Multi Factor Authentication (MFA)

As said in the previous page, Research HPC clusters listed on this website use GA verification code as the second factor. Users that have access to more than one Research HPC cluster will use the same GA account as the second factor on all clusters.

When you first ssh to a cluster, a new user account is created on the cluster. If this is the first Research cluster that you have logged in to, a new GA account will also be created. In this case, the connection will be closed right away with a message that you do not have a MFA account configured. Within minutes you should receive an email with the instructions and a key/QR code needed to configure your GA account. If you don't receive such an email, please contact us at hpc-help@iastate.edu .

On subsequent logins to a Research cluster you will be prompted with
Verification code:

This is where you type the 6 digit code displayed by the GA app. A new code is generated every 30 seconds. You need to enter the code and hit enter before the new one is generated. The same code should not be used more than once. So if you made a mistake when typing in verification code, and are prompted for Verification code again, wait for a new code to be generated before entering it.

Next you will be prompted for a Password, enter your ISU network password.

Once you have typed both the Verification code and the Password correctly, you will be logged in and will see the Message of the Day (MOTD) with important information about the cluster.

You will next be prompted with the question:
"Do you want to store a phone number to allow you to reset your Google authenticator application (Y/N)?" 
Enter YES. Then enter the 10 digit phone number where you get text messages. This will allow you to reset your GA account if you get a new phone (assuming you keep the same phone number). You can save a different phone number later by issuing the phone-collect.sh command on the cluster login node. If you don’t save a phone number, you will need to come to Durham Center and show us your ID in order to reset your GA account.

Next: Command-line Interface