Creating a session

Sessions can be created using the alces session start command, together with an enabled session type.

To create a GNOME desktop interactive session, run:

[alces-cluster@login1(hpc1) ~]$ alces session start gnome
VNC server started:
    Identity: 15b7ef74-a7d1-11e5-92e5-6747dbe1d6ad
        Type: gnome
        Host: 10.77.0.253
        Port: 5901
     Display: 1
    Password: sxnbdSj5
   Websocket: 41361

Depending on your client, you can connect to the session using:

  vnc://alces-cluster:sxnbdSj5@10.77.0.253:5901
  10.77.0.253:5901
  10.77.0.253:1

If prompted, you should supply the following password: sxnbdSj5

The output displays key information used to connect with different VNC viewer clients.

Multiple sessions with different types can be initiated at once, and the list of active sessions can be viewed using the alces session list command, e.g.:

[alces-cluster@login1(hpc1) ~]$ alces session list
+----------+------------+----------------------+-----------------+---------+------+----------+
| Identity | Type       | Host name            | Host address    | Display | Port | Password |
+----------+------------+----------------------+-----------------+---------+------+----------+
| 15b7ef74 | gnome      | login1               | 10.77.0.253     |      :1 | 5901 | sxnbdSj5 |
| 7607ea28 | terminal   | login1               | 10.77.0.253     |      :2 | 5902 | 7AERsrjT |
| 78929900 | terminal   | login1               | 10.77.0.253     |      :3 | 5903 | e60Ua8SC |
+----------+------------+----------------------+-----------------+---------+------+----------+