ITC Research Computing Support Newsletter - December 2006
This is the December 2006 newsletter for ITC Research Computing Support. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the information presented here, please contact ITC Research Computing Support by emailing Res-Consult@virginia.edu, or phoning either the Research Computing Lab in Brown Library at 243-8799 or the Scholars' Lab in Alderman Library at 243-8800.
Contents
- Software and Hardware
- Reconfiguration of oak.itc.virginia.edu Cluster
- Secure Access Only to Linux Clusters
- Mathematica 5.2.2 Available for Intel-Based Macs
- N'Vivo 7 Now Available!
- Wolfram Workbench: A Mathematica Integrated Development Environment
- Events and Announcements
- Winter Holiday Schedule for Research Computing Support
- Spring Colloquia Series Planning Underway
- Immediate Opening for Research Computing Student Consultants
- Mathematica Free Online Seminars
- Linux Cluster, blue.unix, Home Directory Services Upgrade on Dec. 27 - Short Downtimes Expected
- IronPort Spam Tagging for the Central Mail Service
- ITC Announcement/New MyGroups Service
- ITC Announcement/Greylisting Service to be Retired
- ITC Announcement/ITC Improving File Transfer Security on Servers
- Stay Informed About SAS Users Group Activities!
- SESUG Website Updated with Presentation Lineup and FAQ
Go to the index of previous Research Computing Support Newsletters
Happy Holidays from the ITC Research Computing Support GroupSoftware and Hardware..........
Reconfiguration of oak.itc.virginia.edu Cluster
The oak.itc.virginia.edu cluster of Sun servers has been reconfigured to support interactive login to all eight servers. Effective 6 p.m. Thursday, December 7, connections to oak.itc.virginia.edu may be assigned to any of the eight servers. Like on blue.unix.virginia.edu, users who wish to login on the same server later should make note of the server to which their login session was assigned, so they can later reconnect to that server by name. The eight servers are named: oak1.itc.virginia.edu, oak2.itc.virginia.edu, oak3.itc.virginia.edu, oak4.itc.virginia.edu, oak5.itc.virginia.edu, oak6.itc.virginia.edu, oak7.itc.virginia.edu, and oak8.itc.virginia.edu.
This means that users who have in the past submitted jobs to the PBS job scheduler will no longer submit batch jobs, but instead may just login and run those jobs from a UNIX command shell.
In addition to changing this cluster from a batch to an interactive cluster, access to the oak servers will be restricted to on-Grounds addresses only. That is, to login from an off-Grounds address, users will have to use the UVa-Anywhere VPN client, or else login on blue.unix.virginia.edu first, then login on oak.
If you have questions about this change, please contact ITC Research Computing Support by emailing Res-Consult@Virginia.edu or by telephoning or visiting either the Research Computing Lab in the Brown Science and Engineering Library (243-8799) or the Scholars' Lab in Alderman Library (243-8800)
Secure Access Only to Linux Clusters
In the interest of security, ITC has disabled off-Grounds direct ssh access to the new Dogwood Linux cluster as well as the older Birch and Cedar Linux clusters. In order to access these systems from off Grounds, you must use either the UVa Anywhere VPN client (http://www.itc.virginia.edu/desktop/pki/vpn/) or your normal ssh client, such as SecureCRT, to log in to blue.unix.virginia.edu initially.
If you log in to blue.unix and you have had an ITC profile for a while, you may be confronted with the text menu system known as "umenu" and it is archaic. One of the options is to turn it off, and we suggest you do so. Once umenu is turned off, when you log in to blue.unix you will be at a normal shell prompt.
If you need to log on to Dogwood (or Birch or Cedar) before disabling umenu, choose "9" for "go to Unix" and this will drop you to a shell prompt.
For instance, from the shell prompt, type
ssh dogwood.itc.virginia.edu
or
slogin dogwood.itc.virginia.edu
(these two commands have the identical result) and you will be on Dogwood. If you have X11 forwarding enabled in your desktop ssh client, blue.unix will pass this through.Direct access will continue to be available from on-Grounds locations as usual. Only off-Grounds access is affected by this policy.
Please contact ITC Research Computing Support if you have questions by emailing Res-Consult@Virginia.edu or by telephoning or visiting either the Research Computing Lab in the Brown Science and Engineering Library (243-8799) or the Scholars' Lab in Alderman Library (243-8800).
Mathematica 5.2.2 Available for Macintosh, including Intel-based
ITC is now distributing CDs from either the Research Computing Lab in the Brown Science and Engineering Library, or the Scholars' Lab in Alderman Library, 4th floor of Mathematica 5.2.2 for installation on University-owned Macintosh computers, including for the new Intel-based Macintosh. Mathematica 5.2 continues to be available and the most current version for Microsoft Windows, IBM AIX (64-bit), SGI IRIX (64-bit), Sun Solaris (64-bit), and Linux platforms.
In addition, Mathematica 5.2 is currently available on ITC's IBM AIX (64-bit), SGI IRIX (64-bit), Sun Solaris (64-bit), and Linux platforms, as well as in the Windows public computing labs. Mathematica 5.2.2 will be available in ITC's Intel-based Macintosh public computers in the Spring 2007 semester.
Detailed information about Mathematica 5.2 can be found at the Wolfram Research website at
http://www.wolfram.com/Further information on how to access and use Mathematica can be found on the Research Computing Services website at
http://www.itc.virginia.edu/research/mathematicaQuestions concerning the use of Mathematica should be directed to ITC Research Computing Support by emailing Res-Consult@Virginia.edu or by telephoning or visiting either the Research Computing Lab in the Brown Science and Engineering Library (243-8799) or the Scholars' Lab in Alderman Library (243-8800).
N'Vivo 7 Now Available!
N'Vivo 7 is a popular and powerful qualitative research tool produced by QSR, International. ITC has recently obtained the site license from the Curry School of Education, and the program is available via download from the ITC licensing Web page at
http://www.web.virginia.eduEach license costs $125, and may be paid for using a PTAO or a check made out to The University of Virginia.
Specific questions about N'Vivo should be directed to ITC Research Computing Support; email us at Res-Consult@Virginia.edu or telephone or visit either the Research Computing Lab in the Brown Science and Engineering Library (243-8799) or the Scholars' Lab in Alderman Library (243-8800).Wolfram Workbench: A Mathematica Integrated Development Environment
Wolfram Research has released Wolfram Workbench, an integrated development environment that makes it easier to build and maintain software solutions written with Mathematica technologies.
Wolfram Workbench is currently available as a prerelease exclusively to Premier Service customers, which includes Mathematica users at the University of Virginia. You can download a free copy now for any U.Va.-owned computing on-grounds on which you've installed Mathematica through the site license.
Key features in Workbench enable users to:
- Group files, code, and other Mathematica resources into a single project
- Perform source-code editing with syntax highlighting, error reporting, local variable coloring, and many more options
- Study code as it runs to easily detect and fix any problems
- Profile code's execution and develop and run tests, with an array of insightful reporting methods
- Manage multiple versions of files and access their version histories
- Build and deploy Mathematica packages
For more information about Workbench, visit our website at
http://www.wolfram.com/workbenchTo download Wolfram Workbench, go to:
http://www.wolfram.com/services/premiersupport/workbench.cgi?License=26266593Further information on how to access and use Mathematica can be found on the Research Computing Services Web page at
http://www.itc.virginia.edu/research/mathematica/Questions concerning the use of Mathematica should be directed to ITC Research Computing Support; email us at Res-Consult@virginia.edu or telephone or visit either the Research Computing Lab in the Brown Science and Engineering Library (243-8799) or the Scholars' Lab in Alderman Library (243-8800).
Events and Announcements..........
Winter Holiday Schedule for Research Computing Support
For the exam and intersession winter recess (December 6-January 1), the Scholars' Lab in Alderman Library and the Research Computing Lab in Brown Library will generally be open when those libraries are open. Please check the exam schedule for the libraries at
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/hours/fall_exam_period_2006.html
and the winter break schedule at
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/hours/winter_intersession_2006-2007.htmlPlease note the libraries, and therefore the labs, are closed December 17, December 23-26, and December 30-January 1.
Regular hours for both locations will resume on Tuesday, January 2, 2007.
There will be limited email support when the Scholars' and Research Computing Labs are closed over the winter break; email the Research Computing Support Center at Res-Consult@Virginia.EDU if you encounter problems like computer downtimes or licensing problems.
Spring Colloquia Planning Underway
The Research Computing and Scholars' Labs will be hosting a series of colloquia this upcoming Spring semester. Planning is underway for these talks which will usually be held from 3:30p.m. to 4:45p.m. on every other Wednesday alternating between the Research Computing Lab in the Brown Science and Engineering Library and the Scholars' Lab in Alderman Library. Snacks and drinks are provided. If you have a topic you'd like covered, a project on which you'd like to present or have any questions about these talks, please contact us by emailing Res-Consult@virginia.edu or telephoning or visiting either the Research Computing Lab in the Brown Science and Engineering Library (243-8799) or the Scholars' Lab in Alderman Library (243-8800).
HDS, Linux Cluster, blue.unix Service Upgrade on December 27 - Short Downtimes Expected
On Wednesday, December 27, 2006, from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., ITC will install hardware and software upgrades on home1.virginia.edu and home2.virginia.edu. During this time we will restart both of these servers about three times, resulting in a service interruption of one to two minutes with each restart.
The most important services affected include:
This is not a complete list. These services may stop responding during restarts of home1 and home2, but should return to service when home1 and home2 come back up.
- Home Directory Service (HDS)
- Leased Disk Storage in /h2 (UNIX) and \home2 (Windows)
- ITC-administered UNIX systems, including
- blue.unix
- Linux Compute Clusters (birch, cedar, dogwood)
- Email on unix.mail.virginia.edu
- Websites on the ITC Web Cluster
- www.virginia.edu
- www.people.virginia.edu
- www.faculty.virginia.edu
- curry.edschool.virginia.edu (and others)
Please call the ITC Help Desk at 924-3731 if you have additional questions or concerns.
Immediate Opening for Research Computing Student Consultants
Information Technology and Communication's (ITC) Research Computing Support (RCS) is now accepting applications for student research computing consultant. The positions can start as soon as suitable candidates are found. It is expected that the students hired work at least through this academic year (2006-2007). ITC-RCS provides support for a wide variety of statistical, mathematical, scientific, and visualization software programs across a wide spectrum of computer platforms. Please see our website at
http://www.itc.virginia.edu/researchers/service.htmlfor a listing of the software package and breadth of support and services offered by ITC research computing support.
To qualify for the position you must have a good working knowledge of at least one of the primary statistical, scientific, or mathematical packages we support and familiarity with at least one other software package.
The primary software packages are: SPSS, Matlab, SAS, Mathematica, Maple, S-Plus, and Stata. The most competitive candidates should have some working knowledge with more than one software package. In addition, you should be experienced using at least one of the computer systems below:
- Microsoft Windows
- Apple Macintosh
- UNIX (blue.unix, Linux, or other flavors)
An applicant must be a student who possesses the maturity and social skills needed to work closely with a variety of computer users, ranging from undergraduates to senior faculty and from novice to experienced users and the computer skills to work on a variety of computers and software programs.
The research computing consultant is responsible for helping users successfully run their research software programs and understand the output generated.
The position offers a research or quantitatively oriented graduate student exposure to a wide variety of scientific computing and statistical analysis projects and a broad assortment of research projects from many departments in the University and extensive experience using computers for data analysis and computational science.
Students interested in applying for a position should complete the application online at:
http://web.virginia.edu/labcon/applications/labconapp.asp
Please make sure you check the box "Research/Statistical Computing Support" to indicate you are applying for this consultant position.
If you have questions or concerns about this position, please feel free to contact the Scholars Lab Coordinator, Nancy Kechner, by sending electronic mail to nek8n@Virginia.EDU or by telephone at 243-8800.
Applications will be accepted until the positions are filled. Apply as soon as possible. (AA/EOE)
Mathematica Free Online Seminars
The Wolfram Education Group has begun offering free online seminars to Mathematica customers worldwide. Taught by experienced Wolfram Research staff, presentations are given twice weekly. The seminar series began with S10: A Technical Overview of Mathematica located at
http://www.wolfram.com/weg/seminarsFor a list of dates and to enroll, visit:
http://www.wolfram.com/weg/calendarFurther information on how to access and use Mathematica can be found on the Research Computing Services Web page at
http://www.itc.virginia.edu/research/mathematica/Please contact ITC Research Computing Support if you have questions by emailing Res-Consult@Virginia.edu or by telephoning or visiting either the Research Computing Lab in the Brown Science and Engineering Library (243-8799) or the Scholars' Lab in Alderman Library (243-8800).
Stay Informed About SAS Users Group Activities!
SAS Institute has many exciting SAS users group events planned for 2006 and beyond - and they want to keep you up-to-date on the activities that will interest you most. To help them do that, please visit and log in with your existing SAS profile or create a new one at
http://sems.sas.com/bess/get?id=559.1:-n81zun:ey2&RZNVY=gswg@ivetvavn.rqh&nccvq=5344Stay informed and enjoy the unique opportunities for networking, learning and professional development that only SAS users group events can offer. Mark your calendar for the SAS Global Forum (formerly SUGI) that will be held April 16-19, 2007, in Orlando. They look forward to seeing you at one of these upcoming events! (Posted by:Michael H. Smith, SAS Users Group Support, Manager, SAS Institute).
SESUG Website Updated with Presentation Lineup and FAQ
The SESUG website has been recently updated with some new details about the conference.
- Click on Presentations to display a list of the more than 120 presentations planned for this year's conference. A PDF is available for download that includes all of the abstracts as well.
http://sems.sas.com/bess/get?id=1175.1:-unwpbd:eym&RZNVY=ggbyfba@ivetvavn.rqh&nccvq=4603- Click on Frequently Asked Questions to get answers to the most common questions the SESUG chairs and registrars are asked by attendees.
http://sems.sas.com/bess/get?id=1176.1:-unwpbd:eym&RZNVY=ggbyfba@ivetvavn.rqh&nccvq=4603But if your question is not answered here, feel free to contact the conference chairs, Marje Fecht at AcademicChair2006 at sesug.org or Deborah Skinner at OperationChair2006 at sesug.org.
IronPort Spam Tagging for the Central Mail Service
On November 14, 2006, ITC turned on a new spam management system for all accounts on U.Va.'s Central Mail Service (CMS). Due to the ever-increasing volume of spam email and the limited effectiveness of our existing solutions, ITC has bought a commercial anti-spam solution from IronPort Systems. Extensive testing has shown that IronPort is much better at reducing spam than our existing tools, and it generates almost no false positives (legitimate messages that are mis-identified as spam). For that reason, IronPort protection is not only being extended to all email accounts on the CMS, but will also be made available to the administrators of other U.Va. mail systems in the coming months.
For more information, please see the Web page at
http://www.itc.virginia.edu/pubs/ads/ironport/ITC Announcement/New MyGroups Service
Ever wish you could create an online group of people just once and then use it across a variety of online applications and services here at U.Va.? ITC's convenient new group management service, MyGroups, makes this possible.
Use the MyGroups Management Interface (https://mygroups.virginia.edu) to create groups and then use them to...
In the near future, you'll also be able to use MyGroups in OracleCalendar and other University-wide Web applications.
- email group members
- manage access and permissions to your files on ITC-managed servers (including Home Directory)
- control access to Web services and sites such as a research lab's internal website or a department's resource reservation system
Want to know more about MyGroups? See the "About MyGroups" website at http://www.itc.virginia.edu/mygroups/.
ITC Announcement/Greylisting Service to be Retired
As part of Phase II in our efforts to eliminate spam email at U.Va., ITC will retire the greylisting service on Saturday, January 13, 2007. On that date, other system configuration changes associated with Phase II will be performed, making greylisting no longer necessary. Once the changes are made, you will not only receive less spam; you will also no longer get daily messages from the greylisting service, and your legitimate messages will no longer be delayed by the service. ITC's new appliances enjoy a much higher spam-eliminating success rate without the costs associated with greylisting.
If you have any questions regarding the retirement of greylisting, please contact the ITC Help Desk at 924-3731.
ITC Announcement/ITC Improving File Transfer Security on Servers
If you currently use unsecure FTP (file transfer protocol) software - like WS-FTP, an older version of Fetch, the Dreamweaver 3 Web editor, or a Web cam - to upload and download files to blue.unix or www.web.virginia.edu, you will need to switch to a secure FTP product before February 13, 2007. On this date, ITC will begin phasing out file transfer programs that are not secure in their access to our servers. If you need to make the switch to a secure FTP product, ITC will have notified you by email no later than December 8, 2006.
More information is available on the website at
http://www.itc.virginia.edu/pubs/ads/unsecureftp/
Now is the time to encourage your colleagues and students to join us and learn about research computing support at U.Va. We only send out an e-mail once or twice a month to this mail list. Anyone can subscribe to this "itc-research" mail list via the Web page at:
http://list.mail.virginia.edu/mailman/listinfo/itc-researchPlease encourage your colleagues to subscribe to our Research Computing mail list today!
Happy Holidays from the ITC Research Computing Support Group!
