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Installing SBGrid

Step 1: Prerequisites

Before installing, ensure that your system meets the requirements. If you are doing a personal installation, please also have your consortium credentials (installation keys) ready. Installation keys are not needed for site installations.

Please note that if you encounter any issues installing SBGrid software, we encourage you to schedule a meeting with one of our specialists:

Schedule 60 Minute Meeting

They will be happy to guide you through the process, including selecting the most appropriate options and environment for your setup.

System Requirements

OS Requirements

  • macOS: 13, 14, 15, 26 (Intel & Apple Silicon)
  • Linux: RHEL/Rocky/Alma 8-9; Ubuntu 18.04-24.04; Debian 10-12
  • Windows: Not natively supported (see WSL2)

Personal Installation - designed for laptops or workstations where you want to "cherry-pick" specific software titles

  • a registered SBGrid Installation Manager account
  • enough disk space for the specific applications you choose to install
  • must be able to create or write to the /programs directory (often handled via a symlink on macOS).

Site Installation - a complete, self-updating "stack" of all SBGrid software, typically shared via NFS to multiple compute nodes or workstations

  • sudo access required once during the "Initial Setup" phase.

  • enough disk space for the specific software titles you plan to install - a full installation exceeds 2TB

  • network ports 873 and 8080 must be open for synchronization

Join the Consortium Installation Keys

Step 2: Choose Your Installation Type

Select the installation method that best fits your research environment.

Personal Installation

Best for: Individual researchers installing specific software on workstations or laptops.

  • Select only the applications you need.
  • Control your own update schedule.
  • Smallest disk footprint.

Site Installation

Best for: Institutions or labs providing SBGrid to many users via shared storage (NFS).

  • Complete software collection (700+ apps).
  • Automated updates managed by an administrator.
  • Centralized management for research groups.

View Site Installation Details

Step 3: Download & Activate

Select your preferred interface below to see the download links and activation steps.

Best for: Desktop users who prefer an intuitive visual catalog.

Download for macOS Download for Linux

Ideally put it in your /Applications folder so you can always find it.

Activation

The first time you launch the IM you will need to activate it. This only needs to be done once.

Simply launch the app and enter your site name, username, and key in the startup wizard.

Best for: Advanced users, server deployments, and automated pipelines.

Download for macOS Download for Linux

Activation

Run the tool in your terminal: 

./sbgrid-cli activate <site> <username> <key>

Step 4: Install Software

Once activated, you can begin adding software to your collection.

  1. Open the Software pane.
  2. Search for a tool and click Install.
  3. Go to the Tasks pane and click Execute.
# Search for a tool
sbgrid-cli search relion

# Install specific packages
sbgrid-cli install relion

Video Overview: Activation and Installation

Step 5: Verification

After installation, initialize your shell and run the 'sbinfo' command to verify everything is working:

source /programs/sbgrid.shrc
sbinfo

Installation      : smith_p_196i
Installation Type : sbgrid-cli@mymac
Installation Base : /opt/sbgrid
Installation Filesystem : apfs
Base path         : /programs
Software Admin    : joeuser (501)
Last update       : 20260331
Snapshot          : 20260331-194419
Grid              : SB  BIOGRIDS
Hostname          : mymac
CPU model         : Apple M4
XQuartz version   : 2.8.6_beta4
Operating system  : osx-26.3-arm64
Software branch   : /programs/i386-mac
Shell             : sh (/bin/bash)
SBGrid Capsules   : Active
IM Database       : Mar  1 11:31:47 2026
IM owner          : joeuser (501)
IM user           : joeuser (active)
IM site           : smith_p_196i (active)
IM cache          : present

If you have installed a software title, verify it works:

source /programs/sbgrid.shrc
relion --version

RELION version: 5.0.1-commit-3fa539
Precision: BASE=double, CUDA-ACC=single

How was your experience?

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Step 6: Using SBGrid

Now that SBGrid is installed and verified, consult Using SBGrid to learn how to manage software versions, set up your shell environment, and start running applications.

Go to Using SBGrid

Platform Options

SBGrid supports various deployment environments beyond local hardware.

  • AWS Cloud - Deploy SBGrid on Amazon Web Services for scalable computing.
  • Windows (WSL) - Run SBGrid on Windows using the Windows Subsystem for Linux.

Support

Need help? Submit requests for help, new titles,or bug reports here: Support Forms