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Introduction and First-time Use

Service Workbench (SWB) provides researchers with a centralised location to search for data sets and deploy research workspaces. Researchers can access a portal, quickly find data they are interested in, and begin analysis using servers or SageMaker Notebooks.

Service Workbench enables us to provide access to data sets – or a subset of data sets – in a controlled way.

Once a User has found the Study or Studies that they are interested in researching, they can deploy a Workspace with the desired data attached.

A Workspace environment contains a set of tools to access and analyse the data.

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Windows and Linux Workspaces are created from a template image we maintain. If you need other applications, languages or libraries for the applications (eg Python or R packages, ado files for Stata), please raise a service request

TypeDescription
My StudiesSpecifies Studies created by users. Use this option to work on datasets that are exclusive to you or that are used specifically for your research.
Organization StudiesSpecifies Studies that can be shared with other users. It contains data that had been collected by an organization or is licensed. You can grant or deny users access to this data in order to comply with regulations or licensing restrictions on the data.

Service Workbench can host data for My Studies and Organization Studies internally, in the study data bucket created in the AWS account where Service Workbench was deployed. The application can also provide access to Studies hosted in external buckets in other AWS accounts using the Datasets page.

Connecting for the first time​

  1. In a web browser, connect to https://aws-access.awsapps.com/start/#/?tab=applications

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    You need to have had permission to access Service WorkBench, otherwise you will see an error page. Only a Project Principle Investigator or their delegate may request this access.

  2. Click on the cloud icon for the project you want to use.

    Choice of projects

  3. You will need to request access if you select a new project: when the Research Portal Application form is displayed, enter your first name and last name, and briefly describe your research. Then click the button.

    Application form

  4. You will be advised to log in again and repeat the above steps to access Service Workbench once your access is confirmed.

    Application submitted

  5. When you have access and have clicked on the project icon, a "Just one second ..." message will appear, after which you will see the Service WorkBench (SWB) dashboard:

    SWB Dashboard

From the dashboard you can perform different activities using the icons on the left-hand side.

Create a Workspace​

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You will need a study to attach to the workspace so first check you have one available via the portal's Studies page using the menu on the left. If needed, follow the steps in the Studies guide before continuing.

The following Workspace types are currently provided:

  • EC2 - Linux – An EC2 Linux instance.
  • EC2 - Windows – An EC2 Windows instance.
  • Sagemaker - A Jupyter-based notebook service

Workspace Configurations​

For each Workspace type there are options for how powerful the resource is. If you know or find you need a lot of memory then choose the appropriate Workspace Configuration. For example, if you are loading a 48G dataset into memory and processing it and have a Workspace Configuration "Windows with 8CPUs and 64GB" option, you should use that. If there isn't an appropriate Workspace Configuration available, please get in touch and we will look at providing one.

The more resources you ask for, the more the Workspace will cost. Be especially careful to stop the larger Workspaces when you are finished for the day.

Each Workspace has its own local disk ("C:" for Windows and "/" for Linux Workspaces). If you are doing a lot of intensive I/O file operations you may need a bigger local disk to copy data to and from studies. If so, please request a new workspace Configuration with a larger local disk.

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It can take up to ten minutes for a EC2 instances to become available and a further few minutes for you to be able to connect to it.

If you intend to use a workspace for research over more than a day then stop, rather than terminate, that workspace so that you can start it and connect to it again without waiting for a new workspace to deploy.

Launching a Workspace​

A user can select a Study or multiple Studies and launch a Workspace to access and analyse that data. To launch a Workspace, follow these steps:

  1. In the portal navigate to the Studies page using the menu on the left.

    Create Studies menu item

  2. Select the Studies to be attached to the new Workspace.

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    If the Study is in a Pending or Error state, there may be a permissions issue with the AWS account hosting the data. You will not be able to select the Study. Contact us in the Teams channel listed at the bottom of this page.

  3. Once you have selected all the Studies you want to add, click the button.

  4. Choose the type of Workspace you want and click the button.

  5. Type a name for the Workspace in the Name field.

  6. Select the project that this Workspace will belong to in via Project ID drop down field.

  7. Select the Configuration type.

  8. Type a description for the Workspace in the Description field.

  9. Click the button. This will deploy the new Workspace and attach the Studies that were selected. You will automatically be redirected to the Workspaces tab on the portal. Your new workspace will be in a pending state whilst it is being provisioned, typically for ten minutes.

Using Workspaces​

Go to the following guide for instructions on how to connect to a Workspace, and how to submit files for egress from TRE Researcher User Guide.

Problems?

If you experience issues accessing Service WorkBench or need a hand please contact us in the LSE-Trusted-Research-Environments Teams channel