ECE Information Technology Services - User contributions [en]

How To Get An Account

2018-09-06T23:01:48Z

Derekp:

==Undergraduate and MEng students==
If you are an undergraduate or MEng student registered in an ECE course, we will
automatically create an account for you. Using the Self-Service ECE Account Management tool at [https://id.ece.ubc.ca/ https://id.ece.ubc.ca/], you will be able to claim your account by setting your password.

==All Others==
All other accounts are created upon receipt of appropriately authorized
application form.

# Complete and print the [[Application For An Account On Departmental Computing Facilities | account application form]]. Both you and your supervisor need to complete and sign it. For your convenience, you can fill in the PDF before printing.
# Bring the form to the IT Support Team in MacLeod 105, or email it to it@ece.ubc.ca.

The use of all department computing resources is subject to UBC's [http://universitycounsel.ubc.ca/ Acceptable Use Policies].

Scheduled ECE network outage (February 16, 2018)

2018-02-20T00:37:23Z

Derekp:

UBC IT will be performing a network configuration change on Friday February 16, 2018, from 20:00 to 22:00. This work is needed to remove some network equipment that has become obsolete.

During this time, the following services are expected to be unavailable:

* Wired, wireless, and VPN networks in ECE
* Most ECE servers (including DNS and LDAP)
* Most ECE websites (including www.ece.ubc.ca)
* ECE home directories (through NFS or CIFS)

ECE mail service (sending mail through SMTP, receiving mail through IMAP, and webmail) will also be unavailable. Incoming mail will be queued, and delivery will resume afterwards.

Because NFS home directories will be unavailable, we recommend that users log out from accounts that directly use ECE home directories (including Linux workstations and ssh.ece.ubc.ca).

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Derek Poon 
UBC IT Services @ ECE

==Update 2018-02-16 20:50==

The operation was successful. All networks and services should be operating normally now; please [[How To Report A Problem|report any problems you may encounter]].

==Update 2018-02-19 16:30==

Users on several subnets (RCL, COSE, POEM, and others) have reported problems with their network connection, specifically with acquiring an IP address via DHCP. We have found a likely cause, and are now working to implement a fix.

Scheduled ECE network outage (February 16, 2018)

2018-02-17T04:50:15Z

Derekp: Outage over.

Main Page

2018-02-16T00:43:38Z

Derekp: /* Announcements */

==ECE Information Technology Services==

Please select one of the HOWTO collections:

<dl>
<dt>[[HOWTOs For Users]]
<dd>HOWTOs for all users of ECE computing infrastructure
<dt>[[HOWTOs For Researchers]]
<dd>HOWTOs for the ECE research community
<dt>[[HOWTOs For Instructors]]
<dd>HOWTOs for the ECE teaching community
</dl>

==Announcements==
<dl>
<dt>[[Scheduled ECE network outage (February 16, 2018)]]
<dd>On 2018-02-16, from 20:00 to 22:00, the ECE network and most ECE services will be unavailable.

<dt>[[General ECE service outage (September 14, 2017)]]
<dd>From 2017-09-14 11:10 to approximately 15:30, most ECE services were down, including home directories, SMB shares, IMAP, Webmail, and websites. Services should be working now; please report any persisting abnormalities. Queued inbound mail should be have been delivered now.

<dt>[[Problems connecting to ubcprivate (September 12, 2017)]]
<dd>Reports have been received of problems connecting to the "ubcprivate" wireless network. Central IT has been notified of the situation. In the meantime, the ECE network can be accessed wirelessly by using the "ubcsecure" wireless network together with the ECE VPN. A Cisco "AnyConnect" VPN client is available at http://myvpn.ubc.ca. The server to connect to from the client is myvpn.ubc.ca. Credentials are the same as for ubcprivate.

<dt>[[Matlab license server and Teamshare inaccessible (May 1, 2017)]]
<dd>Following the firewall upgrade yesterday, the nameservers for the ead.ubc.ca DNS zone were failing to respond, causing services such as Teamshare and MATLAB licensing to be unavailable to ECE users until 14:45.

<dt>[[Teamviewer outage (Jun 1, 2016)]]
<dd>Due to widespread reports that unauthorized users have been able to remotely control computers through TeamViewer, we have taken the precaution of blocking TeamViewer on the ECE network.

<dt>[[Malicious email (Feb 11, 2016)]]
<dd>If you have received an email with subject "Scan from KM1650" and attachment "=SCAN7318_000.DOC" please do not open it. The attachment contains a trojan.

<dt>[[Change to access to IEEExplore from off-campus]]
<dd>Please be aware that the Library no longer provides access to IEEExplore through myVPN. Off-campus users should now use EZproxy instead:

https://login.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.library.ubc.ca

http://ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/login?url=http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/DynWel.jsp

Please note that access through EZproxy is available only to current UBC students, staff, and faculty.

</dl>

Scheduled ECE network outage (February 16, 2018)

2018-02-16T00:42:00Z

Derekp: announcement

How To Password Protect Personal Web Content

2017-09-28T23:09:22Z

Derekp: More Apache 2.4 updates

You already know [[How To Publish Personal Web Content]], but you want to
restrict web surfers' access to certain pages. This can be accomplished by
requiring users to authenticate with the web server to access these
password-protected pages.

The HTTP protocol has the ability to prompt a user for a username and password.
You can require users to enter the username/password of their departmental
account or check the username/password against your own password file.

Unfortunately, the HTTP authentication mechanism transmits this information
unencrypted. Therefore you '''must''' enforce the use of HTTPS (HTTP+SSL) to
protect the username/password between the web surfer's browser and the
departmental web server, as instructed below.

==Directory Layout==
First you need to set up an area in your document tree that you wish to make
private. These instructions follow the convention that the <tt>~/etc/www/priv/</tt>
directory is the one containing the password-protected content, but it could be
any directory within the <tt>~/etc/www/</tt> document tree.

{|
|-
! File or Directory
! Minimum Filesystem Permissions
! Comment
|-
| <tt>~/</tt>
| <tt>rwx--x--x</tt> (<tt>chmod a+x</tt>)
| Your home directory
|-
| <tt>~/etc/</tt>
| <tt>rwx--x--x</tt> (<tt>chmod a+x</tt>)
| Your <tt>etc</tt> directory
|-
| <tt>~/etc/www/</tt>
| <tt>rwx--x--x</tt> (<tt>chmod a+x</tt>)
| Your document root
|-
| <tt>~/etc/www/index.html</tt>
| <tt>rw-r--r--</tt> (<tt>chmod a+r</tt>)
| Your public home page
|-
| <tt>~/etc/www/public.html</tt>
| <tt>rw-r--r--</tt> (<tt>chmod a+r</tt>)
| Another public document
|-
| <tt>~/etc/www/priv/</tt>
| <tt>rwx--x--x</tt> (<tt>chmod a+x</tt>)
| Directory for password-protected files
|-
| <tt>~/etc/www/priv/''protected''.html</tt>
| <tt>rw-r--r--</tt> (<tt>chmod a+r</tt>)
| A password-protected document
|-
| <tt>~/etc/www/priv/.htaccess</tt>
| <tt>rw-r--r--</tt> (<tt>chmod a+r</tt>)
| Apache config file
|-
| <tt>~/etc/www/priv/.htpasswd</tt>
| <tt>rw-r--r--</tt> (<tt>chmod a+r</tt>)
| Apache file for <tt>AuthUserFile</tt>
|-
| <tt>~/etc/www/priv/.htgroup</tt>
| <tt>rw-r--r--</tt> (<tt>chmod a+r</tt>)
| Apache file for <tt>AuthGroupFile</tt>
|}

All of these files need to have world-readable filesystem
permissions (<tt>chmod a+r</tt>) and all of these directories need to be marked
world-executable (<tt>chmod a+x</tt>) to allow the webserver to access them.

The key to getting this setup to work is the <tt>.htaccess</tt> file in the <tt>priv</tt>
directory. There are three basic variations for this file:

==Variation 1: Authenticate Departmental Users Only==
Place an <tt>.htaccess</tt> file with the following contents in the directory you wish to protect:

<tt>
# Force the use of SSL... SSLRequireSSL
# ... and redirect non-SSL requests to the corresponding HTTPS URL ErrorDocument 403 /cgi-bin/ssl-redirect

# Use HTTP Basic Authentication AuthType Basic
# Validate usernames/passwords against the ECE account database AuthBasicProvider ece
# The AuthName is incorporated in the username/password prompt AuthName "ECE Account"
# Allow any authenticated user Require valid-user
</tt>

You can restrict access to specific ECE users and groups by changing the
<tt>Require valid-user</tt> line. For more information, see
[[#The All-Important Require Directive|The All-Important <tt>Require</tt> Directive]] below.

==Variation 2: Authenticate Non-Departmental Users Only==
With this <tt>.htaccess</tt> configuration, only users listed in your <tt>.htpasswd</tt>
file may access the private pages. To create and manage your <tt>.htpasswd</tt>
file, use the <tt>htpasswd</tt> command, which is available on the [[How To Use SSH |<tt>ssh.ece.ubc.ca</tt>]] machines.

<tt>
SSLRequireSSL 
ErrorDocument 403 /cgi-bin/ssl-redirect 
 
AuthType Basic 
AuthBasicProvider file 
AuthUserFile ''path to home directory''/etc/www/priv/.htpasswd 
AuthName "my private page" 
Require valid-user 
</tt>

The <tt>AuthBasicProvider file</tt> line may be omitted.

Please ensure that value for <tt>''path to home directory''</tt> that you use is
identical to that reported by the command <tt>getent passwd ''username''</tt>.
It must be a full path (starting with <tt>/ubc/ece/home/...</tt>; <tt>~''username''</tt> will not work.

==Variation 3: Authenticate Non-Departmental and Departmental Users==
With this <tt>.htaccess</tt> configuration, the webserver will authenticate
the user against both your <tt>.htpasswd</tt> file and the ECE account database.

<tt>
SSLRequireSSL 
ErrorDocument 403 /cgi-bin/ssl-redirect 
 
AuthType Basic 
AuthBasicProvider file ece 
AuthName "ECE or Other Account" 
AuthUserFile ''path to home directory''/etc/www/priv/.htpasswd 
Require valid-user 
</tt>

==The All-Important <tt>Require</tt> Directive==

The <tt>Require</tt> directive is the means by which you can restrict access to your
password-protected personal web content to a specific set of users. The
following table of examples should help to understand how the directive can be
used.

{|
|-
! To restrict access to...
! ... use this <tt>Require</tt> directive
|-
| any authenticated user
| <tt>Require valid-user</tt>
|-
| specific users (e.g., <tt>lucaf</tt> and <tt>robr</tt>)
| <tt>Require user lucaf robr</tt>
|-
| specific groups (e.g., <tt>robotics</tt>)
| <tt><IfVersion < 2.4>     Require group robotics </IfVersion> <IfVersion >= 2.4>     Require unix-group robotics </IfVersion></tt>
|}

For more information on the <tt>Require</tt> directives, please see
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/core.html#require and http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_authz_core.html#require .

==See Also==
* [http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/howto/auth.html Apache 2.2 Documentation]
* [http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/howto/auth.html Apache 2.4 Documentation]

How To Password Protect Personal Web Content

2017-09-25T22:57:16Z

Derekp: Updated instructions for Apache 2.4 compatibility

You already know [[How To Publish Personal Web Content]], but you want to
restrict web surfers' access to certain pages. This can be accomplished by
requiring users to authenticate with the web server to access these
password-protected pages.

The HTTP protocol has the ability to prompt a user for a username and password.
You can require users to enter the username/password of their departmental
account or check the username/password against your own password file.

Unfortunately, the HTTP authentication mechanism transmits this information
unencrypted. Therefore you '''must''' enforce the use of HTTPS (HTTP+SSL) to
protect the username/password between the web surfer's browser and the
departmental web server, as instructed below.

==Syntax Changes in Apache 2.2==
In version 2.2 of the Apache webserver, the syntax for configuring password
protection [http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/upgrading.html changed].
Although the new syntax is more logical and flexible, it is not
backwards-compatible.

Currently, ECE course websites, research group websites, and personal websites are
running on Apache 2.2. (Personal websites were upgraded March 27, 2008. If you
encounter Internal Server Errors when accessing password-protected content in your
personal website, you will need to
[[How To Password-Protect Web Content (Instructions for Apache 2.0 or Earlier)|update your configuration]].)

==Directory Layout==
First you need to set up an area in your document tree that you wish to make
private. These instructions follow the convention that the <tt>~/etc/www/priv/</tt>
directory is the one containing the password-protected content, but it could be
any directory within the <tt>~/etc/www/</tt> document tree.

{|
|-
! File or Directory
! Minimum Filesystem Permissions
! Comment
|-
| <tt>~/</tt>
| <tt>rwx--x--x</tt> (<tt>chmod a+x</tt>)
| Your home directory
|-
| <tt>~/etc/</tt>
| <tt>rwx--x--x</tt> (<tt>chmod a+x</tt>)
| Your <tt>etc</tt> directory
|-
| <tt>~/etc/www/</tt>
| <tt>rwx--x--x</tt> (<tt>chmod a+x</tt>)
| Your document root
|-
| <tt>~/etc/www/index.html</tt>
| <tt>rw-r--r--</tt> (<tt>chmod a+r</tt>)
| Your public home page
|-
| <tt>~/etc/www/public.html</tt>
| <tt>rw-r--r--</tt> (<tt>chmod a+r</tt>)
| Another public document
|-
| <tt>~/etc/www/priv/</tt>
| <tt>rwx--x--x</tt> (<tt>chmod a+x</tt>)
| Directory for password-protected files
|-
| <tt>~/etc/www/priv/''protected''.html</tt>
| <tt>rw-r--r--</tt> (<tt>chmod a+r</tt>)
| A password-protected document
|-
| <tt>~/etc/www/priv/.htaccess</tt>
| <tt>rw-r--r--</tt> (<tt>chmod a+r</tt>)
| Apache config file
|-
| <tt>~/etc/www/priv/.htpasswd</tt>
| <tt>rw-r--r--</tt> (<tt>chmod a+r</tt>)
| Apache file for <tt>AuthUserFile</tt>
|-
| <tt>~/etc/www/priv/.htgroup</tt>
| <tt>rw-r--r--</tt> (<tt>chmod a+r</tt>)
| Apache file for <tt>AuthGroupFile</tt>
|}

All of these files need to have world-readable filesystem
permissions (<tt>chmod a+r</tt>) and all of these directories need to be marked
world-executable (<tt>chmod a+x</tt>) to allow the webserver to access them.

The key to getting this setup to work is the <tt>.htaccess</tt> file in the <tt>priv</tt>
directory. There are three basic variations for this file:

==Variation 1: Authenticate Departmental Users Only==
Place an <tt>.htaccess</tt> file with the following contents in the directory you wish to protect:

<tt>
# Force the use of SSL... SSLRequireSSL
# ... and redirect non-SSL requests to the corresponding HTTPS URL ErrorDocument 403 /cgi-bin/ssl-redirect

# Use HTTP Basic Authentication AuthType Basic
# Validate usernames/passwords against the ECE account database AuthBasicProvider ece
# The AuthName is incorporated in the username/password prompt AuthName "ECE Account"
# Allow any authenticated user Require valid-user
</tt>

You can restrict access to specific ECE users and groups by changing the
<tt>Require valid-user</tt> line. For more information, see
[[#The All-Important Require Directive|The All-Important <tt>Require</tt> Directive]] below.

==Variation 2: Authenticate Non-Departmental Users Only==
With this <tt>.htaccess</tt> configuration, only users listed in your <tt>.htpasswd</tt>
file may access the private pages. To create and manage your <tt>.htpasswd</tt>
file, use the <tt>htpasswd</tt> command, which is available on the [[How To Use SSH |<tt>ssh.ece.ubc.ca</tt>]] machines.

<tt>
SSLRequireSSL 
ErrorDocument 403 /cgi-bin/ssl-redirect 
 
AuthType Basic 
AuthBasicProvider file 
AuthUserFile ''path to home directory''/etc/www/priv/.htpasswd 
AuthName "my private page" 
Require valid-user 
</tt>

The <tt>AuthBasicProvider file</tt> line may be omitted.

Please ensure that value for <tt>''path to home directory''</tt> that you use is
identical to that reported by the command <tt>getent passwd ''username''</tt>.
It must be a full path (starting with <tt>/ubc/ece/home/...</tt>; <tt>~''username''</tt> will not work.

==Variation 3: Authenticate Non-Departmental and Departmental Users==
With this <tt>.htaccess</tt> configuration, the webserver will authenticate
the user against both your <tt>.htpasswd</tt> file and the ECE account database.

<tt>
SSLRequireSSL 
ErrorDocument 403 /cgi-bin/ssl-redirect 
 
AuthType Basic 
AuthBasicProvider file ece 
AuthName "ECE or Other Account" 
AuthUserFile ''path to home directory''/etc/www/priv/.htpasswd 
Require valid-user 
</tt>

==The All-Important <tt>Require</tt> Directive==

The <tt>Require</tt> directive is the means by which you can restrict access to your
password-protected personal web content to a specific set of users. The
following table of examples should help to understand how the directive can be
used.

{|
|-
! To restrict access to...
! ... use this <tt>Require</tt> directive
|-
| any authenticated user
| <tt>Require valid-user</tt>
|-
| specific users (e.g., <tt>lucaf</tt> and <tt>robr</tt>)
| <tt>Require user lucaf robr</tt>
|-
| specific groups (e.g., <tt>robotics</tt>)
| <tt><IfVersion < 2.4>     Require group robotics </IfVersion> <IfVersion >= 2.4>     Require unix-group robotics </IfVersion></tt>
|}

For more information on the <tt>Require</tt> directives, please see
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/core.html#require .

==See Also==
* [[How To Password-Protect Web Content (Instructions for Apache 2.0 or Earlier)]]
* [http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/howto/auth.html Apache Documentation]

Main Page

2017-09-15T00:09:25Z

Derekp: /* Announcements */

==ECE Information Technology Services==

Please select one of the HOWTO collections:

<dl>
<dt>[[HOWTOs For Users]]
<dd>HOWTOs for all users of ECE computing infrastructure
<dt>[[HOWTOs For Researchers]]
<dd>HOWTOs for the ECE research community
<dt>[[HOWTOs For Instructors]]
<dd>HOWTOs for the ECE teaching community
</dl>

==Announcements==
<dl>
<dt>[[General ECE service outage (September 14, 2017)]]
<dd>From 2017-09-14 11:10 to approximately 15:30, most ECE services were down, including home directories, SMB shares, IMAP, Webmail, and websites. Services should be working now; please report any persisting abnormalities. Queued inbound mail should be have been delivered now.

<dt>[[Problems connecting to ubcprivate (September 12, 2017)]]
<dd>Reports have been received of problems connecting to the "ubcprivate" wireless network. Central IT has been notified of the situation. In the meantime, the ECE network can be accessed wirelessly by using the "ubcsecure" wireless network together with the ECE VPN. A Cisco "AnyConnect" VPN client is available at http://myvpn.ubc.ca. The server to connect to from the client is myvpn.ubc.ca. Credentials are the same as for ubcprivate.

<dt>[[Matlab license server and Teamshare inaccessible (May 1, 2017)]]
<dd>Following the firewall upgrade yesterday, the nameservers for the ead.ubc.ca DNS zone were failing to respond, causing services such as Teamshare and MATLAB licensing to be unavailable to ECE users until 14:45.

<dt>[[ECE firewall upgrade (Apr 30, 2017)]]
<dd>On Sunday 2017-04-30, between 09:00 and 10:00 PDT, UBC IT will be performing a network firewall upgrade affecting the Electrical and Computer Engineering department. During that window, the ECE network will experience a brief outage of less than 10 minutes during the transition.

<dt>[[ECE website outage (Nov 21, 2016)]]
<dd>Multiple ECE websites, including www.ece.ubc.ca and courses.ece.ubc.ca, went offline from 16:19 to 18:15.

<dt>[[Teamviewer outage (Jun 1, 2016)]]
<dd>Due to widespread reports that unauthorized users have been able to remotely control computers through TeamViewer, we have taken the precaution of blocking TeamViewer on the ECE network.

<dt>[[Malicious email (Feb 11, 2016)]]
<dd>If you have received an email with subject "Scan from KM1650" and attachment "=SCAN7318_000.DOC" please do not open it. The attachment contains a trojan.

<dt>[[Change to access to IEEExplore from off-campus]]
<dd>Please be aware that the Library no longer provides access to IEEExplore through myVPN. Off-campus users should now use EZproxy instead:

https://login.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.library.ubc.ca

http://ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/login?url=http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/DynWel.jsp

Please note that access through EZproxy is available only to current UBC students, staff, and faculty.

</dl>

Main Page

2017-09-15T00:09:01Z

Derekp: General ECE service outage (September 14, 2017)

==ECE Information Technology Services==

Please select one of the HOWTO collections:

<dl>
<dt>[[HOWTOs For Users]]
<dd>HOWTOs for all users of ECE computing infrastructure
<dt>[[HOWTOs For Researchers]]
<dd>HOWTOs for the ECE research community
<dt>[[HOWTOs For Instructors]]
<dd>HOWTOs for the ECE teaching community
</dl>

==Announcements==
<dl>
<dt>General ECE service outage (September 14, 2017)
<dd>From 2017-09-14 11:10 to approximately 15:30, most ECE services were down, including home directories, SMB shares, IMAP, Webmail, and websites. Services should be working now; please report any persisting abnormalities. Queued inbound mail should be have been delivered now.

<dt>[[Problems connecting to ubcprivate (September 12, 2017)]]
<dd>Reports have been received of problems connecting to the "ubcprivate" wireless network. Central IT has been notified of the situation. In the meantime, the ECE network can be accessed wirelessly by using the "ubcsecure" wireless network together with the ECE VPN. A Cisco "AnyConnect" VPN client is available at http://myvpn.ubc.ca. The server to connect to from the client is myvpn.ubc.ca. Credentials are the same as for ubcprivate.

<dt>[[Matlab license server and Teamshare inaccessible (May 1, 2017)]]
<dd>Following the firewall upgrade yesterday, the nameservers for the ead.ubc.ca DNS zone were failing to respond, causing services such as Teamshare and MATLAB licensing to be unavailable to ECE users until 14:45.

<dt>[[ECE firewall upgrade (Apr 30, 2017)]]
<dd>On Sunday 2017-04-30, between 09:00 and 10:00 PDT, UBC IT will be performing a network firewall upgrade affecting the Electrical and Computer Engineering department. During that window, the ECE network will experience a brief outage of less than 10 minutes during the transition.

<dt>[[ECE website outage (Nov 21, 2016)]]
<dd>Multiple ECE websites, including www.ece.ubc.ca and courses.ece.ubc.ca, went offline from 16:19 to 18:15.

<dt>[[Teamviewer outage (Jun 1, 2016)]]
<dd>Due to widespread reports that unauthorized users have been able to remotely control computers through TeamViewer, we have taken the precaution of blocking TeamViewer on the ECE network.

<dt>[[Malicious email (Feb 11, 2016)]]
<dd>If you have received an email with subject "Scan from KM1650" and attachment "=SCAN7318_000.DOC" please do not open it. The attachment contains a trojan.

<dt>[[Change to access to IEEExplore from off-campus]]
<dd>Please be aware that the Library no longer provides access to IEEExplore through myVPN. Off-campus users should now use EZproxy instead:

https://login.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.library.ubc.ca

http://ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/login?url=http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/DynWel.jsp

Please note that access through EZproxy is available only to current UBC students, staff, and faculty.

</dl>

General ECE service outage (September 14, 2017)

2017-09-15T00:07:58Z

Derekp:

From 2017-09-14 11:10 to approximately 15:30, most ECE services were down, including home directories, SMB shares, IMAP, Webmail, and websites. Services should be working now; please report any persisting abnormalities. Queued inbound mail should be have been delivered now.

Linux workstations using NFS-mounted home directories may need to be rebooted.

== Technical explanation ==

Most ECE servers rely on our NetApp filer in some way, whether for content, configuration, or for input/output.

The NetApp relies on LDAP netgroups to obtain the list of clients that are allowed to mount each NFS share.

On 2017-09-13, at 22:51, we made a routine edit to add a member to a netgroup. Due to a failure in the automated process to sync the change to our LDAP servers, the process ended up clearing all netgroup entries instead.

Due to the way that the NetApp aggressively caches netgroup entries, the failure went unnoticed until 2017-09-14 11:10, when the NetApp started denying access to all NFS clients. Although we had restored the missing netgroup definitions in our LDAP server, the NetApp would continue to deny access to clients until the cached bad netgroup entries could be flushed. This happened around 15:30. Thereafter, we had to reboot various servers to restore functionality.

General ECE service outage (September 14, 2017)

2017-09-15T00:07:27Z

Derekp: Created page with 'From 2017-09-14 11:10 to approximately 15:30, most ECE services were down, including home directories, SMB shares, IMAP, Webmail, and websites. Services should be working now; p…'

From 2017-09-14 11:10 to approximately 15:30, most ECE services were down, including home directories, SMB shares, IMAP, Webmail, and websites. Services should be working now; please report any persisting abnormalities. Queued inbound mail should be have been delivered now.

Linux workstations using NFS-mounted home directories may need to be rebooted.

== Technical explanation

Most ECE servers rely on our NetApp filer in some way, whether for content, configuration, or for input/output.

The NetApp relies on LDAP netgroups to obtain the list of clients that are allowed to mount each NFS share.

On 2017-09-13, at 22:51, we made a routine edit to add a member to a netgroup. Due to a failure in the automated process to sync the change to our LDAP servers, the process ended up clearing all netgroup entries instead.

Due to the way that the NetApp aggressively caches netgroup entries, the failure went unnoticed until 2017-09-14 11:10, when the NetApp started denying access to all NFS clients. Although we had restored the missing netgroup definitions in our LDAP server, the NetApp would continue to deny access to clients until the cached bad netgroup entries could be flushed. This happened around 15:30. Thereafter, we had to reboot various servers to restore functionality.

HOWTOs For Users

2017-05-29T23:25:12Z

Derekp: Link to Anti-Phishing Measures

==Problems?==
* [[How To Report A Problem]]
* [[How To Contact Us]]

==Computer / Network Access==
* [[How To Get An Account]]
* [[How To Secure Your Home Directory]]
* [[How To Change Your Password]]
* [[How To Obtain A Network Connection]]

==Physical Access==
* [[Keys and Keyless Entry]]

==Profiles==
Read this if you have problems with downloading files, surfing the Internet,
assigning the default printer and printing PDF files from Windows workstations.
* [[How To Reset Your Profile]]
* [[How To Keep Your Profile Small]]

==Email==
* [[Email Quick Start|Email Quick Start/Client Configuration Guide]]
* [[Anti-Phishing Measures]]
* [[How Received Email Is Processed]]
* [[How To Forward Email]]
* [[How To Sort Email Using Address Extensions]]
* [[How To Sort Email Using Procmail|How To Sort Email Using Procmail (For Advanced Users)]]
* [[How To Filter Out Spam]]
* [[How To Set A Vacation Auto-Reply]]
* [[The Departmental Mailing List Hierarchy]]

==Web==
* [[How To Publish Personal Web Content]]
* [[How To Password Protect Personal Web Content]]
* [[How To Install The Root Certificate]]

==Remote Access==
* [[How To Use VPN]]
* [[How To Use SSH]]
* [[Debian: Weak Cryptographic Keys]]
* [[How To Tunnel Connections Through SSH]]
* [[How To Display X Applications On Windows]]

==Applications==
* [[Table of Available Site-Licensed Software]]
* [[Microsoft Software Available to Students, Faculty, and Staff through Dreamspark]]
* [[How To Prepare PDF From LaTeX]]
* MATLAB
** [[List of Available MATLAB Toolboxes]]
** [[How To Use the MATLAB Compiler]]
** [[Error When Using MATLAB Symbolic Math Toolbox on Linux]]
* [[OPNET 9.0 User Variables (Windows)]]

Anti-phishing measures

2017-05-29T23:24:46Z

Derekp: moved Anti-phishing measures to Anti-Phishing Measures

#REDIRECT [[Anti-Phishing Measures]]

Anti-Phishing Measures

2017-05-29T23:24:45Z

Derekp: moved Anti-phishing measures to Anti-Phishing Measures

Please do your part to keep your password safe, as a security breach can impact all users in the department. In particular, please be wary of e-mails asking you to take an action such as logging into a particular website. These are often fraudulent phishing attempts. To combat phishing, please note:

* Any e-mail announcement regarding your ECE account should '''cross-reference a website with <tt>*.ece.ubc.ca</tt> in the URL'''. You should be suspicious of any message that does not.
* Announcements from ECE IT staff will include the name of a staff member,''' not a generic signature like "Your helpdesk support team"'''.
* '''Never reveal your password''' to any person. IT Services staff will never ask you for your password.
* All legitimate ECE services will use '''encrypted connections''' for logging in. (HTTPS, SSH, and IMAPS are examples of secure protocols.) Any service that asks you to enter your ECE password over an unencrypted HTTP connection or to send your password by e-mail is fraudulent.
* If in doubt about a suspicious message purporting to be from UBC or ECE IT Services, we encourage you to ask us.

Anti-Phishing Measures

2017-05-29T23:23:22Z

Derekp: Created page with 'Please do your part to keep your password safe, as a security breach can impact all users in the department. In particular, please be wary of e-mails asking you to take an actio…'

Main Page

2017-05-01T21:55:02Z

Derekp: /* Announcements */

==ECE Information Technology Services==

Please select one of the HOWTO collections:

<dl>
<dt>[[HOWTOs For Users]]
<dd>HOWTOs for all users of ECE computing infrastructure
<dt>[[HOWTOs For Researchers]]
<dd>HOWTOs for the ECE research community
<dt>[[HOWTOs For Instructors]]
<dd>HOWTOs for the ECE teaching community
</dl>

==Announcements==
<dl>

<dt>[[Matlab license server and Teamshare inaccessible (May 1, 2017)]]
<dd>Following the firewall upgrade yesterday, the nameservers for the ead.ubc.ca DNS zone were failing to respond, causing services such as Teamshare and MATLAB licensing to be unavailable to ECE users until 14:45.

<dt>[[ECE firewall upgrade (Apr 30, 2017)]]
<dd>On Sunday 2017-04-30, between 09:00 and 10:00 PDT, UBC IT will be performing a network firewall upgrade affecting the Electrical and Computer Engineering department. During that window, the ECE network will experience a brief outage of less than 10 minutes during the transition.

<dt>[[ECE website outage (Nov 21, 2016)]]
<dd>Multiple ECE websites, including www.ece.ubc.ca and courses.ece.ubc.ca, went offline from 16:19 to 18:15.

<dt>[[Teamviewer outage (Jun 1, 2016)]]
<dd>Due to widespread reports that unauthorized users have been able to remotely control computers through TeamViewer, we have taken the precaution of blocking TeamViewer on the ECE network.

<dt>[[Malicious email (Feb 11, 2016)]]
<dd>If you have received an email with subject "Scan from KM1650" and attachment "=SCAN7318_000.DOC" please do not open it. The attachment contains a trojan.

<dt>[[Change to access to IEEExplore from off-campus]]
<dd>Please be aware that the Library no longer provides access to IEEExplore through myVPN. Off-campus users should now use EZproxy instead:

https://login.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.library.ubc.ca

http://ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/login?url=http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/DynWel.jsp

Please note that access through EZproxy is available only to current UBC students, staff, and faculty.

</dl>

Matlab license server and Teamshare inaccessible (May 1, 2017)

2017-05-01T21:52:54Z

Derekp: Created page with 'Multiple services, including Teamshare (teamshare.ead.ubc.ca) and the campus MATLAB license server (slms-smatlabp1.ead.ubc.ca) were inaccessible to ECE users earlier today. It h…'

Multiple services, including Teamshare (teamshare.ead.ubc.ca) and the campus MATLAB license server (slms-smatlabp1.ead.ubc.ca) were inaccessible to ECE users earlier today.

It has been determined that the incident was a result of the [[ECE firewall upgrade (Apr 30, 2017)]], such that DNS lookups would fail. We have reconfigured our department nameservers to work around the firewall issue while we continue to investigate the root cause of the outage.

ECE firewall upgrade (Apr 30, 2017)

2017-04-29T05:10:36Z

Derekp:

On Sunday 2017-04-30, between 09:00 and 10:00 PDT, UBC IT will be performing a network firewall upgrade affecting the Electrical and Computer Engineering department. During that window, the ECE network will experience a brief outage of less than 10 minutes during the transition.

This upgrade is part of an ongoing initiative to upgrade network infrastructure.
Read more about the lifecycle project initiative here: https://it.ubc.ca/projects/network-infrastructure-upgrades

The most likely impact to ECE users is that NFS-mounted filesystem access could be disrupted, possibly requiring Linux servers and workstations to be rebooted after the outage. Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

''Note: An earlier version of this announcement mistakenly listed the date as 2017-04-03.''

ECE firewall upgrade (Apr 30, 2017)

2017-04-29T00:33:44Z

Derekp:

On Sunday 2017-04-03, between 09:00 and 10:00 PDT, UBC IT will be performing a network firewall upgrade affecting the Electrical and Computer Engineering department. During that window, the ECE network will experience a brief outage of less than 10 minutes during the transition.

This upgrade is part of an ongoing initiative to upgrade network infrastructure.
Read more about the lifecycle project initiative here: https://it.ubc.ca/projects/network-infrastructure-upgrades

The most likely impact to ECE users is that NFS-mounted filesystem access could be disrupted, possibly requiring Linux servers and workstations to be rebooted after the outage. Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

ECE firewall upgrade (Apr 30, 2017)

2017-04-28T23:03:19Z

Derekp: Announcement

Main Page

2017-04-28T23:02:33Z

Derekp: /* Announcements */

ECE website outage (Nov 21, 2016)

2016-11-22T06:59:52Z

Derekp: Created page with 'Multiple ECE websites hosted on the F5 load balancer (including www.ece.ubc.ca and courses.ece.ubc.ca) went offline at 16:19. Service was restored at 18:15. The outage was caus…'

Multiple ECE websites hosted on the F5 load balancer (including www.ece.ubc.ca and courses.ece.ubc.ca) went offline at 16:19. Service was restored at 18:15. The outage was caused by a staff member who had dislodged a power cable to a network switch in ICCS X220.

Immediately after resolving the issue, we decided to simplify the network by eliminating the switch altogether.

Specifically, the following .ece.ubc.ca websites were affected:

* Departmental sites: www, intranet, help, courses, id, download, groupware
* Research group sites: adaptive, bisicl, ctg, feel, mm, intranet.rcl, rsl, www.poewiki, intranet.salt, netsyslab, winmos
* ICICS sites: mrbs.icics.ubc.ca, inventory.icics.ubc.ca

During the course of troubleshooting, some CS servers on the load balancer would also have experienced momentary disruptions, totalling perhaps 3 minutes.

Main Page

2016-11-22T06:58:47Z

Derekp: Website outage 2016-11-21

Main Page

2016-06-02T21:05:05Z

Derekp: Announcement of TeamViewer block

Teamviewer outage (Jun 1, 2016)

2016-06-02T21:02:58Z

Derekp: Created page with 'TeamViewer is a proprietary remote-desktop protocol. We are aware that it is installed on some workstations at ECE. Over the past week, there have been an [https://redd.it/4m7a…'

TeamViewer is a proprietary remote-desktop protocol. We are aware that it is installed on some workstations at ECE.

Over the past week, there have been an [https://redd.it/4m7ay6 increasing number of reports] that unauthorized users have been able to remotely control computers with TeamViewer installed. Attackers have reportedly been conducting financial transactions using the compromised workstations.

Although the TeamViewer company has so far denied allegations that their system's security has been compromised, we are taking the precaution of blocking TeamViewer until the method of attack becomes clear.

Please contact the ECE IT Support Team if you need assistance with setting up alternative remote-desktop solutions such as Windows Remote Desktop or X11 tunnelling.

The Departmental Mailing List Hierarchy

2016-05-16T17:54:02Z

Derekp:

The Department's mailing list server provides mailing lists for the Department
and for research groups.

The Departmental mailing lists are organised into the following hierarchy.
Please note that ''lists.ece.ubc.ca'' must be appended to each mailing list's
address. Also, all of these lists either are moderated or require
non-subscribers to confirm their postings. Finally, subscription to these
lists is closed.

* all-members@
** regular-faculty@ — Regular Faculty
*** professors@ — Professors
**** fullprof@ — Full Professors
**** associate-professors@ — Associate Professors
**** assistant-professors@ — Assistant Professors
**** instructors-II@ — Instructors Ⅱ
*** instructors@ — Instructors
**** professors-teaching@ — Professor of Teaching
**** senior-instructors@ — Senior Instructors
**** instructors-I — Instructors Ⅰ
**** lecturers — 12-Month Lecturers
*** other-faculty@ — Other Faculty
**** adjunct-faculty@ - Adjunct Professors
**** emeritus-faculty@ — Emeritus Faculty
**** sessional-lecturers@ — Sessional Lecturers
**** visiting-faculty@ — Visiting Faculty
** staff@ — Staff
*** regular-staff@ — Regular Staff
**** cupe116@ — CUPE 116 Staff
**** cupe2950@ — CUPE 2950 Staff
**** bcgeu@ — BCGEU Staff
**** mp@ — Management and Professional Staff
**** nut@ — Non-Union Technical Staff
*** other-staff@ — Other Staff
**** cupe2278@ — CUPE 2278 Teaching Assistants
**** bcgeu-ta@ — BCGEU Teaching Assistants
*** sso-staff@ — Student Services Office Staff
** student-workers@ — Student Workers
**** cupe2278@ — CUPE 2278 Teaching Assistants
**** bcgeu-ta@ — BCGEU Teaching Assistants
**** gaa@ — Graduate Academic Assistants
**** uaa@ — Undergraduate Academic Assistants
**** ura@ — Undergraduate Research Assistants
**** wst@ — Work-Study Student Workers
**** nserc-grad@ — NSERC Graduate Student Workers
**** nserc-ugrad@ — NSERC Undergraduate Student Workers
**** coop@ — Cooperative Education Student Workers
** students@ — Students
*** graduate-students@ — Graduate Students
**** meng-students@ — MEng Graduate Students
**** master-students@ — All other Master Degree Graduate Students
**** doctoral-students@ — Doctoral Graduate Students
*** undergraduate-students@ — Undergradate Students

SMB server out of memory (Feb 27, 2016)

2016-02-29T10:18:39Z

Derekp: Created page with 'The authentication and file server for the UBC_ECE domain started running out of memory around 2016-02-27 11:43. It was restarted at 2016-02-29 02:10. As a result, users were un…'

The authentication and file server for the UBC_ECE domain started running out of memory around 2016-02-27 11:43. It was restarted at 2016-02-29 02:10.

As a result, users were unable to logon to workstations joined to the UBC_ECE domain or access their home directories on the Z: drive over much of the weekend.

Main Page

2016-02-29T10:17:03Z

Derekp: /* Announcements */

Main Page

2016-02-29T10:16:21Z

Derekp: SMB outage

Main Page

2016-02-25T21:47:25Z

Derekp: DHCP issue resolved

Kaiser 3rd floor network outage (Feb 24, 2016)

2016-02-25T21:46:37Z

Derekp: Resolved

Network access via wired Ethernet is not working on much of the Kaiser 3rd floor (everything north of the atrium).

The wireless network should be working. We suggest that users in the affected areas bring a laptop so that they may use the ubcsecure or ubcprivate networks while we continue to troubleshoot the problem.

<dl>
<dt>2016-02-24 23:00
<dd>We are working on diagnosing the issue, but have not identified a cause yet.

<dt>2016-02-25 13:30
<dd>Network switches were rebooted, and the network is functioning normally. We suspect that a variation in voltage resulting from the weekend power outage had caused the switch to go into an unstable state.
</dl>

Kaiser 3rd floor network outage (Feb 24, 2016)

2016-02-25T07:04:29Z

Derekp:

Kaiser 3rd floor network outage (Feb 24, 2016)

2016-02-25T07:04:00Z

Derekp:

Network access via wired Ethernet is not working on much of the Kaiser 3rd floor (everything north of the atrium).

The wireless network should be working.

<dl>
<dt>2016-02-24 23:00
<dd>We are working on diagnosing the issue, but have not identified a cause yet.
</dl>

Kaiser 3rd floor network outage (Feb 24, 2016)

2016-02-25T07:03:28Z

Derekp:

Network access via wired Ethernet is not working on much of the Kaiser 3rd floor (everything north of the atrium).

The wireless network should be working.

2016-02-24 23:00 We are working on diagnosing the issue, but have not identified a cause yet.

Kaiser 3rd floor network outage (Feb 24, 2016)

2016-02-25T07:02:55Z

Derekp:

Network access via wired Ethernet is not working on much of the Kaiser 3rd floor (everything north of the atrium).

The wireless network should be working.

We are working on diagnosing the issue, but have not identified a cause yet.

Kaiser 3rd floor network outage (Feb 24, 2016)

2016-02-25T06:48:29Z

Derekp: Created page with 'Network access via wired Ethernet is not working on much of the Kaiser 3rd floor (everything north of room 3047). The wireless network should be working. We are working on diag…'

Network access via wired Ethernet is not working on much of the Kaiser 3rd floor (everything north of room 3047).

The wireless network should be working.

We are working on diagnosing the issue, but have not identified a cause yet.

Main Page

2016-02-25T06:47:29Z

Derekp: Kaiser 3rd floor network outage

Keys and Keyless Entry

2015-09-22T17:45:11Z

Derekp: GSAB building has been demolished

Access to ECE buildings, labs, and other facilities is controlled with electronic, and in some cases, physical door locks. This document describes how to obtain entry to facilities managed by the ECE Department in the following buildings:

* [http://www.maps.ubc.ca/PROD/index_detail.php?locat1=312 MacLeod Building]
* [http://www.maps.ubc.ca/PROD/index_detail.php?locat1=313 Kaiser Building]
* [http://www.maps.ubc.ca/PROD/index_detail.php?locat1=165 ICICS/CS Building]
* [http://www.maps.ubc.ca/PROD/index_detail.php?locat1=020 Brimacombe Building]
* [http://www.maps.ubc.ca/PROD/index_detail.php?locat1=022 Lower Mall Research Station]

Please note that some facilities within those buildings are managed by other departments, such as [https://www.cs.ubc.ca/our-department/facilities/entry/keyless Computer Science]. Please follow those departments' procedures to obtain entry to non-ECE facilities.

===Access Tokens===
To identify yourself to electronic card readers, you need to present an access token: either a [https://www.ubccard.ubc.ca/about-ubc-card.html UBCcard] that has an iClass number printed on the reverse or a dedicated iClass key fob. UBCcards are issued by the UBC Carding Office; fobs are issued by the department.

[[File:UBCcard_iClass.png|383px|thumb|left|iClass-enabled UBCcard]]
[[File:IClass_fob.jpg|117px|thumb|right|iClass key fob]]

Students who have an iClass-enabled UBCcard should use it as their access token. Persons who do not have a UBCcard (such as postdocs, visitors, and students with older ID cards) should obtain a dedicated fob. Faculty and staff may elect to use either one (the UBCcard is convenient, but the fob may be more secure if it is lost).

To obtain a fob, please visit ECE Stores in MCLD 112B with your UBC or government-issued photographic identification (e.g., passport or driver's license). A cash deposit of $20.00 is required, to be refunded when you return your fob.

===ECE Students===
If you are a UBC Student taking ECE courses, then access to ECE-controlled space will be assigned to you automatically based on information from the Student Information System. These role assignments are updated nightly so it may take up to one business day for a course add/drop to be reflected in the system. You will need to request access only if there is a problem with the automatic role assignment.

===Requesting Access===
For faculty, staff, postdocs, and visitors, access to facilities is granted by request. To file a request, e-mail <tt>[mailto:access@ece.ubc.ca access@ece.ubc.ca]</tt> with as much of the following information as you can provide:

* Your Name: ['''FULL NAME''']
* Your Student or Employee Number (if applicable): ['''ID NUMBER''']
* Name of Supervisor or Granting Authority: ['''SUPERVISOR'S NAME''']
* Your Roles to Justify Access: ['''ROLES''']
* Buildings and Rooms to Access: ['''BUILDING NAME AND ROOM NUMBER''']
* Expected Termination Date (if applicable): ['''YYYY-MM''']

[[File:ABLOY_Disklock_key.jpg|99px|thumb|right|Physical key]] We will verify your eligibility and notify you when your request is approved. If necessary, we will authorize you to pick up physical keys from the [http://www.parking.ubc.ca/access.html UBC Key Desk], which is located by the [http://www.maps.ubc.ca/PROD/index_detail.php?locat1=081 Bookstore] at 110-6200 University Blvd.

How To Reset Your Profile

2015-09-16T00:36:11Z

Derekp:

When using Windows workstations on the <tt>UBC_ECE</tt> domain, you may experience what can
be described best as "corrupt profile" problems. There are many manifestations of a corrupt profile, including:
* problems downloading files
* problems using the Internet
* problems assigning the default printer and printing PDF files

The solution to these problems is to reset your profile. To reset your profile, you need to:

# Logoff from Windows
# Login to UNIX system (Use your neighbour's computer for a second to ssh to <tt>ssh-linux.ece.ubc.ca</tt>. You can also boot the workstations in the MCLD 358 lab into Linux for this purpose.)
# Rename your profile directory with <tt>mv profile profile.save</tt>. Also, for WIndows Vista, Windows 7, and newer versions of Windows, <tt>mv profile.V2 profile.V2.save</tt>.
# Logout from UNIX
# Logon to Windows; you will get a warning about your profile; ignore it
# Logoff from Windows; logging out is what actually creates the new profile
# If necessary, logon to Windows and restore files from <tt>profile.save</tt> directory. Delete <tt>profile.save</tt> to free up disk space

At this point problems with downloading files, surfing the Internet, assigning the default printer and printing PDF files should be gone. If you still have a problem, let us know by emailing ''help@ece.ubc.ca''.

If this is too complicated, email ''help@ece.ubc.ca'' and we will remove your profile (brute force, but it works).

Please do not save any files on the "Desktop" or in "My Documents". Files
stored in these locations are copied between the PC and file server every time
you log in or out. Having a large number of files in these locations will
cause login times to increases. Most importantly, files left in these
locations may not be reliably saved to the file server. At all times, you
should store your files in your Z:-drive.

Please consider changing your settings in Windows to store the minimum number
of files on the "Desktop" and in "My Documents". For example, please change
the settings for IE to reduce the cache to 10-20MB. Large caches will take a
very long time to copy from the server, increasing login times to several
minutes. Please see [[How To Keep Your Profile Small]].

Also, you should stay well below your account's disk quota. If your home directory is full, Windows will fail to sync your profile with the server, causing it to become corrupted.

How To Reset Your Profile

2015-09-16T00:35:50Z

Derekp: MCLD 348 machines are not dual-boot

When using Windows workstations on the <tt>UBC_ECE</tt> domain, you may experience what can
be described best as "corrupt profile" problems. There are many manifestations of a corrupt profile, including:
* problems downloading files
* problems using the Internet
* problems assigning the default printer and printing PDF files

The solution to these problems is to reset your profile. To reset your profile, you need to:

# Logoff from Windows
# Login to UNIX system (Use your neighbour's computer for a second to ssh to <tt>ssh-linux.ece.ubc.ca</tt>. You can also boot the workstations in the MCLD 358 lab into Linux for this purpose.
# Rename your profile directory with <tt>mv profile profile.save</tt>. Also, for WIndows Vista, Windows 7, and newer versions of Windows, <tt>mv profile.V2 profile.V2.save</tt>.
# Logout from UNIX
# Logon to Windows; you will get a warning about your profile; ignore it
# Logoff from Windows; logging out is what actually creates the new profile
# If necessary, logon to Windows and restore files from <tt>profile.save</tt> directory. Delete <tt>profile.save</tt> to free up disk space

At this point problems with downloading files, surfing the Internet, assigning the default printer and printing PDF files should be gone. If you still have a problem, let us know by emailing ''help@ece.ubc.ca''.

If this is too complicated, email ''help@ece.ubc.ca'' and we will remove your profile (brute force, but it works).

Please do not save any files on the "Desktop" or in "My Documents". Files
stored in these locations are copied between the PC and file server every time
you log in or out. Having a large number of files in these locations will
cause login times to increases. Most importantly, files left in these
locations may not be reliably saved to the file server. At all times, you
should store your files in your Z:-drive.

Please consider changing your settings in Windows to store the minimum number
of files on the "Desktop" and in "My Documents". For example, please change
the settings for IE to reduce the cache to 10-20MB. Large caches will take a
very long time to copy from the server, increasing login times to several
minutes. Please see [[How To Keep Your Profile Small]].

Also, you should stay well below your account's disk quota. If your home directory is full, Windows will fail to sync your profile with the server, causing it to become corrupted.

SSH server upgrade to Ubuntu 14.04

2015-09-14T21:33:47Z

Derekp: Update: old servers will remain off

The ssh-linux servers <tt>ssh-linux4</tt>, <tt>ssh-linux5</tt>, <tt>ssh-linux7</tt>, and <tt>ssh-linux8</tt>, which are running Debian 6, are scheduled to be replaced.

==Notable changes==

* The new server pool is called <tt>ssh-ubuntu.ece.ubc.ca</tt>.
* Operating system is Ubuntu 14.04 rather than Debian 6.
* Expanded list of installed software packages. (If any [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/ Ubuntu package] that you want to use is not installed, please [[How To Report A Problem|file a request]].)
* MATLAB version is R2014a; versions R2008b and R2013b have been dropped.
* Hosted on virtual servers in the University Data Centre for better performance and reliability.
* The Debian Subversion client (version 1.6.12) cannot access repositories created with the Subversion client on Ubuntu (version 1.8.8).

==Upgrade plan==

# As of now, you can start using the new servers by using <tt>ssh-ubuntu.ece.ubc.ca</tt> as the server hostname (instead of <tt>ssh-linux.ece.ubc.ca</tt> or <tt>ssh.ece.ubc.ca</tt>).
# As part of the [[ECE Storage Migration (Aug 15 and Aug 22, 2015)|ECE Storage Migration]], all <tt>ssh-linux</tt> servers (both Debian and Ubuntu) will be rebooted the night of August 22. After the reboot, <tt>ssh-linux</tt> will point to the new Ubuntu servers. You will still be able to connect to <tt>ssh-linux4</tt>, <tt>ssh-linux5</tt>, <tt>ssh-linux7</tt>, or <tt>ssh-linux8</tt> explicitly.
# In a few months, we will shut down the old servers completely. '''Update 2015-09-14:''' Following the [[Power Interruption (Sept. 13, 2015)|power outage this weekend]], we have decided to leave the old servers permanently shut down, unless there is a specific special need.

ECE mail delivery delays, (Sep 9-10, 2015)

2015-09-10T22:32:12Z

Derekp:

Due to an automounter failure on the SMTP server, mail delivery to @ece.ubc.ca addresses stopped working on Sep 9 around 4 pm. The outage also caused Request Tracker tickets submitted via e-mail to be delayed as well.

The problem was rectified on Sep 10 at 10:30 am, and the delivery backlog has been cleared.

Apologies for any inconvenience.

We are working on adding more servers to handle mail delivery.

Main Page

2015-09-10T22:24:18Z

Derekp: E-mail outage announcement

ECE mail delivery delays, (Sep 9-10, 2015)

2015-09-10T22:22:44Z

Derekp: Announcement

ECE Storage Migration (Aug 15 and Aug 22, 2015)

2015-08-23T06:54:05Z

Derekp: Completion announcement

ECE IT will be performing a series of data migrations this August to move data from the Klinck Data Centre to the new University Data Centre. This migration is required due to aging hardware which has reached its end of life for support, such that we can no longer guarantee the reliability of the storage.

==Schedule==
The IT team is planning to perform the cut-overs in two batches.

* Saturday, Aug 15th (from 9:00 pm – 12:00 am): Selected users affected*
* Saturday, Aug 22nd (from 9:00 pm – 12:00 am): All users affected

* Users with the following home directories and research storage locations:
/ubc/ece/home/coop/…
/ubc/ece/home/kc/… (Prof. Karen Cheung)
/ubc/ece/home/maor/… (Prof. Martin Ordonez)
/ubc/ece/home/ngrads/…
/ubc/ece/home/staff/…

==Impact==
During these outage windows, the affected home directories (including IMAP mail and personal web hosting) will be temporarily unavailable. During the second weekend, ECE websites will be temporarily unavailable as well.

==What users need to do?==
Users are asked to log out of their sessions on the ssh-linux servers and Linux workstations when they leave the campus on Friday. Any network filesystems that are still mounted during the cutover will need to be forcibly unmounted, causing your processes to be terminated. Service should return to normal by Sunday.

Despite these precautions, you may need to reboot your Linux workstation if the network filesystems were not unmounted properly. If you encounter any issues or have any questions after the migration please contact the ECE IT team (help@ece.ubc.ca).

==Questions?==
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns regarding this migration. You can also direct your questions specific to your requirements prior to the migration to the ECE IT team via help@ece.ubc.ca .

A reminder will be sent out on Friday to remind users of the weekend scheduled outage.
Thank you in advance for your support as we plan and conduct this migration.

==Addendum==
The [[SSH server upgrade to Ubuntu 14.04]] will be coordinated with this migration. Since nearly all users will need to logout for the second outage window on Aug 22, we will be rebooting all ssh-linux servers and changing the default to point to the new servers.

=Status=
<dl>
<dt>Aug 15, 22:00
<dd>The first-stage migration for August 15 seems to have completed smoothly. Please report any issues you may encounter with accessing your home directory.
<dt>Aug 22, 23:50
<dd>Both stages of the migration appear to have completed successfully. Please report any issues you may encounter with accessing your home directory.
</dl>

''Thanks to Peter Su at UBC IT for his assistance with this project.''

How To Reset Your Profile

2015-08-21T22:59:31Z

Derekp: Retired fixprofile

When using Windows workstations on the <tt>UBC_ECE</tt> domain, you may experience what can
be described best as "corrupt profile" problems. There are many manifestations of a corrupt profile, including:
* problems downloading files
* problems using the Internet
* problems assigning the default printer and printing PDF files

The solution to these problems is to reset your profile. To reset your profile, you need to:

# Logoff from Windows
# Login to UNIX system (Use your neighbour's computer for a second to ssh to <tt>ssh-linux.ece.ubc.ca</tt>. You can also boot the workstations in the MCLD 348/358 labs into Linux for this purpose.
# Rename your profile directory with <tt>mv profile profile.save</tt>. Also, for WIndows Vista, Windows 7, and newer versions of Windows, <tt>mv profile.V2 profile.V2.save</tt>.
# Logout from UNIX
# Logon to Windows; you will get a warning about your profile; ignore it
# Logoff from Windows; logging out is what actually creates the new profile
# If necessary, logon to Windows and restore files from <tt>profile.save</tt> directory. Delete <tt>profile.save</tt> to free up disk space

At this point problems with downloading files, surfing the Internet, assigning the default printer and printing PDF files should be gone. If you still have a problem, let us know by emailing ''help@ece.ubc.ca''.

If this is too complicated, email ''help@ece.ubc.ca'' and we will remove your profile (brute force, but it works).

Please do not save any files on the "Desktop" or in "My Documents". Files
stored in these locations are copied between the PC and file server every time
you log in or out. Having a large number of files in these locations will
cause login times to increases. Most importantly, files left in these
locations may not be reliably saved to the file server. At all times, you
should store your files in your Z:-drive.

Please consider changing your settings in Windows to store the minimum number
of files on the "Desktop" and in "My Documents". For example, please change
the settings for IE to reduce the cache to 10-20MB. Large caches will take a
very long time to copy from the server, increasing login times to several
minutes. Please see [[How To Keep Your Profile Small]].

Also, you should stay well below your account's disk quota. If your home directory is full, Windows will fail to sync your profile with the server, causing it to become corrupted.

ECE Storage Migration (Aug 15 and Aug 22, 2015)

2015-08-16T05:04:11Z

Derekp: Status update, August 15

ECE Storage Migration (Aug 15 and Aug 22, 2015)

2015-08-14T20:22:15Z

Derekp: Coordination with SSH server upgrade

SSH server upgrade to Ubuntu 14.04

2015-08-14T20:19:08Z

Derekp: Subversion incompatibility

SSH server upgrade to Ubuntu 14.04

2015-08-14T20:16:20Z

Derekp: Coordination with ECE Storage Migration

The ssh-linux servers <tt>ssh-linux4</tt>, <tt>ssh-linux5</tt>, <tt>ssh-linux7</tt>, and <tt>ssh-linux8</tt>, which are running Debian 6, are scheduled to be replaced.

==Notable changes==

* The new server pool is called <tt>ssh-ubuntu.ece.ubc.ca</tt>.
* Operating system is Ubuntu 14.04 rather than Debian 6.
* Expanded list of installed software packages. (If any [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/ Ubuntu package] that you want to use is not installed, please [[How To Report A Problem|file a request]].)
* MATLAB version is R2014a; versions R2008b and R2013b have been dropped.
* Hosted on virtual servers in the University Data Centre for better performance and reliability.

==Upgrade plan==

# As of now, you can start using the new servers by using <tt>ssh-ubuntu.ece.ubc.ca</tt> as the server hostname (instead of <tt>ssh-linux.ece.ubc.ca</tt> or <tt>ssh.ece.ubc.ca</tt>).
# As part of the [[ECE Storage Migration (Aug 15 and Aug 22, 2015)|ECE Storage Migration]], all <tt>ssh-linux</tt> servers (both Debian and Ubuntu) will be rebooted the night of August 22. After the reboot, <tt>ssh-linux</tt> will point to the new Ubuntu servers. You will still be able to connect to <tt>ssh-linux4</tt>, <tt>ssh-linux5</tt>, <tt>ssh-linux7</tt>, or <tt>ssh-linux8</tt> explicitly.
# In a few months, we will shut down the old servers completely.