College of Engineering EECS Instructional Support Group July 23 2008 EECS Instructional Computing - Review and Plans ----------------------------------------------- Fall 2007 CONTENTS: Mission Statement Recent Improvements Current Initiatives Parallel Computing Cluster (Icluster) Notable Events Mission Statement ----------------- The EECS Instructional Support Group (ISG) installs and maintains networked computers that are used by EECS classes. ISG provides computer accounts for instructors and students in the Instructional labs and on Instructional servers. ISG purchases, installs and maintains application software needed for classes. ISG supports instructional labs in Cory Hall, Soda Hall and Hearst Field Annex. These are the functions in which ISG interacts with other UCB support groups: - we obtain enrollment lists from the Registrar (Student Information Services) - we synchronize our user accounts with the EECS department (IDSG) - we provide cardkey pre-authorization for our students to EECS Facilities - we bill students' voluntary printer charges to CARS - we coordinate our use of the EECS Network Node Bank with IDSG and CNS - we manage the computers in engineering labs with ESG - we manage the computers in EECS conference rooms with ESG - we manage the licenses for Synopsys/TCAD/HSPICE with the Device Group - we manage the licenses for Cadence with the BSAC group Recent Improvements ------------------- Due to fiscal limits, we did not make any major computer or infastructure purchases in FY 20006/2007. - purchased software licenses for Shake on Macs in 349 Soda (for CS198) - purchased 50 new chairs for labs in 330 Soda and 119 Cory Current Initiatives ------------------- - received grants from Google and Intel for a parallel computing cluster - requested AEG grant from SUN for 24 new worksatations in 275 Soda - purchased 32 20" LDCs to replace old CRTs in 105 Cory (EE20N, etc) - purchased 32 new USB kbds for 275 Soda (CS61B, etc) - purchased 96 new USB mice for 271/273/275/330 Soda - purchased 2 new printers to replace 3 old ones in 274 Soda Parallel Computing Cluster (Icluster) ------------------------------------- With generous grants from Google and Intel, we have purchased this equipment for an Instructional Parallel Computing Cluster: - 26 Dell PowerEdge 1950 (each with 2 quad-core 2.33GHz Xeon, 8GB RAM) - a rack and a gigabit switch for the cluster internal network In addition, the department is installing a water-cooled rack in our server room to accommodate this new cluster. The cluster nodes run Linux and the Nutch/Hadoop implementation of the GFS distributed filesystem. User applications will include a public-domain version of the map-reduce parallel processing tool, which is implemented in Java. The ICluster became operational in mid-October 2007 and was used by CS61A. CS61A students developed an Stk/Java interface to Hadoop/mapreduce so they can add related functions to the UCB Scheme programming language. Classes that may use the Icluster in the future include: CS61A (Prof Harvey, adding a parallel processing module to scm) CS152 (Prof Asanovic) CS198 (Prof Garcia, using MPI and other APIs) CS186 (Prof Hellerstein, using Hadoop and map-reduce) CS194 (Prof Yelick) CS267 (Prof Yelick) using MPI, UPC(C), CAF(Fortran), Titanium(Java)? Notable Events -------------- See http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/notices.html for current events. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Dec 5 - This WEB server was down Tue 5pm-5:30pm, Wed 1am-8am This WEB server (http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu) was down from about 5pm-5:30pm Dec 4 and again from 1am-8am on Dec 5. The server was being overwhelmed by downloads from remote sites, mostly in Asia. We had to reboot it to clear bad processes that were preventing new connections to the WEB server. At 1am, the reboot did not complete so the server stayed down until the start of work later that day. We are implementing measures to selectively block the sites that are abusing us with excessive download requests. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Dec 3 - licenses for Xilinx, ModelSim, ADS, Synplicity were down on Sat & Sun The Instructional license server for Xilinx, ModelSim, ADS and Synplicity was unacessible from about 1pm on Sat Dec 1 until 2pm on Sun Dec 2. An ISG staff member came in on Sunday voluntarily to reboot the server. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Nov 29 - network interruptions to some *.eecs computers and software licenses 8:30am-9:00am: A switch failure cut off wired and wireless networking on the 1st floor of Cory. This cut off well-known Instructional computers such as cory.eecs.berkeley.edu c199.eecs.berkeley.edu (and the SunRays in 199 Cory) pulsar.eecs.berkeley.edu quasar.eecs.berkeley.edu http://iesg.eecs.berkeley.edu http://california.eecs.berkeley.edu http://netshow.eecs.berkeley.edu It also cut off access to the license servers for Cadence, Synopsys, HSpice, Xilinx and other software used in the Instructional labs. The network group posted an update at https://iris.eecs.berkeley.edu/news/1805-switch-failure-on-1st-floor --------------------------------------------------------------------- Nov 26 - network interruptions to some EECS computers From about 10am-1pm (Nov 26), there were intermittent interruptions to network service in EECS. This prevented logins on some computers in the Instructional labs, and it prevented access to some servers such as as imail.eecs (Instructional email) and inst.eecs (this WEB server). The network group posted an update at https://iris.eecs.berkeley.edu/news/1798-intermittent-errors-on-3rd-floor#update_1799 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Oct 27 - login failures to Inst Linux and Mac computers. Instructional accounts could not logon to the Instructional Linux and Mac computers intermittently on Saturday afternoon. These computers include ilinux1.eecs, ilinux2.eecs, ilinux3.eecs PSI (reseaach Linux cluster used by CS194-2) Macs in 199 Cory and 349 Soda An Instructional LDAP server went down again for a few hours on Saturday afternoon. Apparently it was intermittent. We have 2 redundant LDAP servers, but Linux and Mac systems don't fail over to the second one. (Our Solaris systems do, so logins there were unaffected.) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Oct 24 - login failures to Inst UNIX computers and WEB server. The Instructional LDAP password servers were down on Oct 24 from about 3pm-4:30pm, with some brief interruptions after that while the servers were updated and rebooted. The symptom was that you couldn't login to an Instructional UNIX computer. The problem started with a network denial-of-service attack, which forced us to reboot both servers. That triggered an unpublished LDAP expiration date that forced us to update the LDAP software on both servers. We also updated the firewalls to prevent the initial attacks. The "https" interface to the inst.eecs WEB server was down from about 1pm Wed 10/24 until 1am 10/25. This was due to an ireversible security patch that caused an undocumented incompatibility with the SSL module; after some effort we determined that the syntax of a pre-existing configuration file had to be updated. The symptoms were: WEB sites that start with https://inst.eecs get the error "The page cannot be displayed" Logons fail to WEB sites that start with https://inst.eecs. [Thanks to Marcelino for fixing both problems.] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Oct 19 - 9:30am - network problem at EECS border Networks in Cory and Soda Halls have experienced delays and lost connections to outside networks today. The CS3L and CS61A labs in Hearst Field Annex are cut off from EECS computers (home dirs, WEB sites). Students in those classes should use the UNIX labs in the second floor of Soda Hall today. CS3L labs can meet in 273 Soda. Symptoms include stalled logins, NFS timeout errors and other delays to *.cs and *.eecs) computers. The problem does not affect computers within Cory and Soda Halls that are not attempting to connect to computers outside of Cory and Soda Halls. 10:10am - The network staff have announced that the problem is fixed: https://iris.eecs.berkeley.edu/news/1768-network-trouble --------------------------------------------------------------------- Oct 11 - 5:30pm - network problem in Cory Hall Cory Hall computers can't reach some computers in Soda Hall (coeus, project, imap, ...). This is causing NFS timeout errors and other delays on the Cory Hall (*.eecs) Instructional UNIX systems. The network staff are aware but there is no prediction of a cure: https://iris.eecs.berkeley.edu/news/1761-network-service-outage-today#update_1762 The problem does not affect our systems in Soda Hall and HFA (*.cs). You can find the names of those computers at http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/clients.cgi?choice=servers --------------------------------------------------------------------- Feb 2007 - Exceed (XWindows) Security Alert
X Windows server programs such as Exceed have been targets for password-sniffing and other security holes recently. If you are running an X Windows server on your computer at home or in an office on campus, please read this excellent article for instructions about using it securely: https://kb.berkeley.edu/jivekb/entry.jspa?externalID=1185 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Oct 2006 - empty INBOX? your email is on http://imail.eecs.berkeley.edu
(Oct 9 2006) We have stopped exporting /var/mail to all computers. If you use 'pine' on UNIX and find that your INBOX is empty on the Instructional computers, you probably need to update the way you read email. You can simply logon at http://imail.eecs.berkeley.edu to read and send email via the EECS Instructional email server. To set up spam filtering, run this command in your UNIX account: /share/b/adm/bin/instmail.pl You can also configure the email client of your choice to connect to the EECS Instructional email server. Please see http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/connecting.html#email for more information. --------------------------------------------------------------------- July 2006 - unable to use Firefox or Mozilla on UNIX?
We are upgrading our SUN UNIX systems to Solaris 10, and the new versions of firefox and mozilla are incompatible with the older configuration settings. So if you get no response when you try to start firefox or mozilla, you should delete (or rename) your ~/.mozilla/firefox directory. It will be re-created the next time you run the browser. You can rename it with this UNIX command (you can delete it later): mv ~/.mozilla/firefox ~/.mozilla/firefox-old You can verify that the computer you are on is running Solaris 10 with the UNIX command: uname -a You can see a list of all of our login servers and their operating systems at http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/clients.cgi?choice=servers< --------------------------------------------------------------------- Spring 2006 - Printer usage quotas are now in effect Instructional UNIX and Windows accounts now have page limits on the Instructional shared printers in Soda, Cory and Hearst Field Annex. The print quotas this semester are computed at 50 pages for each course credit that the account is being used for. In addition, students who are EE or CS undergraduate of graduate majors are given an additional 50 pages per semster on their print quotas. The print quotas are reset each semester. Unused pages will NOT be credited to you in future semesters. If you exceed your print quota, your next print job will be replaced with a "QUOTA EXCEEDED" page. That page explains that you can logon to http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/webacct to view your print quota allocation and to purchase additional pages. Pages that you purchase will be billed to you, at a rate of $12 (non-refundable) for 200 pages. References: http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/pub.cgi?file=html/printquota-sample.html http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/pub.cgi?file=pdf/forms/print-quota-exceeded.pdf --------------------------------------------------------------------- Spring 2006 - Forgot your password on the Instructional computers? For named accounts: Login as 'newacct' (password 'newacct') again (in 199 Cory, 273 Soda or 'ssh' to cory.eecs.berkeley.edu). Enter your Student ID number. Then select the new "p" option for resetting your password and reprinting a form. The form with a new password will be emailed to you the next day (weekday) or sooner. Named accounts look like 'gbush' or 'bclinton'. For class accounts: Go to the Instructional sys admin staff in 333 Soda, 378 Cory or 386 Cory. Bring your initial class account form or student ID card. There is no on-line procedure for resetting the password of a class account. Class accounts look like 'cs61a-aa' or 'ee141-agore'. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Symptoms when UNIX email or home directories are missing: - when you try to login the screen freezes - you see the error message "home directory is /" - session hangs up if you try to 'ssh' into an Instructional computer - unable to read WEB pages from the http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu - lots of annoying "NFS timeout" error messages on your screen - new email deliveries will be delayed on imail.eecs While the server is down, you may not be able to logout in our labs because you can't type any commands. On a SunRay, even turning it off doesn't log you out. The support staff check the labs after events like this to be sure everyone gets logged out. We also post information about the problem at http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu to help students find out when the problem has been fixed. So all you can really do in this case is to wait until the problem is fixed, go back to the lab (or login to the SunRay server for that lab) and log yourself out, or let us log you out. We disable email receipt and relaying through imail.eecs when the home directory server (mamba.cs.berkeley.edu) is down. No mail is lost. Computers that send mail queue messages that are not accepted by a remote server, and they resend the messages periodically until they are received. --------------------------------------------------------------------- For additional information, please contact me: Kevin Mullally, ISG Manager EECS Instructional Support Group 378 Cory Hall, (510) 643-6141 kevinm@eecs.berkeley.edu http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/ source: ~inst/public_html/reports/managers/Fall_2007