Troubleshooting

This page covers common setup issues.

Setting up SSH access to all clusters

cluv connects to each cluster using the hostnames configured in your ~/.ssh/config. We recommend using milatools to generate the SSH config for all Mila and Alliance clusters at once:

mila init

Note

mila init is meant to be run on your local machine.

More information in the Mila Technical Documentation:

• Get Started with the Cluster
• Digital Research Alliance of Canada Clusters

Setting up SSH access to GitHub from the clusters

cluv sync clones and pulls your repository from the clusters themselves, so each cluster needs its own way to authenticate to GitHub. This matters because most git repositories are private: without proper authentication, the clone/pull steps on the clusters will simply fail. There are two ways to set this up.

Option 1 - Forward your local SSH agent (recommended)

If you already have a GitHub SSH key on your machine, forward it through the SSH connection instead of creating a new key on every cluster. In your local ~/.ssh/config:

Host mila* narval tamia rorqual fir
    ForwardAgent yes

Then, before running cluv login / cluv sync, make sure your key is loaded in the agent:

ssh-add <your-github-ssh-key>

Alternatively, add AddKeysToAgent yes to your SSH config to load keys automatically on first use.

Option 2 - Create a dedicated key on each cluster

Otherwise, generate and register an SSH key on each cluster you want to use:

1. Connect to the cluster:

   ssh <cluster>
   

2. Generate a new SSH key-pair (accept the defaults):

   ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 3072
   

3. Add the public key (~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub) to your GitHub account:

   • Through the GitHub website: https://github.com/settings/keys
   • Or with the GitHub CLI: gh ssh-key add ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Verifying

Either way, you can check that GitHub authentication works from a cluster:

ssh -T git@github.com

You should see a Hi <username>! You've successfully authenticated message.