Accessing the Cluster

To access Rāpoi, you'll first need to get an account provisioned for you by contacting the Rāpoi support team with your:

  • Full Name
  • VUW staff username
  • Faculty, School or Institute affiliation.

If you don't have a VUW staff account, it may still be possible to be given access - please contact us to determine options.

Access is via SSH

  • Hostname: raapoi.vuw.ac.nz
  • IP Address: 130.195.19.126
  • Port: 22
  • Username: Your VUW username
  • Password: Your VUW password

NOTE: A wired network connection or VPN is required if connecting from campus wifi or from off-campus. Some users have had issues with using the hostname and instead need to use the IP address, eg harrelwe@130.195.19.126

More information on VUW VPN services can be found here.

Here is a general overview of SSH https://www.howtogeek.com/311287/how-to-connect-to-an-ssh-server-from-windows-macos-or-linux/.

Get yourself familiar with a Compute node!

After logging in, do most things on the compute node by running command srun --pty bash. For more info, please see Interactive Jobs.

SSH Clients

Mac OSX SSH Clients

You can use the built-in Terminal.app or you can download iTerm2 or XQuartz. XQuartz is required to be installed if you wish to forward GUI applications (matlab, rstudio, xstata, sas, etc), aka X forwarding.

  • Terminal.app is the default application for command-line interface
  • To login using the built-in Terminal.app on Mac, go to
    • Applications --> Utilities --> Terminal.app
    • Or use Spotlight search (aka Command-Space)
  • iTerm2 is a good replacement for the default Terminal app
  • XQuartz is a Xforwarding application with its own terminal. XQuartz can be used in conjuction with the Terminal.app for GUI apps. NOTE: Mac users should run the following command: sudo defaults write org.macosforge.xquartz.X11 enable_iglx -bool true We have found that this allows some older GUI applications to run with fewer errors.

NOTE: Once at the command prompt you can type the following to login (replace "username" with your VUW user):

ssh -X username@raapoi.vuw.ac.nz

The -X parameter tells SSH to forward any GUI windows to your local machine, this is called X forwarding.

Windows SSH Clients

  • Recommended Clients:
  • Git Bash is a great option and is part of the Git for Windows project.
  • MobaXterm is a good option, especially if you require access to GUI applications such as MATLAB or xStata. This also has a built-in SFTP transfer window.

File Transfer with SFTP, SCP or rsync

Caution: Massive Data Transfer

For massive data transfer, please use interactive session on a compute node or follow instructions to transfer data using Globus. Please contact the support team for help.

There are many file transfer clients available for Mac, Windows and Linux, including but not limited to Free/OpenSource Desktop tools such as Filezilla, Cyberduck, Dolphin and proprietary/licenced offerings such as WinSCP, ExpanDrive, etc

One can also use built-in command-line tools on Linux, Mac and Windows (if running Git Bash or MobaXterm). The most common command-line utilities are scp, sftp and rsync.

To copy a single file to or from the cluster, we can use scp (“secure copy”). To upload to another computer, try:

[you@laptop:~]$ scp <file_name_to_transfer> \
<user_name>@raapoi.vuw.ac.nz:/nfs/home/<user_name>/<destination>

I would upload a file from my device(local) to Rāpoi(remote) using:

you@laptop:~$ scp demo.tar.gz <user_name>@raapoi.vuw.ac.nz:/nfs/scratch/<user_name>/

SFTP client can be also be set up. In the address bar of my file explorer, I can add the directory I wish to access in the form sftp://<username>@raapoi.vuw.ac.nz:/nfs/home/<username>.

In all cases you will need to supply the hostname or IP address of the cluster, see above. You may also need to supply the port (22) and a path. The paths that you will most likely use are your home or your scratch space: /nfs/home/username or /nfs/scratch/username

File transfer with cloud tools

If you are using cloud storage such as AWS, DropBox, Cloudstor, GLOBUS please look at the examples we have in Connecting to Cloud Providers

Host Keys

An SSH host key identifies the server to your ssh client. They are an important security feature and not something you should just hit ENTER to accept. The first time an SSH client connects to the server, it displays the servers public key fingerprint.

The authenticity of host 'raapoi.vuw.ac.nz (130.195.19.126)' can't be established.
ED25519 key fingerprint is SHA256:f+rhB7q5nt/HxcNK3qA8UfSdSJ7J05L1dU4C2fslkxg.
This host key is known by the following other names/addresses:
    C:\Users\username/.ssh/known_hosts:109: raapoi
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])?

Confirm that the finger print on the login server matches the appropriate fingerprint shown below and type 'yes'.

  • From August 2023 ("New Rāpoi" 130.195.19.126):
ssh-ed25519  256 SHA256:f+rhB7q5nt/HxcNK3qA8UfSdSJ7J05L1dU4C2fslkxg
ssh-ecdsa    256 SHA256:ChU88YMNnUiXWmQRV0cgeDdnUpsdybgF14Dk3KW3dr4
ssh-rsa     3072 SHA256:izq2NXKroc7gpu0vkWNQnXd4kmjk/pmrQw9vMvwAsIs

Notes regarding old host keys

IMPORTANT: If the host key does not match the one stored on your client, you will see a warning (example below). The Raapoi login node was replaced in August 2023, if you had been using the previous login node you can expect to see this warning about the change of host key. Double check that the fingerprint matches one of the above before replacing the key stored in your client.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@    WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED!     @
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
IT IS POSSIBLE THAT SOMEONE IS DOING SOMETHING NASTY!
Someone could be eavesdropping on you right now (man-in-the-middle attack)!
It is also possible that a host key has just been changed.
The fingerprint for the ED25519 key sent by the remote host is
SHA256:f+rhB7q5nt/HxcNK3qA8UfSdSJ7J05L1dU4C2fslkxg.
Please contact your system administrator.
Add correct host key in C:\\Users\\username/.ssh/known_hosts to get rid of this message.
Offending ED25519 key in C:\\Users\\username/.ssh/known_hosts:38
Host key for raapoi.vuw.ac.nz has changed and you have requested strict checking.
Host key verification failed.

To remove an old host key for raapoi.vuw.ac.nz cached on your client run the following:

ssh-keygen -R raapoi.vuw.ac.nz

... and you could also run this to remove the IP address(s) for Rāpoi:

ssh-keygen -R 130.195.19.14
ssh-keygen -R 130.195.19.126

If you remove all of these, on your next login you'll be asked to verify the fingerprint again, as illustrated above.