Welcome to the new Baadal

Baadal has served IIT Delhi's virtual machines for more than a decade. Over that time, how we sign in, connect and work has changed, and the interface had not kept up. The new Baadal is a rewrite of that interface on a modern foundation. Your VMs, their disks and their IP addresses are unchanged; what changes is how you request and look after them.

What is new

Sign in with your IIT Delhi account

There is no separate Baadal password and no registration form. Sign in with the same account you use for other institute services. Faculty are recognised automatically, so they can approve their students' requests from the first sign-in.

A clearer request and approval process

The request form lists the available templates, CPU and memory sizes, and checks the faculty member and collaborators you name against the institute directory before you submit, so a typo no longer leaves a request waiting for nobody. Your dashboard shows each request and where it is: with your faculty member, with the administrators, or being created. You receive an email at each step.

A console in your browser

If SSH or Remote Desktop stops working, for example after a firewall or network change inside the VM, open the web console from the VM's page. It shows the VM's screen in a browser tab for 30 minutes, with nothing to install.

Snapshots on a schedule

Besides snapshots you take yourself, you can now ask Baadal to keep a daily, weekly or monthly snapshot of a VM, set with three checkboxes on the VM's page. Read Snapshots: a safety net before you change things for how to use them well.

See how your VM is doing

The VM's page shows recent CPU, memory, disk and network usage, which helps you decide whether a VM needs more resources, or fewer.

Easier to find your way

Press Ctrl + K (⌘ + K on a Mac) anywhere to jump to a page or action by typing its name. The interface also follows your system's light or dark setting, and the switch in the top bar changes it. Pages work on phones too, for approving a request on the move.

What stays the same

• Your existing VMs, their data and IP addresses.
• The approval process: students' requests are verified by a faculty member and approved by the administrators.
• Access from the campus network, or through the institute VPN from outside.
• Support at baadalsupport@cc.iitd.ac.in.

New guides

We have also rewritten the help pages. The FAQ covers the common questions, and step-by-step guides explain setting up internet access through the proxy and using an extra disk on Linux or Windows.

If something does not work as you expect, or you have a suggestion, please write to us. Feedback in the first weeks is especially valuable.