Creating a Workspace

How to create a workspace

To create a workspace, you need to select few options including workspace name, resource, image and few advanced settings.

Put the asterisk mark(*) on the required option

Workspace Name*

Once you start to create a new workspace, the default workspace name will be randomly generated. Specify a good name to remember.

Cluster*

You can choose a cluster managed by VESSL or a custom cluster registered by yourself. (See configure organization cluster.) The managed cluster always on the cloud vendor server, whereas the custom cluster could be either on the cloud server or on the on-premise server.

Resource*

Choose the type of resource that the container will use. Select the resource among the dropdown option or specify the requirements manually.

Image*

You can choose the Docker image that the workspace container will use. There are two types of images: the Managed Image and the Custom Image. Select the Docker image type that you want to run on the workspace container.

Managed Image

For the Managed Image, you can simply select such an option, then the image managed by VESSL will be used in default. You can run Jupyter services on the managed image.

Custom Image

You can use any docker images from Docker Hub or AWS ECR. To run a workspace with custom images, your custom images have to satisfy below requirements.

• Jupyterlab

  • VESSL runs Jupyterlab and expose port 8888. Jupyter should be pre-installed in the container image.

• sshd

  • VESSL runs sshd and expose port 22 as NodePort. sshd package should be pre-installed in the container image.

• PVC mountable at /root

  • VESSL mounts a PVC at /root to keep state across Pod restarts.

For more information about building custom images, you can refer to this guide.

Public image

To pull images from the public Docker registry, you can simply pass the image URL as the below example.

Private image

To pull images from the private Docker registry or the private AWS ECR, you should integrate your credentials in organization settings first. Then check the private image checkbox and select the credentials you have just integrated. Below is an example of a private image from the AWS ECR.

Debian based images are compatible.

Advanced Setting

Max Runtime

Specify the max runtime (default: 24 hours) for this workspace. After max runtime, workspace will be automatically stopped.

(For Enterprise Plan) Organization admin can limit the max runtime that users can input.

Disk

You can specify the disk size (default: 100GB) to use in your container. This will be the request storage size of your PVC. Disk size cannot be changed once the workspace is created.

Disk size can be ignored in a custom cluster due to limitation of kubernetes. (official docs)

Port

You can customize port settings. By default, 8888 (jupyter) and 22 (ssh) are exposed.

Init script

Init script is a shell script that runs every time the workspace starts. Because /root is the only persistent directory, packages you installed outside the home directory may reset on stop & start. In this case, you can fill init script with install commands such as apt-get update && apt-get install ripgrep -y.

Volume (custom cluster only)

You can attach your NFS/Host machine volume.