user-interface.markdown

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User Interface

Access the user interface

The UI (short for User Interface) is the web site that allows you to operate the HPC Cloud. Put simply: your way to manage (create/destroy) your Virtual Machines (VM).

Note:

You can find the UI here: https://ui.hpccloud.surfsara.nl

Change your Password

⚠ WARNING:

To protect your account, you are advised to change the password that we give you upon your first login.

This is how you change your password:

1. Look at the top-right corner of the screen on the UI. There is a buddy icon that represents your user. Click on it.
2. Click on Settings, you will see the option to change or update your password. If you use a user view (see section below for OpenNebula views), click on the Update Password button.
3. On the new screen, type your new password twice and click the button to submit it.

Logging out

Whenever you are ready to stop working for the day on the HPC Cloud, you are advised to log out of the UI.

NOTE

We kindly request you to free all resources whenever you are not using them. That way, other users may benefit from them in your absence. When you are about to log out, it is a good moment to reconsider what resources you need to release.

This is how you log out:

1. Look at the top-right corner of the screen on the UI. There is a buddy icon that represents your user. Click on it.
2. Under the buddy, you will get an option to Sign Out. Click there, and the welcome page will come up asking you to fill your username and password in again.

Views

OpenNebula's views are a way to present functionality on the screen. The simpler the view, the less functionality it offers, but the easier it is to understand and operate the HPC Cloud interface.

What is a view

We have opted to assign views to users depending on their role within projects. The HPC Cloud interface offers, therefore, different options to different types of users.

Each view shows different information, tabs and action buttons. Users can access one or multiple views depending on their assigned role in their projects. In case of multiple views, users can switch among them, as briefly explained further down in this document. The system remembers what view the user was using the last time she was logged in, and thus a new session will load the previous view the user was working at.

User types

We have established 3 roles for users in projects:

1. basic user
2. advanced user
3. group administrator user

A group administrator sees the most functionality (including administering other users), the basic user the least, and the advanced user can operate a bit more than the basic user.

Basic user

• Available view: cloud
• Description: simplified view for accessing pre-defined objects (images, templates, VMs). These pre-defined objects are created by the other roles (advanced user and group administrator user).
• Possible Functions:
  • Manage VMs
  • Display own quota
  • Display own accounting

Advanced user

• Available views: cloud (and user)
• Description: more functional view for creating and managing objects (images, templates, VMs)
• Possible Functions:
  • Create/Modify/Delete Images
  • Create/Modify/Delete Templates
  • Manage ACLs (Access Control Lists)
  • All functions available to basic user

Group Administrator user

• Standard View: groupadmin (and cloud and user)
• Description: full control the project quota and members
• Possible Functions:
  • Create/Modify/Delete users in the project
  • Define quotas for each user
  • Display accounting for each user
  • Display accounting for the whole project
  • All functions available to advanced user

Switch views

Users with the group administrator and advanced roles have access to multiple views, and can switch between these anytime.

• Switching from cloud to user view:
  In the user interface, select the buddy icon that represents your user at the top right (next to the Home icon). Then select the Change view button, unfold the tab and switch the option to user. Finally click on the Update view button as displayed below:

• Switching from user to cloud view:
  In the user interface, click the buddy icon at the top right (next to the Home icon). On the pop-up menu select Settings. On the new window that appears, click on the Conf tab on top right menu. Then unfold Views and switch the option to cloud. Finally click on the Update config button as displayed below:

Menu

There is a menu on the left side within the user view. The tabs displayed there are:

• Dashboard
• Virtual Resources
• Infrastructure
• AppMarket

A description of each of these items follows. A vertical blue bar on the left of the tab tells which one is selected.

Dashboard

The Dashboard is the page where you can see a summary of the status of your project. Information includes:

• daily graphs of CPU and memory usage
• list of VMs
• network and storage counters
• quotas

Virtual Resources

The Virtual Resources menu allows you to manage several kinds of objects, with the focus on what allows you to create VMs. It offers 4 sub-options:

• Virtual Machines: to manage VMs (i.e.: create, start, stop, suspend, delete...)
• Templates: to manage Templates (i.e.: create, edit, delete)
• Images: to manage Images
• Files & Kernels: to manage kernel, ramdisk and context files that can be used from Templates and on VMs

Infrastructure

The Infrastructure menu allows you mainly to see information about the supporting resources available in the HPC Cloud and your usage of them. It offers 2 sub-options:

• Datastores: to see where you can take storage from and how much you are using of each
• Virtual Networks: to see which networks you have available and which your VMs are using them

AppMarket

The AppMarket tab makes Appliances available within the HPC Cloud user interface. Appliances are ready-made images (and, sometimes, templates as well), that you can import into your project so that you can instantiate VMs out of them. There are pre-made appliances for CentOS and Ubuntu, for example. When you click on one of them, make sure you read the corresponding comments.

Note:

We expect to offer the possibility for users to contribute their own appliances to the AppMarket in the future.