Onboarding Instructions

Basic onboarding instructions for the first set of researchers.

note

Please note that the onboarding procedure is evolving and the snapshots below may differ from what you see. Please reach out if you run into any issues.

Step 1: Accept VISION Invitation

You will receive an invitation email to set up your account on VISION:

Click the link which will open a browser window, then click Log in With SSO:

Select the correct Identity provider and login:

Step 2: Email Verification

You will be redirected back to the VISION account setup page. Click Send Confirmation Code:

Check your email to get the confirmation code:

Navigate back to the VISION account setup page and fill in the confirmation code:

Step 3: Create SSH Key

Click on Create a new SSH key:

The comment is optional but we suggest adding "vision". Click Generate Key Pair:

Download the Private Key by clicking on the Download Private Key button. If your browser gives you the option while downloading, save the private key to your $HOME/.ssh/ directory (or %USERPROFILE%\.ssh for Windows). Otherwise, move the file to this location after downloading.

Set Permissions: Mac/Linux

For Mac/Linux users, you will need to confirm that your private key has 600 permissions. Enter the following commands in your terminal:

ls -l $HOME/.ssh/id_ed25519_vision

The output should look like this:

-rw-------  ... id_ed25519_vision

Change the permissions if it does not:

chmod 600 $HOME/.ssh/id_ed25519_vision

Set Permissions: Windows

For Windows users, you will need to ensure the private key file is owned by only your local username on the Windows PC/Laptop you are using, and has read+execute permissions only. To do so, right-click on the downloaded private key file id_ed25519_vision in %USERPROFILE%\.ssh, then choose Properties.

Navigate to the Security tab, then click the Advanced button.

In the newly popped-up Advanced Security Settings dialog, click the Disable Inheritance button.

Choose Remove all inherited permissions from this object.

Back to the Advanced Security Settings dialog, click the Add button.

In the newly popped-up Permission Entry dialog box, click Select a principal.

Enter your local username on your Windows PC/Laptop and click the Check Names button. If it recognizes what you typed, your username should be expanded (if you have trouble with this, check how your username is displayed back in the 'Security' tab of the 'Properties' popup you first opened earlier). Then, click OK for all the opened dialogs. Your private key file's permissions are now good to go.

Step 4: Setup Duo Account

Click on Manage Devices:

Click on Get started:

Your options will differ depending on your current setup in DUO. Click Duo Mobile:

Add your phone number:

Confirm your number:

Download the Duo Mobile app if you do not already have it. Click Next:

There will be a QR Code to finish the setup with your DUO app. Scan the QR code with the DUO app.

After scanning, you will get an Added Duo Mobile confirmation screen. Click Continue:

Step 5: Setup Cloudflare One

You will need to set up Cloudflare One (previously 'WARP') on your device before you can login to VISION. Visit the link below and select the installer appropriate for your computer:

https://developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-one/team-and-resources/devices/cloudflare-one-client/download/(opens in new window)

Subsequent steps will vary somewhat by operating system.

Cloudflare Setup: Mac

After installing Cloudflare One, you should see a new icon available for a running service in the menu bar.

Select it and click Next:

Click Accept:

Click the gear icon:

Click on Preferences:

Click on Account:

Type tamucs in the "Enter your Team name:" field:

You will be directed to the Cloudflare Login App in your default browser. Select the appropriate Institution. Your page may differ in options then the snapshot below.

After logging in, you should see a "Success!" page. If you do not see the Zero Trust window, click the Cloudflare icon in your menu bar. Click on the toggle under "Zero Trust" to Connect.

You should now see "Connected" under the Zero Trust toggle:

You will need this turned on whenever you want to connect to VISION.

Cloudflare Setup: Windows

After downloading and running the installer, it will give you two options to choose from. Select the "Cloudflare One Client" (hit Continue below it):

Type tamucs in the "What is your team name?" field and click Continue:

You will be directed to the Cloudflare One Login App in your default browser. Select the appropriate Institution. Your page may differ in options than the snapshot below:

After logging in, you should see a "Success!" page. Then you can open the Cloudflare One client where you should have a "Connect" button to click:

After clicking the button, you should see Connected in the Cloudflare One client window:

You will need this turned on whenever you want to connect to VISION.

Step 6: Configure SSH

Setup the config file to ssh to VISION. Personalized instructions are available by clicking View Instructions on the account.vision.tamus.edu(opens in new window) page:

note

The primary address for connecting to a VISION login node is login.vision.tamus.edu. Using this will connect you to one of two login nodes. If, for some reason, you need to connect to a specific login node, those addresses are slogin-01.login.vision.tamus.edu and slogin-02.login.vision.tamus.edu.

For Mac/Linux users, if it doesn't already exist, create a text file named config in $HOME/.ssh/config with the following content. You will need to replace id_institution with your username as shown on the VISION account activation page:

Host vision
    Hostname  login.vision.tamus.edu
    User  id_institution
    IdentityFile  ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_vision
    Port  22

For Windows users, if it doesn't already exist, create a text file named config in %USERPROFILE%\.ssh\ with the following content:

Host vision
    Hostname  login.vision.tamus.edu
    User  id_institution
    IdentityFile  %d/.ssh/id_ed25519_vision
    Port  22

Note that Windows uses OpenSSH config syntax, and the %d in the 'IdentityFile' field represents the user’s home directory (%USERPROFILE%). You will need to replace id_institution with your username as shown on the VISION account activation page

Step 7: Connect to VISION

Command Line

You should now be able to ssh to VISION in a Mac/Linux Terminal or Windows PowerShell/cmd session using the following command:

ssh vision

MobaXterm

For Windows users who prefer using MobaXterm to log in to VISION, open MobaXterm and click the 'Session' button near the top-left corner.

Then, specify the following fields:

• Shell type: SSH
• Remote Host: login.vision.tamus.edu
• Check Specify username and type your id_institution username in that field.
• Expand the "Advanced SSH settings" tab Check Use Private Key, then click on the little blue paper icon to browse to the private key you downloaded. Note that you must browse to the file to get the full absolute path, as this path cannot contain any variables like %USERPROFILE%.

Then hit the 'OK' button.

If MobaXterm did not open the session automatically for you, double click on it in the left panel (if you connect successfully, you'll be able to launch future sessions from here as well, without having to fill out the ssh configuration again).

MobaXterm will likely pop up a dialog asking you to type your Duo authentication password, which you don’t have. Simply cancel this dialog.

Once you establish the connection, the real Duo Push prompt will appear in the terminal. Type the choice of your Duo authentication and hit Enter, then perform Duo authentication and log in.