For anyone not wanting to spend money to go through the course while Salamander is down, I’ve been using Colab and, although its a bit slower, it does the job for the moment. Hopefully Salamander is up soon though, seems to be eating up my credit at the moment.
I’m able to start a g3s instance no problems - which is our recommended configuration since it’s a great balance of speed and price.
For those folks having trouble starting a server, be sure to try different instance types.
Thanks for the response!
When creating the salamander server (right after crestle became unavailable for individual participants) , I followed the course.fast.ai instructions and picked the “Accelerated Computing” configuration, with the recommended 75GB disk size. It worked great for a couple of weeks, but for the last 7 days, I cannot get access.
I created some notebooks on the server, but I didn’t create a back-up on my laptop. Do you know of any way to download my notebooks (without having access to my server)…? That way I can continue my work at another server…
EDIT:
Just in case someone is interested or is having similar issues with having no access to their custom notebooks…
In the salamander dashboard, I selected ‘Modify’, and then switched from ‘Accelerated Computing’ to ‘Accelerated Computing v2’. This time, the server started 
and I still have access to all my data and custom notebooks as well
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I tried to use Salamander, but servers could not start up. I have been charged credits for two days of storage, although I have not been able to use the service, and I have been charged for 20 $.
I would kindly ask for a refund before I delete my account, as I have not been able to use your service.
Regards.
(I could not find any email to ask for this directly instead of this forum)
Thanks @jeremy, but as servers were not starting, I already set up everything with GCP, and already did the first lesson. I would like to delete my account from salamander if you don’t mind (it would be nice from you if I could have the 20$ back, as I couldn’t use your service).
Regards!
since days I see this on my account:
I cannot start a new server nor I cannot delete that server request.
In the meantime I have been charged for storage that I cannot use because I cannot open any server.
Since I cannot use the service I would like also to delete the account and it would be nice also to get the refund, the same as heedrox
Thanks
Update:
now I was able to destroy it, after days that it was pending
Jeremy, I switched to g3s as you suggested. The first time I launched the server, it worked. But I got the same “no available servers” error on my second effort to launch g3s instance.
“Accelerated Computing v2” instance recommended by JeroenH is several times more expensive.
Can we expect for some permanent resolution? You mentioned earlier that the problem with servers availability is on Amazon’s side. But having bought the GPU capacity from Salamander, I’d expect some consistent level of customer support delivered by Salamander… If there’s a problem on the side of your provider, then some timely communication on what the users should do would help us a lot.
Pls don’t take this as an offense - educational stuff that fast.ai is doing for free is truly outstanding, and I thank you very much for that!
Upd. After several efforts, I successfully launched g3s instance.
You can delete it directly from the dashboard. You can PM me your salamander email if you want a refund, have closed your account, and haven’t used the service.
I’ve been trying to access a server for the past two weeks, trying different instance types and checking back here to see other solutions but still no luck. After every time i try to access a server i always destroy my instance so i don’t get the storage fees yet it seems im still getting charged. I’ve burned through my first $20 credit without actually progressing through the course, is this something i can get a credit for and is there any other things i can try to find an available server?
Are you not able to use a g3s server, @mardybutt? I’ve been checking them each day and they’ve been available each time I’ve tried. To clarify, it’s at the bottom here (click the “server types” button to see it if it’s not currently shown):
You shouldn’t be getting charged if you destroyed your instance - send me a PM with your login name so I can check, if you think that’s happening.
Sadly the 1x M60/g3 has less RAM than the k80 and cost more per-hour.
Have you requested more k80’s from AWS support? And, if so, what is the status on getting more instances added to the Salamander platform account.
the shortage isn’t on Salamander’s side. AWS themselves have run out of k80 spot instances in North Virginia
ah, you are using spot instances, I understand the issue now, thanks for clarifying.
Any plans for Salamander to support additional regions or cloud platforms?
i don’t think so
I think I’m running into the same problem,
I’ve tried a couple of things, including deleting my old instance and creating a new one, but I think we’re pretty much stuck
Hi @ashtonsix @jeremy. I apologise, I am reposting this message since I might have posted it in a thread which hasn’t been active for 8 months now. I am taking my very first steps to get started on the ai course. I have been trying to launch the recommended server for sometime now to no avail. I might give paperspace a try next. Unfortunately, I had loaded a $100 credit on my salamander account. Since I was never able to start the server and thus did not use any compute or storage service, could my credit be refunded? Please let me know. I have uploaded a screenshot of dashboard which shows the details.
Yes but it’s a far faster GPU, which is generally what matters.
@jeremy First of all, thanks for the course. 
I am using Jupyter on Salamander (workstation graphics with g3s). Execution of even simple code takes long time
eg. data.show_batch(rows=3, figsize=(7,6)) takes around 5-10s.
Is there something I am doing fundamentally wrong in the server setup?