22-Apr-2024

AlmaLinux 9

On 30-Jun-2024, Scientific Linux 7 (SL7) will reach its end-of-life and will no longer receive updates after that date. CLASSE-IT recommends and is supporting AlmaLinux 9, a rebuild of RedHat Enterprise Linux 9 (EL9), as a successor to Scientific Linux 7. In the coming months, we will contact users of SL7 desktops and workstations to schedule an upgrade to AlmaLinux 9. If you wish to expedite your Linux upgrade, please submit a ServiceRequest. This upgrade is not yet avilable for specialized Linux systems, such as control system or station computers. Please also consider switching from lnx201.classe.cornell.edu (SL7) to lnx209.classe.cornell.edu (AlmaLinux 9) as a general-purpose landing pad.

New VPN Deployment

Starting Tuesday, 02-Apr-2024, we began introducing a new always-on VPN service called ZeroTier, which will replace Pritunl on CLASSE-managed laptops. (Pritunl will remain installed as a fallback option.) Unlike with Pritunl, there is no need to manually connect and disconnect from ZeroTier — it is connected all the time, so Samba and CLASSE printers can be accessed without any additional steps. For personal laptops, CLASSE VPN connections will still require Pritunl, which will continue to be available.

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General network and server maintenance will occur every Tuesday from 12:00 noon to 2:00 PM. The CLASSE-IT group will always announce any expected disruptions in our NewsLetter and via CLASSE-IT-NEWS-L, but with the size and complexity of our network there is always the potential for something to go wrong. We will do our best to contain all network maintenance and planned outages to Tuesdays from 12:00 noon to 2:00 PM.

Unless other arrangements have been made, CLASSE-managed Windows systems may be updated and rebooted on Tuesday morning at 2:00 AM, so please avoid critical or lengthy operations at that time. For more details, please see SystemExpectations.

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Questions or problems? Submit a service request.

Other resources:

• CLASSE-IT Home Page
• Previous newsletters

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