Running CloVR on the Data Intensive Academic Grid

CloVR users can leverage the capability of two cloud-computing infrastructures, Amazon’s EC2 Cloud and the Institute for Genome Sciences Data Intensive Academic Grid (DIAG), when in need of large amounts of computing power. The DIAG is a free-resource available to any academia-related researchers. Similarly to running CloVR on Amazon’s EC2, CloVR VM’s started on the DIAG have a limited run-time of 30 days. Any CloVR VM’s that exceed this 30 day limit will be terminated.

 

Registering for a DIAG Account

In order to start CloVR VM’s on the DIAG an account must be registered first. Registration can be accomplished via the DIAG Registration page.

Once submitted an account should usually be activated within 3 to 4 business days.

 

 Starting a CloVR VM

When a DIAG account has been obtained CloVR can be launched on the DIAG by navigating to the DIAG homepage and following the instructions below:

In order to start CloVR VM’s the user must log into their DIAG account. This can be achieved by clicking on the Login link found at the top of the homepage:

diag_login_link

and entering their login credentials:

diag_login_fullOnce logged in, a new My Account menu will be present at the top of the page, replacing the previous Login menu. Opening this menu will present several options including the Start CloVR option which will be used to start a CloVR VM.

START_CLOVRFollowing this link will take the user to a simple launch page to start CloVR on the DIAG which can be accomplished by clicking on the Launch CloVR button:

LAUNCH_CLOVR

 

Monitoring CloVR VM Status

Upon launching a CloVR VM using the Launch CloVR button the user will be redirected to the VM status page. This page contains a list of all running CloVR VM’s, their status and links to access the dashboards of each VM.

DIAG_VMS

CloVR VM’s can be in one of three states:

  • Pending – The VM is in the process of starting up.
  • Running – The VM is now running and accessible
  • Failed – The VM failed to start up.

The monitor page will constantly refresh every 120 seconds and requires no user intervention to update states when CloVR VM’s transition between them.

Accessing Running CloVR VM’s

When a VM has entered the running state it is possible to access to the CloVR dashboard for that VM. This requires clicking on the row containing the desired VM on the monitor page.

diag_vms_row_open_dashboardClicking here will open a new browser tab and redirect the user to the CloVR dashboard for that VM.