Remote Access

Diamond provides multiple ways for users and staff to remotely connect. The most convenient, and recommended, is using NX.  This method, described here, does not require any special/extended privileges on the DLS network or machines.

NX (http://www.nomachine.com) is an alternative to VNC which has even better compression. It has the disadvantage of not being able to take over the console - you get a new X session.

NX server software is installed on nx-user.diamond.ac.uk

Typically, you just run an NX display from nx-user.diamond.ac.uk, and you can do this directly by:

• Download and install an NX client from nomachines. If you are using the Windows client, make sure you also download and install all available font packages for NX.
• Details of how to set this up can be found in the User Office Miscellaneous documents linked here
• Network speeds can be higher on good networks i.e. LAN not ADSL). Things to note the recommended Desktop is GNOME. You should not ssh directly into nx-user.diamond any more. This machine has changed recently and access should only be via nxclient. 

• Login with your normal username and password.

This gives you a session on a system inside the Diamond network (i.e. you are now, basically, logged in to a normal Diamond desktop).

There are occasional font problems with NX, especially with edm. Later versions of NX are better than earlier ones. You need at least a 3.3 version of the NX and client. You also need to download and install all the additional NX client fonts (as mentioned previously).

If you have problems with fonts in EDM screens, try typing the following immediately after logging in:

• dls-nx-fonts.sh

No Machine are aware of this and working on it; there is also work going on to patch edm to get around it.

It is highly recommended that you access and backup all your data as soon as possible after your visit to Diamond. However, there are occasions when this is not possible and Diamond do continue to make your raw data available to you. With the large volumes of data collected at Diamond each day, data is only guaranteed to be stored on disc for 30 days after your experiment. Older data are stored on tape.