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

• 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

• Go to the vscentrum website
• Select your institution and log in.
• Click Edit account in the top menu.

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.

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.

6. Install SSH extension

Linux and Mac users can use a terminal for this.
Windows users do this in a terminal in VSCode:

• In the side menu click the Extensions button(in red on the figure).
• Type SSH in the search bar (in green on the figure).
• Click the Install button of the Remote-SSH extension (in purple on the figure).