Accessing your Virtual Machine

Your workspace can be provisioned with one or more Virtual Machines to aid your project. VMs can have a Windows or Linux (Ubuntu 20.04) operating system. Both Windows and Linux virtual machines are accessible via desktop mode, but Linux machines can also be accessed via a command line terminal through the workspace.

Each Windows machine can only be accessed by one user at a time. If one user is connected, another cannot connect to the same desktop.

A Linux terminal and desktop can be accessed by multiple users at once. When a Linux Machine is started, the user gets their own session with their own user ID, so another user can connect to the same Virtual Machine at the same time.

Starting the Virtual Machine

From the Virtual Machines tab, click on the 'Start' button of a machine you want to access - the button should change to 'Starting...' and a spinner should appear.

You might need to wait up to a couple of minutes for a machine to load. To enter your Virtual Machine, click on 'Desktop', and a new tab should open in your workspace.

Linux Virtual Machine.

Shutting down your machine

Firstly, make sure you have closed the tab in which your VM is open. When you have finished using your VM, you can shut it down by returning to the Virtual Machines tab and clicking the 'Stop' button.

Most Virtual Machines are scheduled to shut down automatically at the end of the business day. You can still access them after hours, though you will have to restart your VM once it has been shut down. If this is impacting your work or you need the schedule changed, please contact your Workspace Administrator or Aridhia Service Desk.

Troubleshooting

If you find that you cannot access your VM in the middle of a session, try returning to the Virtual Machines tab and refreshing the page to make sure that it has not been automatically shut down.

If your window is showing whitespace around the VM, try resizing your browser and maximizing again.