Summer Quarter Announcements 2018

Directions for general use: Instructional Virtual Machines

ICS Computing Support runs a cluster of machines capable of providing personal virtual machines for ICS stduents.

Students with acces to this cluster will be able:

• Start a VM using a single command from any host in the openlab Linux cluster.
• Local root privilege on their VM.
• Reconnect on either console or via ssh.
• Many other benefits

If you would like to find out how this service can be good fit for your course, undergraduate or graduate, send a message to helpdesk@ics.uci.edu and we will reach out.

More information is available on our Support Wiki: Virtual Environments

Undergraduate and Graduate students have access to unquotad storage space. Please use the appropriate link:

• Unlimited Undergraduate Student Storage
• Unlimited Graduate Student Storage

The schools provides over 80 distinct computer nodes for instructional and general use. These nodes are generally accessible under the name openlab.ics.uci.edu.

• Connecting to Openlab
• Openlab Specifications
• Openlab GPU Hosts Specifications

ICS Computing runs Sun Grid Engine (SGE) to perform job scheduling and distribution to the myriad of instructional and research compute clusters.

• Getting Started with SGE
• Common SGE Commands

• WIFI Printing in Openlab

We are adding new hardware to the OpenGPU lab.

This summer we add one 4 GPU system:

Send questions regarding the OpenGPU lab to helpdesk@ics.uci.edu. Feel free to use these system, the more our openlab and opengpu clusters are used, the more equipment we can install.

The following software packages are available via the ICS module command:

Version 5.2.0 has is available on all CentOS7 hosts with support for jupyter.

module load anaconda3

Version 1.68 has is available on all CentOS7 hosts.

module load boost

Version 1.8.0_181 is available to all CentOS7 hosts.

module load java

Version 7.3.0 is available to all CentOS7 hosts.

module load gcc/7.3.0

R 3.5.1 is available on all CentOS7 hosts along with over 600 included packages.

module load R

Version 5.4.9 is available to all CentOS7 hosts. `module load java`

module load stunnel

We have begun installing CUDA 9.0 on ICS hosts with graphics cards. Please send mail to helpdesk@ics.uci.edu to request an upgrade.

Default version of has been updated to Python 3.6.1.

Note: The binary is called `python3`. The pip utility binary is called `pip3`.

Please use the `module` command to add python3 to your environment. e.g. `module load python`.

ICS Computing Support now offers managed computing with FULL Sudo privilege. See supported OS page for more information or send email to helpdesk@ics.uci.edu to get started.

Managed means that ICS Computing Support will:

• Provision the operating system
• Provide constant configuration via pupet
• Provide Single Sign-on
• Ensure NFS Access to ICS Storage Servers, home and extra directories, and the Software Library (/pkg).
• ICS /home /extra directories are snap shotted daily and backed up to tape monthly.
• Package installs from trusted OS repositories.
• Compile new software to install in Software Library
• Limited Sudo for limited number of designated users.
• Any compute role (e.g. MySQL, Apache, MongoDB, Cycle Server)
• Service configuration
• Service and resource Monitoring

Managed with Sudo will include everything from Managed with the following changes:

• Full Sudo
• ICS Storage Servers, home and extra directories, are only available via FUSE.
• There are no snapshots or backups, user must backup data to ICS Storage Servers.
• Docker is available.

Recommended tools, free and open source. Let us know if you have more suggestions.

Per request by Campus IT Security, older insecure protocols have been turned off on SMTP,IMAP and POP mail servers. Some older clients may experience trouble when connecting to ICS mail services. Please contact the ICS Computing Support Helpdesk if you believe you are affected.