OnDemand Web Portal

Pomona College's OnDemand Access

Pomona College proudly offers OnDemand as your user-friendly gateway to the College's High-Performance Computing (HPC) resources. Access the HPC effortlessly via the web, without the need for an SSH client, through our intuitive, graphical interface.

OnDemand is perfect for those who frequently use applications like MATLAB, RStudio, and Jupyter Notebook, all of which benefit from a graphical environment. Beyond these, OnDemand empowers you to:

Upload and download documents
Launch diverse applications
Monitor your disk quotas
And much more!

Originating a decade ago from the Ohio Supercomputing Center, OnDemand has established itself as a trusted platform at numerous academic institutions. At Pomona College, we've tailored OnDemand specifically for our HPC needs, ensuring a seamless experience for our community.

For any questions or assistance, please reach out to servicedesk@pomona.edu.

Getting Started with OnDemand

To access OnDemand at Pomona College, you need a Pomona College HPC research account. We recommend using the latest versions of Chrome or Firefox for optimal performance. While Safari and Edge may work with some applications, they are not officially supported. Access via mobile devices like phones or tablets is possible but isn't fully supported.

Upon accessing, you will be prompted to enter your Pomona College login credentials. Additionally, you'll need to verify your identity using our Two-Factor Authentication with Duo Security, the same system used for other Pomona College online services. If you've used Duo with any of our platforms before, all your registered devices will be compatible with OnDemand. If you haven't set up Duo yet, please visit Pomona College Duo Setup to register and configure your preferred authentication method, whether it's your cell phone, office phone, tablet, or other options. Remember, if you select the right checkbox, Duo will only prompt you once every 30 days per browser.

The first time you launch OnDemand, a directory named 'ondemand' will be automatically created in your PCC home directory. It's crucial to leave this directory untouched; please avoid deleting or modifying its contents.

Logging Out and Managing Sessions

Understanding the distinction between logging out from OnDemand via your browser and terminating active sessions or jobs under OnDemand is crucial.

Logging Out: To exit OnDemand in your browser, click the "Log out" link located at the top right corner of the screen. This step is especially vital when accessing OnDemand from a public computer to ensure the security of your account.

Active Sessions: Remember, if you have interactive applications or jobs in progress, simply logging out of OnDemand or closing your browser won't terminate them. They'll keep consuming computational resources. This design allows you to sign back into OnDemand from a different device, view your ongoing sessions under the "My Interactive Sessions" tab, and rejoin an active session to resume your tasks. To learn how to stop or delete running sessions you no longer need, refer to the "My Interactive Sessions" guidance page.

Session Duration: OnDemand sessions will operate until they either hit their set duration or are manually ended. For tasks that don't need interactive input, consider submitting them as a batch job to optimize resource usage.

OnDemand Tabs

At the top of the Pomona College OnDemand interface, you'll find various tabs that unlock the diverse features of the portal. Here's a breakdown of their functions:

Interactive Applications:

Access this tab by clicking on “Interactive Apps”.
Launch graphic-rich applications like RStudio or MATLAB directly.
For applications not listed, initiate the “Desktop” app first. Once in the Desktop session, utilize the terminal to load your desired applications and run them.

My Interactive Sessions:

Found to the right of “Interactive Apps”, this small icon leads you to the “My Interactive Sessions” application.
View all active OnDemand sessions, complete with time limits and session locations.
Connect or terminate sessions from here.
Depending on your browser's width, you might only see the icon, without the accompanying “My Interactive Sessions” text.

Pomona Cluster Shell Access:

Utilize this tab to open a command-line window on any of Pomona's primary computing nodes.
Note: These shells don't support X Forwarding, so launching graphical applications like MATLAB or RStudio directly from them isn't possible. Use “Interactive Apps” for such tasks.

Managing Files:

Click on the “Files” tab to interact with files via the OnDemand interface. Whether it's uploading, downloading, creating, editing, or moving, manage your files with ease.

Help:

The “Help” menu is your gateway to:
- Accessing this documentation.
- Reaching out to the Pomona College IT team.
- Monitoring the status of our computing resources.
- Restarting the server that powers your OnDemand session, should any issues arise.

Miscellaneous Tips

Copy & Paste in OnDemand:

Within a shell node server session, the cut-and-paste functionalities should work as expected.
However, when working in the “Desktops” applications (like Desktop, MATLAB, Mathematica, and similar), the copy and paste process may require additional steps.

Control/Command Character Sequences:

Some key combinations might not function as anticipated within OnDemand. This is because your browser may interpret them before they reach your OnDemand application. For instance, Ctrl+w is a common shortcut to close a browser tab and may not behave as expected within the OnDemand environment.
If you're using the Emacs editor in OnDemand, and Ctrl+w doesn't function as intended, you can alternatively utilize esc-x followed by kill-region.