{"id":7,"date":"2014-01-15T15:45:48","date_gmt":"2014-01-15T15:45:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/rvms\/?page_id=7"},"modified":"2026-01-13T10:36:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T10:36:26","slug":"overview","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/rvms\/","title":{"rendered":"Research VM Service Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Description<\/h2>\n

Centrally-hosted virtual machines (VMs) are provided for University research staff and PGR students through the Research Virtual Machine Service (RVMS).<\/p>\n

This service is complementary to commercial cloud services, such as Amazon EC2 and Azure: the RVMS is suitable for VMs which are expected to generate large amounts of network traffic, may be moderately CPU-intensive or require tight integration with the CIR ecosystem<\/a> platforms (CSF, iCSF, etc.) or the Research Data Service<\/a> (RDS).<\/p>\n

After initial setup, administrative control of your VM is handed over to the nominated VM administrator<\/a>. Alternatively, where no group administrators are available, administrative support may<\/em> be provided by Research IT as a chargeable service<\/em>.<\/p>\n

However, as described in the Operating Model<\/a>, IT Services will NOT support any custom software stacks on these VMs as part of this service. Software stacks installed by the VM owner\/administrator must be supported and maintained by that administrator, not IT Services. (An agreement may<\/i> be made outside<\/i> of this service, separately, to support custom software stacks as a chargeable service.)<\/p>\n

Restrictions and Charging<\/h2>\n

All University research groups are entitled to some VM resource, but the resource available will be very limited. Greater VM resource is available but is charged for. These costings will reflect the high-level of resilience built into the platform and the cost of backups of VM images, but will not<\/i> include charges for data uploads or downloads (in contrast to many commercial cloud services).<\/p>\n

Applying for a VM<\/h2>\n

All applications for a VM should be made via the Connect Portal request form<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Motivation for the Service<\/h2>\n

Replacement of Under-Desk Servers<\/h3>\n

Research groups at the University have Web sites, shared development areas and many other services running on machines under desks and in cupboards, all over campus. This is not a good way of doing things!<\/p>\n

Few of these hosts offer a resilient service; many are not secured to the standard required on a public server.<\/p>\n

The RVMI Service can be used to help research groups replace many of the above \u201cservers\u201d with a virtual machine running on the same resilient, professionally-managed, monitored infrastructure as many of IT Services systems:<\/p>\n