- Physics-Departmental-Computing

Fwd: Network changes affecting ICT computer room - July and August
by David Colling 21 Jun '13

21 Jun '13

This may be of interest to some people... -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Network changes affecting ICT computer room - July and August Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2013 15:22:50 +0000 From: ICT Service Desk <service.desk(a)imperial.ac.uk> To: ICTAP Members <ccs-dept(a)imperial.ac.uk>, "Tucker, Jon" <j.tucker(a)imperial.ac.uk>, "Martin, Richard" <richard.martin(a)imperial.ac.uk>, "Buck, Nigel" <n.buck(a)imperial.ac.uk>, "Hirjee, Nazia" <n.hirjee(a)imperial.ac.uk>, "McCabe, Ruth D" <r.mccabe(a)imperial.ac.uk> Dear Colleague Three changes are coming up in the next two months relating to our network services. There are varying degrees of risk, but on each occasion a wide range of services should be regarded as “at risk”. The details are as follows: *Tuesday 9^th July and 16^th July, between 07.00 and 09.00: Change 0030571: *Modifications to the architecture of our networking equipment requires brief downtime to services attached to seven of the data centre switches. Downtime of between 30 seconds to 5 minutes is anticipated on the 9^th July, with six separate interruptions of 30 seconds to 5 minutes on the 16^th July. Services regarded as most key to the College (e.g. Email, ICIS, Blackboard Learn and College web pages) should not be impacted and are not expected to experience any downtime. In the unlikely event that the modifications do not complete as expected, some services may be offline for up to 45 minuteswhile services are restored. Support teams will be immediately available to rectify any issues should they arise.* * *Tuesday 6^th August between 07.00 and 08.00: Change 0030570.* This work is to upgrade the firmware on two routers in our data centre. It is unlikely any downtime will be required, as services will be failed over to the alternate router whilst one is being rebooted. The upgrade has been extensively tested and other (less critical) core routers will have been upgraded prior to this change. Our Service Status page <https://imperial.service-now.com/ict/status.do> displays all current major incidents and changes and will be kept up to date during these works. If you have any concerns in advance of these dates, please contact the ICT Service Desk on 0207 594 9000, who will relay your message to the appropriate team. Regards ICT

1 0

Big Data Workshop at Imperial
by David Colling 17 May '13

17 May '13

Dear All, We are hosting a Big Data Workshop in Blackett on the 27th and 28th of June. Many aspects of science are expanding rapidly because of the ability to collect and understand volumes of data that were previously unimaginable. At the moment I think (but could be wrong) that the LHC is at the big data "frontier", but that other areas of science will catch up and gradually overtake us in the next decade. The current state of the very rough agenda is at: https://indico.cern.ch/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=246453 This is going to become better defined in the next couple of weeks. I would welcome any thoughts/suggestions for the agenda either from people within college or from outside. Best, david

1 1

Reminder and slight change of time: Departmental Computing meeting today
by David Colling 22 Apr '13

22 Apr '13

Dear Physics Computing people, Just a reminder that we have meeting scheduled for lunchtime today. I have booked room 532 for this. I had originally said 12:00 but have had a couple of requests to move it back to 12:30. This is equally good for me so unless there are any objections by ~10:30 I am tempted to move it. I will send an email to confirm. I had no additional items for the agenda so the agenda at the moment is: o Teaching computing to UGs - first year - second year - Computational physics - using computers as tools as in other courses o Computer renewals o Lecture theatre facilities o ICT status and plans o Software licensing o Reports from Groups o AoB I have left out the actions arising, because our last meeting was about a year ago and so I think that they are out of date. Hopefully we can return to meeting once a term. Best, david

2 2

Re: [Physics-Departmental-Computing] New meeting start time.
by David Colling 22 Apr '13

22 Apr '13

Hi James, Sure. What workstation renewals did you have in mind? best, david On 22/04/13 11:56, j.spencer(a)imperial.ac.uk wrote: > Dear David, > >>> I had no additional items for the agenda so the agenda at the moment is: >>> >>> o Teaching computing to UGs >>> - first year >>> - second year >>> - Computational physics >>> - using computers as tools as in other courses >>> >>> o Computer renewals > > If this involves a general discussion about replacing research > workstations (rather than the renewal scheme for staff), please could > this also be held towards the end? I should be there by 12.45-12.50 > (assuming the speaker keeps within time!). > > Thanks, > > --James > >>> o Lecture theatre facilities >>> >>> o ICT status and plans >>> >>> o Software licensing >>> >>> o Reports from Groups >>> >>> o AoB >>> >>> I have left out the actions arising, because our last meeting was about >>> a year ago and so I think that they are out of date. Hopefully we can >>> return to meeting once a term. >>> >>> >>> Best, >>> david >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Physics-Departmental-Computing mailing list >>> Physics-Departmental-Computing(a)imperial.ac.uk >>> https://mailman.ic.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/physics-departmental-computing >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Physics-Departmental-Computing mailing list >> Physics-Departmental-Computing(a)imperial.ac.uk >> https://mailman.ic.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/physics-departmental-computing >> > > -- > James Spencer > Computational Science Support Specialist > Thomas Young Centre/Condensed Matter Theory > Imperial College > http://www.cmth.ph.ic.ac.uk/people/j.spencer/ > http://www.github.com/jsspencer

1 0

Next meeting...
by David Colling 15 Apr '13

15 Apr '13

Dear All, Following the doodle poll (and a couple of private emails) the 22nd appears to be best (ie a week today). I will book a room and get forward details. Mean while I am looking for agenda items or thoughts on the usual ones that cover service provision, software provision (licensing etc) and teaching both of computing and outside (but using computing or electronic displays). Best, david

1 0

A couple of things ...
by David Colling 09 Apr '13

09 Apr '13

Dear All, A couple of things: - the first is that I need somebody to administer the Mathematica licenses now that Kevin Hale is retiring. I can see two alternatives here. Either one (or more) of the people who use Mathematica heavily take this on, or we ask ICT to do it. Any thoughts? - I am very aware that we have not had a Departmental Computing Meeting for two terms. The first term was largely because I was still really struggling having been rather unwell and the second because I was catching up after struggling in the first. I am quite keen that we restart these so I have created a doodle poll for these at http://doodle.com/polls/confirm.html?pollId=xhi3dnadt3e89y9p&adminKey=hc7gy… I am expecting the meeting to be at lunchtime (12->1:30?) unless anybody objects. best, david

1 0

Subnet changes in Blackett
by Rochford, Steve 25 Feb '13

25 Feb '13

ICT is hoping to merge some of the subnets that serve Blackett - this gives more flexibility in networking and also means that as machines move around the building they can keep the same IP address. This has been done elsewhere in College without causing any problems but before we make changes I want to make sure that there aren't any IP dependencies I don't know about. The change we want to make is to merge the subnets below: 155.198.200.0/24 - Admin users Levels 1,2,4 and 8 155.198.202.0/24 - Level 3 teaching cluster 155.198.203.0/24 - Level 4 UG labs 155.198.204.0/24 - Astrophysics Level 10/11 155.198.206.0/24 - Levels 0,1,2 155.198.207.0/24 - Laser/Plasma - Levels 6/7 Subnets 201 and 205 are currently not used - these will get added into the pool making more IP addresses available. What I need to know is if anyone is doing anything which depends on them getting (eg) a 206 address down on level 0? Once the subnets are merged no fixed addresses will change but new equipment could get an address anywhere in the range. I'm happy to discuss this with anyone who has any concerns. Steve

1 0

Fwd: Linux build from ICT
by David Colling 29 Jan '13

29 Jan '13

Any thoughts? -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Linux build from ICT Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:33:54 +0000 From: Mannall, Adrian B <a.mannall(a)imperial.ac.uk> To: Colling, David J <d.colling(a)imperial.ac.uk>, Adams, Niall M <n.adams(a)imperial.ac.uk>, Moore, Dan R <dan.moore(a)imperial.ac.uk> CC: Mannall, Adrian B <a.mannall(a)imperial.ac.uk> Hi Niall, Dan and David, I’m aware that some people in the departments of Maths and Physics rely heavily on Linux for their computing requirements and that in the past we have often come in for some criticism about offering Red Hat Enterprise for our standard supported Linux build because it isn’t cutting edge and often doesn’t support the newest hardware available. A couple of us in Faculty Support are beginning to consider if there is anything that we can do to address this … beyond the current Fedora build and vanilla Ubuntu build that we have previously offered. I think that we are probably looking at a proposal to provide a core Linux build from one of the current “cutting edge” distros with authentication done through the College LDAP servers (to ensure that users can gain simple and ready access to College ICT provided services such as home and group storage areas, print services, etc). We may also consider provision of some applications to the build (in a similar way to that which we currently do with the Windows builds from ICT) – but this would depend a lot on what people wanted or whether there could be an agreed standard set of apps. In principle we’re really looking to help the departments with their computing and want to provide something that would be of benefit. If this is of interest I’d be grateful if you could (a) let me know that this is a good idea and (b) let me know how much / how far you’d want to see this sort of support provided … i.e. would you want just the core build or would you like some apps too (if we can do it)? We wouldn’t be wanting to take away anything from those within the departments who hold specific computing support jobs outside of ICT but we would like to offer some standardisation and support that can then be built on to meet the department’s needs whilst still offering the core ICT services too. Kind regards Adrian *Adrian Mannall Faculty IT Manager Faculty of Natural Sciences* ICT, Imperial College London South Kensington Campus 323, Sir Ernst Chain Building – Wolfson Laboratories, Exhibition Road London SW7 2AZ Direct Dial Tel: +44 (0)20 7594 1441 College Ext'n: 41441 Mobile: +44 (0)7834 083134 Mobile Ext'n: 57974 Email: a.mannall(a)imperial.ac.uk <mailto:a.mannall@imperial.ac.uk> Web : http://www.imperial.ac.uk/

1 0

Desperately seeking mini-projects -urgently
by David Colling 30 Nov '12

30 Nov '12

Dear Physics computing reps, OK, this is an act of some desperation because this portion of the course starts on Monday and we really could do with at least one more mini-project idea. If we don't have it it is not the end of the world as they have a choice of two already but ... So, as you know, we have changed the first year computing course so that the students treat computers as tools. All the students will, by the end of today, have been trained in the basics of python, SciPy, NumPy and matplotlib and as of next week will start on mini projects. In these mini projects they have 4 three hour sessions (and can be expected to do a little outside) where they have to investigate a physics "situation" using the new tools that they have. So what I am looking for is a physical "problem" that: - cannot be (or is difficult) to solve analytically. - can be quantifiably modelled in 12 hours (+plus a little extra outside) - uses some combination (say two or more) of linear algebra (large simultaneous equations?), numerical integration (perhaps in more than one dimension), numerical equation solving (potentially of sets of non-linear equations), fits to data andd random numbers. - is not going to disadvantage some groups because they cover the work in the first year. - Is not particle physics... Please ask around and see what ideas you can come up with this morning (or by say 1:30 when my I come out of a meeting) as I need to write it up this afternoon. If I don't get any ideas they will get another particle physics example so be warned ;-) Best, david

1 0

Fwd: New Service from ICT - MobilEcho
by David Colling 08 Nov '12

08 Nov '12

Hi All, Something that might well be useful to those of you who have iPhones (android apparently to follow). Please circulate to your groups. Best, david -------- Original Message -------- Subject: New Service from ICT - MobilEcho Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2012 12:38:44 +0000 From: Mahadeva, Ananth <a.mahadeva(a)imperial.ac.uk> To: To All, We are pleased to offer a new service to the College staff and students. Mobilecho is a service that allows College users H: drive access on mobile devices via the internet, with enterprise level security and the same levels of convenience provided by familiar products like DropBox. In the world of network file sharing, the ubiquitous DropBox has set the standard for ease of use and functionality. However it provides inadequate security and authentication for an enterprise environment, and so has not been a product the College can recommend. Regardless of this DropBox has been widely adopted by individuals in College because of its convenience, and we have long been aware that there has been a need for a secure and supportable alternative. It is only recently that industry has begun to develop suitable products. Mobilecho is such a product and provides the convenience of DropBox with enterprise level security and integration. With the client running on a mobile device, a user can access their H: drive and content, by authenticating with their College ID and then copy view edit and files on the move. Viewing works with many common file types and document editing works if you have an appropriate app installed on your device. Documents can be added to your H: drive while on the move. Data cached on the device is encrypted and inaccessible without authentication. Whole directories can be synced, or individual files can be copied to the local device for offline viewing (iOS devices only at present and Android will follow soon). Mobilecho is available for Apple mobile devices running iOS . Android devices are also supported with a reduced but growing feature set. A short instructional video from ICT is available here <http://hml.imperial.ac.uk/Play.aspx?VideoId=69> to get you set up, and further information is provided on the FAQ page <http://www2.imperial.ac.uk/blog/ictfaq/2012/10/26/mobilecho/>. If you have any comments regarding this service please contact Ananth Mahadeva, x47589. For time being this is only open to ICTAP members (in the distribution list). We are planning to launch the service in end of November. If any departments want to be on pilot phase please let us know. Regards Ananth *Ananth Mahadeva* Imperial College South Kensington Campus London SW7 2AZ T: + 44 20 7594 7589 E: a.mahadeva(a)imperial.ac.uk <mailto:a.mahadeva@imperial.ac.uk> W: Imperial.ac.uk

1 0