Methodology

How we run the Xtra Computing servers, and the reasons behind the rules.

Why we deploy monitoring probes

The servers are shared by a growing number of users. Some jobs hold GPUs, memory, or CPU for long periods without regard to other users, and on a shared machine one such job can leave everyone else waiting.

Monitoring probes on each server record resource usage per user. This lets us:

• see who is using which resources, so allocation stays fair;
• find the source of a problem quickly when a server becomes slow or unusable;
• apply the rules in the Terms of Use consistently, based on recorded data, including automatic termination.

What is collected and how it is used is described under Privacy.

Why we use Apptainer

Docker access for regular users was removed by default from 2026-09-30. Containers now run with Apptainer, for two reasons:

• Security. Membership in the docker group is effectively root access on the host. Apptainer runs containers as your own user, with no daemon and no root-equivalent group.
• Resource accounting. Workloads inside Docker are invisible to per-user memory and GPU accounting, and single users have taken whole servers down this way. Apptainer workloads stay visible to the same accounting as any other process you run.

See Containers: Docker Deprecation and Apptainer for migration instructions.