Attention: Due to an upgrade beginning on Friday, the 22nd August 2025, any new collabs, groups and any changes to teams will not be kept beyond the weekend. User creation will also be disabled during this time. The actual upgrade will take place on Wednesday, 27th August. On that day, any service requiring a Keycloak login will be unavailable for the duration of the upgrade. Thank you for your understanding as we complete this important work.

For the duration of the maintenance period, Collaboration and Group creation features will be temporarily disabled and will return HTTP 503 Service Unavailable errors until further notice.


Wiki source code of Getting access

Version 32.1 by kindler on 2025/07/22 10:40
Hide last authors
kindler 1.1 1 == Getting access to the NMC systems BrainScaleS and SpiNNaker ==
2
3 To use the Neuromorphic computing platform (SpiNNaker and BrainScaleS machines, free of charge for tests and for accepted research projects):
4
kindler 25.1 5 1. [[Get an EBRAINS account>>https://ebrains.eu/register/]] (free of charge). Use the "Create your account" button.
kindler 19.1 6 1. EITHER:
7 11. Send an email to [[neuromorphic@humanbrainproject.eu>>path:mailto:neuromorphic%40humanbrainproject.eu]] stating your EBRAINS account username
8 11. We will create a Collab for you, free of charge and complete with test quota and a few examples.
kindler 15.1 9 Only for large 'production runs' another quota request is needed via the "Job Manager" in your collab (upper right hand corner in the JobManager: "Quota").
kindler 29.1 10 1. OR (to start immediately):
kindler 30.1 11 11. for a **quick "first look" **(non-persistent = whatever you change in the example notebooks **~*~*will be lost~*~*** when the session expires. It is useful for a get-an-impression-fast:
kindler 31.1 12 111. [[Access this URL>>https://lab.jsc.ebrains.eu/hub/user-redirect/git-pull?repo=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Felectronicvisions%2Fbrainscales2-demos.git&urlpath=lab%2Ftree%2Fbrainscales2-demos.git%2Ftutorial.ipynb&branch=jupyter-notebooks-experimental]]: this will starts a lab session - you will be asked, which container to start. Please choose the one marked "recommended".
kindler 32.1 13 111. Access the same URL again (if a lab session was already running for your user you only need to access the URL once)
kindler 31.1 14 This then automatically clones the BrainScaleS example notebooks ([[from github>>https://github.com/electronicvisions/brainscales2-demos.git]]) into the now running lab session into a non-persistent location and opens the tutorial index notebook.
15 You can also directly jump to e.g. the [[single neuron notebook>>https://lab.jsc.ebrains.eu/hub/user-redirect/git-pull?repo=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Felectronicvisions%2Fbrainscales2-demos.git&urlpath=lab%2Ftree%2Fbrainscales2-demos.git%2Fts_00-single_neuron.ipynb&branch=jupyter-notebooks-experimental]] or the [[learning with superspike notebook>>https://lab.jsc.ebrains.eu/hub/user-redirect/git-pull?repo=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Felectronicvisions%2Fbrainscales2-demos.git&urlpath=lab%2Ftree%2Fbrainscales2-demos.git%2Fts_01-superspike.ipynb&branch=jupyter-notebooks-experimental]].
16 To run the notebook cells use the "Run" menu item.
kindler 30.1 17 11. or with an own Collab - this allows you to also change the example notebooks and **keep the changes**
18 111. create a new Collab for yourself:
19 1111. go to [[https:~~/~~/wiki.ebrains.eu/>>https://wiki.ebrains.eu/]] and click the "Log-in" link in the upper right hand corner, log in with your new EBRAINS account
20 1111. Click the "Collabs" link in the menu bar at the top of the window
21 1111. Click the "Create a collab" green button and create a private Collab for yourself. The process re-directs you into the new Collab. 
22 111. In your new Collab open the Lab and clone the files you want to work with:
23 1111. Click the "Lab" link in the left hand menu
24 [[image:1752049786563-126.png]]
25 1111. Select any of the "Lab Execution Site" offered, [[image:1752049824848-523.png]]
kindler 29.1 26 then select the "Official EBRAINS Docker image", click start. (Click "Launch Server", if you get a "Server not running" page)
27 This will start a Jupyter Lab session (the "Lab") for you. 
28
kindler 30.1 29 1111. Start a "Terminal" via the icon in the "Launcher window" shown. This opens a terminal in the "/mnt/user/shared/NAME_OF_YOUR_COLLAB/" directory. This is a location on the EBRAINS "Drive". Files stored in this location are stored persistently = will still be there, when you open your Collab again some days later 
kindler 29.1 30 Note: If you use "File" > "New" > "Terminal" the opened terminal is in the directory "/opt/app-root/src". This location only exists while the Jupyter ("Lab") session is running and will be gone, when a new Lab session is started. Do not use this location, if you want to keep the files. To change into the persistent directory type "cd /mnt/user/shared/NAME_OF_YOUR_COLLAB" (without the " and the name of your your Collab instead of NAME_OF_YOUR_COLLAB. The collab name in the screenshot is "20250709-testCollab")
kindler 26.1 31 [[image:1752049957171-549.png]]
kindler 29.1 32
kindler 30.1 33 1111. then fetch the files you would like to work with.
kindler 22.1 34 For the **BrainScaleS-2 interactive notebooks** use the command in the terminal window: 
kindler 19.1 35 //git clone https:~/~/github.com/electronicvisions/brainscales2-demos.git ~-~-branch jupyter-notebooks-experimental//
kindler 26.1 36 [[image:1752049987784-838.png]]
kindler 29.1 37 \\The command clones the BrainScaleS interactive notebooks into a directory "brainscales2-demos". This directory appears then in the files list on the left hand side of the window. Double click it to enter the freshly cloned directory with tutorial notebooks.
kindler 20.1 38 To see an overview, open the "tutorial.ipynb"
kindler 26.1 39 [[image:1752050031198-600.png]]
40 Run the notebooks of your choice...
41 \\\\For **SpiNNaker** example notebooks use the command in the terminal window:
kindler 22.1 42 git clone [[https:~~/~~/github.com/SpiNNakerManchester/SpiNNakerJupyterExamples.git>>https://github.com/SpiNNakerManchester/SpiNNakerJupyterExamples.git]]
43 This creates the SpiNNakerJupyterExamples directory.
44 First run the "Setup" notebook in the directory (choose the "EBRAINS-...." kernel, when asked), select "Run" > "Run all cells" 
45 Then your environment is prepared to run the examples (e.g. the 01.RuningPyNNSimulations").
46 Note: As Kernel (right hand corner of the title line of the notebook), please use the "EBRAINS-...." kernel, not the default iPython Kernel. Some modules will not be found with the default kernel.
kindler 21.1 47 1. Run your own neuromorphic simulations/emulations interactively via Jupyter notebook (link "LAB" in your Collab) directly in your browser (or via the "Job Manager") using your own [[PyNN>>url:http://neuralensemble.org/PyNN/]] described network and your own input data.
48 To add the "Job Manager", if it is not in your Collab yet: Go to the start page of your Collab, click the "+ Create" button in the upper right hand corner, select "Community App" and type "Job Manager" in the "Title" field, then click "Create", then choose the "Neuromorphic Computing Job Manager" from the list of offered Apps and click "Save". Now a new link "Job Manager" is in the left hand menu of your Collab)
kindler 5.1 49 1. If anything fails: see the [[getting help page>>url:https://electronicvisions.github.io/hbp-sp9-guidebook/getting_help.html]] in the guidebook or use the [[support@ebrains.eu>>mailto:support@ebrains.eu]] email contact.
kindler 1.1 50
kindler 18.1 51 The documentation: [[HBP Neuromorphic Computing Platform Guidebook>>url:https://electronicvisions.github.io/hbp-sp9-guidebook/]] (and a direct link to the [[BrainScaleS interactive tutorials documentation>>https://electronicvisions.github.io/documentation-brainscales2/latest/brainscales2-demos/tutorial.html]]).
kindler 10.1 52
kindler 17.1 53 The service has been created mainly by and during the Human Brain Project (HBP). See the page on [[Neuromorphic computing on the HBP website>>https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/en/silicon-brains/]] for project information and the [[EBRAINS neuromorphic computing service page>>https://ebrains.eu/service/neuromorphic-computing]] for the EBRAINS research infrastructure context.
kindler 10.1 54
kindler 17.1 55 .
56
kindler 2.1 57