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The computing facilty at the School of Computing consists of over 600 desktop machines and servers, running a variety of operating systems (Linux, Windows XP and Solaris). All machines (outside of core facility servers) are available for use by everyone with an account in the School of Computing, and are collectively referred to as the Facility. All the services described here apply to all machines in the School of Computing.
The staff that supports these machines and services can be reached by several different means. First, there is a ticketing system that is used for reporting computing problems, asking questions about the facility, etc, which is accessed by sending email to support at cs.utah.edu. If you are having a problem with email, you can call 581-8224 or go to the SoC front desk in MEB 3190. Additional information can be found at the SoC Facility website, http://support.cs.utah.edu/. Core services Places to work Although most of the desktop machines in the department exist within individual offices and research areas, there are several labs that have machines available for general use:
EMCB 130
This is primarily an instructional lab that is dedicated to undergraduate use. This lab is currently run by the CADE and as such you need to access it with your CADE account. This lab is staffed during 8am until 8pm, Monday through Thursday, and 8am until 5pm on Fridays. Hours might be shorter during summer semester.
There are also several server-class machines that are available for general use. These can be accessed remotely via shell.cs.utah.edu, which will take you to one of the machines in our interactive pool. Under Unix/Linux this can be done using ssh, and in Windows via the SecureCRT or putty programs (see our SSH FAQ for more details.)
Accounts When you receive an account in the SoC, it is valid on all facility-supported machines, regardless of operating system. Home directories (/home/) are the primary storage location for personal files, and can be accessed via any SoC Facility machine. This space is also backed up regularly, and has several other helpful features. Each account is given a disk quota that is based on their status with in the School of Computing (undergraduate, graduate, staff, faculty, etc). These quotas apply to any files that exist in your home directory,
Account information is maintained on Unix machines via NIS and through a domain controller for Windows-based machines. To change your unix password, just log onto shell.cs.utah.edu and run yppasswd. Passwords for the windows-based machines are changed via the standard password mechanism (log into a windows machine on the cs.utah.edu domain and type Cntl-Alt-Del). All password files are periodically run through software that attempts to guess your password. If your password is cracked in this manner, your account will be disabled until it can be changed. To prevent this, please try to choose passwords that are 8 characters long and consist of a mix of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and non alpha-numeric characters. E-Mail All email addresses in the School of Computing come in the form of username@cs.utah.edu. Mail can be read by a command line program on shell.cs.utah.edu such as pine, or accessed via any IMAP client. Please see the Email FAQ for more details.
WWW and FTP access interactive access is not allowed on any facility server, and our internal filesystems are not exported beyond our firewall. In order to share information and access your accounts, you may set up WWW files in the directory public_html from within your home dir. The URL that points to this space is http://www.cs.utah.edu/~username. Files that you wish to have available via anonymous ftp can be placed in public_ftp also in your home dir, and are available via the machine ftp.cs.utah.edu (which allows anonymous connections from outside the SoC), and appear in the /users/username directory.
Classes The CADE currently provides instructional computing for the SoC.
Research Disk Space The SoC facility also provides shared disk space to all research groups. This is accessed via the /uusoc/res filesystem. Please coordinate with whatever particular research group you are working with for details.
Backups
The recovery of lost or damaged files should be handled via snapshots (see the NetApp FAQ on the support web page for details). However, all Filer-provided disk space is backed up to a remote machine nightly for disaster recoverly only. Scratch space and/or local disk space on desktop machines are *not* backed up, and should not be considered a reliable place for storage.
Software Each unix-based operating system is provided a local software tree in /uusoc/opt. These trees are rebuilt periodically, as are windows-based machines which have their software installed locally. In addition, we do provide directories in /uusoc/opt/contrib for people to personally install software that is not supported by the SoC facility and is to be used between multiple users.
We encourage people to use ssh and SecureCRT for communications both external and internal to the School of Computing. ssh is freeware, and is installed on all facility Unix machines. SecureCRT is a licensed product, and is also installed on all facility Windows machines. If you would like to install SecureCRT on a Windows machine you have at home, please contact support at cs.utah.edu and we can give you a SoC-purchased license for you.
Hardware support The SoC computing also performs hardware support on all machines in the department. It is important, for asset tracking reasons, that all machine moves and modifications be performed by the Computer Support Group. Please do not move, take apart or otherwise modify any computer equipment yourself! We are here to take care of you and to help you do your work, so please help us do ours. ;)
Access to Rooms Electronic door locks control access to shared rooms in the department. They are keyed off of your university identification card. To receive access to various rooms, please see our door lock FAQ.
Other Things To Note CADE The CADE is a College of Engineering lab, and is not supported by the facility, however as a member of the college, you are entitled to a CADE account. Support for the CADE may be obtained by emailing
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. For more information please see http://www.cade.utah.edu.
Sources of Information Most of the information covered here is accessible via the SoC facility web site, http:/support.cs.utah.edu/. Also listed there is any information on upcoming computer downtime, changes or upgrades in service, and general facility-related announcements. Finally, there is a mailing list, support-announce at cs.utah.edu to which facility news and information is sent.
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