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    Remote Access: Blade, Lab Workstations, And Euler

    Goal: choose the correct remote system and connect without running compute on the wrong machine.

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    Goal: choose the correct remote system and connect without running compute on the wrong machine.

    Prerequisites: ETH account, MFA, and ETH VPN when off-campus.

    Choose The System#

    Need System
    Windows GUI engineering software Blade or assigned Windows workstation via RDP
    Linux GUI on an assigned lab workstation xRDP, only when configured by lab IT
    Cluster computation Euler through SSH and Slurm
    VS Code on an Euler compute allocation euler-tunnel
    ParaView GUI with data/processing on Euler Local ParaView 6.0.0 client connected to Slurm pvserver

    Euler commands are maintained only in the canonical Euler reference.

    Blade Server mavt-ide-s100w#

    Blade is a shared Windows engineering workstation, not an HPC cluster.

    What Blade Is For#

    • Siemens NX, MATLAB, and other installed Windows GUI software.
    • CAD, pre/post-processing, and small interactive prototypes.
    • Preparing work that will run on dedicated compute resources.

    Observed on 2026-03-16: a shared NVIDIA L4 GPU, approximately 32 CPU cores and 128 GB RAM, MATLAB R2024b, and Siemens NX 2406. Availability and installed versions can change; these resources are shared, not reserved per user.

    Do not use Blade for long ML training, broad parameter sweeps, or as permanent personal storage.

    Connect From Windows#

    Execution context: Windows laptop - Remote Desktop Connection.

    1. Connect to ETH VPN when off-campus.
    2. Open Remote Desktop Connection.
    3. Use PC name mavt-ide-s100w.d.ethz.ch.
    4. Sign in as username@ethz.ch.

    Expected result: a Windows desktop whose host is mavt-ide-s100w.

    Connect From macOS#

    Execution context: macOS laptop - Windows App.

    1. Connect to ETH VPN when off-campus.
    2. Open Windows App.
    3. Add or select PC mavt-ide-s100w.d.ethz.ch.
    4. Sign in as username@ethz.ch.

    Blade Storage Policy#

    • Use P:\<SupervisorFirstName>\<eth-username>\ for durable project data.
    • Use D:\<eth-username>\ only for temporary high-speed local work.
    • Copy required output from D: back to P: and clean temporary files.
    • Do not store project data on C:, Desktop, Documents, or Downloads.
    • Do not use other mapped drives unless your supervisor explicitly assigns one.

    Verify before ending a session:

    Important code is committed and pushed.
Important project data is on P:.
Temporary D: data is either copied back or intentionally disposable.
No project data remains only on C:, Desktop, Documents, or Downloads.

    WSL On Blade#

    WSL 2 support may be enabled, but no Linux distribution is guaranteed to be installed. Students must not install a distribution or enable Windows features without lab IT approval.

    Run on the Blade server - PowerShell for inspection only:

    wsl --status
wsl --list --verbose

    Use WSL only for lightweight tooling. Use Euler for heavy Linux computation.

    Assigned Windows Workstations#

    Use the hostname supplied by the supervisor or lab IT. From a personal Windows computer, open Remote Desktop Connection; from macOS, use Windows App. Enter the assigned hostname and your personal ETH credentials. Do not reuse another student's saved credentials.

    Assigned Ubuntu Workstations#

    xRDP must be installed and secured by lab IT or the machine owner. Students should not install desktop services, change firewall rules, or expose RDP ports themselves. Use the hostname and tunnel instructions supplied for that specific machine.

    Euler And VS Code#

    Do not use raw srun examples from an old copy of this page. The Euler track provides the current account, resource, verification, and cleanup steps.

    Common Failures And Safe Recovery#

    • RDP cannot reach host: connect VPN, verify the exact assigned hostname, and check whether the workstation is powered on.
    • Wrong Windows domain: choose another account and enter username@ethz.ch.
    • Blade files missing: check the supervisor folder on P:. Files left only on D: or C: are not durable project storage.
    • Euler SSH or VS Code fails: use the Euler troubleshooting guide.

    Verification#

    • The remote hostname matches the assigned Blade/workstation or an allocated Euler compute node.
    • Durable Blade work is under the approved P: username folder.
    • Important output does not remain only on Blade D: or local user folders.
    • Euler computation runs through Slurm, not on a login node.

    Ask For Help When#

    The assigned hostname, software availability, storage folder, or access owner is unclear. Do not install remote-access services or change system security settings to work around an access problem.

    Verified: 2026-08-21. Review by: 2026-11-21. Owner: IDEAL Lab IT.