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CloudLab is a National Science Foundation-funded research testbed where researchers and educators build their own clouds on real hardware. This guide is for a student or researcher who has been told to “get a CloudLab account” and needs to know what it is, what to expect, and how to launch a first experiment. It covers the CloudLab testbed at cloudlab.us, not commercial automated-chemistry “cloud lab” services.
What CloudLab is used for in research
CloudLab describes itself as “flexible, scientific infrastructure for research on the future of cloud computing.” Its manual calls it a “meta-cloud”: a facility for building clouds, giving experimenters bare-metal access to compute, storage and networking rather than a fixed virtual-machine product. The facility was built from Emulab technology and parts of GENI, and is part of NSFCloud. Its clusters are hosted at Utah, Wisconsin and Clemson (South Carolina). The site states that researchers and educators from hundreds of institutions and almost every US state use it (cloudlab.us and docs.cloudlab.us, read 2026-11-07).
Typical uses follow from that design: systems and networking research that needs control of the full software stack, experiments that others can re-run from a shared profile, and classes where an instructor creates a project and students join it. Because experiments are defined as profiles, they support computational reproducibility; see also reproducibility infrastructure: workflows, containers and code sharing.
Who funds it and how to acknowledge it
CloudLab states it is supported by the National Science Foundation under grant numbers 1419199, 1743363, 2027208 and 2431419, and that the views expressed are not necessarily those of the NSF. NSF’s computer-science directorate is described in NSF CISE; the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure, which funds shared research infrastructure, is covered in NSF OAC. When you publish results, record the facility in your acknowledgments section using the wording given on cloudlab.us.
Install or access (official source only)
There is nothing to install: CloudLab runs in the browser at cloudlab.us, and the manual lives at docs.cloudlab.us. Access is by account, requested from the site (“Request an Account”). The manual’s registration chapter offers two routes: join an existing project (typical for students in a class, where the instructor creates the project) or create a new project. Use of the facility is governed by the Acceptable Use Policy at cloudlab.us/aup. The manual also covers SSH and X11 setup; the experiment page offers a web-based shell as an alternative.
Step-by-step: start your first experiment
These steps follow the Getting Started chapter of the CloudLab manual (read 2026-11-07).
- Go to cloudlab.us and log in. If you do not have an account, use the signup page and either join an existing project or choose “Start New Project”.
- In the top menu, click Experiments, then Start Experiment.
- Click Change Profile and choose a profile from the selector. A profile describes the hardware and software environment to create.
- If the profile is parameterized, enter its parameters or keep the defaults (hover over the blue “?” for an explanation), then click Next.
- Check the cluster shown in the selector above the Create button.
- Click Create. Setup usually takes a couple of minutes; wait for the progress bar to complete.
- Use the experiment through the Topology View, List View or Manifest tab. Click a node for an in-browser shell, and read Profile Instructions if the profile author supplied them.
- Before the experiment expires, click Extend to request more time, or Terminate to end it yourself.
Key concepts: profile, experiment, reservation
- Profile. A reusable description of an environment. Profiles can be on-demand or persistent, and can be written in Python with the geni-lib library.
- Experiment. A running instance of a profile. Experiments end automatically after a few hours unless extended.
- Reservation. A way to guarantee access to resources in advance; the manual notes reservations may affect other users.
- Resources. Bare-metal nodes and Xen virtual machines, plus node-local, image-backed and remote datasets and an NFS shared file system.
Output and how to read it
The experiment page offers several views of what you created: the Topology View (a graph of nodes and links), the List View (nodes and their SSH commands), the Manifest View (the resolved description of the experiment), a Graphs View and the Experiment Status. The Web-based Shell and Serial Console give access to a node. Disk contents on nodes are lost when the experiment terminates, so copy results off the nodes early and often.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | What the manual says |
|---|---|
| Experiment disappeared and data is gone | Experiments terminate automatically after a few hours and node disk is lost at termination. Click Extend before expiry and copy data off. |
| Email about a “Control Network Violation” | Each node has a control network separate from the experiment network. Experiment traffic must not use the control network. |
| Cannot reach a node over SSH | Check your SSH setup against the manual, then use the Web-based Shell or Serial Console from the experiment page. |
Alternative testbeds
CloudLab is one of several NSF-funded experimental platforms for computer-science research. Chameleon describes itself in similar terms; the table compares how each operator describes its facility.
| Item | CloudLab | Chameleon |
|---|---|---|
| Self-description | “Flexible, scientific infrastructure for research on the future of cloud computing” | “A large-scale, deeply reconfigurable experimental platform” for computer-science systems research and education |
| Funding stated | National Science Foundation (four grant numbers listed) | A grant from the National Science Foundation |
| Hardware model | Bare metal, plus Xen virtual machines | Mostly bare metal, with a small KVM cloud |
| Sites named | Utah, Wisconsin, Clemson (South Carolina) | CHI@UC, CHI@TACC, CHI@NCAR (main sites) |
Sources: cloudlab.us and docs.cloudlab.us; chameleoncloud.org/about/chameleon (read 2026-11-07). If your need is HPC allocation rather than testbed experimentation, see how to request an NSF ACCESS compute allocation. People who support such facilities are described in research software engineer role definition.
FAQ
What is CloudLab?
A National Science Foundation-funded testbed that gives researchers and educators bare-metal and virtual resources for experiments on cloud computing and related systems, accessed through a web portal at cloudlab.us.
How do I get a CloudLab account?
Request an account on cloudlab.us and either join an existing project or start a new one. For a class, the instructor creates the project and students join it.
How long does an experiment run?
Experiments end automatically after a few hours. Use Extend to request more time and Terminate to end one early.
Is my data kept after the experiment ends?
No. Disk contents on the nodes are lost at termination, so copy anything you need off the nodes first.
Sources
- CloudLab home page, read 2026-11-07
- CloudLab manual and its Getting Started chapter, read 2026-11-07
- Chameleon: About, read 2026-11-07
