This page is also available as a PPD Computer Support Document.

SSH access to Windows Terminal Server

The PPD Windows Terminal Server, hepwints.pp.rl.ac.uk (AKA hepwin2012-37.dc.pp.rl.ac.uk), is accessible via SSH running within the Cygwin Linux-emulation environment. This is primarily useful for providing convenient access to Windows files from Linux or macOS, at RAL or outside. Cygwin itself can also be useful for Linux-style command-line or X-Windows access to Windows files (eg. latex, convert, etc), but the Terminal Server is just one machine, so this should just be done for simple projects.

You can connect to the terminal server, just like any other SSH service, using your Federal id as username:

ssh federal-id@hepwints.pp.rl.ac.uk

This will prompt for your Windows password, and log you in with your Windows home directory, which is accessed Unix-style: /ppd/fedid/federal-id (or just ~). Other PPD Windows folders live under /ppd (which is a shortcut for //dc.pp.rl.ac.uk/ppd), eg. /ppd/WWW/Projects/Atlas-SCT.

You can use scp or sftp, either connecting from your machine, or connecting to your machine from hepwints, eg. to copy a file to your Windows desktop from Linux:

scp plot.pdf hepwints.pp.rl.ac.uk:Desktop/

Note that hepwints is not directly accessible from outside the STFC Firewall. In this case, you can use the PPD SSH Bastion. You can either ssh in two hops, and then scp your files connecting back to your machine from the hepwints command-line, or setup a proxy connection as described on the PPD SSH Bastion page.

You can set defaults for the connection (eg. default username) in a ~/.ssh/config on your client machine, and setup ssh on hepwints, with a ~/.ssh directory, just like you would on a Linux system. Just as on Linux, if you put a public key in ~/.ssh/authorized_keys and connect with the private key, you can connect without a separate password. For passwordless login to work, you need one extra step for the Terminal Server. Login to hepwints (using the password), and type:

passwd -R

This will prompt you for your current password (twice). Use your existing Windows password. Despite the familiar command, this does not change the password – all it does is save it in a secure location, so future passwordless ssh logins can access your Windows files. You only need run “passwd –R” once on hepwints, or if ever you change your Windows password.

-- Tim Adye - 2017-05-25
-- Tim Adye - 2016-11-24

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