You can use secure shell (SSH) to log into a CIM system. On a Linux or Mac system, you can directly ssh to to a cim machine with

ssh <CIMUSERNAME>@barn.cim.mcgill.ca

barn.cim.mcgill.ca is a publicly accessible CIM system available for everyone to use to log in.

If you are on another type of operating system, we suggest using an ssh client such as PuTTY to access the CIM servers.

Once connected to the server, you will be presented with a Linux command line. If unfamiliar with the Linux environment, here is a link to a quick guide that covers the basics of Linux shell operation.

Some CIM computers are on a private (internal) McGill vlan (10.69.54.1/23). These servers cannot be access directly from the internet To access these computers, you can use any public CIM server as an ssh jump host. (SSH jump hosts are a way to proxy ssh connections through one server to access another)

ssh -j <CIMUSERNAME>@barn.cim.mcgill.ca <CIMUSERNAME>@<PRIVATESERVER>.cim.mcgill.ca 

If you are on another type of operating system, we suggest using an ssh client such as PuTTY to connect to CIM computers.

When you open PuTTY, you'll be presented with a configuration screen where only two options need to be configured, the server address (barn.cim.mcgill.ca) and the connection type (SSH).

Once configured, click open and the a shell should appear and prompt for your CIM username and password.

To access private CIM servers, you'll need to configure an SSH proxy in PuTTY. To do so, you'll need a version of putty >0.77 and navigate to Connection > Proxy and select SSH as the proxy type and specify the details of the jump host (barn.cim.mcgill.ca).