Remote Connection

First time remote users are encouraged to contact their local contact to discuss any queries.  If requested, a test visit can be set up on a non-experiment day prior to beamtime for familiarisation, and to ensure all systems are working correctly.

To carry out an experiment remotely, it is recommended to have:

• A good connection (at least 10Mb/s)
• One or two 1900 x 1200 (or 1900 x 1020) monitors attached to a fast modern PC (running Linux, Mac OSX or Windows)
• The latest NoMachine Enterprise Client for your OS

• If you are the system admin (e.g. at home), make sure routers and servers are working normally (possibly requiring a reboot)
• Run the installed NoMachine client (NoMachine Client)
• For the first remote visit, it will be necessary to create a new connection using the Protocol: NX
• Set hostname to nx.diamond.ac.uk (ensure port is set to 4000)
• Use password authentication and don't use a proxy
• Give a name to the new connection, e.g., "Connection to nx.diamond.ac.uk"
• Open this new connection - once set up, this conection will be available to use for subsequent connections to Diamond
• Enter your FedID and Password
• Choose "Create a new virtual desktop"
• Select the node corresponding to an I19 workstation, ws001 or ws002

Click on the On/Off button in the right hand corner, then the down arrow next to your name and select Log Out.

Remember to log out at the end of the visit

Just closing the window will not disconnect you from the session and mean you are still occupying a node.  This will limit the number of nodes available for the next user group.

If you don't have scheduled beamtime, or have not been added to the visit, you will be connected automatically to a node of the compute cluster.  It may not be obvious initially, but you can not open the GDA on non-beamline machines.

In some instances, after logging in, you may be presented with many icons for connections to other users desktops.  Click on the All Desktops at the top of the screen and change to My Desktops.  Now click Create a new desktop or custom session and then click to create a new virtual desktop and select the beamline workstation as above.

If you want to process and analyse data or copy data home etc., then please use the "Automatically select a node" icon to be taken to a node on the cluster - do not use the beamline workstations.