In On this page:

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Logging in to the Research instance on IDAS

Once you receive an email confirming that your IDAS account is ready, follow the steps below to spawn start an instance and start using IDAS session.

1. Open any web browser. 

2. Go to https://notebooksidas.hpc.uiowa.edu/research-interactive/hub/home. 

3. Log in using your HawkID and password.

4. Authenticate the login with Duo. More information about Duo can be found here.

5. Click the blue button "Start My Server".

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Start My Server.

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Troubleshooting notes

Instead of Start My Server, do you see a red button Stop My Server, like in the screenshot below?

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This means that your IDAS session is already running. From here, you have 2 options:

• Click My Server to continue accessing your IDAS session.

• Click Stop My Server if you want to stop or restart your IDAS session.

  • Restarting your session can be helpful if you want to change from Jupyter to RStudio, change to a specific software version, or change the resources available to your IDAS session (CPU cores, RAM, GPU). For more details, see https://uiowa.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/hpcdocs/pages/76514933/Accessing+IDAS+for+Research+Use#Restarting-your-IDAS-session.

6. Fill out the

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Server Options

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form, using the instructions on the form. Please also see the notes below.

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a) CPU Cores: Fill in the number of CPU cores you want to use in IDAS, with 2 as the minimum and 32 as the maximum.

• If left blank, the default 2 will be used.

b) Memory Limit: Fill in the amount of RAM (GB) you want to use in IDAS, with 4 8 as the minimum and 512 as the maximum.

• If left blank, the default

  4

  8 will be used.

c) GPU: 

• If you are not using GPU, choose "None". This is the default selection.

• If you have GPU-enabled code, select the type of GPU that you want to use. For more information, please see Using GPUs on IDAS.

• GPUs are a finite resource on IDAS and assigned on a first come first served basis. Please request a GPU only if you need to use it and shut down your IDAS server when you are finished so that other users can share the resources.

d) Mount HPC Argon Home: 

• If you do not have an Argon (HPC) account, choose "No". This is the default selection.

• Only if you have an Argon account and want your Argon home directory to be accessible from IDAS, choose "Yes".

  • If you select "Yes" but don't have an Argon account, your IDAS

    instance might

    session may fail to

    spawn

    start.

  • After the IDAS

    instance spawns

    session starts, your Argon home directory will be available in IDAS in the

    "hpchome" directory

    hpchome directory.

  • For more information about accessing your Argon home directory from IDAS, please see https://uiowa.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/hpcdocs/pages/540606569/Comparing+IDAS+and+Argon#Mount-Argon-home-directory-in-IDAS.

e) LSS Shared:

• If you have Large Scale Storage (LSS)

   shares

   shares that you want to use with your IDAS

  instance

  session, enter their paths under "LSS Shared" or "LSS Dedicated". Leave these fields blank otherwise. 

  • Please check that the share names are correct.

  • Multiple shares can be separated by a comma. For example: SHL-BUG,SHL-NBS

f) LSS Dedicated:

• If you have Large Scale Storage (LSS)

   shares

   shares that you want to use with your IDAS

  instance

  session, enter their paths under "LSS Shared" or "LSS Dedicated". Leave these fields blank otherwise. 

  • Please check that the share names are correct.

  • Multiple shares can be separated by a comma.

g) IDAS Image:

• Under

  "

  IDAS Image

  "

  , choose the programming language that you want to use with IDAS.

  For example, to start an IDAS instance with Julia, please select one of the options for Julia.

  IDAS currently has multiple versions of R, Python, and Julia available

• If you are not

  using GPUs

  running code that needs CUDA, you do not need to choose a CUDA

  image. The CUDA images are for use with GPUs.

  version.

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7. Click the " Start" button. A new IDAS instance session will be created. This may take several seconds.

8. After the instance session has been created, you will see your IDAS home directory. If this is your first time accessing IDAS and you haven't uploaded any files, your home directory will be empty.

9. More  For more information on about using IDAS can be found hereIDAS, please see Using IDAS. 

10. Once you finish your job with the IDAS

...

session, please shut down the

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session, so that resources could be used by other IDAS users.

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For more information about stopping or restarting your IDAS session, please see https://uiowa.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/hpcdocs/pages/76514933/Accessing+IDAS+for+Research+Use#Restarting-your-IDAS-session.

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Accessing RStudio for R

Once you receive an email confirming that your IDAS account is ready, follow the steps below to spawn an instance and start using IDAS.

1. Open any web browser. 

2. Go to https://notebooks.hpc.uiowa.edu/research-interactive/hub/home. 

3. Log in using your HawkID and password.

4. Authenticate the login with Duo. More information about Duo can be found here.

5. Click the blue button "Start My Server".

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6. Fill out the "Server Options" form, using the instructions on the form. Please also see the notes below.

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a) CPU Cores: Fill in the number of CPU cores you want to use in IDAS, with 2 as the minimum and 32 as the maximum.

• If left blank, the default 2 will be used.

b) Memory Limit: Fill in the amount of RAM (GB) you want to use in IDAS, with 4 as the minimum and 512 as the maximum.

• If left blank, the default 4 will be used.

c) GPU: 

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Restarting your IDAS session

When to restart your IDAS session?

You might want to restart your IDAS session in one of the following scenarios:

• You want to change the CPU cores, RAM, or GPU available for your IDAS session.

• Your current IDAS session isn’t connected to your Argon home directory or LSS shares, and you want to mount your Argon home directory or LSS shares in your IDAS session.

• You want to change to a different IDAS image, such as:

  • changing from Python to R or Julia

  • changing to a specific software version, such as changing from R 4.0 to R 4.4

  • changing to an IDAS image that has CUDA, such as changing from R 4.4 without CUDA to R 4.4 with CUDA.

• You are working with our team to troubleshoot an issue, and we have recommended that you restart your IDAS session.

• You are finished with your tasks on IDAS. In this case, shutting down your IDAS session will release resources to other users. This is especially helpful if your session was using a GPU, since GPUs on IDAS are limited and available on a first come first served basis.

  Please request a GPU only if you need to use it and shut down your IDAS server when you are finished so that other users can share the resources.

d) Mount HPC Home: 

• If you do not have an Argon (HPC) account, choose "No". This is the default selection.
• Only if you have an Argon account and want your Argon home directory to be accessible from IDAS, choose "Yes".
  • If you select "Yes" but don't have an Argon account, your IDAS instance might fail to spawn.
  • After the IDAS instance spawns, your Argon home directory will be available in IDAS in the "hpchome" directory.

e) LSS Shared:

• If you have Large Scale Storage (LSS) shares that you want to use with your IDAS instance, enter their paths under "LSS Shared" or "LSS Dedicated". Leave these fields blank otherwise. 
  • Please check that the share names are correct.

f) LSS Dedicated:

• If you have Large Scale Storage (LSS) shares that you want to use with your IDAS instance, enter their paths under "LSS Shared" or "LSS Dedicated". Leave these fields blank otherwise. 
  • Please check that the share names are correct.

g) IDAS Image:

• Under "IDAS Image", choose one of the RStudio options. The version number is the R version. For example, the selection below will start RStudio with R version 3.6.1.
• If you are not using GPUs, you do not need to choose a CUDA image. The CUDA images are for use with GPUs. For more information, please see Using GPUs on IDAS.

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7. Click the "Start" button. A new IDAS instance will be created. This may take several seconds.

8. After the instance has been created, you will see an RStudio session.

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9. (optional) IDAS users can quickly switch between RStudio, Jupyter Notebook, and Jupyter Lab by changing the end of the URL in their web browser.

a) To access RStudio (fill in your HawkID):

• • https://notebooks.hpc.uiowa.edu/research-interactive/user/HAWKID/rstudio/

b) To access Jupyter Lab with R (fill in your HawkID):

• • https://notebooks.hpc.uiowa.edu/research-interactive/user/HAWKID/lab/

c) To access Jupyter Notebook with R (fill in your HawkID):

• • https://notebooks.hpc.uiowa.edu/research-interactive/user/HAWKID/tree/

10. More information on using IDAS can be found here. 

11. Once you finish your job with the IDAS instance, please shut down the instance, so that resources could be used by other IDAS users. More information on shutting down an IDAS instance can be found here.

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Steps to restart your IDAS session

1. Save any changes to the scripts, datasets, or files that you want to save. 

2. In your web browser, navigate to https://idas.uiowa.edu/research/hub/home

3. Click the red button Stop My Server.

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4. Wait a few seconds for the blue button to change to Start My Server.

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5. Click Start My Server to log in to IDAS again if you want to continue using IDAS. Otherwise, if you are done with IDAS, close your browser tab. 

Switching between JupyterLab, Jupyter Notebook, and RStudio

The following interfaces are available in IDAS:

• JupyterLab - available in all IDAS instances

• Jupyter Notebook - available in all IDAS instances

• RStudio - only available in the R and RStudio instances

IDAS users can quickly switch between JupyterLab, Jupyter Notebook, and RStudio by changing the URL in their web browser.

Research users can use the following URLs.

• To access JupyterLab - Please fill in your HawkID:

https://idas.uiowa.edu/research/user/HawkID/lab

• To access Jupyter Notebook - Please fill in your HawkID:

https://idas.uiowa.edu/research/user/HawkID/tree

• To access RStudio (only available in the R and RStudio instances) - Please fill in your HawkID:

https://idas.uiowa.edu/research/user/HawkID/rstudio/

The following table shows the instance types in IDAS, their corresponding default interfaces, and the interfaces that are available.

Contact

If you have any questions or comments, please contact research-computing@uiowa.edu.