Machines Best Practices

Machines are high-performing computing for scaling AI applications.

This article goes over some best practices, required settings, and tips for having the best experience on Paperspace.

You have full control over your machine. However, some pieces of software and default settings must remain unmodified for your machine to operate correctly. If you have modified any of the components, you are welcome to submit a ticket. Still, we may not be able to recover the machine for you.

Note

If you are concerned that a change might break the machine or your connection to Paperspace, we recommend taking a Snapshot so you can revert to a previously functional state.

All machines

Do not alter the system clock to a time in the future, for testing or other purposes. This can cause a system crash and, if you have auto-shutdown set, unexpected shutdowns.

Linux machines

Linux machines have less required settings than Windows machines, but there are a few things to be mindful of:

• If you change the default/temporary password that is emailed to you, that password cannot be recovered if you lose or forget it
• Do not upgrade major versions, what’s also known as a dist-upgrade. Even if prompted, don’t upgrade from Ubuntu 14.04 to 16.04 or from 16.04 to 18.04. If a new OS is required, create a new machine.

Hostname

You can set a new hostname following this guide.

Windows machines

Other protocols like RDP and VNC are supported. This section applies to using desktop streaming in your browser or our desktop app to access your machine.

If using the desktop streaming technology, it is not possible to rename, modify, or remove the Paperspace account within Windows. The Paperspace user is an essential component of how we can log you into your machine and stream your desktop. You can add another user account with separate permissions but must remain logged in as the Paperspace user. The only way to reveal or safely change the password of the machine is with this tool. If you remove or change this user, accessing your machine through Paperspace does not work – instead you must use RDP or other streaming protocols.

Required software

Paperspace requires the following software to run. It is pre-installed on all Windows machines:

• Paperspace Agent
• Paperspace Service
• NVIDIA Graphics Driver
• Razer Surround audio driver
• Various Citrix Xen/Xenserver programs & services
• .NET Framework
• Please do not update, uninstall or modify any of this software

The graphics driver can be updated on passthrough / dedicated-GPU machines.

IP address and Internet settings

Do not modify the IP address within your machine.
Do not modify the ethernet or network settings on your machine – they disconnect your machine and cannot be restored.

Hostname

The machine hostname cannot be changed.