Support:Home Page

UCB Math Computing

Math Computing Wiki

We now have a wiki for computing, which is intended to be complementary to this page.

Mail System Has Moved to Calmail Service

The Math email system has moved from our own dedicated server to CalMail. Our transition page contains all of the information about the change, and user instructions.

Staying informed

Important items related to computing in the Math department first appear as brief announcements on the "Message of the Day" (/etc/motd) displayed when you log in to one of our Unix servers. There is also a low volume mailing list for Computer System announcements. You can subscribe by going to the Compannounce web page.

Computing News

The good news is that the computing support pages are under review. The new revision is to be finished by end of February.

Getting Help

The primary support avenue for Unix and network problems within the department is the request system - request@math.berkeley.edu. This should also be used to request new software installation upgrades.

The desktop support teams at LSCR provide support for non-Unix systems for faculty, at fac_support@ls.berkeley.edu and staff, at ohlone@ls.berkeley.edu.

There is a consult mailing list, consult@math.berkeley.edu for general questions, which is read (and answered) by people knowledgable about Unix and mathematical software.

For hardware printer problems ONLY, (including low toner), use trouble@math.berkeley.edu. Please do not copy more than one list on your email. If you happen to send to the wrong list, it will be redirected by someone on the list.

There is a FAQ regarding Computing on the main departmental web site.

Resources

People

Our LSCR Unix support team consists of Igor Savine and Ray Spence.

Desktop support for Windows and Mac OS X for faculty and staff is provided by the LSCR desktop support team.

Machines

Our computer systems occupy three local subnets, plus a small subnet in the Campus Data Center; there are approximately 400 machines. We fully support Solaris, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and Centos Linux (a clone of RHEL). Most of our computers are older Sun systems, running Solaris. Linux is becoming more prominent as a workstation OS. Servers are split between FreeBSD (6), Solaris (3), and linux (2). Our Unix team provides limited support for desktop FreeBSD and Mac OS X. We do not support Microsoft Windows, nor older (pre OS X) Macintosh systems.

Login Service

Our primary login server is named login.math.berkeley.edu. You can connect to it using ssh.

You can also get ssh access to our login server through a web interface, using the MindTerm java applet. Connect to this java applet using our Mindterm Instructions.

Four of our servers are designated as login servers:

   login.math.berkeley.edu (panda)
   blue1.math.berkeley.edu
   blue2.math.berkeley.edu
   blue3.math.berkeley.edu

panda is running RedHat Enterprise Linux. blue1 and blue3 are running Solaris 9. blue2 is running FreeBSD. (blue2 is not fully configured to run all of the local Math software, so if you intend to use TeX, Matlab, or Maple, you should choose a different login server.)

sshd is running on most of our client machines, so you can log in remotely to the Unix workstation on your desktop, if you prefer, although we recommend that you log in to the functional named login.math.berkeley.edu.

Printers

There are four public printers available:

   Name        Previous        Room
    744        hp1/708          744
    838        hp3              838
    958        canon958         958
   1002        hp4             1002

See our printing information page for details.

Software

A large number of free packages are installed on our systems, and we have licensed a few commercial packages, including Matlab, Mathematica, Maple, and Magma.

Regularly Scheduled Maintenance

On the first Thursday of every month, the time from 5:00 P.M. to 7:30 P.M. is reserved for system maintenance. The management reserves the right to shut down the servers without prior notice during those scheduled maintenance periods. Normally, maintenance should be completed by 6:00 PM, but the entire window is reserved.

Data Backup and Restore

User data is backed up to tape on a nightly basis. Here are the details.

UCB Campus AirBears

Math Department AirBears is deployed throughout the the upper four floors of Evans Hall. Please report any new problems via email to request

Computer Policy

Computing within the Math Department is subject to overall Campus Security Policy. In addition, the department has a few local policies. Departmental policy is set by the Math Computer Committee.

Security

Clear text, reusable passwords are not allowed for authentication to our machines. See our security page.

Email

Math Department email is now handled by Calmail.

WARNING! Phishing is an attempt to get you to reveal confidential information by pretending to be a legitimate organization with whom you do business. There is a news article about this on the CalMail site. Remember - no legitimate organization will ever ask you for passwords, social security numbers, credit card numbers, or any sensitive information via email. DO NOT reply to any such email.

For Web-based email, use CalMail.

--Steve Sizemore - Unix System Manager 21:44, 11 December 2009 (UTC)