Prepare to access the VSC

1. Create a VSC account

Follow the instructions on the vscentrum website.

VSC accounts are created at your institution (Ugent for Ugent personnel, KULeuven for KULeuven personnel…) but they allow to access the VSC from any site, so UGent personnel can use their VSC number to access the KULeuven VSC clusters and vice versa.

2. Generate a SSH key

Linux and Mac users can use a terminal for this.
Windows users should install VSCode

  • Open a terminal. In VSCode this is done by clicking Terminal in the top menu and selecting New Terminal
Open terminal in VSCode
  • Run the following code on the terminal:
ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096

This will generate a file called id_rsa.pub in the folder user/name/.ssh/

3. Access your VSC account

Edit VSC account

4. Add SSH key to VSC account

  • In the section Add public key click Choose File.
  • Select the id_rsa.pub file.
  • Click the yellow Update button.
Add SSH key to VSC account

5. Check VSC number

  • Click View account in the top menu.

The Uid shows your VSC number. It consists of the letters vsc followed by a 5-digit integer.

Check VSC number
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