July 18, 2011

Today's topics:

Scientific Linux 5

SL 5.6

All LEPP SL5 systems are being upgraded to SL5.6. Other than a new graphical theme called "Atom Shine," the upgrade should be transparent for most users. For the SL5.6 release notes and additional information on this upgrade, please see http://www.scientificlinux.org/distributions/5x/56/ .

64-bit SL5 Farm Nodes

As possible, we are continuing to upgrade farm nodes to 64-bit Scientific Linux 5. Jobs submitted using the lx24-amd64 (-l arch=lx64-amd64) architecture will run on 64-bit SL5 nodes, while jobs submitted using the lx24-x86 architecture (-l arch=lx64-x86) will be run on 32-bit SL4 nodes. Please note that for historical reasons all 64-bit queues appear as "lx24-amd64", regardless of whether they use Intel or AMD CPU's. In general, all LEPP batch nodes use Intel processors. Please see our GridEngine page for more information on using our GridEngine resource: https://wiki.lepp.cornell.edu/lepp/bin/view/Computing/GridEngine

Software Builds

During our transition from 32-bit SL4 to 64-bit SL5, users must be sure to build on the correct system for their project. In general all accelerator builds should be done on lnx209, while all CLEO builds should be done on lnx134.

Phishing attempts

On Tuesday, July 12, many people received a message falsely claiming from the Bank of America which asked for personal banking information. If you made the mistake of responding to it, contact your bank immediately. Such attempts to obtain your personal financial information are called "Phishes", since they are "fishing" for information. No bank will ever ask for your information in that way.

Red Rover outage: Saturday, July 30, 4 A.M. to 8 A.M.

CIT will be upgrading hardware, software and firmware used to support the campus Red Rover wireless network starting at 4 AM on Saturday, July 30. They hope to have the wireless network up again by 8 A.M. Previously the upgrade had been scheduled for Sunday, July 17.

Submitting Service Requests

When you submit a service request, it is very important to let us know which computer you are having the problem on. Please use the assigned name, such as PC100 or LNX201. "My computer" or other names do not necessarily mean anything to us. Each computer is labeled with its name.

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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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