How to access computers with remote desktop?

How to access computers with remote desktop?

Summary

1. Remotely accessible computers
2. Access
3. Data storage
4. How to connect
5. Connection issues on MacOS
6. Disconnecting
7. Status pages

These remotely accessible computers are reserved for interdisciplinary projects. This license pool includes different software and programs from those used for EPFL courses and has a limited number of licenses. Therefore, it's important to use them only for interdisciplinary projects. Other remotely accessible machines (e.g., VDI) and computer labs are available for courses and course-related projects at EPFL.

Remotely accessible computers

Several computers are accessible to students participating to interdisciplinary projects. Some of them are only remotely accessible, and provide CAD & simulation software. Some other provide graphics and video editing software, and can also be accessed locally (which is useful for video editing).

Each computer can be used at most by two concurrent users, but check current CPU & RAM usage before connecting, as a big simulation or video project might easily use all the resources of the PC.

Please make sure that you completely read and understand this page before trying to access these resources.

Short link to this page: https://make.epfl.ch/remote-pc

Access

Before you can access the computers, you must complete the short online training session at https://make.epfl.ch/training. After this, the coordinator of your MAKE project will have to validate your registration, and once this is done, you will be able to connect to the computers.

Data storage

MAKE projects have access to a shared network drive that can be accessed anywhere at EPFL and has versioning (allowing old file versions to be recovered). It is intended for active data (not archival), and is therefore the best solution in most cases for project data. Using the MAKE shared allows you to use any computer (not just the one where you store the data locally), improving flexibility and data safety.

Each PC has a c:\data directory that is accessible by all users. However, please note that:

No backups whatsoever are made, and no hardware redundancy is present; therefore in case of hardware failure, data will be lost. You are responsible of saving any important data elsewhere (e.g. to your networked My documents folder).
In case of disk space shortage, data will be erased without warning, starting with the oldest files.
User profiles (local application settings, files on the dekstop, etc.) will be purged at least once per semester, or more often if necessary.
Store data locally only as a last-resort solution, i.e., if using the MAKE network drive is too slow or if your files are way too large.

How to connect

From Windows, use the integrated Remote Desktop Connection client. You can specify various settings before the connection (e.g., whether you want a full-screen connection or not).
From MacOS, install Windows App (previously Remote Desktop), which is the Mac equivalent of the corresponding Windows software. If you have trouble connecting from a Mac, see below.
From Linux, you can use Remmina (often preinstalled, on Ubuntu sudo apt install remmina will install it if needed), which is a multi-protocol remote connection software. To connect to Windows machines, you need to use the RDP protocol. In most cases, you need to specify 32-bit as color depth for the connection to work.

In all cases, you need an active EPFL VPN session to be able to successfully connect if you are not on the campus network.

Connection issues on MacOS

Recent versions of the Windows app on MacOS seem not to properly work for some users due to codec issues. If the screen freezes at login, or if you are disconnected with error 0x200d, try using the old Remote Desktop App.

Uninstall the Windows app from the App Store
Download the Mircosoft Remote Desktop 10.9.10 installer and install it
If the app doesn't appear to be there after installation, check if it has been blocked by Gatekeeper.

Disconnecting

Please note that disconnecting from a remote session does not log you out: programs continue to run and use memory, and the computer is displayed in the list as disconnected with your username. This is perfectly fine if it is the intended use (e.g., for a short break, or to let simulations run overnight), however in all other cases you must use the Sign out function in the start menu to actually log out.

Idle sessions will automatically disconnected after two hours. Disconnected sessions will be terminated after 24 hours; in that case, any unsaved data will be lost.

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