Access & Setup
How to connect to the HPC cluster and set up your environment.

Accessing the System
Requirements
You must be a member of the power group
Valid Tel Aviv University username and password
If connecting from outside the TAU network: TAU VPN must be active
Login Node
All access to the cluster is via SSH through the login node:
slurmlogin.tau.ac.il
Your connection is automatically load-balanced across powerslurm-login, powerslurm-login2, and powerslurm-login3.
Connecting via SSH
ssh your_username@slurmlogin.tau.ac.il
With an SSH key:
ssh -i /path/to/your/private_key your_username@slurmlogin.tau.ac.il
Important
Do not run compute jobs on the login node — use 
sbatch or 
srun
The login node is shared — heavy processes will be killed

Palo Alto VPN
TAU uses Palo Alto GlobalProtect VPN with two-factor authentication (Google Authenticator).
Required if connecting to the cluster from outside the TAU network.
Ubuntu 26.04: No official GlobalProtect build yet. 
You can use the open-source alternative: github.com/levcovenant/GlobalProtect-openconnect
Enrollment
Go to https://mytau.tau.ac.il/GetResource.php and register your mobile phone
Install Google Authenticator on your mobile device
Scan the QR code provided during enrollment
Download
Download the appropriate version for your system:
PanGPLinux-6.2.9-c4.tgz
PanGPLinux-6.3.3-c22.tgz
Install
RHEL/Rocky/CentOS:
tar -xzf PanGPLinux-6.x.x-cx.tgz
yum localinstall GlobalProtect_UI_rpm-*.rpm
Debian/Ubuntu:
tar -xzf PanGPLinux-6.x.x-cx.tgz
dpkg -i GlobalProtect_UI_deb-*.deb
 
Ubuntu 26.04 – Alternative (no official client yet)
For Ubuntu 26.04 there is no official GlobalProtect build yet. You can use the open-source alternative based on OpenConnect.
Fork of the Qt6 GUI client with SAML support. Portal is still 
vpn.tau.ac.il
Repo: github.com/levcovenant/GlobalProtect-openconnect
Install on Ubuntu / Mint:
git clone https://github.com/levcovenant/GlobalProtect-openconnect.git
cd GlobalProtect-openconnect
./scripts/install-ubuntu.sh
Run:
gpclient
Then enter gateway 
vpn.tau.ac.il and login with your TAU credentials + Authenticator code as usual.
Configure
Open the GlobalProtect client
Enter gateway address: vpn.tau.ac.il
Log in with your TAU credentials
Enter the code from Google Authenticator when prompted
Troubleshooting: SSL Error on Ubuntu 22.04+
If you see an SSL error after connecting, apply this fix:
Open 
/usr/lib/ssl/openssl.cnf and add:
[openssl_init]
ssl_conf = ssl_sect
[ssl_sect] system_default = system_default_sect
[system_default_sect]
Options = UnsafeLegacyRenegotiation
 
Restart the GlobalProtect app.