Starting applications¶

The Applications page (https://mesa.cyverse.org/applications/) is a catalog of everything you can run on CyVerse: the MESA featured apps and the whole Discovery Environment (DE) catalog¹. Interactive apps (VICE apps such as JupyterLab, RStudio, VS Code, a terminal, or a Linux desktop) start from the portal and open in a new browser tab; batch apps open in the Discovery Environment.

Quick start¶

1. Click Applications in the sidebar. The MESA Apps tab opens.
2. On the app you want, click Instant Launch.
3. A new tab shows the launch progress and opens the app when it is ready, usually within one to three minutes.
4. Later, return to the app from the Analyses page with Open App.

You must be signed in to launch. Signed out, the cards show Sign in to launch.

Find an app¶

Sections¶

The tabs above the catalog mirror the sections of the DE apps page:

The address bar follows the tab, so you can bookmark a section: for example https://mesa.cyverse.org/applications/?section=featured.

Filters¶

• On MESA Apps, the chips filter by GPU-enabled, Private Group Shared, Analysis, Development, Desktop, and Featured. Chips combine.
• On the CyVerse sections, All / VICE / DE / OSG filters by how an app runs: VICE apps are interactive and start in the portal, DE apps are batch jobs, and OSG apps run on the Open Science Grid.
• Switch between cards and a list with the buttons at the right.

Search¶

Type in the search box and press Enter. The search covers the whole CyVerse catalog (app name, description, integrator, and the tool the app wraps) and shows the results on Browse All Apps. The type filter narrows the results. Click × to clear.

Favorites¶

On the CyVerse sections, click the ☆ on a card to star the app; click again to remove it. Stars are saved to your CyVerse account, so the DE shows the same favorites. Find them under Favorite Apps.

Launch an app¶

What a card offers depends on the kind of app:

Instant Launch¶

Instant Launch starts the app with its default settings. A launch page opens in a new tab and steps through Submitting, Queued, Container Starting, Initializing, and Running; then it switches to the app.

Launch with Options¶

Launch with Options opens a dialog where you choose:

• Compute: CPU or GPU, for apps that have a GPU build (see below).
• Analysis Name: a name that helps you find the analysis later.
• Resource Configuration: CPU cores, memory, the number of GPUs (GPU builds), and the time limit, within the app's limits.
• The app's own parameters, filled in with its defaults.

Click Launch. The same launch page opens as for Instant Launch.

Choosing Data Store input files with a file picker is only available in the Discovery Environment: use Open in Discovery Environment for apps that need inputs selected up front. Interactive apps launched from the portal see your whole Data Store under ~/data-store anyway.

CPU or GPU¶

Some MESA apps come in two builds, a standard one and a GPU one (the same image with the :gpu tag, published in CyVerse as "App name (GPU)"). The portal shows them as one card with a CPU | GPU switch above the launch buttons. Pick GPU and the card's buttons start the GPU build. The analysis is named after the build you launched, for example MESA JupyterLab (GPU), so you can tell them apart on the Analyses page. GPU builds run on NVIDIA A16 nodes; see each featured app for what its GPU build adds.

High-Performance Computing apps¶

The High-Performance Computing tab needs a one-time link to Tapis:

1. Open the tab. If you have not linked Tapis, it shows Connect your Tapis account.
2. Click Authorize with Tapis, sign in, and approve in the new tab.
3. Return to the portal and click Try again.

Troubleshooting¶

Machine-readable versions of this page: Markdown twin · raw source on GitHub · llms.txt · llms-full.txt (whole site). See For AI agents.