Configure Your Server (Part I) -- SSH and Git

This guide will walk you through setting up a server or cluster for deep learning tasks, particularly for Large Language Models (LLMs). The content was originally documented in my wolai notes and is now shared here. Feel free to ask questions in the comments!

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure you have:

1. The server IP address (e.g., 111.111.111.111) and login credentials from your administrator.
2. Terminal access (Linux/macOS) or an SSH client (e.g., PuTTY for Windows).

Configure SSH for Password-Free Login

Repeatedly entering passwords is tedious. Here’s how to set up SSH key-based authentication:

1. Generate an SSH Key Pair

Run the following in your local machine’s terminal:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "your_email@example.com"

• Press Enter to accept the default file location (~/.ssh/id_rsa).
• Optional: Add a passphrase for extra security.

2. Copy the Public Key

Display and copy your public key (id_rsa.pub):

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Note: If you used a custom key name, replace id_rsa.pub with your filename.

3. Configure the Server

Connect to the server and add your public key:

ssh your_username@111.111.111.111
mkdir -p ~/.ssh 
echo "YOUR_PUBLIC_KEY" >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys  

Notice that the last step, which restricts the file permission, will be important, because the system will not accept it with a open permission.

Verify the setup:

ssh your_username@111.111.111.111 

You should now be able to login without a password.

Simplify Access with SSH Config

Edit (or create) ~/.ssh/config on your local machine to streamline logins:

Host llm_server
    HostName 111.111.111.111 
    User your_username
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa 

Usage:

ssh llm_server  

This will be convenient for using!

Connect with VS Code (Optional)

1. Install the Remote - SSH extension in VS Code.
2. Press F1 > Remote-SSH: Connect to Host > Select llm_server.

This process is same for Cursor.

Configure to use Github/Git

If you want use github to manage your repository, then you can follow this part to configure it.

Configure Git

1. Install Git from this website and use git --version to validate.
2. Configure user’s information by

   git config --global user.name "Your Name"
   git config --global user.email "your@email.com"
   

SSH connection

1. Copy your public key as before cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
2. Add it to Github.
   1. Navigate to Settings > SSH and GPG keys
   2. Click “New SSH key”, then paste the copied content

Then you can use this command to test SSH connection.

ssh -T git@github.com

Usage

Vscode

1. Open VS Code
2. Click the “Accounts” icon in the lower-left corner (or your avatar in the bottom-right corner)
3. Select “Sign in with GitHub”
4. Authorize the login in your browser when prompted
5. Wait for VS Code to automatically configure your GitHub account connection

Then you can use UI in vscode to use Git.

Terminal

For easy usage, I list common git command here:

🧱 Initialization & Configuration

🔗 Remote Repositories

📥 Clone / Pull / Sync

📤 Add, Commit & Push

🌿 Branch Management

📜 Status & Log

🛠️ Undo / Restore

📦 Tagging

🧪 Diffs & Comparison

The first part ends and the next section will be about configuring python environment, which is the fundation of deep learning (LLMs) tasks.