Navigating in Terra

Open the main navigation menu by clicking the three horizontal lines in the top left of the screen at any time. You'll use this menu to sign in and out of Terra, manage resources, and access resource libraries and support.

Screen capture showing how to log into app.terra.bio by clicking the main navigation menu (three horizontal lines at the top left) and signing in with Google.

Managing your Terra profile, billing info, and groups

You can access most administrative and support features in Terra by clicking on the three horizontal lines at the top left of any page. Click your name to manage everything specific to you (see details below).

Profile information

Edit personal/contact information, affiliations, and notification settings here.

Linking controlled data authorization

You can link external authorizations (such as your NIH login) for access to controlled data in your profile. Linking your credentials allows you to access to all the controlled data you are authorized to analyze.

To learn more, see How to access controlled data on external servers.

Screenshot of the Profile page with linked external identities (NIH account) at the left.

Billing

Here you'll find a list of Billing Projects you are associated with and your role on each project (e.g. owner, user). Billing Project owners can view lists of members of each Billing Project, and add or remove users.

To learn more about what level of access each user role involves, see Best practices for managing shared funding.

Groups

Manage team access to data, code, and resources - including billing and workspaces - with groups.

Why use managed groups?

Sharing or granting permission to groups, rather than individuals, is a way to streamline collaboration. It's easier and less error-prone to update a group than it is to update permissions for each individual resource when people join or leave a team. This helps ensure that data, workspaces and other resources are shared with the right people.

Create and view groups

You can create groups, view the groups you belong to, and check your role in each group in the Group Management page.

Screenshot of top-level Groups page in Terra with the button to create a group at the top and a list of all the groups you belong to - as well as the group email and your role - below.

Manage specific groups

Click on the name of a group to access the group management page, where you can add users, edit users' roles, and select the option to allow anyone to request access.

Screenshot of the Group Management page for the group 'testers' with the 'Add user' button at the top and a list of all members of the group and their roles below.

Group roles in a nutshell

Owner-level users are able to invite and/or grant access to other collaborators. Group owners can assign other users' roles, controlling who is able to view/copy the contents of their workspace, run computations on affiliated account, or edit the content. For more information on the structure of permissions on Terra, please read Managing access to shared resources (data and tools).

Screen capture showing how to create a managed group from the Terra landing page. Click the main navigation menu, and select 'groups' to go to the group page, click the blue 'Create a group' button, enter the group name 'test1' in the popup field, and click the 'Create group' button. When done, the new group 'test1' shows up in the groups list.

Managing Cloud Environments (for Galaxy, Jupyter and RStudio)

View a list of your existing cloud environment virtual machines and associated persistent disks by clicking on "Cloud Environments" in the main menu under your name. Here, you'll find details such as cost estimates showing you how much you're spending, and which Billing Project each resource is attached to. You can delete the virtual machines and associated persistent disks for any of your workspaces from this page.

Screenshot of cloud environments summary page that lists all paused and running cloud environments at the top and all persistent disks below. On the right are icons that allow you to pause cloud environments and delete cloud environments and persistent disks.

Accessing, sharing and cloning workspaces

The "Workspaces" menu under the main navigation menu allows you to explore workspaces that are already available to you. These include workspaces you have created or cloned, or that someone else shared with you, as well as public workspaces.

To learn more about using workspaces - a computational sandbox for storing and analyzing data - see Working with Workspaces.

To share or clone a workspace, open the workspace and click on the button with three dots in the upper right corner.

Screen capture showing how to clone a workspace. Open a featured workspace in the showcase library (from the library section in the main navigation), click on the three dot action menu at the top left of the dashboard, select 'clone' from the dropdown, and fill in the fields in the clone workspace form.

or click the three dot button at the far right of the workspace name:
Screenshot of the 'Workspaces' page, showing a summary of the workspaces available to you. The three vertical dot action menu is highlighted at the top right of an example workspace's card, showing a popout with options to clone, share, lock, delete, or leave the workspace.

Curated tools, data, and workspaces in the Terra Libraries

Terra includes libraries of curated workflows, showcase workspaces, and data to help you build a custom workspace for your use case.

Screen capture showing how to locate curated datasets, featured workspaces, and workflows that can be used to build a custom workspace for your use case.

For more details about these libraries, see Build a workspace using data, showcase, and tools library resources.

For more on showcase workspaces (also called "featured workspaces"), see Curated template and tutorial workspaces.

Terra Support

Through the Terra Support knowledge base, you can access individualized support from the Terra team, as well as a comprehensive database of documents and other resources to help you help yourself. This support site includes the following sections:

Terra Support Home

Self-service learning resources - including online Terra University courses in Leanpub and a Getting Started section with articles on setting up billing, security, and workspaces on the Terra platform - will help you get started quickly.

Terra's documentation and community forum pages round out the self-serve options.

Blog

Read stories from the trenches about how new features and improvements are making it easier to do work on Terra in the blog.

Training Events

You'll find a collection of slides, videos, workspaces, and more from previous workshops and training events.

Screen capture of going to Terra Support from Terra by clicking on the main navigation menu (three parallel lines in the top left of the browswer), expanding the Support section and selecting 'Terra Support Home'.

Contact us directly

The main menu bar also includes a "Contact Us" button, which calls up an integrated form for submitting questions/comments directly to Terra Support.

Screen capture of opening a support ticket by clicking on the main navigation (three parralel lines at the top left of any page in Terra), expanding the 'Support' section, and clicking 'Contact support'