Interfacing with Biowulf using Mobaxterm

Mobaxterm is another open source and graphical based ssh client that Windows users can use to interact with Biowulf. To obtain Mobaxterm, goto https://mobaxterm.mobatek.net and click the Download tab at the top (Figure 1).

Figure 1

Subsequently, select to download the Home Edition, which is free (Figure 2).

Figure 2

To avoid installing, choose to download the Portabl edition (Figure 3).

Figure 3

The Portable version was downloaded onto Windows desktop in zip folder (Figure 4).

Figure 4

Right click on the zip folder and choose Extract All (Figure 5).

Figure 5

Confirm where you want the unzipped folder to go and then select Extract (Figure 6). In this example, the contents will be extracted onto the Windows desktop.

Figure 6

Once extracted, we will see a folder with the Mobaxterm icon (Figure 7).

Figure 7

Open the unzipped folder and click on the Mobaxterm application file (MobaXterm_Personal_22.3) (Figure 8).

Figure 8

We will see the Mobaxterm client interface. To connect to Biowulf, we can click on Terminal and select "Open new tab" (Figure 9).

Figure 9

A local Unix terminal should open. From here, we can use the ssh command to connect to Biowulf (Figure 10).

Figure 10

When asked whether we want to continue, select yes (Figure 11). The message in Figure 11 appears when your machine connects to Biowulf for the first time.

Figure 11

Enter Biowulf password (Figure 12).

Figure 12

Hit No to not save the password (Figure 13) and we should land in our Biowulf terminal prompt.

Figure 13

Mobaxterm - Biowulf connection successful

An alternative method for connecting to Biowulf is to select the Session tab (Figure 14) and choose to start a new SSH session (Figure 15).

Figure 14

Figure 15

In the basic setting box, enter the Remote host (biowulf.nih.gov), followed by the username (remember to check the box Specify username), and again, stay on Port 22 (Figure 16).

Figure 16

If this is the first time conecting to Biowulf, accept the certificate shown in Figure 17 and we will be taken to our Biowulf terminal prompt.

Figure 17

Mobaxterm - Biowulf connection successful

At the local terminal, we can use the scp command to transfer data from Biowulf to local and the other way around (Figure 18). See Figure 9 for opening a new local terminal.

Figure 18

When clicking on the Session tab, we can also request a sftp session to help with data transfer (Figure 19).

Figure 19

Again, provide the Remote host (helix.nih.gov for file transfer), followed by username, and remember to stay on Port 22 (Figure 20). Hit ok after the information has been entered.

Figure 20

We will see the message to accept the certificate because its our first time logging in (go ahead and hit Accept) (Figure 21)

Figure 21

This will take us to an interface where on the right side we can navigate the directories in our Helix/Biowulf account and on the left, we have our local directories and files. We can then drag and drop files from local to Biowulf or from Biowulf to local (Figure 22).

Figure 22