Frequently Asked Questions - Running Virtual Machines

FutureGrid is a testbed that is used by many users to test out various software and services. As a testbed we try also to deploy software updates and improvements. This requires us to dedicate one day of the week to deploy and make improvements available to the user. Often this day will aslo be used to clean our cloud infrastructure which is needed as part of upgrades. We recommend that all users save their VM on the first Monday of the month and bring it back up on the First Wednesday in case their VMs should run longer than a month.

Yes, while Nimbus is the primary IaaS provider FutureGrid supports, we also provide Eucalyptus and Open Stack (coming soon) clouds on a more experimental basis.

Yes.  FutureGrid runs Infrastructure Clouds that allow you to launch virtual machines.  You can upload your own VM or choose from one of our stock virtual machines.  Nimbus is the recommended IaaS solution to use on FutureGrid for both using cloud infrastructure and experimenting with cloud software; the FutureGrid project funds Nimbus explicitly to provide support for these activities.