# Getting Started

Welcome! This guide walks you through the first actions you need to start using
**Sciserver**.

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## Invite recieved

Sciserver is a private, invitation‑only platform. You should have received an
email that contains a link to the [Sciserver portal](https://sciserver.mpe.mpg.de) and the address of the
administrator you can contact for help (see **[Support & Contact](./support)**).

Before you reach out to the admin, please complete the following onboarding
actions. They are required for the system to recognise your account and to
enable the rest of the workflow.

| # | Action | Details |
|---|--------|---------|
| 1 | **Create your Sciserver account** | Open <https://sciserver.mpe.mpg.de> and click **“Create a new account.”** Use **exactly the same email address** that the invitation was sent to. |
| 2 | **Log in twice** | Return to the portal, sign in **again** with the credentials you just created, and stay logged in for a few seconds. This login registers your account with the internal services and is required for any subsequent actions. |
| 3 | **Subscribe to the mailing list** | When updates occur that may affect your workflow , or major issue happen, users are informed via the mailing list. Register with the same email on the [official mailing list](https://lists.mpe.mpg.de/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sciserver-users). |

> **Important:** Skipping step 2 will prevent the platform from completing the provisioning process, and you will encounter errors when trying to use Sciserver later.

Once these three steps are finished, you are ready to explore the platform. The
rest of this page will walk you through the main UI elements, how to access your
files, and how to launch a Compute container.  

If you encounter any issues during the steps above, please double‑check that you
used the correct email address and that the confirmation link was followed.
Should problems persist, contact the administrator via the **Support & Contact**
page.

Welcome to Sciserver – we’re excited to have you on board!

---

## Accessing the portal

1. Open your web browser and go to the Sciserver URL:
   <https://sciserver.mpe.mpg.de>
2. Log in with your credentials (pre-approved by relevent project lead).
   (If you do not have an account, get in touch with your supervisor or
   project-related lead.)

> **Tip** – You **must** login at least once for your user to be enabled.

---

## Uploading a file

> This step is optional but useful to verify that the **Files** service works.

1. Click **Files** in the apps navigation.
1. In the *User Volumes* section click on *persistent*, and then **Upload**
   button, and select a small text.
1. Verify that the file appears in the list and can be downloaded again.

> **Tip** – All files uploaded this way will be owned by `root` user inside your containers.

---

## Launching an interactive Compute session

1. From the main dashboard click **Compute → Create Container**.
1. Set a name you can identify later.
1. Select a compute domain.
1. **Choose an image** – for a first‑time run select **Sciserver Base**.
1. **Select user volumes** (optional). By default, scratch and persistent are
   preselected. Other shared folders should appear here as well.
1. **Select a data volume** (optional). If you are part of a special project,
   you should see the different available data volumes for you here. If you feel
   one is missing, reach out to your contact person to request or clarify data
   access.
1. Click **Create**.

Sciserver will create and list the new container on the same page. You can click
on the name to open that container. And manage it (stop/start) via the UI.

> **Tip** – If you ever need to contact IT support, make sure to include the URL of the container in your request for help, as it carries information useful for IT team to identify it.

---

## Submitting your first Compute Job

> Use a job when the workload is long‑running or needs exclusive hardware.

1. Return to the Sciserver portal and click **Compute Jobs → Run Command**.
1. **Job Alias (Name)**: `demo‑job`
1. **Compute Domain**: Hardware specs. Usually only one choice.
1. **Compute Image**: Usually the same as your regular compute.
1. **Data Volumes** (optional): Any Data Volumes required to get your work done.
1. **User Volumes**: Wherever target you need to place output files on.
1. **Command** (shell): Here you can instruct the job to run a script you may
   have created or run directly your shell command. Consider that Jobs needs at
   least one location to place the output of the task. Either allowing it to
   create a new one, or choosing an existing User Volume.
    ```bash
    python -c "import time; print('Job start'); time.sleep(60); print('Job end')"
    ```
1. Click **Create Job**.
1. Monitor the job from the *Jobs* list; when the status changes to
   **COMPLETED** you can download the stdout/stderr logs.

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## Next steps

**Congratulations!** You have logged in, uploaded a file, launched a container,
and submitted a compute job. From here you can explore the rest of the platform
or dive deeper into the sections listed above.

| Topic | Where to go |
|-------|--------------|
| Managing Python environments with **mamba** | [Compute Container](./compute_container) |
| Using pre‑populated data volumes | [Files And Volumes](./files_and_volumes) |
| Advanced job submission (GPU, multi‑node) | [Compute Jobs](./compute_jobs) |
| More help | [Support and Contact](./support) |

*For complete, official instructions and advanced topics, please refer to the
upstream Sciserver documentation at <https://www.sciserver.org/support/>.*

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*If anything went wrong, open a ticket in the internal help‑desk or consult the
“Troubleshooting” page.*