Option 2: Using Carina

A Second Low-Cost Option

This computing environment consists of a Stanford-managed, modern, private cloud environment, reducing usage costs for Stanford researchers. To use this platform for analytic purposes, coding skills are necessary.

Recommended for: Research teams that (1) only contain Stanford personnel/students and individuals with fully-sponsored SUNets (i.e with a Stanford email address), (2) have the necessary IRB/DRA/DUA agreement(s), and (3) whose projects won't need >1TB of storage (though more is available for purchase: see details below).

UPDATE: As of January 13, 2026, Carina 2.0 is live! Carina 1.0 will remain available until it is decommissioned on December 31, 2026. An FAQ page about this transition (and how you can navigate it) is available here. SRC is holding a Carina 2.0 Orientation on Wednesday, February 18, 2026 at 2pm. You can register here.

Optimal Use

R & RStudio
Python
SAS (runs in a browser via the NoVnc desktop)
Stata (purchase of a license needed; runs in a browser via the NoVnc desktop)
Is Linux-based. On-Premises. Uses the Open OnDemand web interface.

Costs

Individual users get 25GB of data storage for free.
PI Group folders get 1TB of data storage for free (shared between members of the group & all Carina users are already part of one. If additional one(s) are needed, email srcc-support@stanford.edu.)
Additional 5TB given to Groups whose PI(s) purchase a node to add to the environment.
Option to purchase additional 10TB chunk(s) of storage space for a Group folder for ~$97.50/month--requests can be made here.

Benefits

Low/No Cost: Because it's managed on-premise, there are no costs for most use-cases at present.
Familiarity: This environment is similar to Sherlock and Farmshare, which also use the Open OnDemand web interface.
Power: Carina 2.0 can handle computationally-intensive methods (such as AI), thanks to its advanced system specs. It has 5 Dell PowerEdge XE7745 compute nodes, each equipped with 8 NVIDIA L40s GPUs.
Speed: Carina 2.0 uses a PowerScale (Isilon) storage system, which can handle far more files than the system that was used in Carina 1.0 has been able to, and jobs should run much more smoothly as a result.
Stability/Reliability: Carina 2.0 has been substantially upgraded in this respect, thanks to the new PowerScale system and other updates to keep the login nodes from overloading.
Moderate ease of access to data: data can be exported from Redivis to Carina, though depending on the size of the data cut, approval may need to be requested through the PHS Data Portal. Instructions on how to bring data into Carina are available at https://docs.carina.stanford.edu/data-management.

Other Considerations

There's a slightly different UI for Stata or SAS. Both languages are supported in Carina, but they run in the browser via the NoVnc desktop, which may be less familiar to those accustomed to the standard Windows desktop applications.
If a dataset is updated, you will have to export a cut of that update from Redivis to Carina in order for it to show up on Carina.
Downtimes for maintenance occur on the 4th Tuesday of every month. There are occasionally other downtimes.
You are responsible for ensuring that everyone with access to your Carina project is currently fully approved (on the PHS Data Portal) to access the data that is stored within your Carina project. Those not currently approved on the PHS Data Portal should not have access to the Carina Project or to the data.

Additional Carina Resources

For Carina 1.0:

Carina 1.0 Overview: https://carinadocs.stanford.edu/

Technical Specifications of Carina 1.0: https://carinadocs.stanford.edu/carina-resources

Comparison of Nero and Carina 1.0: https://carinadocs.stanford.edu/prem-vs-cloud

Carina 1.0 Demonstration: Video (Passcode: +5YHfY5D --- Just FYI, the method for exporting files from Redivis to Carina is discussed at 29min & 25sec in.)

For Carina 2.0:

FAQ page about the transition from Carina 1.0 to Carina 2.0: https://carinadocs.stanford.edu/carina-20-faq

Carina 2.0 Orientation Registration (occurs over zoom on Wednesday, February 18, 2026 at 2pm): https://srcc.stanford.edu/events/lunch-learn/carina-20-and-open-ondemand

Carina 2.0 Resources: https://docs.carina.stanford.edu/

Request a Carina 2.0 account: https://docs.carina.stanford.edu/request-carina-project or https://carinadocs.stanford.edu/request-carina-account

For both Carina 1.0 and 2.0:

Carina Office Hours: https://docs.carina.stanford.edu/office-hours

Support Email Address: srcc-support@stanford.edu

Carina Slack Channel: #carina-users

Last updated on