VM Provisioning

Warning

This section is for participants from academic institutes to use the self-service portal. Please contact support@naic.no to get a virtual machine if you do not have access as described below.

Objectives

  • Create MyAccessID using Feide account

  • Provision a short lived VM on NAIC Orchestrator

MyAccessID

To access orchestrator.naic.no we need to use MyAccessID via Feide as of now. Anyone affiliated to institutes in the list below would have access, but you might have to register your Feide account with MyAccessID first.

Warning

If you do not find your institute, this means that your institute is not registered with MyAccessID and your Feide account would not work with NAIC orchestrator. Please contact your institutes admin to get your institute registered. If this is not possible and you want to follow the course, please contact “support@naic.no” to get a VM, we might be able to assist depending on capacity.

Details on registering with MyAccessID: https://puhuri.neic.no/user_guides/myaccessid_registration/

Create a VM using NAIC Orchestrator

Please make sure your MyAccessID is active before this step.

Step 1: Login to https://orchestrator.naic.no/

../_images/orchestrator1.png

Step 2: Navigate to create

../_images/orchestrator2.png

Step 3: Naming the VM and create a key file and download it

  • Provide simple name, with only alphabetical characters and without spaces

  • Give a name for the key and download it to your local computer. Orchestrator would not store this key, so if you lose it then you would lose access.

../_images/orchestrator3.png

Step 4: Configure the VM

Fill in the remaining settings as shown in the annotated screenshot below:

  • Duration: Select how long to keep the VM alive (12-20 hours is typical for a workshop)

  • Access: Select your university network and/or “Your IP” to whitelist your connection

  • Provider: Select NREC UiO or NREC UiB (recommended)

  • VM type: Select “Virtual machine with GPU (1 x L40S)” for GPU-accelerated training

../_images/orchestrator4.png

Warning

Provider selection: Use NREC UiO or NREC UiB only. The Google Cloud and IBM Cloud options are experimental and not stable — do not select them for this course.

Warning

IP Whitelisting: You can only SSH to the VM from the IP addresses you select in this step. If you later connect from a different network (e.g., home vs office, VPN, or mobile hotspot), you will be blocked. If this happens, log back into https://orchestrator.naic.no/ and add your new IP address.

Step 5: Wait for the provisioning to complete

Step 6: Access the customized help page to see how to login

Step 7: Login to the VM

chmod 600 /path/to/your-key.pem ssh -i /path/to/your-key.pem ubuntu@<VM_IP_ADDRESS>

Tip

Which option for Windows? Git Bash is the simplest — it gives you a Unix-like terminal with SSH, chmod, and scp built in. WSL is more powerful but requires separate installation. PowerShell works but key permissions are harder to manage.

Keypoints

  • MyAccessID via Feide is required for Orchestrator access

  • Download and secure your SSH key immediately after creation

  • Select NREC UiO or NREC UiB as provider — do not use Google Cloud or IBM Cloud

  • Select “Virtual machine with GPU (1 x L40S)” for GPU-accelerated training

  • Your IP must be whitelisted — if you change networks, add your new IP in the orchestrator

  • On Windows, use Git Bash (recommended), WSL, or PowerShell with icacls for key permissions