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General Questions About IDAS

What is IDAS?

The Interactive Data Analytics Service (IDAS) is provided by the University of Iowa Information Technology Services - Research Services (ITS-RS). IDAS supports large-scale and collaborative data analytics using interactive tools such as RStudio for R and Jupyter Notebook JupyterLab for Python, R, and Julia. Users will benefit from High Performance Computing (HPC) resources while from high-performance computing resources while performing their interactive data analysis tasks. 

What tools are available in IDAS?

IDAS currently supports:

• RStudio for R

• JupyterLab for Python, R, and Julia

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Python, R, and Julia are among the most popular programming languages for data analysis. Python and Julia are general-purpose languages, and R is a language for statistical computing and graphics. Python, R, and Julia are open-source projects and free for everyone to use, although some companies provide commercial support and/or extensions for their customers. While Python, R, and Julia share many important features as high-level, open-source programming languages, they each have their own strengths and weaknesses from a data-science perspective.

What is interactive data analytics?

Interactiveness is one of the key features of data analytics. Due to the nature of data analysis, it is challenging to write perfect code on the first try. You write and run some code, see the output, and then based on that output write and run another code, see the output, so on and so forth, until you get the final, satisfactory outcome of your data analysis. That process is called interactive data analytics. 

What are Jupyter Notebook and JupyterHub?

Python support iPython, which stands for interactive Python, for interactive scripting in a shell environment. The Jupyter Notebook is an open-source web application built on top of iPython. It allows you to create and share documents that contain live code, equations, visualizations and narrative text. Uses of the Jupyter Notebook include data cleaning and transformation, numerical simulation, statistical modeling, data visualization, machine learning, and much more. The Jupyter Notebook supports not only Python but also many of the other commonly-used programming languages such as R, Java, and Julia.

JupyterHub is a server version of the Jupyter Notebook for multiple users. It can be used in a class of students, a corporate data science group or scientific research group. It is a multi-user Hub that spawns, manages, and proxies multiple instances of the single-user Jupyter notebook server.

What is RStudio?

RStudio is a free and open-source integrated development environment (IDE) for R. RStudio Desktop is a standalone desktop application that works with the version of R you have installed on your local computer. RStudio Server is a Linux server application for multiple users that provides a web-based interface to the version of R running on the server. 

Okay! You've convinced me. I want to use IDAS. How do I start?

We are truly glad that you want to give IDAS a try.

• To start, you will need to request an IDAS account.
• After your account is approved, please follow the instructions here to access IDAS for research use or the instructions here to access IDAS for class use.
• Find more information about common tasks in IDAS.
• If you are curious about our updates, visit our change log.

Who do I contact if I have questions?

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• A command line interface (Terminal)

• GPUs for research users - Using GPUs on IDAS

• Research users can mount their Argon home directories, LSS shares, and IHDR data enclave shares in IDAS.

How do I request an account?

Please see Requesting An IDAS Account.

Who is eligible to use IDAS?

Current University of Iowa faculty, staff, and students can request to use IDAS for research and teaching.

Is there any fee to use IDAS?

There is currently no fee to use IDAS for current University of Iowa faculty, staff, and students.

I'm new to JupyterLab and/or RStudio. How do I use IDAS?

Please see Using IDAS.

Are my data backed up on IDAS?

Data on IDAS are NOT backed up. Please regularly download your data, codes, and other files from your IDAS account to your own device. Please see File Storage in IDAS for more information.

What other computing services can be used with IDAS?

Research users can mount their Argon home directories, LSS shares, and IHDR data enclave shares in IDAS. For more information about spawning an IDAS research instance, please see Accessing IDAS for Research Use.

Can I connect to Research Data Storage Service (RDSS) from IDAS?

No, RDSS is not accessible from IDAS. 

How can I upload data to IDAS?

• HTTP upload:

  • You can upload files using the “Upload” button in JupyterLab or RStudio.

  • The file size limit is 10GB.

  • The upload speed depends on your internet connection and might be slower if you are using VPN.

  • Before uploading files, please make sure you have enough space in your IDAS home drive to accommodate the additional files. For more information about IDAS home drives, please see File Storage in IDAS. 

• Research users:

  • If you have an Argon account, LSS shares, or IHDR data enclave shares, you can mount them when you spawn an IDAS research instance - Accessing IDAS for Research Use

  • This option allows you to access data in your Argon account, LSS shares, or IHDR data enclave shares while working in IDAS. 

Is IDAS approved to be used with restricted data?

If you would like to use Restricted or Critical data in IDAS, please reach out to the ITS Research Services team at research-computing@uiowa.edu for a consultation. Please see the Data Classification Guide to IT Services for more information, including definitions of different data types and a table of IT services and the types of data permitted with them. 

Whom do I contact if I have further questions?

Please reach out to Cody B Johnson and Giang Rudderham at research-computing@uiowa.edu. Support is generally available Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. excluding University holidays.

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Questions About Using IDAS for Teaching

I'm interested in using IDAS for teaching my course. How do I start?

We are glad you are interested in using IDAS for your course! Please read our Interactive Data Analytics Service Documentation in order to find answers to common questions. We are also more than happy to meet and talk through any questions you might have. Please reach out to research-computing@uiowa.edu to ask your questions or schedule a meeting.

If you decide to request IDAS for your course, please fill out the following Workflow form: https://workflow.uiowa.edu/form/idas-class-request.

I've requested to use IDAS for teaching my course. Do my students have to request their individual IDAS accounts?

No, students enrolled in your course will automatically be given access to your course instance on IDAS. Access to the course instance will be automatically adjusted for students who add or drop the course after the semester has started.

However, if you would like to give access to your TAs, additional instructors, or students who unofficially audit the course, you need to add them to your Workflow form using the steps in this article - Add a user to an IDAS class use environment.

I've requested to use IDAS for teaching two separate courses. Will I have separate IDAS instances for those courses?

Yes, each course will have a separate IDAS instance. That means students enrolled only in one course will not be able to see the class materials posted in the IDAS instance for the other course.

I've requested to use IDAS for teaching my course. How long does it take for my request to be approved?

This depends on the complexity of your request. Our Systems Administrator team will build an instance specifically for your course and grant access to students who are enrolled in the course. In general, if you are interested in using IDAS to teach a course, please let us know as soon as possible by filling out this Workflow form: https://workflow.uiowa.edu/form/idas-class-request.

Can I request a shared storage space for my IDAS course instance?

Yes, course instructors can request a shared storage space when they fill out the classroom request form in Workflow. Each course can have 1TB free of charge. 

The class share can be accessed by the instructor, students who are enrolled in the class, and any additional users specified in the classroom request form in Workflow. The instructor can upload class materials to the class share. The materials will then be available to the students and additional users to view and copy to their individual IDAS home directories.

When instructors fill out the Workflow form, they can request one of the following permissions for students:

• Read/Write: students can view, edit, create, and delete files in the class share. If you choose this option, students can end up removing files from the class share, making those files unavailable for other students in the class. Please make sure this is what you want before you choose this option in the Workflow form.

• Read Only: students can view and copy the files from the class share to their IDAS home directories. They can't edit, create, or delete files in the class share. They can still edit, create, and delete files in their individual IDAS home directories. This is the option that most instructors choose.

The instructor is the owner of the class share and has Read/Write access. Each share can only have 1 owner.

Please see Accessing the Shared Class Folder for more information about accessing the class share from IDAS.

How long will instructors and students have access to IDAS after the course ends?

We deprovision all course instances on IDAS the week after grades for the semester-length courses are due. To determine when grades are due, please see these Grading Schedules from the Office of the Registrar. Please download any data, codes, and files from your classroom account before access to your IDAS course instance ends.

For more information, please see Class Accounts at the End of the Semester.

Can I continue using IDAS after my course ends?

Instructors and students are welcome to request an individual IDAS research account if they want to continue using IDAS for their own research after the course ends. Note that files in your classroom account will not transfer to your research account. Please download any data, codes, and files from your classroom account before access to your IDAS course instance ends.

For more information, please see Class Accounts at the End of the Semester.

Whom should students contact if they run into issues using IDAS?

Please contact research-computing@uiowa.edu. Students should provide:

• The full name of the course, including the section number, for example: BAIS:6040:0EXP

• A description of the issue. For example:

  • screenshots of the error messages,

  • any codes that are causing errors,

  • names and locations of the notebooks (in the student’s IDAS account) that have issues.

Support is generally available Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. excluding University holidays.