Getting Started¶

Transform your organization’s collaborative computing capabilities with CoCalc OnPrem. This guide will help you understand your options, plan your deployment, and take the first steps toward implementing a powerful, self-hosted collaborative computing platform.

Is CoCalc OnPrem Right for You?¶

Before diving into the technical details, let’s determine if CoCalc OnPrem aligns with your organization’s needs:

You’re a great candidate for CoCalc OnPrem if you:

✓ Want collaboration features: Your teams need real-time collaborative editing, sharing, and communication tools – especially for Jupyter Notebooks

✓ Need data sovereignty: Your organization requires complete control over sensitive data, research, or intellectual property

✓ Manage GPU access: You have several GPUs and want to manage how (and when) users can access these resources via their projects

✓ Have compliance requirements: You must meet regulatory standards like HIPAA, SOX, or institutional data policies

✓ Support large user bases: You need to provide collaborative computing for hundreds or thousands of users

✓ Run on Kubernetes: You already have or plan to deploy Kubernetes infrastructure

✓ Require custom environments: You need specialized software installations

Your Deployment Journey¶

Phase 1: Planning & Assessment¶

Infrastructure Assessment and Requirements

We help you along the way to set up CoCalc OnPrem. The first phase is dedicated to figuring out your needs and requirements.

Licensing & Support

Once this step is done, we discuss licensing options and support levels that match your organization’s needs.

📋 Planning Checklist:

☐ Kubernetes cluster version 1.28+ available
☐ PostgreSQL 15+ database access
☐ ReadWriteMany storage solution (NFS, etc.)
☐ Domain name and TLS certificates
☐ SMTP server for emails
☐ (optional) SSO/authentication system details
☐ Estimated user count and resource requirements

Phase 2: Infrastructure Preparation¶

Set Up Prerequisites

Follow our detailed Setup guide to prepare your Kubernetes cluster, database, storage, and networking components.

📋 Infrastructure Checklist:

☐ Kubernetes cluster configured with required resources
☐ PostgreSQL database created and accessible
☐ Shared storage mounted and tested
☐ Ingress controller and networking (e.g. MetalLB) deployed
☐ DNS records pointing to your cluster
☐ TLS certificates
☐ SMTP server configured and tested

Phase 3: Deployment & Configuration¶

Customization: Configure branding, authentication, resource limits, and software environments according to your needs.
Deployment: The actual deployment of CoCalc OnPrem is a single one-line command running HELM.

Phase 4: Launch & Optimization (Ongoing)¶

User Onboarding: Roll out to your organization with proper training and documentation.
Performance Monitoring: Monitor usage patterns and adjust resources as needed.
Ongoing Maintenance: Keep your deployment updated, backup the database and user files.

Technical Quick Start¶

For technical teams ready to begin:

Review Architecture Understand how CoCalc OnPrem components work together: Architecture
Prepare Infrastructure Set up prerequisites following our setup guide: Setup
Configure Deployment Customize your installation: Configuration
Deploy with Helm Install CoCalc OnPrem: Deployment
Manage Operations Monitor and maintain your deployment: Operations