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Step 2 — Choose your machine, then start
The launch screen asks two thingsis called Server Options.
How big a machine? From a small 4 GB workspace, up to a 64 GB machine with 8 CPUs, or a GPU machine. (A GPU is a chip that is fast for AI and image work.) The Server Type list gives you four choices:
| Server Type | You get |
|---|---|
| Standard | up to 4 GB RAM / 4 CPU |
| Large | up to 8 GB RAM / 4 CPU |
| Extra Large | up to 16 GB RAM / 4 CPU |
| r5.2xlarge Node (On Demand) | up to 64 GB RAM / 8 CPU |
Which software set? The Images list holds the ready-made science stacks — for example Earth Science Server (with AI Intelligence). An Other image box lets a project use its Which software set? A ready-made science stack, or your project's own image. (An image is a packaged set of software.)
Which project? The Project list picks which project this session belongs to. It decides which project storage you can reach and which budget the session is charged to.
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Coming later. Two changes to this list are on the roadmap: GPU machines, and letting a project admin build and maintain their own list of server types for their team, instead of everyone choosing from one platform-wide list |
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Example. You plan to open one dataset and draw a few charts. Take the small workspace. You can stop it later and start a bigger one — your files stay. |
Press start. Your workspace opens in a minute or two.
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| Part of the screen | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Left sidebar — file browser | Your files |
| Left sidebar — other icons | The platform tools: usage, data browser, AI tools, background jobs |
| Launcher (the big tile page) | Start a notebook, a terminalconsole, or a collaboration sessionterminal — and the Resource Tracker and Collaboration tiles |
| Main area | Your open notebooks |
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Example. A notebook needs 6 hours and 40 GB of memory. Send it to the background queue and pick a bigger machine for it. Your own workspace stays small and responsive. You can close the browser. The job keeps running. |
You pick the notebook, pick Open the notebook and press NBQueue: Send to queue in the toolbar at the top. Choose the machine, and send it. Then check the status in the same NBQueue panel. When it finishes, the finished notebook, with its output, is waiting for you.
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If your project has collaboration turned on, your Launcher shows a Collaboration tile named "Open <your project> Start <project> Collaboration" — where <project> is the project you chose on the launch screen.
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Example. Three of you must finish one notebook today. One person clicks the tile. Everyone else clicks the same tile and lands in the same session. You all edit the same notebook at once and see who is online. The files live in the shared project space. |
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Step 10 — Watch what you are spending
Open the usage panel (Resource Tracker) — the tile under Admin tools in the left sidebarLauncher. It shows:
- This month — hours used, compute cost, and storage cost split by type.
- Funding period to date — what you have used, what you were given, and what is left.
- When the numbers were last updated.
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