General (VPC)

What is it

A virtual machine is a computer file, typically called an image, that behaves like an actual computer. In other words, creating a computer within a computer. It runs in a window, much like any other program, giving the end user the same experience on a virtual machine as they would have on the host operating system itself. The virtual machine is sandboxed from the rest of the system, meaning that the software inside a virtual machine can’t escape or tamper with the computer itself. This produces an ideal environment for testing other operating systems including beta releases, accessing virus-infected data, creating operating system backups, and running software or applications on operating systems they weren’t originally intended for.

Source

Or, simpler

A virtual computer that can execute your scripts and do lengthy calculations for you. Don’t bother your main computer with calculations.

Applications That You Can Run on the VPC

Nearly everything, because admin rights are possible.

What We Use It For

3 Sep 2018: A VPC runs Python scripts for creating the QuickViews and for automatically calculating preliminary fluxes – every day!

Specifications

gl108-94
8 virtual processors (Intel Xeon E5-2650 v4 @2.2GHz)
32GB RAM

Anaconda Versions

VPC Update Log