Getting Started

Read the User Policies

First things first – please read the lux Policies. All lux users must understand and abide by the system policies as a condition of using the computer. This includes acknowledging lux in publications when used and following the user best practices.

Getting an account on lux.ucsc.edu

There are several ways to get an account on lux, described below, including special cases under which accounts may be granted. If you have questions about account access, please feel free to contact Brant Robertson.

Accounts for Co-I research group members

If you are a UCSC faculty, postdoc, or student with a CruzID and part of a Co-I research group (see Project Team Members), your associated faculty member can directly grant you access to lux. Please contact the faculty member and ask them to add you to their group. Accounts added in this way will inherit the privileges of the faculty research group on lux and use their assigned system resources, and the faculty lead determines the duration and any special conditions of the access.

Accounts for general access by UCSC students, staff, and faculty

With prior approval and agreement, access to lux may be granted to UCSC students, staff, and faculty who are not associated with Co-I research groups. Please contact Brant Robertson for more information.

Accounts for UCSC courses

By prior arrangement, temporary lux access may be granted to students in UCSC courses during the quarter of instruction. If you are interested, please contact Brant Robertson for more information.

Accounts for Co-I research group external collaborators

Co-Is may grant external (outside UCSC) collaborators access by requesting a UCSC Sundry account (see instructions here or submit a Sundry account request), which will provide a limited time but renewable CruzID for their collaborator. When requesting a Sundry account please request that the account receive the Gold Active Directory (AU) resource to enable access to the lux cluster. Once a CruzID is assigned and a Gold password set, the faculty lead can add their collaborator to their group directly. Please be mindful that lux was funded to support research at UCSC, and these external collaborators gain the same privileges as other UCSC Co-I research group members. External collaborators still must agree to acknowledge lux in their resulting publications. Only Co-I faculty leads can grant external collaborators access to lux.

Accounts for UCSC visitors

Visitors to UCSC who are associated with Co-I research groups may be able to obtain accounts following the instructions for external collaborators. Groups of visitors may also be granted access under special circumstances, please contact Brant Robertson for more information. All visiting users must agree to acknowledge lux in any resulting publications.

Connecting to lux

Here are step-by-step instructions for connecting to lux:

  1. Request an authorized account, following the above instructions.

  2. Connect to the UCSC Campus VPN using your CruzID and Gold password via the UCSC VPN client. Installation instructions for the VPN client are available on the ITS website. If you have not reset your Gold password recently, you may need to do so in order to connect to the system (visit cruzid.ucsc.edu). You will need to enroll a device in Duo for Multifactor Authentication to connect to the VPN.

  3. Connect to the lux system via Secure Shell:

    $ ssh [cruzid]@lux.ucsc.edu
Where [cruzid] is your CruzID. When prompted, provide your Gold password and select a Duo MFA method. You will be directed to one of the three login nodes (lux-0, lux-1, or lux-2) where you can submit jobs to the system queues.
  1. See Using lux for further instructions.