A new version of Virtual DICE is now available for download. (Here’s how to download it.) If you don’t know what Virtual DICE is, read on. The managed Linux machines here in the School of Informatics run an environment which we call DICE. We use DICE on desktop computers and on servers, but we also […]

We have introduced a new password policy for DICE accounts: http://computing.help.inf.ed.ac.uk/password-policy The significant changes made to the previous policy are: We now have a more flexible approach to the number of character classes required in any password – specifically that the longer the password, the fewer number of distinct character classes is required. All password […]

The “IPv6 investigation” project has made good progress since my previous post in January.  We have had global connectivity since February, and have been testing on a variety of subnets since then, including all of our “server” subnets, and most recently the “Appleton Tower” (including Forrest Hill and Wilkie) managed DICE desktop subnet. We have […]

We need to upgrade the general access SSH server (schiff) to SL7. We plan to start this work at 9am on Tuesday 16th August. We expect the service to be unavailable for approximately 2 hours, we will send out another message when the work has been completed. During the period of downtime an alternative SSH […]

Git is a version control system which has become very popular within Informatics. In fact it has become so popular that we are now offering no less that three different Git related services within the School! At this point, if you are familiar with Git, you may be wondering why we bother since it is […]

We need to upgrade the staff SSH server (brendel) to SL7. We plan to do this at 9am on Tuesday 9th August. We expect the service to be unavailable for most of that morning, we will send out another message when the work has been completed. During the period of downtime the alternative SSH server […]

The x509 certificate used to secure communications with smtp.inf.ed.ac.uk changed this morning. The authenticated SMTP service uses an automatically generated certificated, ultimately signed by the University’s root CA. The service certificates only last a year, and this morning it was automatically replaced with a new certificate. Certificate: Data: Version: 3 (0x2) Serial Number: 3811 (0xee3) […]

We have recently added support for the Redhat Software Collections (2.1) on SL7 DICE machines. Redhat describes these as: For certain applications, more recent versions of some software components are often needed in order to use their latest new features. Red Hat Software Collections is a Red Hat offering that provides a set of dynamic […]

The 2nd minor update to ScientificLinux 7 (which is based on RHEL7) is now ready for deployment to the Informatics SL7 DICE office machines. At this point the update will NOT be deployed in the student labs, they will remain on SL7.1 until after exams have finished at the end of May. A minor update […]

As input to a review which Information Services are conducting into EdLAN, the network which ties the University together, I have written a document which describes the Informatics network and the various “requirements” that guide its design and management. Please feel free to read it!  I hope you don’t find the style too offputting; it […]