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Computing Facilities

Computing facilities are provided by both the department and the central university computing center, known as Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP). ITaP is diverse, with many divisions such as Telecommunications, Research Computing, and Instructional Computing. The department works closely with ITaP and together they provide a robust computing environment that facilitates research and instruction. To learn more about the services that ITaP provides please visit their site at: http://www.itap.purdue.edu/

Departmental Computing Under Windows

The department maintains a Windows 2003 Active Directory domain. It includes several domain controllers, a print server, a home directory fileserver with a 750GB RAID array, an administrative fileserver with a 320GB RAID array, a McAfee EPO server, and a Windows Server Update Services computer for the automatic deployment of Microsoft patches. All servers have gigabit network connections and are rack-mounted in a departmental machine room.

The Windows XP desktop computers that are members of our Windows domain are distributed among faculty, staff, and student offices, and in graduate student computer labs. There are four graduate student computer labs populated with 3.0 Ghz Core 2 Duo desktops with 4G of RAM and 22-inch LCD monitors.

Each desktop PC is configured per the National Security Agency's Windows XP Security Recommendation Guides, which restrict the ability of users to modify most files and registry settings on the local computer. This greatly enhances security and significantly reduces the chance that a lab user could modify, corrupt, or destroy the OS or application software on a lab computer. When a user logs into one of our PCs they access the files in their home directory from a central fileserver, meaning the desktop files, configuration settings, etc. will be identical regardless of which PC they use.

The Computer Systems Specialist builds baseline departmental Windows XP images which are then replicated to any new computer using Symmantec's Ghost hard drive replication software. The baseline software image includes Microsoft Office 2003 Professional (plus Publisher and Frontpage), MathType, SAS, R, S-Plus, Matlab, Maple, WinBugs, Xming (X-Window server), SSH, Acrobat, MikTeX, Emacs, Ghostscript, Quicktime, and Skype. Some staff PCs will also have additional software like the Adobe CS3 suite, Dreamweaver, etc.

Every departmental PC automatically maps the user's UNIX home directory as a network drive, allowing them to store both their UNIX and Windows files in the same shared area if they choose.

Our Windows 2003 fileserver user data is backed up nightly over the network using Amanda to a centrally maintained DLT drive. The Windows 2003 domain controllers and member servers are backed up via Bacula to a DLT drive array. Individual desktop computers are not backed up at all -- there is nothing user specific to back up. Any desktop could fail at any time and the end user wouldn't loose any files since they are all stored on central fileservers. Failed desktops will have their hard drives replaced with fresh copies of the departmental Windows XP image via Ghost.

Graduate student offices are equipped with a Windows XP desktop PC and 19-inch LCD monitor.

The department has configured and distributed laptops to faculty, staff, and graduate students as appropriate for teaching. A baseline Windows XP laptop image has been created in the same way the desktop image was created. The Windows XP laptops generally have all the same software as is available on our Lab computers. The department has two portable computer projectors for use when presenting in a room not already equipped with a computer projector.

Any faculty member purchasing a desktop PC for home use can request a copy of the departmental Windows XP software image to be installed on their desktop so they can use almost the same software set at home as is available on campus.

Departmental Computing Under UNIX/Linux

The department maintains around forty UNIX/Linux/BSD servers providing a variety of services including general multi-user computing, dedicated research computing, file service, and general infrastructure. Servers range in power and disk capacity, with several of the best research servers having a pair of dual-core Xeon processors, 16G of RAM, 1.5TB disk space, and are running Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5. Primary network services supplied include SSH, Web server, IMAP, POP3, SMTP, NFS, DHCP, printing, MySQL, subnet based transparent bridging firewalls, and three layers of SPAM filtering. Major application software available includes S-Plus, R, SAS, Matlab, Maple, Mathematica, and LaTeX. There are a host of freeware compilers, applications, and utilities available as well.

UNIX servers are housed in the temperature controlled ITaP machine room in the ground floor of the Math building, or in the departmentally controlled machine room on the 5th floor of the Math building. Servers are on uninterruptable power supplies (UPS) that in the event of a power failure will allow them to run on battery power for a time and then force them to gracefully shutdown if power is not restored before the batteries are depleted. Servers are connected to the console server, which provides remote low-level access to the servers in single user mode or even at the BIOS level. The console server displays the aggregate console output of every machine connected to it and is monitored for abnormalities. The Computer Systems Administrator will be called in the event of any unusual output on the console.

Backups happen nightly for all UNIX/Linux servers. Backups are transmitted over the network to a centrally located DLT array operated by ITaP Operations staff. The Amanda program controls the backup schedule.

Files stored on our UNIX servers can be visible as shared network drives from both our departmental Windows XP desktops, from the ITaP desktops, or from off-campus desktops or laptops via a VPN connection.

Printing

The department maintains thirty black and white laser printers and two color laser printer. The printers can be found in computer labs, staff offices, and in the offices of faculty members who have purchased them with startup funds or through grants.

Web and Databases

Administrative databases pertaining to personnel, textbooks, course scheduling, alumni, etc. are maintained using Microsoft Access on our Windows XP desktop PCs. Data for public information is exported to a MySQL database allowing web pages to be dynamically populated with the most up to date information. An internal departmental web server makes non-public information available to our faculty, staff, and students.

Computer Support Staff

The department employs a full-time Computer Manager, a full-time UNIX Systems Administrator, a full-time Windows Systems Administrator, a full-time Webmaster, and two to three student assistants.