Services¶
Virtual Machines¶
Virtual machines (VMs) in the protoSRC can be pre-configured with or without a desktop environment. All VMs can be accessed by SSH via public-key authentication (we will need your public key to give you access). We also offer a desktop environment that can be accessed using either an RDP client or via web-based access. You can access the desktop by installing an RDP client like Remmina in your computer (see remote access section). Alternatively, you can access the desktop environment from any browser using Apache Guacamole.
A partially restricted sudo access will be granted to install new software and create new accounts for your collaborators.
Researchers will have access to a repository of ready-to-use Singularity images. They can also request having podman pre-configured to run containerised workloads.
Researchers will be able to select the resources of the VM, which can be adapted over time, and the Operating System they want to use. See what VM flavors and base images are available here.
VMs can have ad-hoc Block Storage for computing. We also offer Shared File System storage for long-term storage.
Radioastronomers interested in using the KERN repository can request a VM with the latest Ubuntu 18.04 LTS pre-configured, or you can use the kern singularity images available in all machines.
Scientific support¶
We provide scientific support to the preparation of observational proposals with SKA precursor and pathfinder radiotelescopes. Contact us.
Reproducibility and Open Science advise¶
We help users to follow Open Science and Reproducibility best practices. We offer a centralised catalogue of containerised images that can be found at /mnt/software/containers/

Jupyter Notebooks service¶
We offer a Jupyter platform for data exploration, data analysis and workflows using a web interface. This service is available also for training activities, courses and schools.
Batch processing service with Slurm¶
If you are interested in the batch processing service through slurm please contact us.
ContainersHub¶
The protoSRC Container Registry provides a catalog of ready-to-use applications and services from a virtual machine instance, also providing the ability to include your own software in the repository.
Resource accounting information¶
The parameters used for accounting the resource usage of the protoSRC in each of the service categories offered are desccribed as follows. While no costs are currently charged for the use of these resources, this accounting allows for a better evaluation of the support provided in quantifiable terms, ensuring equitable distribution.
A) Support Services¶
Billing unit: €/hour Cost: €34.70/hour
B) Virtual Infrastructure Services¶
Virtual machine instances
Billing unit: €/day
| Flavor | vCPU | RAM | Storage (GB) | Cost (€/day) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flavor 1 | 2 | 2 GB | 50 GB | €0.67 |
| Flavor 2 | 4 | 8 GB | 50 GB | €2.02 |
| Flavor 3 | 8 | 16 GB | 50 GB | €4.03 |
| Flavor 4 | 8 | 32 GB | 50 GB | €6.72 |
| Flavor 5 | 16 | 32 GB | 50 GB | €8.10 |
| Flavor 6 | 24 | 32 GB | 50 GB | €9.41 |
| Flavor 7 | 32 | 128 GB | 50 GB | €26.88 |
Mass storage
- Type: Block Storage
Billing unit: €/GB Cost: €0.018/GB
- Type: CephFS
Billing unit: €/GB Cost: €0.023/GB
C) Analysis Platform Services¶
-
Use of Batch Processing Service with Slurm
Billing unit: €/hour Cost: €1.56/hour -
High availability JupyterHub
Billing unit: €/user/month Cost per user: €15/month -
Container and software registry service (ContainersHub)
Billing unit: €/service One-time cost: €10