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Connecting to Jigwé
Configuring your Machine for Parallel Computing
Created by Usaid Bin Shafqat • Modified by Dr. Vargas-Pérez



This guide provides instructions on how to connect to Kalamazoo College Computer Science department’s remote server called Jigwé (pronounced 'Cheekua' Potawami for Thunderbird). By connecting to Jigwe, you will have access to a more powerful and consistent computing environment than what is available on your personal computer. This is especially important for the assignments we will be working on which will include computationally intensive algorithms. Additionally, using a remote server for your work ensures that all students have access to the same resources and software, making it easier for your instructor to assist with any issues you may encounter.

To connect to Jigwe, we will be using Secure Shell (SSH), a secure network protocol that enables secure data communication between two computers. SSH is available on most operating system, including Windows, MacOS, and Linux, and is a widely used tool for remote server administration and file transfer.

IMPORTANT: The instructions below assume students have basic familiarity with Linux commands. Please refer to this wiki for a list basic Linux terminal commands and how to use them.

Testing Your Username

Once your SSH keys are added to Jigwé, you should be able to SSH into the server using the following commands in your terminal or command prompt (if you setup a passphrase when generating your SSH key you'll be prompted for it)

ssh username@jigwe.kzoo.edu

Once you're connected, you will see Jigwé's logo and a welcoming message.

Setting up Programming Environment

I will show you one ways to access Jigwé, and setup the coding environment on your local machine to take advantage of Jigwé's resources using and SSH connection. It is recommended that you use this method because you can produce Jupyter Notebooks (and since we can access the terminal and the code through the same file) you can submit it to Kit as a single document.

Using Jupyter

Jupyter is an open-source web application that allows you to create and share documents that contain live code, equations and visualizations. It supports multiple programming languages and is widely used for scientific computing, data analysis and machine learning.

One of the advantages of Jupyter is that it can be used for remote development. With the help of a Jupyter Notebook running on a remote server such as Jigwé, you can work on your code using a web interface that runs in your browser. This allows you to access the server computing power while still having access to your preferred development environment.

You can follow the next steps to set up the environment, and connect to Jigwé. Once you are done, you can create all sorts of files on Jigwé, using the web interface to edit, execute and visualize your code.

Step 1:

Connect to Jigwé (follow the steps in the section "Testing Your Username" above)

Step 2:

Check if Jupyter is installed in your directory on Jigwe by checking its version number using:

jupyter --version

If it's installed, a version number should be displayed, otherwise, install it using pip:

pip install jupyter
Step 3:

Once Jupyter is ready to go, open a Jupyter Notebook on a specified port:

jupyter notebook --no-browser --port 4810

This will open a Jupyter Notebook in Jigwé and give you a couple of URLs to access the notebook via a browser. You will use one of those links to open the URL in your machine's local (and preferred) browser in the next steps.

IMPORTANT: Make sure you choose a port number different from the 4810 listed in the example above. Jigwé will be listening for SHH connections and redirecting traffic through that port, so it need to be different from the ones your classmates are going to be using. Choose a port number from the range 3000 to 5000, and use it every time you connect.
Step 4:

Open another terminal or command prompt to set up an SSH tunnel between your computer and Jigwé. Make sure you use the same port number you used in Step 3:

ssh -L 4810:localhost:4810 username@jigwe.kzoo.edu

You will be prompted for the SSH passphrase once again (if you used one), click enter if it was set up to be empty. Once you see the Jigwé logo again, go back to the first terminal window where the Jupyter Notebook is running.

Step 5:

Copy-paste one of the two URLs into your browser (from the ones starting with HTTP) which will take you to the instance of the Jupyter Notebook opened in Jigwé.

You should be ready to start testing your code using this mechanism.

Other Ways to Connect

You can also choose to connect to Jigwé using VSCode (by adding the SSH plugin and configuring it with your credentials), or just use the Terminal or Command Prompt and do it old-school.



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