How to use speclab.seas.upenn.edu

Some courses involve computer assignments that are not allowed in the labs or on Eniac, because they would compromise the security or reliability of the machines. Students in these courses use speclab for these assignments.

Access to Speclab is not available to all SEAS students, only those registered for certain courses. CETS does not provide access to Speclab for individual students.

How to access speclab

The speclab machines can be accessed by SSHing to speclab.seas.upenn.edu from Eniac or any machine on the SEAS network.

Alternatively, use the Speclab monitoring page to see a list of available machines and then SSH to a specific speclab machine from Eniac or any machine on the SEAS network.

Running GUI applications on Speclab

You can use X11 forwarding or VNC to run GUI applications on Speclab.

Storage space on speclab

Your SEAS home directory will be mounted automatically when you log in to speclab. If you are working with especially large data, unsuitable for storing in your home directory, consider using the /scratch partition. Files saved to /scratch may be deleted at any time, so don't store anything there that can't be re-created easily.

Common reasons for speclab access problems

• You are not enrolled in a course which uses speclab.
• You just recently enrolled in the class using speclab. It can take up to 48 hours from when you enroll until you have access to speclab.
• You are trying to connect to speclab from a machine outside of the SEAS network.