• How do I connect with the UL to use the Nautilus portal for my class?
  • Submit the Nautilus Request Form to request a consultation with a Data Services specialist, and we will help get you started using Nautilus.
• What does this cost?
  • Nothing. The Nautilus project is hosted by National Research Platform and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and is funded by the National Science Foundation.
• How do I get changes for my domain included in the list of pods?
  • Working through a series of consultations, the UL will help formulate a Docker environment that will include the relevant code libraries (packages) used within your domain for the programming languages of Python and R.
• Can I run proprietary software (MatLab) in Nautilus?
  • At this time, we cannot run proprietary software.
• Will you come to my class to teach about using Nautilus and on-boarding my students?
  • Yes.
• Will you be serving as a TA for my courses that use Nautilus?
  • While we can offer some support, we are not a substitute for the course having its own TA’s and/or helpers. We are willing to come to class and offer on-boarding instruction per instructor request.
• Can I use the Nautilus portal for exams?
  • Realistically, the Nautilus platform is a development and research deployment of services. As such, operability and accessibility cannot be guaranteed for exams. The use of the Nautilus platform is better suited for homework and class projects and usually live coding instruction. If using the portal for an active learning environment, it is best if you have a Plan B ready in case access to the portal is not available.
• What are some of the requirements and restrictions?
  • Having access to a network connection to the Internet, and preferably through a broadband service.
  • Up-to-date browser such as Safari, Firefox, Google Chrome, or Edge.
• How do I report an issue?
  • Submit the Nautilus Report a Problem Form to report an issue. Keep in mind that OU Libraries does not own the infrastructure and may not be able to offer an immediate fix.

• How much storage does a user get, and will it go away when the session ends?
  • Users are initially started with 5 GB of persistent (permanent) storage. That storage is accessible each time a user logs onto the portal and does not go away when the user logs off the portal.
• Can a user get more storage?
  • Additional space may be allowed but in most cases, with good file management practices, most users will be fine with this limit.
• Are there backups of the storage?
  • There are no backups of the files on the persistent storage. Users are encouraged to download important files to their local computer where backups can be done by the user.
• Is there a place for storing data sets that can be shared with others?
  • There is an additional file storage location where instructors can share digital assets. This mitigates the need for users to have personal copies of those files. The location of this space is /data// where your course ID (Example: METR1313) and your last name will represent your courses. Additional files will be located in this folder with any folder hierarchy you wish to use.

• CILogin
  • Getting a 500 error usually means CILogin thinks a user has already authorized and is logged into the portal. This may not be the case. If users are having login issues with CILogin, they should remove the cookies and data for CILogin.org. Then quit/restart the browser.
     
• Limited resources in Nautilus cluster
  • The error states: "Spawn failed: pod oulib/jupyter did not start in 600 seconds!"
  • Solution: Wait and try again when resources may be in less demand.
  • Example of what the error looks like in the portal:

• Multiple-mounts of user pvc (storage)
  • The error states: "Spawn failed: Timeout."
  • Solution: Wait for the session to timeout (~10 minutes) and try again. Many times, when starting and stopping multiple times a pod, the storage needs a few moments to unmount before attempting a new session.
  • Multiple mount errors are not correctable by University Libraries admins and must be corrected through the Nautilus Help Desk.
  • If the error occurs multiple times, submit the Nautilus Report a Problem Form with the email associated with your login (OU users this would be your current e-mail address). Instructors, if you have multiple users having this issue, send the list of user e-mails. At the first opportunity, UL Data Services will contact the Nautilus admins to release the storage and have it available for the next attempt to log in.
  • Depending on how busy the Nautilus admins are, this could take from 5-10 minutes to an hour to correct.
  • Example of what the error looks like in the portal:

• CILogin issues
  • Generally issues with CILogin do not last long.
  • Solution: Try again in 5–10 minutes. Sometimes clearing the CILogin cookie can help.
     
• Persistent storage quota exceeded.
  • Users are given 5 GB of storage that is persistent and will be available for each session. However, when a user exceeds the 5 GB limit, future logins will not be completed and additional storage will need to be allocated.
  • Users are asked to occasionally check their space allocations. Files and data no longer being used should be downloaded to their local machines and deleted from their Nautilus accounts. See the helpful commands sections for tools to check storage quota status.
  • If additional storage is needed for a project, users should submit their request via the Nautilus Report a Problem Form.
     
• Library or package not found.
  • Not all of the packages for Python are R are installed in the various frameworks. If there is a needed library/package, requests can be made to the University Libraries admins.
  • Faculty wanting a particular programming framework for their domains can email to schedule an appointment for a consultation with the University Libraries admins, and we can work with the instructors to have the needed libraries/packages installed.

Users have access to 5GB of persistent storage associated with the email address used to log onto the system. Users who exceed this quota could have issues logging onto the portal. Checking your storage available is a good habit to prevent one from going over their quota.

Below are two commands executed (run) from the terminal module available as part of the JupyterLab environment:

df -> display free disk space
   cd 
   df -h .

returns

Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/rbd5        5G  1.3G    3.7G  26%  /home/jovyan

find -> to find and sort the largest files first.
find . -type f  -exec du -h {} + | sort -r -h | more

will return

 2.7M    ./workshops/python_viz_fall23/python_viz_desk-copy.ipynb
 2.7M    ./workshops/python_viz_fall23/.ipynb_checkpoints/python_viz_desk-copy-checkpoint.ipynb
 2.7M    ./python_viz/python_viz_workbook.ipynb
 2.5M    ./workshops/python_viz_fall23/python_viz_workbook.ipynb
 2.5M    ./python_viz/.ipynb_checkpoints/python_viz_workbook-checkpoint.ipynb
 2.3M    ./demos/rstats_demo/.ipynb_checkpoints/regresion_exercise-checkpoint.ipynb