Applications like 'R-studio' or 'Windows 2019 - TOTP login' that require a username and password can be accessed by using a "time-based one-time password" (TOTP) as the password.

Setting up TOTP

Go to the "Profile" tab of the Research Cloud portal. You will find your username there.

Click on the three stacked dots ("ellipse") in the upper right of the profile display card.

Select Reset Time based password and scan the displayed QR code with an authentication app on your smartphone. Examples of authentication apps are Google Authenticator and Authy.

You can now use your smartphone to generate temporary number codes (TOTPs) that serve as the password for your workspace's login screen.

TOTP on Ubuntu Desktop

With our Ubuntu Desktop catalog items, we have moved to logging in with SRAM. If you need or prefer TOTP, you can reactivate it by modifying the catalog item. Look at the bottom of this page for more info.


R-Studio example

Here is an example of how you would use your TOTP to log in to a workspace:

  1. Go to your workspaces overview on your Research Cloud Dashboard page and find a workspace with a web interface (like R-Studio).
  2. Click on the Access button
  3. In a new browser tab, you will be presented with a login dialog (the image below is an example for an R-Studio workspace):

The username is the username that is given on your Profile tab in the Research Cloud portal.

The password is the TOTP generated by your smartphone's authentication app.

That way, you can access your workspace through your browser.

TOTP and sudo/administrator access

Windows and some Linux workspaces are configured such that only members of the src_co_admin group can get administrator or sudo access.

When you are prompted for your password to use your administrator/sudo rights, you fill in the TOTP password that is generated by your authenticator app.


Ubuntu Desktop with TOTP

To create an Ubuntu Desktop catalog item that allows logging in with TOTP, you need to be a member of the src_developer group of your collaboration. (Appoint a collaboration-member a developer, Catalog items - creation and management)

A developer can clone the Ubuntu Desktop catalog item and change the overwritable parameter "enable_oidc_auth" to "true".

Workspaces created with the modified catalog item can be accessed with TOTP.