LEPP's Infrequent Computing Newsletter for September, 2010.

Welcome to the third issue of LEPP's VERY Infrequent Computing Newsletter.

We'll be using it to try to keep you up to date with the changes in LEPP's computing services and to remind you about existing services and policies that you may have forgotten about or didn't know existed. This fall there are several major computing events which will be affecting almost everyone at LEPP and CHESS.

Note: this issue is in the process of being written. It'll be a while before it's finished.

New this fall

Windows

The CLASSE Windows computing environment, which includes both LEPP and CHESS computing, will be undergoing a major overhaul starting this fall.

1. New Windows login environment

Unfortunately, the ancient LEPP LNSNTCAD NT domain has not been supported by Microsoft for quite a few years, and it can't be used to login to their new operating systems. The new environment is called Active Directory, and includes a lot more than just login support. We'll be trying to use this new CLASSE AD domain for computers in both CHESS and LEPP. Older computers running Windows XP will be moved to the AD domain as necessary, and most new computers will be using it when they're installed.

More information is available at

2. Windows 7

Most new Windows computers will come with 64bit Windows 7 Enterprise installed. When necessary, replacement computers will still be running 32bit Windows XP Professional, but we hope they'll be in the minority. However, we do not plan to migrate existing Windows XP computers to Win7 unless it's necessary.

More information is available at https://wiki.lepp.cornell.edu/lepp/bin/view/Computing/Obsolete/Windows7

3. Inventor

There will be a major upgrade to Inventor 2011 and Vault Professional in late September. Training classes will be available. Most people using Inventor will need to take them because of the many changes and new features in both Inventor and Vault.

Linux

LEPP's Linux environment also will be getting major changes.

Upgrades to SL5

In the future, most of LEPP's Linux computers will be upgraded from Scientific Linux v4 to Scientific Linux v5. Most of the SL4 systems are running in 32bit mode. In contrast, most of the SL5 systems will be running in 64bit mode. Except for CLEO, all of the LEPP research projects have found that they need features which are available only in SL5 and not in SL4.

lnx6212 is available for testing 64-bit SL5. Please notify service-lepp@cornell.edu with any problems or questions.

More information is available at Lnx64Bit.

Remote Desktop Application Server

Outlook and other Microoft Office products can be run from Linux, MacOS or Windows if you use ??? to login to the server WINAPP.CLASSE.CORNELL.EDU.

Campus-wide Data Cleanup and Inventory

This fall, the University will be requiring each and every one of us: staff, faculty and students, to ensure that we have no confidential information on any of our computers. This includes social security numbers, credit card numbers, drivers license numbers, bank account numbers and health treatment records. Many older systems have files containing social security numbers which people have completely forgotten about. Student grade records, employment applications and performance appraisals are some examples. There are many others.

The CLASSE computer groups will provide tools which will help in this cleanup, but they won't be sufficient. Each of us will have to do whatever is necessary to find and eliminate such things.

More information is available at http://datacleanup.cornell.edu/

Ongoing things to be aware of

There are quite a few ongoing projects that you might not know about. Here are a few of them.

Exceed deprecated: use XMing instead.

Unfortunately, we can no longer support Exceed for X access from Windows to Linux and Unix computers. Please use XMing instead.

More information is available at ConnectingToALinuxMachineFromWindows

\\samba\users

The Windows file server PC50 runs NT and cannot be made part of the new CLASSE AD domain. Microsoft Office is often unable to write its output files to PC50, too. Windows user directories are being moved to the new \\samba\users file share as quickly as possible.

More information is available at NewZDrive

Reminders

Linux applications can be accessed from Windows

You can use PuTTY and XMing to login from Windows to Linux servers like LNX201 to run your favorite Linux applications.

More information is available at ConnectingToALinuxMachineFromWindows

Use of peer-to-peer (P2P) software like BitTorrent is forbidden on LEPP's networks.

Please make sure that your personal computer does not run any peer-to-peer file sharing software when it is connected to LEPP's network. It would be best if you did not run it anywhere. The Lab has had at least one incident when its work was disrupted because of inappropriate file sharing resulting in the Lab's network access being blocked. There also can be serious legal repercussions when copyrighted materials are shared without the permission of the copyright holder.

More information is available at PeerToPeer