Research Computing

Myriad is UCL's Linux-based high-performance computing cluster. This page covers the Economics access point and a few common tasks.

Verify details against the official Myriad documentation before relying on them.

Before you connect

You need a cluster account (account application). When away from the UCL network, connect to the UCL VPN first.

Common ways to use Myriad include:

1. SSH for command-line tools such as Stata, R, and MATLAB.
2. SFTP for transferring files.
3. The Economics RStudio Server in a web browser.

Connect with SSH

Replace username with your UCL username:

ssh -X username@econ-myriad.rc.ucl.ac.uk

The -X option enables X11 forwarding for graphical applications. It requires an X server on your computer and is unnecessary for command-line work.

End the session with:

exit

Use RStudio Server

After connecting to the UCL network or VPN, open the Economics RStudio Server. Try a supported browser other than Safari if sign-in does not work.

Transfer files with SFTP

Start SFTP on your own computer:

sftp username@econ-myriad.rc.ucl.ac.uk

Useful commands within the SFTP prompt include:

lcd local-directory       # change directory on your computer
cd remote-directory       # change directory on Myriad
put file.R                # upload one file
get results.txt           # download one file
exit                      # close the SFTP session

Confirm that the destination is appropriate for the data before transferring it. In particular, do not move sensitive or restricted data without checking the applicable UCL data-management rules.

Transfer data from RDSS

The Research Data Storage Service (RDSS) is documented on the official RDSS service page. From a Myriad session, the broad workflow is:

mkdir -p Scratch/project-data
cd Scratch/project-data
sftp live.rd.ucl.ac.uk

At the SFTP prompt, change to your project's RDSS directory and use get to download the required file. Project paths are specific to each allocation; do not copy example project identifiers into your own commands.

Request an interactive compute session

Do not run computational work on a login node. To launch an interactive job with 24 hours and 4 GB of memory:

qrsh -l h_rt=24:0:0,mem=4G

Requested resources should match the job. The job may wait in a queue until capacity is available. Check the current scheduler guidance and limits in the official Myriad documentation.

Start Stata interactively

After obtaining an interactive compute session:

module load stata
xstata

xstata needs working X11 forwarding. For command-line or unattended work, use Stata's batch mode instead; a tested batch example is still to be added.

Basic Linux commands

pwd                       # show the current directory
ls                        # list its contents
cd directory              # change directory
mkdir directory           # create a directory
cp source destination     # copy a file
mv source destination     # move or rename a file

Be cautious with deletion commands: deletion on a remote Linux system may not be recoverable.

Further details

Last reviewed: 29 September 2026.