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5-Minute Quick Start

Goal

By the end of this guide, you'll have a Jupyter Notebook running on CANFAR with astronomy tools ready to use.

Prerequisites

Installation

> pip install skaha --upgradeInstalled

Authentication

skaha auth loginStarting Science Platform Login
Fetched CADC in 0.12s
Fetched SRCnet in 1.15s
Discovery completed in 3.32s (5/18 active)Select a Skaha Server: (Use arrow keys) 🟢 Canada SRCnet
🟢 UK-CAM SRCnet
🟢 Swiss SRCnet
🟢 Spain SRCnet
» 🟢 CANFAR CADCSelected a Skaha Server: 🟢 CANFAR CADCX509 Certificate AuthenticationUsername: usernameusername@ws.cadc-ccda.hia-iha.nrc-cnrc.gc.caPassword: ***********✓ Saving configuration
Login completed successfully!

What just happened?

  • Skaha discovered all available Science Platform servers around the world
  • You selected the CADC CANFAR Server
  • You logged into the Science Platform using your CADC credentials
  • The Science Platform generated a certificate for you valid for 10 days
  • The certificate is Stored in ~/.ssl/cadcproxy.pem

Launch Your First Notebook

Lets launch a Jupyter notebook with astronomy tools pre-installed,

skaha create notebook skaha/astroml-notebook:latestCreating notebook session 'scare-monster'...
Successfully created session 'scare-monster' (ID: tcgle3m3)

What just happened?

  • Skaha connected to CANFAR using your certificate
  • Skaha defaulted the container image to images.canfar.net/skaha/astroml-notebook:latest
  • A Jupyter notebook was launched with the container image
  • A random name was generated for your session, scare-monster in this case
  • The Science Platform allocated resources for your notebook and started it.

Peek Under the Hood

skaha events $(skaha ps -q)

What just happened?

  • Skaha connected to CANFAR using your certificate
  • We queried the Science Platform for all running sessions via skaha ps -q
  • We fetched the events (actions performed by the Science Platform to start your session) for your session
  • The events show the progress of your session being created

Check Status

skaha ps Skaha Sessions

SESSION ID NAME KIND STATUS IMAGE CREATED
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
tcgle3m3 scare-monster notebook Running images.canfar.net/skaha/astroml-notebook:latest 2 minutes

What just happened?

  • Skaha connected to CANFAR using your certificate
  • The status of your session was checked
  • The session is in Running state, ready to use

Get Session Information

skaha info $(skaha ps -q) Skaha Session Info for tcgle3m3

Session ID zkm7yly7
Name alert-connect
Status Running
Type notebook
Image images.canfar.net/skaha/astroml-notebook:latest
User ID brars
Start Time 12 seconds ago
Expiry Time 3 days and 24.00 hours
Connect URL https://workload-uv.canfar.net/session/notebook/redacted
UID 12345
GID 12345
Groups [54321, 54312, 54123, 51234, 12345]
App ID <none>
CPU Usage 0% of 1 core(s)
RAM Usage 0% of 2G GB
GPU Usage Not Requested

What just happened?

  • Skaha connected to CANFAR using your certificate
  • The information for your session was fetched
  • When we created a your session, we never specified a name, cpu or memory, so the default values were used
  • The default values are 1 core, 2GB of RAM, and 4 days of lifetime

Access Your Notebook

Check the status and get the URL to access your notebook:

skaha open $(skaha ps -q)Opening session tcgle3m3 in a new tab.

What just happened?

  • Skaha connected to CANFAR using your certificate
  • skaha ps -q returns only the session ID of your session
  • Your browser opened the notebook in a new tab

Pro Tip

The notebook usually takes 60-120 seconds to start. You can also check status from the command line:

Start Analyzing!

Once your notebook is running, click the URL to open it in your browser. You'll have access to:

  • Jupyter Lab with a full Python environment
  • Pre-installed astronomy libraries: AstroPy, Matplotlib, SciPy, PyTorch, etc.
  • Persistent storage: Your work is automatically saved at /arc/home/username/
  • Ephemeral storage: For temporary data staging, use /scratch/

Try This First

In JupyterLab, open a new Notebook and run the following code to verify your environment:

Python
import astropy
from astropy.io import fits
import matplotlib
import numpy as np

print(f"AstroPy version: {astropy.__version__}")
print(f"Matplotlib version: {matplotlib.__version__}")
print(f"Numpy version: {np.__version__}")
print(f"GPU available: {torch.cuda.is_available()}")
print("Ready for astronomy!")

Clean Up

When you're done, clean up your session to free up resources for others:

skaha delete $(skaha ps -q)Confirm deletion of 1 session(s)? [y/n] (n): y
Successfully deleted {'tcgle3m3': True} session(s).

Congratulations!

You now have a fully-equipped astronomy computing environment running in the cloud. No software installation, no environment conflicts, no waiting for local resources.

Next Steps

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

  • Notebook won't start?
    • Check available resources: skaha stats
    • Try a smaller configuration (fewer cores/RAM)
    • Check session status: skaha ps
  • Can't access notebook URL?
  • Wait 1-2 minutes for full startup
  • Check if you're on a VPN that might block the connection
  • Verify the session is in "Running" status

Need Help?

Success Story

"I went from never using clouds to analyzing my furry data in under 10 minutes. The setup was so smooth!" - Tabby Cat, University of Purr