First Steps for RWTH Members
On this page you will learn how RWTH members can obtain access to our HPC clusters and connect to the systems for the first time.
0. Requirements
Members of RWTH Aachen University create an RWTH account as part of their onboarding process (e.g. as a student or an employee). This RWTH account allows users to register an HPC account and access the HPC infrastructure.
Before continuing, please make sure that you have completed the following steps:
- Set the password for your RWTH VPN Account in the IdM Selfservice
- Configured Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) for your RWTH account in the IdM Selfservice
- Learned how to connect to the RWTH VPN
These prerequisites are required before you can access the HPC systems for the first time. If you encounter problems while completing any of these steps, please contact us.
1. Register an HPC account
RWTH members can register an HPC account in the RWTH RegApp using their RWTH Single Sign-On credentials.
Please follow the instructions in the dedicated registration manual: Setup the HPC Account with the RWTH RegApp
After successful registration, the HPC account can be used to access CLAIX.
2. Connect to the RWTH Network
Our HPC systems can be accessed directly from the RWTH network, networks connected to the DFN, and selected partner university networks.
If you are connecting from an external network (for example, from home), ensure that you are either:
- connected to RWTH eduroam, or
- connected via RWTH VPN
If you are outside the RWTH network, establish a VPN connection first.
3. Connect to CLAIX
To connect to CLAIX, make sure that you have your HPC account credentials available, namely:
- your HPC account name
- your HPC account 2FA token
You can access our cluster via dedicated login nodes. A list of available login nodes is provided in the respective CLAIX documentation (see CLAIX-2023 or CLAIX-2025).
For your first connection, you can use one of the following access methods:
- Login via the Terminal
- Login via FastX (Use this option to access graphical desktop environments)
- Login via HPCJupyterHub (Use this option to work with Jupyter notebooks through a browser-based interface)
Next Steps
- familiarise yourself with how to work on a cluster using job submission via SLURM. See here for an introduction to SLURM and an introduction for submitting jobs.
- by default, RWTH members receive a limited amount of computing time on the HPC systems per month. For resource-intensive workloads you will need to apply for a computing time project. See here for an introduction to Computing Time and Computing Time Projects.
- to maximize your efficiency with working on CLAIX and the Linux operating system, access via the console is recommended. The HPC-Wiki provides some helpful tutorials and resources.
