Category: Servers

Servers

Connectivity problems @ Home?

This can occur for a variety of reasons such as a server, system or ISP being overwhelmed, or your home network dropping momentarily. If this happens, try to reconnect.

Some things to look out for on your home network:

1) Are you too far from your wifi router? Make sure the signal is strong. If not, consider moving closer to the wifi router. Also, consider plugging directly into your router with a network cable if that is at all possible. A wired network is more stable than a wireless one.

2) Is anybody else in your house streaming (such as YouTube, Netflix, etc.)? If so, might have to ask them to stop. Depending on your home network, steaming an HD movie, for example, can overwhelm a slower home internet connection.

It is possible that your home Internet connection can be experiencing problems, especially if many people in the area / neighborhood / city are using it heavily. This may not be noticeable when browsing the web, or streaming video/audio in a one-way download; however it will be noticeable when doing live two-way video or audio. You may want to contact your ISP to ask if loads are high in your area. You can also try power cycling your cable modem and wireless router. If a video+audio call is choppy, try turning off video and see if audio improves.

How To Use OneDrive In Office 365

PLEASE NOTE: Purdue has licensed Microsoft OneDrive for the entire campus and all faculty and staff members have been allocated 1 TB of space in OneDrive.  The Education IT team is now encouraging all of our users to transition to OneDrive (which is a component of Office 365).  Here is a video showing how to use OneDrive in Office 365:

Log in here: https://portal.office.com/

 

For more information see:

https://it.purdue.edu/services/microsoft-office-365.php

— Education IT (edit@purdue.edu)

Purdue Data Depot for Research Workgroup File Storage

Dear College of Education Researchers,

Are you looking for network file storage for your research workgroup? Now that the Purdue Data Depot has been created, Education IT is recommending that all research workgroups consider using the Purdue Data Depot which is designed specifically for research workgroups and research data. Here is the web site:

Purdue Data Depot
https://www.rcac.purdue.edu/storage/depot/

And here is a description from the web site:

“The Data Depot is a high-capacity, fast, reliable and secure data storage service designed, configured and operated for the needs of Purdue researchers in any field and shareable with both on-campus and off-campus collaborators.”

“All research groups at Purdue are eligible for a 100 GB Data Depot trial space free of charge.”

We believe the Purdue Data Depot will be a better solution than using traditional file storage systems that research groups have used in the past. You can initiate a request for the free 100 GB of research storage space by sending email to rcac-help@purdue.edu or by going to this web page:

Data Depot Purchase Page
https://www.rcac.purdue.edu/purchase/depot/
(See “Purchase Now” button at bottom of the Data Depot web page linked above)

The Research Computing Group can walk you through the process of setting up a shared storage space for your research workgroup. Then, the Education IT team can assist you in gaining access via your office workstation(s) or laptop(s) as needed. If you need more space than the free 100 GB, you can purchase additional increments of 1 TB for $150.00 per year.

Please feel free to contact the Research Computing Group directly. Or, if you prefer, the Education IT team would be happy to contact them on your behalf.

Thank you!

— Education IT

Purdue Rice Super Computer Build

Our very own Matt Lundmark represented the Education IT team at the Purdue Rice super computer build on May 8, 2015.

Here is the news story about the build:

http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2015/Q2/purdues-eighth-supercomputer-not-quite-minute-rice,-but-will-be-built-in-a-day.html

(See video trailer below)

Congratulations to the Purdue IT community on their eighth highly successful 1-day super computer build!

— The Education IT team

FileLocker – Share Files Securely

If you need to share files securely with others and you don’t want to risk placing your files on a consumer file sharing site, a good alternative @ Purdue is to use use FileLocker to distribute / share your files.

FileLocker is a free Purdue system that allows large files (up to 1 GB) to be securely uploaded and distributed. Files are encrypted within the system and you can protect files with a download password that non-Purdue people can use to fetch the file.

For example, instead of sending out CD’s in the mail to distribute a large file, you could upload it to FileLocker to enable others to securely download it.  If you need to share a group of files and folders, you could upload a ZIP file to FileLocker.

Here is a blurb from the FileLocker online help:

Learn how to share an uploaded file with anyone using a publicly available URL

1. After uploading a file, click on the file that you want to share and check the box next to “Public Share”.
2. Once the box is checked, you’ll be prompted to choose which email addresses should receive a link to the file you are sharing. You must also specify whether the share will expire after one use, or whether it can be downloaded repeatedly.
3. If the file may be downloaded repeatedly, you must specify a password that must be entered before the file can be downloaded. You will have to communicate this password to any intended recipients of the file through some other secure means (phone, encrypted email, etc).
4. Once you click share, a publicly accessible URL to download the file will be created, any email addresses you’ve entered will be sent an email notifying them that file is now available at the generated URL, and the URL will be displayed.
5. You may view the publicly accessible download URL and send it to additional people by email at any time after you share the file publicly by clicking on the “(view link)” text next to the Public Share checkbox.

You can find more information about FileLocker on these web pages:

https://it.purdue.edu/services/filelocker.php

Here is the direct link to the FileLocker login page (requires Purdue career account to log in):

https://filelocker.purdue.edu

Thank you and happy file sharing!

–Education IT

Purdue: Supercomputers Slow Down to Stay Cool in Summer Heat

An article about Purdue in CHE:

A group of information-technology specialists at Purdue University has found a way to beat the heat for a university data center’s two supercomputers. This summer, when temperatures rose and the campus cooling system wasn’t doing enough to bring them down, Purdue’s IT team reined in the clusters’ computing speeds to cut down on the heat the computers were generating.

For the rest of the story…

 http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Supercomputers-Slow-Down-to/26363