Using the LakeEffect Research Cloud¶

Managing your Project with the Cloud Dashboard¶

Allocations to the LakeEffect Cloud are requested and managed through the ColdFront Resource Allocations Management Tool. To request an allocation to LakeEffect follow CCR's ColdFront Allocation Requests documentation.
Once approved through ColdFront you will be informed when your cloud access is ready and you will be able to login in to the LakeEffect Web Console where you can manage your project's cloud resources and view information on your group's usage.

From the The LakeEffect Web Console, select CCR OpenID Connect option and authenticate using your CCR account. Leave the domain field blank. Don't have an account? see the Getting access to CCR documentation

After a successful login, you will be redirected to your project Overview in the LakeEffect Dashboard:

Managing Openstack Credentials¶

Keypairs¶

Key pairs are SSH credentials which are injected into images when they are launched. Creating a new key pair in Openstack registers the public key and downloads the private key. In order to connect to any cloud instances you will need to utilize an SSH key pair.

There are two ways to accomplish this:

1. Create the key pair in the Openstack Management Console, or
2. Upload an existing SSH public key to Openstack that you've generated on your personal computer

Creating a key pair in Openstack¶

1. Click on the Key Pairs menu
2. Click on the +Create Key Pair
3. Enter a Key Pair Name
4. Select "SSH Key" for Key Type
5. Click on the Create Key Pair

Your keypair will be created and your browser will save the private (pem) file locally. You will use this pem file to ssh into you instances.

Importing existing key pair in Openstack¶

1. Click on the Key Pairs menu
2. Click on the +Import Public Key
3. Enter a Key Pair Name
4. Select "SSH Key" for Key Type
5. Choose file location of your public key or paste the public key into the form
6. Click Import Public Key

You can use many different key pairs on your account, if desired. You will be able to choose which pair is used when launching an instance.

Security-Groups¶

Security groups are an important concept to understand in Openstack. Security groups define a set of IP filter rules that determine how network traffic flows to and from an instance like a firewall. Because the Cloud needs to be flexible, the LakeEffect public IP address space is not protected by the UB firewall; therefore, it's critical that you setup secure access to your instances. Security groups are the primary method from protecting your VMs from Internet Security Threats.

Creating Security Groups¶

1. Click on the Network -> Security Groups menu
2. Click on the +Create Security Group
3. Name the Security Group and give it a description
4. Click Create Security Group

You will now be able to manage the individual rules in the Security group you just created

Managing Security Group Rules¶

1. Click on the Security group to modify
2. Click on the +Add Rule
3. Fill in all the fields depending on the rule you want to create and click Add
4. Continue to add all the necessary rules to open access to the VM.

Instances¶

Instances are virtual machines that run inside the cloud, they are the basic units of compute you will use within LakeEffect. An Instance is made up of a Flavor, an Image and it is attached to a Network for it to connect to.

For more information about instances, flavors and images please see the official OpenStack "Launch instances" Documentation

Flavors¶

Standard¶

Instance Type	vCPU	Memory	Storage
std-compute-1	1 cores	4 GB	20 GB
std-compute-2	2 cores	8 GB	40 GB
std-compute-4	4 cores	16 GB	80 GB
std-compute-8	8 cores	32 GB	160 GB
std-compute-10	10 cores	40 GB	200 GB
std-compute-16	16 cores	64 GB	320 GB
std-compute-32	32 cores	128 GB	640 GB

Advanced¶

GPU

Instance Type	GPU	vCPU	Memory	Storage
adv-gpu-8	V100-32	8 cores	32 GB	100 GB
adv-gpu-16	V100-32	16 cores	64 GB	100 GB

FastIO

Instance Type	vCPU	Memory	NVME Storage	Block Storage
adv-nvme-4	4 cores	16 GB	100 GB	80 GB
adv-nvme-8	8 cores	32 GB	250 GB	160 GB
adv-nvme-16	16 cores	64 GB	500 GB	320 GB

Instance Type	vCPU	Memory	PMEM Storage	Block Storage
adv-pmem-16	16 cores	64 GB	500 GB	320 GB
adv-nvme-32	32 cores	128 GB	1000 GB	640 GB

Custom Flavors¶

If you require a flavor that is not listed, you can contact CCR Help and we can work with you on creating a custom flavor that suits your needs.

Images¶

An Image is a stock copy of an operating system that you will provision your instance with. CCR provides a current set of the major Linux distributions which are updated perodically. These are all stock images pulled directly from the various vendor repos. Due to license restrictions, CCR does not provide Microsoft Windows images.

Operating System	Version	Build Date
CentOS	8-stream	2024-04-16
CentOS	9-stream	2024-04-16
Debian	12.5	2024-04-15
Fedora	39	2023-11-01
Rocky	8.9	2023-11-19
Rocky	9.3	2023-11-13
Ubuntu	20.04	2024-04-08
Ubuntu	22.04	2024-04-16

Creating an Instance in LakeEffect¶

From the LakeEffect Dashboard go to Compute -> Instances

Click on Launch Instance button at the top right corner. This will bring up the instance launcher which will guide you in creating your new instance by selecting your instance source, Flavor, Network, Security groups, and Keypair.

Step 1: Details¶

• Fill out instance name and description
• Availability zone: can be left as default.
• Count: is the number of instances you want to start up.

• click Next when done to go to the Source screen.

Step 2: Source¶

On the Source tab, there are many things you need to consider when deciding how you want your instance created.

Select boot source: Options are Image, Instance Snapshot, Volume, Volume Snapshot
Create a new volume: Yes/No (default is Yes which is what we recommend)
Volume Size: Choosing an image will auto-populate the size, but you can choose a larger size.
Delete Volume on Instance Delete: Default is No (we recommend selecting Yes unless you want to use this volume attached to other instances)

If Boot source is Image, Choose an operating system from the list of images CCR provides.

• click Next when done to go to the Flavor screen.

Step 3: Flavor¶

A Flavor defines the compute, memory, and storage capacity of our instance.

• Choose the most appropriate sizing for your use case from a list of pre-selected resources

• click Next when done to go to the Networks screen.

Step 4: Networks¶

The ccr-public is the default Provider Network available to Instances. This network will allocate an IP on the UB public network.

LakeEffect users have the ability to create their own Private networks. For more information, see CCR's Advanced Cloud Topics documentation.

• click Next when done to go to the Network Ports screen.

Step 4: Network Ports¶

Unless you have created your own Private Network and Ports, there is nothing needed in this section.

• click Next when done to go to the Security Groups screen.

Step 5: Security Groups¶

Security Groups are an important concept to understand in Openstack. Security groups define a set of IP filter rules that determine how network traffic flows to and from an instance like a firewall. The default rule in LakeEffect only allows outbound traffic - no inbound traffic is permitted.

You will need to assign a security group to the instance that allows access via SSH in order to be able to connect to it. This was explained previously in the Security Groups section.

• click Next when done to go to the Key Pair screen.

Step 6: Key Pair¶

Key Pair allows you to SSH into your instance. You may select an existing key pair, import a key pair you've already created (see the previous section on Key Pairs ), or generate a new key pair from this tab.

• click Next when done to go to the Configuration screen.

Step 7: Configuration¶

This tab allows you to script certain configuration details when an instance is launched. Please click the question mark icon on this tab for more details. This is for advanced users only.

Some users may want to partition the root disk of an instance in a specific way. To do this, change the Automatic to Manual under Disk Partition and you will be prompted to setup the partitions when the instance is launched.

Logging in to your Instance¶

Once your instance has booted up, the only way to connect to them is using SSH with the keypair that you selected when you created the instance. You also need to make sure that you have a security group that allows ssh in from your IP address.