How to Launch a Workbench

Launching a Workbench provides you with an isolated, cloud-hosted development environment tailored to your research needs. You can quickly spin up a session (e.g. JupyterLab or RStudio) with the specified compute and storage resources.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Navigate to the Workbench Tab

Workbench Nav Bar

In the left-hand navigation panel, click on Workbench.

Choose a Template

Workbench Template selection

In the Available Workbench tab, you will see a list of ready-to-launch environments. Click the Launch button for the environment you want to use.

Fill in Launch Configuration

Workbench Template selection

A modal will appear displaying customizable launch options:

Description
Provide a name or short description for your session. This helps you identify it later under Manage Status.

Advanced Options
Expand this section to fine-tune compute and storage settings:

Instance Type:
Select the VM size based on your workload.
Disk Size (GB):
Define the storage allocated to the VM.

Password Options
Decide how your Workbench password will be managed:

System Generated (default): A secure password will be created for you.
User Defined: Enter a custom password for accessing your environment.

Launch

When you are ready, click Launch to provision your VM. A progress notification will confirm that your environment is starting up.

Optimize

You can launch multiple Workbenches in parallel, each configured differently.
If uncertain about compute needs, consider starting with a mid-size instance. You can always shut it down and relaunch with greater resources later.

Collaboration

You can share the URL to the Workbench with others; they will need the password to access it. Make sure to use passwords you feel comfortable sharing.

Privacy and Security

Protect your Workbench URL and password; share them only with trusted users.
The password you set (or receive) will be required to access the Workbench once it is live.