University Information Services Managed Cluster Service (MCS) and Desktop Services Computer Laboratory Thursday 9 th October 2014

Introduction Brian Simpson Desktop Services Manager Portfolio of DS brands Liaise with differing depts and Colleges Dr. David McBride Unix Specialist in Information Services Responsible for MCS Linux Ask Questions at any time

History University Information Services Previously University Computing Service – founded in 1937 Part of the CL until 2001 Separated teaching and research from computing services Now merging/merged with MISD (administrative computing) Centre of IT support and computing services Based at both the Roger Needham Building and also the New Museums site ( satellite service desk and training rooms)

Managed Cluster Service Available for all staff and students of Cambridge University Networked PCs (Windows/Linux) and Macs Applications (only in MCS rooms), printers, scanners DS-Filestore – mapped drive and accessed by unmanaged machines DS-Files – access outside the CUDN DS-Print – managed and unmanaged printing (print from own device) UCS Training runs on the MCS – NMS, RNB, depts

Operating System and Applications Windows 7 Over 150 applications – browsers, office packages, statistical packages, departmental software MCS Linux, based on Ubuntu (64-bit) Mac OSX 10.9 Differing software dependent on OS, but versions try to stay the same across differing systems.

Where is the MCS? 19 departments – across the University including the CL 26 Colleges UCS public rooms – Titan teaching rooms, Phoenix Teaching rooms Continuing to expand Centralised cohesive approach Available 24/ % uptime

Access to the MCS All CL students are given Desktop Services accounts automatically Access credentials and password early this year! Common UIS password (Hermes and Raven)

DS-Filestore We host network-accessible storage space for all MCS users: U: on MCS Windows machines /home/crsid on MCS Linux and Apple Macs 3GB standard – CL students may get more space Shared space – CL run applications and use pigeon holes

DS-Filestore – access from outside You can also access this space from non-MCS machines: CIFS: //filestore.ds.cam.ac.uk/ (inside cam.ac.uk only), SFTP: sftp.ds.cam.ac.uk DS-Files: DS-Web: Publicly-accessible personal webpages. Just put what you want to go online into your public_html/ folder. Immediately accessible here: We back this data up regularly. … but you should keep your own backups of stuff you really care about.

DS-Print Printing facilities from any computer connected to the CUDN DS-Print Printers are available in all MCS rooms Print from your own machine via a print client – Linux in development Common balance - CL Self serve print credit – e-credit Printers overtaken by MFDs (print/copy/scan)

MCS Linux — Specifics! All of the PCs in the Intel lab dual-boot Linux. /home is served across the network via CIFS from the DS-Filestore Some peculiarities! (It's a Windows server behind the scenes) Permission bits don't work quite as you'd expect. You may be used to running, “ sudo apt-get install …” This won't work. (You don't have administrative access.) … however, if you'd like something added, just ask. You can also install tools and applications in your own home-directory. Hopefully you won't need to, as we've already spent lots of effort trying to ensure that everything you're likely to want is already included.

MCS Linux — Remote login servers We also supply a number of remote-login servers accessible via SSH. These have virtually identical configurations to MCS Linux desktops. Dedicated physical hardware Two general-access login servers, SNAP and PUFF Use: ssh We also provide CL users their own dedicated remote-login machine, RYATH. Use: ssh If your network connection is fast enough, you can run graphical applications on our servers. … provided you have an X server running on your local machine.

Future Developments Remote Access to a desktop - applications Extra storage space – “dropbox” style sync Printing enhancements – Linux New UIS Desktop services

Contacts Support and help UIS webpages – UIS Service Desk - Management or development queries DSG Manager –

Questions