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Every workspace runs on a machine. The agent’s commands, your notebook kernels, and the workspace’s live folder all run there. Which machine a workspace runs on is a setting of the workspace. You can change it at any time, and the workspace’s files come with it.

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Standard and org machines

Whether you can buy machines, and how many, depends on your plan. If your plan does not include them, the Machines page says so.

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Buy a machine

Organization admins and team admins can open Machines from the Organization section of the sidebar.
1

Choose a machine

Click Buy machine, then pick an offering. Each one lists its CPU or GPU, memory, hourly rate, storage price, and whether it is in stock.
2

Configure it

Set:
  • Name.
  • Storage (GB) for its disk.
  • Use: Assigned to specific people, or Org pool to serve anyone’s chats. Org pool requires the Enterprise plan.
  • Owned by: the team that owns it.
  • Who can use it: teams or members, or Add everyone. See Share machines with care.
  • Stop when idle: Never, or after 15, 30, or 60 minutes, or 4 hours.
  • Monthly cap: the most it may spend in a month. Leave it empty for no cap.
3

Buy and start

The dialog shows the hourly rate and the storage price drawn from your credits. Click Buy and start.
Organization admins can also choose a Default for new workspaces.

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Storage

An org machine has two disks:
  • Storage, the size you choose with Storage (GB). This is the machine’s persistent disk. It holds the folders of the chats that are awake, their Python environments, and package caches. It survives a stop.
  • A system disk for the operating system and temporary scratch. It is reset every time the machine stops.
The storage disk is a working area, not where your files live. Your files live in Files. While a chat is awake, its folder is copied onto the machine. When the chat sleeps, Alkera saves the folder back to Files and clears it from the machine. See Where workspace files live.

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How much storage you need

Only awake workspaces take up space on the storage disk. Size the disk for the busiest moment: the most storage that the workspaces awake at the same time will use together, including their files, Python environments, and caches. For example, if three people usually work at once in workspaces that use about 20 GB each, choose at least 60 GB, plus headroom for large intermediate files. Workspaces that are asleep take no space, so the total size of every workspace on the machine does not matter.

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Storage pricing

Storage is billed per GB per month, by the minute, whether the machine is running or stopped. Only deleting the machine stops storage charges. The machine’s storage does not count toward your plan’s file storage. Files count toward your plan once they are saved to Files.

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Grow the disk

Choose Grow disk to make the storage disk larger. Disks only grow. To get a smaller disk, buy a new machine and move your workspaces to it. Some machines restart to grow their disk, and running chats finish first. A machine shows Almost out of disk when its storage is 95% full. Grow the disk, or free up space, before chats start failing to write.

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On Standard

On Standard, each workspace gets a share of a shared machine’s disk while it is awake. Nothing is kept on the machine between sleeps except what is saved to Files, so a woken chat starts with a fresh environment. Standard storage is not billed separately.

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Share machines with care

Workspaces on a machine you buy are not isolated from each other. Unlike Standard, where each workspace runs in its own sandbox, an org machine gives workspaces direct access to its hardware. Anyone whose workspace runs on the machine, and the agent working for them, can read files and processes from other workspaces on it.Only let people use a machine if you would be comfortable with them seeing each other’s work on it. Use separate machines for teams or data that must stay apart.

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Start and stop

An org machine runs only when it needs to.
  • Starting is automatic. Sending a message, or opening a chat or workspace that runs on a stopped machine, starts it. This takes a minute or two, and the chat shows that the machine is starting. Your message is sent as soon as it is ready.
  • Stop when idle stops the machine once nothing on it has worked for the time you chose. Chats on it go to sleep first, so their files are saved.
  • Stop stops it by hand. Running chats get up to two minutes to finish. A chat interrupted by a stop says so, and continues when you send a message.
A machine also stops when it reaches its Monthly cap, or when your organization runs out of credit. Its storage is still billed while it is stopped. If your organization stays out of credit for 14 days, the machine is deleted. Alkera sends notices before that happens.

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Manage a machine

Each machine has Start, Stop, Rename, Settings, Who can use it, Grow disk, and Delete. Its page shows usage this month, the workspaces on it, and a timeline of what happened.
Deleting a machine destroys its storage disk. Files in your workspaces are kept, because they are saved to Files. Anything else on the disk is lost.

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Move a workspace to another machine

You need Full access to the workspace.
1

Open the machine chip

On the workspace, click its machine chip and choose Change workspace machine.
2

Pick a machine

Choose Standard or a machine you can use. Check Stop running chats now to move without waiting for the agent to finish.
3

Move

Click Move workspace. Running chats stop and continue on the new machine.
Files move with the workspace. Installed packages, running processes, and anything outside the workspace folder do not.

Workspaces

Sleep, wake, and what happens when a machine is deleted.

Billing & usage

How machine time draws on your credits.