What is remote access?
The article Remote Access will show you possible solutions to remotely access a managed client or your data inside the D-ITET networks from the selfmanaged client network or from devices outside the ETH network. It will cover the following topics:
What is HTTP download?
The HTTP download is a simple solution to transfer a data file to an external user. On the client side no additional software is needed, a web browser is sufficient.
What is SSH in Linux?
In the Linux world remote terminals are widely used. The secure shell ssh allows secure (i.e. encrypted connection) remote terminal sessions. To establish such sessions, you will need an SSH client application. Under Linux and Mac OSX, the program is called ssh and is usually provided by the basic installation of the operating system. Under MS Windows, a 3rd party manufacturer application like PuTTY ( http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty ), X-Win32, or the Cygwin SSH client must be installed separately.
Does Windows have SSH?
Windows has no SSH integrated, so you must use an additional software. The popular programs WinSCP ( https://winscp.net) and FileZilla ( https://filezilla-project.org) are the preferred choice. FileZilla is also available for the linux platform and is already installed on our managed linux clients.
Preparation
Please make sure that you use the OpenSSH client which is part of all Linux distributions, Windows 10 and macOS. If you do not have a key pair yet on the system that you use outside ETH (typically your laptop) then you can create one with the following command:
Simple Use
If you use the jump host just occasionally then no additional configuration is needed. To connect to a host TARGET with your ETH login ETHUSER run:
Transparent Use for Hosts at ETH
For regular use you can configure your ssh client to use the jump host whenever you connect to a host at ETH. Add the following lines at the end of ~/.ssh/config and replace ETHUSER with your ETH login
Use of screen, tmux and mosh
If you have an unreliable network connection or are mobile you should use screen or tmux on the target system that you log into. This will allow you to reconnect to the same session after loss of connectivity and have multiple sessions with one SSH connection. Please consult the man pages for screen or tmux for more details.
Tunneling
Tunneling or port forwarding also works through the jump host. For instance, to forward VNC connections to localhost:1 to TARGET you would run:
Quick Help for fast access
If you wanna have fast access by using VNC, do this. If you wanna get into more deeply, read next paragraphs.
Connect to the ETH network
If current_host resides outside of the ETH network, you need to connect to it thorugh either a VPN connection or an SSH tunnel. Connecting through VPN is the preferred method as it uses a dedicated infrastructure.
Check (student) host availability
Check with the command htop if any other users are using internal_host 's resources right now. If they do, log out and log in to a different host.
VNC server configuration
The first start of vncserver creates the directory /home/eth_username/.vnc. It contains startup scripts for the different desktop options mentioned in Choose a non-default desktop. Logfiles of VNC sessions will also be stored there. If you experience problems, check the logfiles for hints what went wrong.
How to run ETH node?
To run ETH node yourself, you need to download and install the software from the official Ethereum website. There are three different types of Ethereum nodes. Light ETH node in the Ethereum network is a computer or mobile device which has the Ethereum client software installed.
How fast is Ethereum?
Blocks in the Ethereum network are generated approximately every 15 seconds. This is much faster than the process within the Bitcoin network, where a block is generated every 10 minutes. That is why Ethereum developers try to unload the main blockchain in a variety of ways. Nodes management helps the developers achieve this goal. Sharding technology makes it possible to divide the Ethereum blockchain into separate parts. As a result, the ETH node stores and calculates a certain part of the blockchain instead of the entire distributed registry. In addition, the use of Plasma technology takes some of the operations related to the execution of smart contracts to separate blockchains connected via crypto nodes to the main Ethereum network. In Ethereum 2.0, the load on Ethereum nodes is expected to decrease as the proof of stake algorithm is used more widely.
Why do we need Ethereum node?
To run ETH node yourself, you need to download and install the software from the official Ethereum website. There are three different types of Ethereum nodes. Light ETH node in the Ethereum network is a computer or mobile device which has the Ethereum client software installed. The light Ethereum node only transfers transactions within the network similarly to Bitcoin networks.
How to improve the Ethereum node?
Blocks in the Ethereum network are generated approximately every 15 seconds. This is much faster than the process within the Bitcoin network, where a block is generated every 10 minutes. That is why Ethereum developers try to unload the main blockchain in a variety of ways. Nodes management helps the developers achieve this goal. Sharding technology makes it possible to divide the Ethereum blockchain into separate parts. As a result, the ETH node stores and calculates a certain part of the blockchain instead of the entire distributed registry. In addition, the use of Plasma technology takes some of the operations related to the execution of smart contracts to separate blockchains connected via crypto nodes to the main Ethereum network. In Ethereum 2.0, the load on Ethereum nodes is expected to decrease as the proof of stake algorithm is used more widely.
How much space does an Ethereum node need?
In the case of Ethereum, the node provider must contain at least 1 terabyte of free space for data storage of the archive node. Furthermore, Ethereum, unlike Bitcoin, has a transaction block size greater than 1 megabyte. Due to this fact, the crypto nodes provider faces the need to have a high bandwidth link as well.
Who is the founder of Ethereum?
Unlike the founder of Bitcoin, the founder of Ethereum is a well-known and public figure. Vitalik Buterin is called a child prodigy, as he developed his main project at a young age.
What is the difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum?
Bitcoin relies solely on the proof of work algorithms, whereas, Ethereum depends on a combination of both proofs of stake and work algorithms. Also, Ethereum supports smart contracts, allowing you to develop and launch decentralized applications based on this cryptocurrency.
Introduction
- The article Remote Accesswill show you possible solutions to remotely access a managed client or your data inside the D-ITET networks from the selfmanaged client network or from devices outside the ETH network. It will cover the following topics: 1. mailbox access 2. remote terminal session 3. remote desktop session 4. file transfer 5. network file...
Mailbox Access
- Web Access
You can access your inbox and your mail folders with a web browser on any client with internet connectivity. Our web server with the Roundcube software can be reached under https://email.ee.ethz.ch. - IMAP/ SMTP Access
You can also access your mail with any IMAP/ SMTP based mail client software ( Thunderbird, Outlook, Smartphone Mail Programs, Windows 10 Mail, ......) over the internet. IMAP/ SMTP access to our mail servers is enabled for the internet. Detailed information is available in the Em…
Ssh - Remote Terminal Session
- In the Linux world remote terminals are widely used. The secure shell ssh allows secure (i.e. encrypted connection) remote terminal sessions. To establish such sessions, you will need an SSH client application. Under Linux and Mac OSX, the program is called ssh and is usually provided by the basic installation of the operating system. Under MS Windows, a 3rd party manu…
Remote Desktop Session
- Windows Remote Desktop
To access your Windows computer remotely, please read Windows Remote Desktop Services. - X11VNC
x11vnc can be used to connect to a desktop session running on the physical display of a host. Please see the X11VNC HOWTO for further details. In case you have no running session on the physical display and need to login graphically, please contact supportand provide the name of th…
File Transfer
- HTTP download
The HTTP download is a simple solution to transfer a data file to an external user. On the client side no additional software is needed, a web browser is sufficient. Here are the sample commands to provide a data file for download with a required authorization in your personal we… - Linux scp
Between two Linux machines you can transfer a file with the ssh-integrated secure file copy (scp). The command is: With the command the file document.pdf on your linux machine is copied in the Documents subdirectory in your home at D-ITET.
Network File System Access
- NFS access
Because NFS is not enabled between the internal networks nor to the internet it has no significance in remote access solutions. NFS is only used by ISG managed linux clients to access user and project homes on servers and dedicated storage systems of ID and ITET by Linux auto… - SMB/ CIFS access
This Microsoft network file sharing protocol has a user based authentication and therefore has a great significance for accessing data resources not only on windows file servers. Linux servers are also providing SMB/ CIFS access with use of the sambasoftware suite, an emulation of the …