# Oscar # Overview of Oscar Long-term visitors to ICERM who receive a Brown ID are provided with an exploratory account on the Oscar high performance computing cluster maintained by Brown's [Center for Computation and Visualization](https://ccv.brown.edu/services/infrastructure/oscar/ "https://ccv.brown.edu/services/infrastructure/oscar/"). Oscar access may also be provided to short-term visitors on request-basis with *advance notice*. *If you are coming for a short-term visit and would like to request Oscar access, please contact ICERM IT staff no later than three weeks before your planned visit to ensure enough time to process a sponsored ID and enable Oscar access.* Oscar can be used via SSH terminal or via the Oscar VNC client. The Oscar VNC client is preinstalled and available on the thin clients in all ICERM 10th floor offices and the graduate student workspace in the 10th floor lobby. ## Using Oscar Oscar provides both [command line (SSH)](https://docs.icerm.brown.edu/books/oscar/page/ssh-access-to-oscar "SSH Access to Oscar") access and [virtual desktop (VNC)](https://docs.icerm.brown.edu/books/oscar/page/vnc-access-to-oscar "VNC Access to Oscar") access to the computing cluster. All Oscar accounts are capable of using both interfaces, so you should choose the method that will work best for what you are trying to accomplish. Oscar accounts are tied to Brown Shibboleth accounts, so you must have an ICERM Sponsored Brown ID to use Oscar. Once Oscar access is enabled for your Brown account, you can log in to SSH and VNC using your Brown Shibboleth username and password. ### SSH Usage Oscar's SSH interface provides a standard command line shell for interacting with the cluster. This is the best option for using simple command line scripts and submitting scripts for batch job processing. See the [SSH Login Instructions](https://docs.icerm.brown.edu/books/oscar/page/ssh-access-to-oscar "SSH Access to Oscar") for information on how to connect and basic usage. It's important to note that you should never run complex scripts or computations within the SSH login nodes. Computations should either be submitted as batch jobs or run in an interactive compute session using the `interact` command. ### Open OnDemand Oscar's OOD s a web portal to the Oscar computing cluster. This is the easiest way to access Oscar and navigate around. Once logged in you effortlessly be able to access active jobs, use MATLAB or Mathematica, and even use the Oscar Shell CLI. See the [OOD Login Instructions](https://docs.icerm.brown.edu/books/oscar/page/open-ondemand-access-to-oscar) for information on how to get started with the web portal. ### VNC Usage Oscar's VNC client provides a standard Linux graphical desktop using virtual network computing. If you'd like to use applications with a GUI, such as MATLAB or Mathematica, this is the best way to do so. Oscar's VNC sessions run within the scheduling system directly on a compute node, similar to the `interact` command, so you can run computations directly in the VNC session. See the [VNC Login Instructions](https://docs.icerm.brown.edu/books/oscar/page/vnc-access-to-oscar "VNC Access to Oscar") for information on how to get started with the VNC client. ## Available Software Oscar maintains a [large library of software packages](https://docs.icerm.brown.edu/books/oscar/page/currently-available-modules "Currently Available Modules") for use on the HPC cluster. Some of the most commonly used mathematical applications and languages available include: