TeraGrid Single Sign-on Quick Start

Home > User Support > SSO Quick Start

After your first allocation is awarded, or you are added as a user to an allocation for the first time, you'll receive your Allocation Information Packet by postal mail. The packet contains your TeraGrid-wide/TeraGrid User Portal username and password. TeraGrid supports three authentication mechanisms:

1. Single Sign-On (SSO) using your TeraGrid-wide password
2. SSH2 keypairs
3. Site passwords (available on request; supported at some resource provider (RP) sites)

This page describes Single Sign-On using your TeraGrid-wide (User Portal) password.

Single Sign-on (SSO) refers to the ability to log in from one location, authenticating yourself so that you will be recognized by all TeraGrid resources without having to repeatedly enter your login information for each command or resource. All TeraGrid users can log in via Single Sign-on, which is based on Grid Security Infrastructure (GSI), a part of the Globus Toolkit. Authentication on TeraGrid resources is implemented through user certificates and recognized certificate authorities (CAs).

Whether you use SSO from inside the Portal or from a terminal application on your laptop, your TeraGrid certificate is set up for you on all of your allocated resources.

SSO from the TeraGrid User Portal (recommended)

You can start computing from the portal as soon as you get your information packet.

From the Portal Accounts Tab

The accounts tab shows all the machines on which you have an allocation. Once you log in to the portal, you may connect with any machine without having to enter your login name again. The portal will bring up a terminal window automatically.

• Log in to the portal using your TeraGrid-wide password.
• Go to the My Teragrid tab.
• Select Accounts from the menu bar.
• From the Connect column, click on Log in.
• Click on Run to verify that you wish to run the Java applet.

From the Portal SSH Terminal

Log in at the portal >> My TeraGrid tab >> SSH Terminal.

SSO using a desktop/laptop client

The starting point for this method is a browser window (Windows) or your local Linux/Unix/MacOSX command line using the tgsso application. Like SSO through the portal, you can start computing as soon as you receive your information packet.

• Instructions for Mac OSX/UNIX/Linux
• Instructions for Windows (Beta)

SSO using non-default certificates

Using non-TeraGrid certificates requires a little extra work because it requires manual set up at each resource where you will be computing. This means that you need to know how to log in to each resource for initial set-up only.

See the instructions for Single Sign-on for non-TeraGrid CAs for a list of accepted CAs