Computing resources

The department’s Unix machines currently include many Intel or AMD-based servers and desktop workstations (mostly by Dell), running Linux (mostly Ubuntu or RHEL variants).

Our network of Unix systems is seamlessly integrated using NFS (for file sharing), IPA (for authentication), and SSH (for remote access). The Unix network includes a departmental file server, whose disk capacity is currently over 40 TB, with over 12 TB for user file storage.

Our Unix server facilities also include login servers (Intel or AMD64-based servers running Linux), a GPU server cluster (with 4 NVIDIA A40 GPU's), and a shared-memory multi-processor compute server cluster (4 servers, each with 2 14-core Xeon processors and 128 GB of memory, running Linux).

The department and its staff support several labs with desktop systems running Microsoft Windows 10 Education (or Pro or other versions) accessible by graduate students as well as senior undergraduates.

Windows servers provide centralised active directory accounts and file storage for these systems.

The department also provides several Macintosh systems ranging from a lab of Apple M2-based iMac workstations to support for various other macOS-based systems.

All of these machines are networked together to provide networked file sharing between the Macs and other machines.

Installation and set-up of the machine will be done after some consultation with departmental technical support staff, to assure that initial or potential problems are addressed.

Technical support staff will also be consulted anytime the owners or maintainers of the machine are unsure of what security or maintenance procedures need to be followed.

All networked machines should have their MAC address registered with our technical support staff and should be configured to obtain an IP address using DHCP.

Manually assigned IP addresses are not to be used on a departmental network at any time without the prior approval by the technical support staff.

Installation of all vendor-supplied security-related software updates or patches will be done on a regular and timely basis, as they become available. This includes maintaining up-to-date anti-virus software on all applicable systems.

This remains the owner’s responsibility, but support staff may assist in this task if requested.

Information about security-related updates for the applicable software will be obtained on a regular and timely basis, by whatever means available and applicable that are deemed most reasonable, e.g. subscription to a mailing list, consulting applicable news groups or web sites.

Technical support staff will be consulted for authorization prior to any changes in machine configuration which may impact the network or other machines, such as setting up network services and file-sharing services (WWW, FTP, Peer-to-peer, or any other similar service).

Before adding any wireless equipment, router, firewall hardware, or other networking device, technical support staff should be contacted and they will in turn notify IST/ACN if appropriate.

Technical support staff should be provided with access to the machine, including administrative-level access, at setup time, to allow rapid response if/when problems occur.

If this is not done, immediate disconnection of the machine from departmental and university networks is to be expected if problems arise and re-connection will not be permitted until all problems are satisfactorily resolved.

Technical support staff will be allowed to perform security analysis on the machine, either locally (by logging into the machine) or remotely (using appropriate network monitoring and scanning tools), periodically or as required.

Technical support staff will report any vulnerabilities thus discovered to the machine’s owner.

Reasonable access control mechanisms will be used to ensure that the machine is accessible only to authorized users.

This would include controlling physical access to the machine, use of secure and private passwords by all users, and disabling of any vulnerable accounts, such as guest accounts or other similar initial accounts with weak passwords or no passwords at all and/or whatever other access control is appropriate for the software being used.

If the maintenance of a system is delegated to someone other than the owner (for example, to a graduate student), the technical staff should be informed of this delegation. In case of problems caused by improper maintenance, the responsibility remains with the owner.

1. Installation and set-up of the machine will be done after some consultation with departmental technical support staff, to assure that initial or potential problems are addressed. The technical support staff will also be consulted anytime the owners or maintainers of the machine are unsure of what security or maintenance procedures need to be followed.
2. All networked machines should have their MAC address registered with our technical support staff and should be configured to obtain an IP address using DHCP. Manually assigned IP addresses are not to be used on a departmental network at any time without prior approval by the technical support staff.
3. Installation of all vendor-supplied security-related software updates or patches will be done on a regular and timely basis, as they become available. This includes maintaining up-to-date anti-virus software on all applicable systems. This remains the owner’s responsibility, but support staff may assist in this task if requested.
4. Information about security-related updates for the applicable software will be obtained on a regular and timely basis, by whatever means available and applicable that are deemed most reasonable, e.g. subscription to a mailing list, consulting applicable newsgroups or websites.
5. The technical support staff will be consulted for authorization prior to any changes in machine configuration which may impact the network or other machines, such as setting up network services, and file-sharing services (WWW, FTP, Peer-to-peer, or any other similar service).
6. Before adding any wireless equipment, router, firewall hardware, or other networking devices, technical support staff should be contacted, and they will, in turn, notify IST/ACN if appropriate.
7. Technical support staff should be provided with access to the machine, including administrative-level access, at setup time, to allow rapid response if/when problems occur. If this is not done, immediate disconnection of the machine from departmental and university networks is to be expected if problems arise, and re-connection will not be permitted until all problems are satisfactorily resolved.
8. The technical support staff will be allowed to perform security analysis on the machine, either locally (by logging into the machine) or remotely (using appropriate network monitoring and scanning tools), periodically or as required. The technical support staff will report any vulnerabilities thus discovered to the machine’s owner.
9. Reasonable access control mechanisms will be used to ensure that the machine is accessible only to authorized users. This would include controlling physical access to the machine, use of secure and private passwords by all users, and disabling any vulnerable accounts, such as guest accounts or other similar initial accounts with weak passwords or no passwords at all, and/or whatever other access control is appropriate for the software being used.
10. If the maintenance of a system is delegated to someone other than the owner (for example, to a graduate student), the technical staff should be informed of this delegation. In case of problems caused by improper maintenance, the responsibility remains with the owner.