College of Engineering EECS Instructional Support Group July 23 2008 EECS Instructional Computing - Review and Plans ----------------------------------------------- Spring 2008 CONTENTS: Mission Statement Recent Improvements Current Initiatives Parallel Computing Clusters Survey of EECS Instructional Users 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 ------------------- - grants from Google and Intel for parallel computing cluster (see below) - installed 16 new DVD dual-layer burners (119 Cory) for students to make legal copies of LabView and other tools for home use. - 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 - purchased 2 new flatbed scanners to replace old ones in labs Current Initiatives ------------------- - deployed Icluster (see below) - received AEG grant from SUN for 10 new UNIX worksatations (275 Soda, CS61B) - ran Survey of EECS Instructional Users (see below) Parallel Computing Clusters --------------------------- There are 2 new clusters for EECS classes this Spring: "Google/Intel" = "ICluster". This is a cluster of 26 DELL computers in an EECS server room, managed by EECS sys admins. The computers were purchased with funds granted to EECS by Google and Intel in Aug 2007. We deployed an 8-node cluster that was used by CS61A this Fall. We installed a water-cooled rack to handle the complete cluster. Any EECS class could use it. "Google/IBM" = "Cloud Cluster". This is a remote facility managed by Google/IBM. Google/IBM provided us with user accounts that we will distribute to some students. Anthony Joseph worked with Google/IBM on the legal aspects and limits. 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 HaPoop and map-reduce) CS194 (Prof Yelick) CS267 (Prof Yelick) using MPI, UPC(C), CAF(Fortran), Titanium(Java)? CS61A is developing an Stk/Java interface to Hadoop/mapreduce so they can add related functions to the UCB Scheme programming language. That development work is appropriate for our Icluster. Survey of EECS Instructional Users ---------------------------------- In May 2008, the EECS Instructional Support Group posted an on-line survey that asked students and instructors for feedback about the Instructional computing resources. The answers were very helpful. Here are the results with my analysis and comments: http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~inst/survey08/ These are actions we will take in response to these comments: - replace CRTs with LCD displays in 275 Soda - install SVN (subversion) client software on PCs in EECS Instructional labs - install additional power strips for laptop users in 199 Cory and other labs - improve the CS3 lab: seek a donation of workstations Notable Events -------------- See http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/notices.html for current events. --------------------------------------------------------------------- June 16 - http://msdnaa.eecs and e-Academy downloads are working again The EECS server for downloading software from e-Academy was down for maintenance while we reinstall the operating sytem (it crashed) and update the downloadable contents (Microsoft software), from about 10am-3pm today. This means that you could not read the instruction page from http://msdnaa.eecs.berkeley.edu and you got errors if you tried to download software from http://msdn04.e-academy.com/elms/Storefront/Home.aspx?campus=berkeley-eecs --------------------------------------------------------------------- June 9 - Some Instructional servers are down for maintenance These Instructional servers are down for maintenance until further notice: pulsar.eecs.berkeley.edu quasar.eecs.berkeley.edu icluster.eecs.berkeley.edu ilinux{2,3}.eecs.berkeley.edu iserver{2,3}.eecs.berkeley.edu anand.eecs.berkeley.edu This is necessary while an electrical problem is repaired in the server machine room. This problem appeared after the Cory Hall power shutoff on May 29. --------------------------------------------------------------------- May 6 - network interruptions to some Instructional computers (5pm) From about 5pm-5:30pm (May 6), 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). UNIX computers complained about "NFS timeout". A network switch for the 2nd floor of Soda failed. This cut off several of our servers, which froze login sessions in some labs in Cory, Soda and Hearst Field Annex. The network group replaced a faulty blade in a network chassis to fix the problem. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Mar 31 - authnews newsgroup server was down (Mar 29-31) authnews.berkeley.edu was down due to a hardware problem and was refusing connections. For status reports, please see http://technical.ist.berkeley.edu/news.shtml and http://cns.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/listnews.cgi?group=ucb.net.announce authnews.berkeley.edu is the server you can use to read the campus newsgroups from off campus. It prompts you for your CalNet ID. It is maintained by the campus CNS group ( (http://cns.berkeley.edu). EECS students can also use the EECS Instructional news client at http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/webnews Please see http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/connecting.html#news for more information about reading UCB newsgroups. authnews.berkeley.edu was back in service at 6:30pm March 31. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Mar 18 - This WEB server (http://inst.eecs) was down, 5:30pm-7:30pm This WEB server (http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu) was down from about 5:30pm-7:30pm. We had to reboot it to remove some WEB connections that were stuck. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Mar 9 - no email through imail.eecs (Fri 8pm - Sun 2:30pm) Imail.eecs stopped delivering mail on Fri evening, becuase of a jam in the spam filter. It was updated and rebooted at about 2:30pm Sunday to clear the problem. Email messages were delayed but not lost. Imail.eecs is the email server for Instructional accounts. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Feb 27 - login failures to Inst UNIX computers, 7am-9am A UNIX file server shared by department UNIX computers was down from 7:10am - 8:45am. During that time, login sessions on the Instructional UNIX computers were frozen. The servers in Hearst Field Annex C were restored to service at about 11am. For more information about the server outage, please see https://iris.eecs.berkeley.edu/news/1888-loss-of-connections-to-coeus --------------------------------------------------------------------- Feb 15 - HFA C labs and servers were down, 8am-2pm These labs and servers were down from 8am-2pm Fri Feb 15: Hearst Field Annex C10, C30, C50 h30.cs.berkeley.edu h50.cs.berkeley.edu These are used by CS3L, CS61A and the CS SelfPaced courses. CS3L could not hold the 8am lab and had to relocate their 11am lab to 273 Soda Hall. The interruption was caused by scheduled network maintenance that took longer than planned. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Feb 12 - This WEB server (http://inst.eecs) was down, 6:30pm-7:30pm This WEB server (http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu) was down from about 6:30pm-7:30pm because an distant computer was hammering the server with excessive download requests. We had to reboot the WEB server computer to clear all the processes, then we identified the source of the requests and blocked it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Feb 4 - computers crashed, 10:30am-12:30pm At about 10:30am, electricians in Soda Hall short circuited the power to our machine room and shut it down. This cut off all of the Instructional home dirs (Windows and UNIX) as well as the UNIX password service (LDAP), email service (imail.eecs), WEB server (inst.eecs), several login servers and computer labs in the 2nd floor of Soda and in Hearst Field Annex C. Service was restored gradually as computers were rebooted and checked for loss of data. There were no computer failures. Service was completely restored by about 12:30pm. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Jan 27 - network interruptions last night; rebooted h30.cs and h50.cs During the early morning hours of Jan 27, there was a disconection to the .cs.berkeley.edu and eecs.berkeley.edu networks from computers outside of Soda and Cory Halls. This prevented access from dorms and home to Instructional login servers (via ssh) and to WEB services such as as http://imail.eecs.berkeley.edu (Instructional email client) http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu (this WEB server). The computers for the CS3 and CS61A labs (Hearst Field Annex C) called h30.eecs.berkeley.edu h50.eecs.berkeley.edu were still accessible via SSH, but new login requests were denied (they would not accept any passwords) and users who were already logged on lost access to their home directories and most commands (which usually caused their login session to freeze). We rebooted those servers at 1:30pm on Sunday to clear that problem. The network group has posted an update at https://iris.eecs.berkeley.edu/news/1851-eecs-network-outage --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/Spring_2008