Get Started

Get Started

Welcome to UF Cloud. From registration to computing, this page will be your step-by-step guide to getting started on our service..

%% For further information, please refer to the [[user_guide|user_guide]] %%

Step 1—Registration

First, please take a look at this video

Step-by-Step Transcription

  1. Enter your first name, last name, and email address; select your time zone and click the “Submit” button.
  2. The screen will update, displaying a link to the login page labeled “Go to Login,” and a temporary password will be sent to the email address you provided.
  3. Navigate to the login page, enter your email address and temporary password, and click the “Login” button.
  4. You will be taken to a screen where you can set your password. Please create a new password and proceed to log in.
  5. After logging in, you will be able to use UF Cloud.

Step 2—First Steps

What type of user are you?

Are you the head of a team of developers, or are you a lone researcher?

Either way, when you create an account, an organization is automatically created and your account is placed inside as an administrator. Furthermore, a default user-group is created as well.

*All accounts inside the organization are divided into two ranks—users and administrators. All users and admins must also be sorted inside user-groups.

Take a look around, what do you see?

LP

To the left is the sidebar, which is what we’ll mainly be using for navigation. When you first login “BareMetal + KVM” will be highlighted and accordingly you will be the “BareMetal + KVM” section of the website.

Click on “Setting”. It will expand into a menu containing the following sections:- “Users and Groups” and “Billing”.

Click on “Users and Groups”.

Users

Here you can see an overview of the organization, and shall be where you add, remove and organize new accounts.

For now, leave everything as-is.

Step 3—Credits

UF Cloud is designed to be a safe and convenient service where you can freely deploy Compute Nodes without any worries of an egregious bill at the end of the month.

Instead of buying access to Compute Nodes directly, there is a layer in-between. Exchange currency for credits at a one-to-one rate, which can then seamlessly be used to reserve nodes.

So, how does it all work?

Credits must be purchased through the use of a credit card. Head over to “Billing” using the sidebar.

Billing

Inside “Billing”, search for the button named ‘Create Payment Method’ and add your details.

Then click the ‘Details’ button for the ‘Admin Wallet’, and then on the next page ‘Credit Purchase’. Add the amount to be purchased and press ‘Purchase’.

You can also setup an Auto-Charge to keep your wallets topped up.

Credit Transfer

Credits can only be consumed for node access if they are not in the admin-wallet. As such you must transfer the credits by pressing ‘Detail’ on the admin button, then on the next page ‘Credit Transfer’. Choose the admin wallet as the from and the default user group wallet as the recipient, enter the amount of credits, then press ‘Transfer’

Step 4—Reservation

To connect to a compute node, you must first reserve it. Reservation can be done using the steps below.

BareMetal + KVM

Use the Sidebar and head back into “BareMetal + KVM”.

In this section you will see a chart listing all the servers in use by your organization. Click on the button “Deploy Instance” at the upper right.

Deploy

Next, you’ll have to select a Server Group. These are predefined groups of compute nodes sorted according to region. You should only see those groups from regions that are available to your user-group.

Select a Server Group which you think is suitable and proceed.

Server Types

Compute nodes can come in various specifications, which are classified as Server Types. Choose the most appropriate Server Type for your use-case and press “Select”.

Settings

Here you must enter the period of time for your reservation, as well as customize the specifications of your compute node.

This is where you enter the period of time for your reservation; you can also customize your compute node further.

Options include:- Storage, OS and some additional software which is available. Below, you will see an automatic calculation of how many credits will be consumed.

Finalize all of your choices and click the confirm button at the bottom.

After double-checking if everything looks alright on the confirmation screen, agree to the terms of service and press “Reserve”. Then, for the final confirmation, press “Reserve” once more.

Connections

Step 5—Connecting to Compute Nodes

The following steps require the use of a terminal. Please have your chosen terminal open alongside your browser.

First, from “BareMetal + KVM” on the website,

  1. Pinpoint the Instance you’ve just reserved.
  2. Press the button ‘Show’ under the field “SSH Command”
  3. Download the private key and place it in an appropriate location.
  4. Copy the command shown in “SSH Connection Instructions” and enter it into your terminal.
  5. Edit the command in accordance to the location of the private key.
  6. Execute.

Congratulations! You can now start computing on UF Cloud.

To disconnect, you can simply close the terminal or press ‘Ctrl+D’.

For further information on usage extensions, node termination and usage status; please refer to the User Guide.