July 1, 2013

Today's topics:

CLASSE Windows Systems will update the Firefox Package at 10PM 7/1/2013.

This evening there will be updates applied to Firefox to ESR17.0.7, Java to 7u25 (needed for full Kronos), Flash to 11.7 and to the latest Shockwave.

Simulation and Development Packages

Unless there is a specific need to interface directly with Windows hardware or software, simulation and development software should be run on Linux wherever possible. This includes software such as matlab, mathematica, python, etc. The maintenance overhead and support cost of installing and running this software on Linux is significantly lower. Running this software on Windows requires maintenance of a separate installation of the software, configuration of LogMeIn to give individuals remote access, and a system dedicated to just running that software. Running on Linux has none of these issues, and any user can use ssh, PuTTY or XMing to access an appropriate Linux system to run the software of choice.

Usage of Opera (for electromagnetic finite element analysis)

The CLASSE IT group maintains a single-user license for Opera FEA as a shared resource for the entire lab. We recommend running Opera under Linux. If you have a Windows system, please ssh into a Linux system (via Xming, for instance) and run Opera remotely. Installing Opera on Windows incurs a significant support cost, and users have reported performance improvements when running on Linux instead of Windows.

Tips for users

For quick reference, we have compiled a summary of CLASSE IT support services and useful information on best practices. Please see https://wiki.classe.cornell.edu/Computing/UserTips

Accelerator File Systems Upgrade (lnx113 deprecation) - 4pm Monday, July 8

Starting at 4pm Monday, July 8, the following accelerator file systems will be unavailable or read-only for several hours.

• /nfs/acc/user
• /nfs/acc/temp
• /nfs/acc/cesrtacam
• /nfs/acc/vacuum
• /nfs/cesrta

This downtime is required to move the file systems from lnx113 to the CLASSE cluster. To minimize the impact of this maintenance, please follow our recommendations on NetworkedFilesystems (https://wiki.classe.cornell.edu/Computing/NetworkedFilesystems).

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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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