SSH key pairs consist of two files, a public key and a private key The public file can be shared freely; this file will be uploaded to OpenStack and associated with your account The private key file should be treated the same as a password.  Do not share your private key and always keep it in a secure location The process for creating key pairs is different between Windows and Mac: Creating SSH key pairs on Mac Creating SSH key pairs on Windows

2. Create SSH keys WINDOWS MAC To create SSH keys on Windows, PuTTYgen is used This program is installed together with the PuTTY package Download and install the PuTTY package by opening this link, https://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/latest/x86/putty-0.67-installer.msi To create SSH key pairs on Mac, the built-in Terminal application is used, which is located in the Utilities folder under Applications Ask how many have Windows and how many Mac machines ? While downloading PuTTY, we will show the MAC example

2.1. Creating SSH key pairs on Mac Start Terminal Type: ssh-keygen -f ~/Desktop/anvil_key This will create two key files on your Desktop, one public and one private, which can later be moved to whatever location you prefer.

2.1. Creating SSH key pairs on Mac A prompt will appear to enter a passphrase Don’t type anything – just press Enter twice to continue and create the key without a passphrase

2.1. Creating SSH key pairs on Mac This will create two keys: anvil_key (private key) and anvil_key.pub (public key) This will create two key files on your Desktop, one public and one private, which can later be moved to whatever location you prefer.

2.2. Creating SSH key pairs on Windows Start PuTTYgen Click on Generate to create the key pair Move the mouse randomly within the window for few seconds to create the key

2.2. Creating SSH key pairs on Windows Save the public key: Right-click again and choose  Copy or use Ctrl-C to copy the key text Paste the key into a text editor of your choice Save the file somewhere convenient as anvil_key.pub

2.2. Creating SSH key pairs on Windows The private key needs to be saved twice This is because PuTTY uses its own PPK format for private keys, and the command-line ssh program uses the OpenSSH format To save the private key for use with the ssh command, choose Export OpenSSH key under the Conversions menu

2.2. Creating SSH key pairs on Windows The private key needs to be saved twice This is because PuTTY uses its own PPK format for private keys, and the command-line ssh program uses the OpenSSH format To save the private key for use with the ssh command, choose Export OpenSSH key under the Conversions menu Save the file somewhere convenient as anvil_key

2.2. Creating SSH key pairs on Windows The private key needs to be saved twice To save the private key in PuTTY format file, click the Save private key  button

2.2. Creating SSH key pairs on Windows The private key needs to be saved twice To save the private key in PuTTY format file, click the Save private key  button Save the file somewhere convenient as anvil_key.ppk

2. Create SSH keys Treat the private key file the same as you would a password Keep your private key in a secure location and do not share it with anyone

3. Add the SSH key pair to your account Connect to the Anvil VPN - Log into the Anvil web dashboard at anvil-beta.unl.edu using your HCC credentials - On the left-hand side navigation menu, click Access & Security

3. Add the SSH key pair to your account Choose the Key Pairs tab in the main window section: On the right-hand side, click the Import Key Pair button:

3. Add the SSH key pair to your account In the pop-up window, fill in the Key Pair Name field with a convenient name (e.g. sas_key_pair) Open your public key file (anvil_key.pub), select the entire text, copy it and paste it in the Public Key box Click the Import Key Pair  button to close the pop-up and save the key

3. Add the SSH key pair to your account You should then see an entry with the saved key (the fingerprint value will be different than the example below) The key pair can now be associated with any newly created instances

4. Create an Anvil Windows 10 SAS instance Once the setup steps above are completed, you can create an instance within the web dashboard

4. Create an Anvil Windows 10 SAS instance Connect to the Anvil VPN - Log into the Anvil web dashboard at anvil-beta.unl.edu using your HCC credentials - On the left-hand side navigation menu, click Images

4. Create an Anvil Windows 10 SAS instance Click the Public button to see the list of publicly available images:

4. Create an Anvil Windows 10 SAS instance Choose Windows 10 SAS Click on Launch Instance

4. Create an Anvil Windows 10 SAS instance A pop-up box will appear with additional details about the instance There are 5 tabs: Details, Access & Security, Networking, Post-Creation, Advanced Options In the Details tab, enter a name for the instance and select general.large from the drop-down menu under Flavor Enter an instance name

4. Create an Anvil Windows 10 SAS instance Click the Access & Security tab Under Key Pair, select your SSH key pair from the drop-down menu Under Security Groups, check the default box

4. Create an Anvil Windows 10 SAS instance Click the Networking tab Under Available networks, click the small blue '+' icon in the Cluster Interface box This will add Cluster Interface to the  Selected networks

4. Create an Anvil Windows 10 SAS instance Click the Launch button to start the instance It may take several minutes for the instance to complete

5. Connect to the Anvil Windows 10 SAS instance After an instance has been created, you can connect (login) and begin using it Connecting is done via SSH or X2Go for Linux instances and via Remote Desktop (RDP) for Windows instances When the Windows instance is created, the password is set randomly using your SSH Key Pair This password can be retrieved via the Dashboard web interface, and then is used to login via Remote Desktop

5. Connect to the Anvil Windows 10 SAS instance Connect to the Anvil VPN - Log into the Anvil web dashboard at anvil-beta.unl.edu using your HCC credentials - On the left-hand side navigation menu, click Instances It may take several minutes for a Windows instance to complete setup and be accessible. It is recommended to wait 10 minutes after the Status field shows Active before trying to connect My SSH Key Pair Due to the size of the image and other factors, it may take several minutes for a Windows instance to complete setup and be accessible It is recommended to wait 10 minutes after the Status field shows Active before trying to connect

5. Connect to the Anvil Windows 10 SAS instance Retrieve the password My SSH Key Pair Due to the size of the image and other factors, it may take several minutes for a Windows instance to complete setup and be accessible It is recommended to wait 10 minutes after the Status field shows Active before trying to connect

5. Connect to the Anvil Windows 10 SAS instance Retrieve the password My SSH Key Pair Due to the size of the image and other factors, it may take several minutes for a Windows instance to complete setup and be accessible It is recommended to wait 10 minutes after the Status field shows Active before trying to connect

5. Connect to the Anvil Windows 10 SAS instance In the new pop-up window you will need to select your private SSH key file (anvil_key) Click the Choose File button to open a File Explorer window Navigate to your private key file and choose to open the file Due to the size of the image and other factors, it may take several minutes for a Windows instance to complete setup and be accessible It is recommended to wait 10 minutes after the Status field shows Active before trying to connect

5. Connect to the Anvil Windows 10 SAS instance The large text box should now have the contents of your private key Click the Decrypt Password button anvil_key Due to the size of the image and other factors, it may take several minutes for a Windows instance to complete setup and be accessible It is recommended to wait 10 minutes after the Status field shows Active before trying to connect

5. Connect to the Anvil Windows 10 SAS instance The randomly generated password should appear in the Password field Copy and paste this password into a convenient text editor anvil_key Due to the size of the image and other factors, it may take several minutes for a Windows instance to complete setup and be accessible It is recommended to wait 10 minutes after the Status field shows Active before trying to connect

5. Connect to the Anvil Windows 10 SAS instance Access to Windows instances is provided via Remote Desktop (RDP) Windows: The Remote Desktop Connection Client is already installed on Windows Start the client Mac: Install the free Microsoft Remote Desktop from the app store, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-remote-desktop/id715768417?mt=12 Be sure to use an up-to-date client program when connecting to Windows 10 instances (older RDP clients may have problems connecting to Windows 10 instances due to changes in security protocols) Due to the size of the image and other factors, it may take several minutes for a Windows instance to complete setup and be accessible It is recommended to wait 10 minutes after the Status field shows Active before trying to connect

5. Connect to the Anvil Windows 10 SAS instance Determine the IP address of your instance The username used to connect is always cloud-user The password was retrieved earlier My SSH Key Pair Due to the size of the image and other factors, it may take several minutes for a Windows instance to complete setup and be accessible It is recommended to wait 10 minutes after the Status field shows Active before trying to connect

5. Connect to the Anvil Windows 10 SAS instance Start your Remote Desktop client Enter the IP address in the Computer field Click Connect Due to the size of the image and other factors, it may take several minutes for a Windows instance to complete setup and be accessible It is recommended to wait 10 minutes after the Status field shows Active before trying to connect

5. Connect to the Anvil Windows 10 SAS instance Enter the username (cloud-user) Enter the password you retrieved Due to the size of the image and other factors, it may take several minutes for a Windows instance to complete setup and be accessible It is recommended to wait 10 minutes after the Status field shows Active before trying to connect

5. Connect to the Anvil Windows 10 SAS instance You may see a warning box about the certificate of the remote computer To avoid this warning in the future, check the box that says "Don't ask me again for connections to this computer“ Click Yes The Remote Desktop session should then start and you will be connected to your instance

Review Connect to the Anvil VPN - Start your Remote Desktop Connection Client - Enter the IP address in the Computer field - Enter the username (cloud-user) - Enter the password (if you forget the password, you can always retrieve it using the steps shown earlier) - Use SAS 9.4 - Install any other free software (e.g. R, RStudio, etc.) -

Summary Anvil is currently in the beta testing phase If you have any questions or issues, please e-mail us at hcc-support@unl.edu Your instances will be active until the end of the semester If you want to use the Anvil Windows 10 SAS instance afterwards, please talk to Dr. Reka Howard for extension Find us at: Holland Computing Center, 118 Schorr Center, Lincon, NE 68588 Peter Kiewit Institute, 1110 S. 67th Street, Omaha, NE 68182 http://hcc.unl.edu/ https://hcc-docs.unl.edu/ @NebraskaHCC