Closing a Virtual Research Environment

There are three ways to close a VRE and each has significant differences regarding cost and continual processing:

Shutdown
Sign out
Disconnect

The below table summarises the main differences, but the most significant is that costs continue to accrue when a user disconnects but not when they shutdown or sign out.

We recommend using the big red button to shutdown or signing out whenever you finish a session; both are functionally identical. Disconnecting from a session should only be used if you need to walk away from the session but still want code to run while you are away. A disconnected session will continue to accrue costs even if code has completed running.

VMs can also be stopped from the Azure Portal, but doing so will kick out anyone currently connected and may result in lost work.

Shutdown	Sign out	Disconnect
Stops accruing costs after 10 minutes	Stops accruing costs after 10 minutes	Costs continue to accrue
Terminates session	Terminates session	Keeps session running
Processes stop	Processes stop	Processes can continue
Other users can now log in to this VM	Other users can now log in to this VM	No other users can log in to this VM

How to Shutdown

Click the big red icon on the desktop and choose yes on the dialog:

Image showing the Shutdown VM shortcut on the desktop

Screenshot of Shutdown VM confirmation popup

How to Sign out

Click Start button –> Profile –> Sign out

Screenshot of the Sign Out button on the Windows start menu

How to Disconnect

You can disconnect two ways, but only should if you want code to continue to run in your absence. Costs will continue to accrue and VM will be locked for use by other users until you reconnect then sign out or shutdown.

Expand the Citrix menu at the top of the screen –> Disconnect
X-ing out of the VRE window