Remote Access: Blade, Lab Workstations, And Euler

A remote computer is a different computer that you control through a network. Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) shows the graphical Windows desktop of Blade; Secure Shell (SSH) opens a protected text connection to Euler. They are different connections for different systems.

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.

New to text commands? Read how to open a terminal and run one command before using a command block. It explains the labels used below and what to copy.

Execution context: start the connection from your own computer. After RDP opens, commands labelled Blade run in PowerShell inside the remote Windows desktop; Euler commands follow their separately linked SSH/Slurm procedure.

Choose The System#

Euler commands are maintained only in the main 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.

Verify The Blade Session#

Open PowerShell inside the remote Windows desktop and run:

& {
$HostName = $env:COMPUTERNAME
$HostName
if ($HostName -ne 'mavt-ide-s100w') { throw "STOP: this is not the assigned Blade server" }
if (Get-Command nvidia-smi -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) {
    nvidia-smi --query-gpu=name,memory.total --format=csv,noheader
} else {
    'GPU query unavailable; hostname is correct.'
}
}

Expected result: the first line is mavt-ide-s100w. The optional GPU line reports hardware currently visible to the shared server; it is not a reservation. Disconnect if the hostname is different. A missing nvidia-smi command does not invalidate an otherwise correct Blade connection.

Blade Storage Policy#

• Ask the supervisor for the exact P:\<SupervisorFirstName>\ folder and approval before creating anything.
• Inside it, create or use exactly one <eth-username>\ folder 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.

The Passport Blade mission provides a small PowerShell probe. It creates a random non-sensitive file on D:, copies it to the approved P: username folder, compares hashes, and removes both probe files. Continue only when all three reported values are True. Never test access in the supervisor root or another person's folder.

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#

• Account and SSH key: Euler Access And SSH
• CPU jobs and accounting: Slurm Job Lifecycle
• VS Code compute connection: Euler Tunnel
• ParaView visualization: ParaView Client/Server

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 account: choose another account and enter your own d\username.
• 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.

The account format and fully qualified hostname follow the current ISG-MAVT Remote Desktop instructions.

Verified: 2026-09-04. Review by: 2026-12-04. Owner: IDEAL Lab IT.