ITECS/Systems Wiki
Admindesktop Mapped Drives
J:\ - Root of afs
K:\ - personal home space which can be found at unity.ncsu.edu/users/[first initial]/[unity id] or at eos.ncsu.edu/lockers/people/[first initial]/[unity id] depending where their personal home space is located
P:\ admin shares \\engr.ad.ncsu.edu\dfs\adminshares
R:\ admin lockers in afs eos.ncsu.edu/lockers/admin
X:\ helpdesk admin share \\engr.ad.ncsu.edu\dfs\helpdesk
06/01-06-05
- Finished up with XP install issues
- Worked with Solidworks to fix licensing issues
- Packaged Matlab and extra toolboxes
About
About ITECS/Systems
The ITECS/Systems group is responsible for building, deploying, and maintaining the Eos computing infrastructure and for the integration of technologies and resources available from other campus information technology groups into Eos.
ITECS/Systems Staff
The ITECS/Systems group is:
- Billy Beaudoin
- Derek Ballard
- Gary Gatling
- Rob Grau
- Richard McLane
- Daniel Sink
- Michael Underwood
Systems Staff Emeritus:
- Brian Brezina
- Lin Osborne
- Aaron Peeler
- Josh Thompson
- Steven Jones
- Jason Young
ITECS/Systems Services
We provide services to College of Engineering students, faculty, and staff in the following service areas:
- Eos Desktop development and integration
- Eos Software integration and license management
- Remote Access
- Storage Services
- Web and Database Services
- Consulting
Using Jabber
Jabber is an instant messaging system designed as an open standard so that anyone can set up their own instant messaging server. There are many clients that support jabber. Some of them are strictly for jabber, others support jabber among many other IM protocols.
If you are not going to be using any other instant messaging systems besides Jabber, I would recommend using Exodus if you use Windows, or Psi if you use Linux or OS X. These seem to have the largest set of Jabber client features implemented. If you want to use other instant messaging systems, you can either use a client that supports them or use Jabber Gateways to connect to them.
Recommended Jabber Client
Recommended IM clients that support Jabber and others
Windows:
- Pidgin (was GAIM)
- Trillian Pro (if you feel like paying for it...)
Mac:
- Adium
- iChat
Linux:
- Pidgin (was GAIM)
- If you're using KDE, Kopete
Other Clients
Visit the Jabber client page at jabber.org
Connecting to the ITECS Jabber Server
An account must be created for you before you will be able to connect. Currently, we are offering jabber accounts to any full time or part time IT staff on campus. If you do not fall into this category and still want a jabber account, there are many free jabber servers where you can obtain an account. If you have an account on another server, you can still participate in our groupchats and send and receive messages to and from any of our jabber users.
Jabber servers allow you to log in with multiple clients/from multiple locations if you so desire. Most Jabber clients allow you to set a resource name when you connect to the server. If someone has connected to the Jabber server from multiple clients, the resource name allows you to select with which of the person's clients you want to chat.
Information for connecting to our Jabber server at a glance:
- userid(JID): your unity ID
NOTE: your JID is actually <userid>@jabber.eos.ncsu.edu; however, some clients have you log in with just your <userid> part; you will need to use the full JID when adding someone to your "buddy list" - password: set your password
Note: Do Not Use Unity Passwords! They are stored in clear text in the DB and we don't want to see them! - server: jabber.eos.ncsu.edu
- port: 5222 if no SSL or StartTLS, 5223 if using SSL
Jabber Presence and Buddy Lists
In creating buddy lists, Jabber was designed to respect your privacy. In order to add someone to your buddy list, you must request from the person to be notified of his/her presence. The person can then accept or deny your request, resulting in your being notified, or not notified when the person is online/offline/away/etc. When requesting notification of someone's presence, you will need to enter the person's full JID (i.e. <userid>@<servername>; jadoe@jabber.eos.ncsu.edu, for example). You are not limited to adding people to your buddy list that are on our Jabber server. You can add anyone who has a Jabber account on any Jabber server (unless it is an organization's internal, private server).
Groupchats (aka chat rooms)
Jabber supports chat rooms that are known in the Jabber world as "groupchats". Several clients (including Psi and GAIM) allow you to browse for groupchats on a server (as well as other services). Others require you to specify which groupchat you want to join. Groupchats can be created on the fly and are not limited to just being on our server. The servername for groupchats on our server is conference.jabber.eos.ncsu.edu. When you connect to an existing groupchat, the Jabber server will allow you to see the last several messages sent to that groupchat so that you can see the context of what is being discussed.
Some groupschats that are generally available:
- engr-sysadm@conference.jabber.eos.ncsu.edu
- ecolunch@conference.jabber.eos.ncsu.edu
- eoshelp@conference.jabber.eos.ncsu.edu
- cls@conference.jabber.eos.ncsu.edu (Campus Linux Services)
- activedirectory@conference.jabber.eos.ncsu.edu (somewhat Wolftech-centric AD discussion)
Gateways to Other IM Services
You can use Jabber to chat with people on other IM services (AIM, MSN, Yahoo, etc). To do this, you need to find a jabber server with a gateway or transport service installed to the IM service you want to talk to. This is different from clients that allow you to log in to multiple IM systems in that all the information about your other accounts is stored on a jabber server. This allows you to sign in to a single server with any jabber client and be able to IM with all the IM services you have accounts with. There is a list of open Jabber servers where you can find one that meets your needs. NOTE: Your account information for the other IM service including your password will be saved on the remote jabber server. You should not do this unless you use a password that is different from any passwords you use for sensitive accounts (ie, don't use your unity password, a banking password, etc).
File Transfers
File transfers with Jabber can either be done direct client-to-client or via a proxy. The default port for file transfers without using a proxy is 8010; so, if you want to transfer files with Jabber and you are running firewall software on your machine, you will need to open that port. If you don't want to open the port or if you are behind a network firewall (such as a cable/DSL router), you can still transfer files through a proxy. There is a list of open Jabber servers where you can find servers that have the file proxy installed (however, proxy.jabber.org is the only listed one in the US). Configuring your client to use a proxy for file transfers can be a little confusing because alot of clients can also connect to Jabber servers for normal chatting via a proxy (which is a different thing than what you use for file transfers). For example, in Psi, you can configure a proxy under the "Connection" tab of the "Account Properties" dialog, but the file transfer proxy is configured as the "Data Transfer Proxy" under the "Preferences" tab of the same dialog.
Using futureshock to test web sites
Testing your webpage with Futureshock is done by replacing the 'www' in your url with 'futureshock'. So http://www.eos.ncsu.edu becomes http://futureshock.eos.ncsu.edu If your url does not begin with a 'www' then 'futureshock' is simply prepended to the url. So http://people.engr.ncsu.edu becomes http://futureshock.people.engr.ncsu.edu
If your site is coded with relative links, then navigating around your site on futureshock should be simple. However, if your site is coded with absolute links, then every link you click will take you back to the normal site. You will have to add 'futureshock' back to the part of the url as indicated above on the pages you want to test. Be sure to check the url you're displaying frequently to confirm that you are still using futureshock.
Also, remember that like webtest, warnings are enabled on futureshock so warnings that would be surpressed on the normal servers are being displayed.
EWE Quirks
Behavior Multiple underscores "_" in a line causing text to be italicized while using Markdown formating.
There is no issue with using a single underscore in a line, however if there are two, the intervening text is italicized and the underscores are not shown.
Solution The underscores "_" can be escaped out with preceding backslashes. There is no italicizing and the underscores are now printed in their positions.
ITECS Shared Mailbox Service
ITECS/Systems maintains a private mailserver for testing and providing shared mailbox services within ITECS/Systems. One of the services that we have found useful is the "campuslists" archives - and we have decided to make this available to IT staff within the College of Engineering (or subscribers to the various Engineering-managed mailing lists) on a limited basis.
Mailing lists available:
- coeww: mailing list for webmaster discussion and information about the College of Engineering web sites and services
- engr-sysadm: mailing list for the Engineering System Administrators
- itecs-systems: mailing list for the ITECS/Systems Group
- itecs-staff: mailing list for the ITECS Staff members
- itecs-helpdesk: mailing list for the ITECS Helpdesk members
- engr-computer-committee: mailing list for the Engineering Computer Committee
- engr-php-hackers (public): mailing list for the Engineering PHP Developers
- itecs-software: mailing list for the ITECS Software Coordinators and Managers
- itecs-admindesk-steering: mailing list used to communicate and discuss changes to the ITECS-managed Administrative Desktop system
- vcl: mailing list for the Virtual Computing Lab project team
- engr-soc: mailing list for the Engineering Student-Owned Computing program
- itecs-admindesktop: mailing list for staff using an ITECS-managed Administrative Desktop
- eos2-faculty: mailing list for the participants in the Eos2 Faculty Laptop Pilot and Seminar
- nag (public): mailing list for the campus collaborative "network administrator's group"
- packmug (public): mailing list for the campus macintosh user's group
- sysnews: mailing list for campus news and announcements (more information at sysnews.ncsu.edu
To access the shared mailboxes that you have access to (anyone authenticating to the mail server should see the "nag", "sysnews", "engr-php-hackers", and "packmug" lists - these are either considered "public" lists - or have public archives at lists.ncsu.edu):
(examples here are presented using the Thunderbird Email Client and do assume some familiarity with configuring email clients for IMAP)
- In your IMAP email client, create a new account.
(Instructions for creating a new account for many email clients can be found at the ResNet Email Support site ) - Use engr00mb.eos.ncsu.edu as your "Inbound" IMAP Server
- Use your UnityID as your account and your password is your Unity password (if your mail client supports Kerberos authentication, you can set it up to use Kerberos, and use the same initial ticket you already use for your Unity email). Make sure to enable SSL!
- You likely will need to "subscribe" to the shared folder. To do this in Thunderbird, click the "Manage Subscriptions" button in the Account information pane:
and choose the various shared folders that you have access to (you may see other folders than what is depicted in the image below depending on your account permissions )
You should now have access to your shared folders!
2005 Spring Training Priorities and Practices
Priorities
- Communication
- Support
- Security
- Maintenance
- Services
- Innovation
Practices
Communication
Activity Notes
Post as Journal to the ITECS/Systems Activity Log (except for personnel/security comments) Email Journal permalink to Jason Young, with additional private comments
Subcommittee Notes
Make observations from subcommittee meetings available to engr-sysadm (the goal is reporting back as a representative of Engineering on a campus committee to those represented, not to become the subcommittee's recorder)
Reading
- Get an RSS aggregator
- Stay up with the ITECS/Systems syslog
- Spend at least an hour a week staying up with service developments in the area(s) you are responsible for.
Support
Renewed focus on Remedy calls
Response Time - within a half day, response back to customer within a day
(if necessary: faster for priority calls)
Checking calls twice a day
- Daily call updates for ongoing calls (or a scheduled next update time)
- Availability
- You will use Jabber
- Except for a dedicated “project time” - you should be in the engr-sysadm chat room
- Two 1-1.5 hour helpdesk sessions a week
Security
- Peer Review of Applications and Services
- Continued push for Encrypted transfers
- Keeping up with Security sources
- No repeat of the Harvard Business School
Maintenance
Develop a “Morning Routine” (and/or “Afternoon Routine”)
- Become available in Jabber
- Check/Act on Remedy
- Check/Act on Sysrootmail
- Check/Act on Server Logs (project)
Quarterly Updates of all relevant service software on our servers
- Web: OS, Apache, PHP, Mysql Client,Awstats; DB: OS, Mysql; ... etc.
No more “reinstall breakage”
Root mail should go to the shared mailbox(es)
Logs
- All important logs under logrotate
- You should be able to identify log events
All cronjobs documented
All servers should be updated in ServerTrack or something suitable
- Keep Server Rooms clean
- All servers should be labeled front/back
- All cables should be labeled
Services
ITECS/Systems Services
- License Management
- Application Deployment
- HTTP
- Database
- Jabber
- Monitoring
- Storage
ITECS/Systems Service Areas
- Admin Desktop
- Admin Services
- Owned Computing
- Targeted Labs
- Remote Access
- Instruction
- Peer Support
- Systems Support
Graphic: Building a matrix of services to service areas
Innovation
Graphic: Combining Services to affect multiple service areas
Projects
An Engineer seeks by design to create an optimal solution to a problem
(see the handout from Dr. Frank Abrams or my commentary on this subject )
- Define the Problem
- Gather information about how it might be solved (or might have already been solved)
- Generate candidate solutions
- Analyze candidate solutions
- Select solution
- Plan the implementation
- Implement the solution
- Test the solution
- Learn/Generalize about the solution (Documentation)
2005 Spring Training Candidate Projects
Application and Lab Utilization
Adm. Desk. Upgrade (Windows XP/Office 2003)
All storage migrated to lockers
All User Volumes in Unity
Locker and storage auditing
CVS Repository Consolidation
Improved Log Management
Improved Configuration Management
Revisit Locker tools
(Portal and Approval)
Faculty Laptop Training
E115 TA Training
Application Detritus Documentation
Documentation of Application Requirements for User's home filespace (all "dot" files/directories)
Engineering Account management for web applications
WebFTP
Intrusion Detection Projects
People Lockers for Grad Students
(Backup plan)
Wolfcall Replacement
Remote Access to Apps (incl. VCL)
Application License Management
(Keyserver, Dynamic Update for License Servers)
Continued integration of Jabber, Email, and Monitoring services
VMWare for labs
DB Service improvements
(including “quota” options)
Projects directly related to Student Owned Computing
(?)
Continued EWE Development
(weblogs.engr.ncsu.edu) (incl. Podcasting)