Introduction to Workspaces

## Introduction

Many projects and select quizzes will be accessed via Workspaces. These workspaces streamline environment setup, simplify project submission, and can be enabled with GPU support. All workspaces are Linux-based and can be interfaced via a shell (BASH). Some workspace interfaces are direct from the shell, others run a JUPYTER Notebook server and interaction is mainly through the JUPYTER notebook interface. To learn more about JUPYTER, please visit the official site of the JUPYTER project. Shell workspaces operate in the same manner as Linux terminals/shells.

If you are unfamiliar with Jupyter Notebooks, check out this quick Udacity primer on Anaconda and Jupyter Notebooks.

Which quizzes and projects are accessible through workspaces?

If a quiz or project is accessible through a workspace there will be a workspace evident for use. For projects the workspace will be towards the end of the project lesson. For quizzes the workspace will either be in the node where the quiz is introduced or nearby (usually directly after). If that is not the case for a particular quiz or project, then we currently don't support workspaces for that quiz or project.

Example workspaces

Example workspaces can be found at the end of this lesson. Please note that some functionality, such as enable GPU and project submission, are not present in the example workspaces. Feel free to experiment and familiarize yourself with workspaces. Have fun!

JUPYTER workspace example

Shell workspace example

Important Notes:

Workspaces sessions are connections from your browser to a remote server. Udacity Workspaces with GPU support are available for some projects as an alternative to manually configuring your own remote server with GPU support. Each student has a limited number of GPU hours allocated on the servers. The current allocation is 50 hours, significantly more than completing the projects is expected to take.
There is currently no limit on the number of Workspace hours when GPU mode is disabled.
Workspace data stored in the user's home folder is preserved between sessions (and can be reset as needed, e.g., to get project updates).
Only 3 gigabytes of data can be stored in the home folder.
Workspace sessions are preserved if your connection drops or your browser window is closed, simply return to the classroom and re-open the workspace page; however, workspace sessions are automatically terminated after a period of inactivity. This will prevent you from leaving a session connection open and burning through your time allocation. (See the section on active connections below.)
The kernel state is preserved as long as the notebook session remains open, but it is not preserved if the session is closed. If you exit the notebook for more than half an hour and the session is closed, you will need to re-run any previously-run cells before continuing.

Reporting Issues

If you find any issues or bugs with the materials in this lesson, or you have suggestions for improvement, we would appreciate it if you would take the time to post them here.