Archived computing news and announcements

Mitchell A59 G.R.I.D. lab closed for upgrades Oct. 5, 2015 - disks to be erased
The Mitchell A59 G.R.I.D. computer lab is maintained for individual research and creation of presentations such as posters. The lab will be closed on October 5 to do a major upgrade of the operating systems and applications on the dual-boot iMac computers. This will fix the current bug where no one can login to the Mac OS X operating system on these computers. The single computer "Mauro" was removed from the lab on September 15 to build the new system image. It will be returned on October 5 when the other computers are upgraded. All user files created on the local computer disks will be erased!

Stanford email and calendar migrates to Office365 on July 20, 2015
Stanford is moving from its in-house Zimbra email and calendar system to the cloud based Microsoft Office 365 system. Stanford Earth email accounts migrate on Monday, July 20, 2015! You may need to make a configuration change on Monday morning. See the full news item for details.

Encryption deadline May 31, 2015 - what happens next?
Find out whether your computing devices comply with Stanford's security requirements at the new MyDevices website. Take action to make your devices compliant or network access will be cut off sometime in the summer.

Free computer backup service for Stanford Earth graduate students and post-docs
Recognizing that backups of computer data files are an essential part of protecting Stanford's teaching and research, the School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences has purchased access to the central University IT cloud-based CrashPlan PROe backup service for the computers of all graduate students and post-docs in the School.

No IT support in Earth Sciences Dec 20, 2014 through Jan 4, 2015
The School of Earth Sciences will be observing the university winter closure from December 20, 2014 through January 4, 2015. In general, there will be no information technology services or support available in Earth Sciences during this period.

Mitchell A59 G.R.I.D. lab closed for upgrades Nov. 12, 2014 - disks to be erased
The Mitchell A59 G.R.I.D. computer lab is maintained for individual research and creation of presentations such as posters. The lab will be closed on November 12 to do a major upgrade of the operating systems and applications. The single computer "Saxton" will be removed from the lab on November 3. It will be used to build the new system image and then returned on November 12 to be upgraded with the other computers. All user files created on the local computer disks will be erased!

University computer enrollment process starts August 26, 2014
A brief "enrollment" questionnaire to collect basic information about computers and their users will be pushed out to managed computers in Earth Sciences as a "pop-up" application starting on August 26. Please take a few minutes to fill out this questionnaire. The results will be used to determine which computers need additional security improvements.

School of Earth Sciences plans for computing security compliance
Dean Matson sent this letter to the Stanford Earth Sciences community outlining our plans for compliance with new university computing security requirements.

Upgrade Windows XP before April 8 or lose access to Stanford network!
All computers on the SES network that still use Windows XP must upgrade to a supported version of Windows 7 or Windows 8 by April 8, 2014, or be replaced or retired. The upgrade, backup, and encryption of Stanford-owned Windows XP computers will be done by our IT team. If you have an XP machine, you will be contacted by our IT staff to schedule an upgrade. Students who have personal computers running XP also need to upgrade. Technical measures will block network access for computers running Windows XP after April 8.

Requirements for purchasing new computers for Stanford work
To comply with new university security requirements, effective immediately, only approved computer configurations may be purchased with Stanford funds and they must be configured and encrypted by our CRC support team before use.

No IT support in Earth Sciences Dec 21, 2013 through Jan 5, 2014
The School of Earth Sciences will be observing the university winter closure from December 21, 2013 through January 5, 2014. In general, there will be no information technology services or support available in Earth Sciences during this period.

Most Microsoft software now free to Stanford users.
Stanford has negotiated a site license with Microsoft to get free access to all their software for Stanford owned computers and to some categories of their software for personally owned computers.

New restrictions on RDP connections into Earth Sciences start October 28, 2013
Firewall rules for the Earth Sciences wired computer network will be changed on Monday, October 28, 2013, to more carefully restrict remote logins into Windows computers that are left running in offices and labs. Starting October 28, you will have to login to the Stanford Virtual Private Network (VPN) each time you start a Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connection into a Windows computer on the Earth Sciences wired network from anywhere outside that network. In addition, you will need to get your SUNet ID onto an RDP authorization list.

G.R.I.D. lab renovated and reopened September 4 with new equipment
The G.R.I.D. computer lab in Mitchell A59 was reopened on September 4 after a complete room renovation and installation of new computers and printers. The new door combination code can be obtained from the Quick Links section of the lab website (page access restricted to SUNet IDs associated with Earth Sciences only).

Mitchell A59 G.R.I.D. lab closed Aug. 16, 2013 through Sept. 5, 2013 for renovation; files on computers to be erased!
The Stanford Earth Sciences "G.R.I.D." computer lab in Mitchell A59 will close on Friday, August 16, 2013, for complete lab renovation and upgrade, and re-open on Friday, September 6, 2013. During this closure, none of the computers, printers, or other devices in the lab will be accessible. All user files stored on the hard disks of the lab computers will be erased on August 16! If you want to keep such files, you need to copy them somewhere else before August 16. The lab will be repainted. Workstation tables will be replaced. All computers will be replaced with powerful new dual-boot iMacs, running both Mac OS X 10.8 and Windows 7.

Earth Sciences web and sftp servers down Friday, May 31, noon to 1 pm
The pangea, sesstage, and sestransfer servers will be shutdown at noon on Friday, May 31, to move some system files to new disks. They should be back in service by 1 pm. While these servers are down, school websites will be unavailable, sftp connections to sestransfer will not succeed, and the Mitchell A65 and GRID computer lab printers will not accept any print jobs.

Earth Sciences computers to be scanned for prohibited data beginning Jan 28, 2013
The School of Earth Sciences will participate in the "Identity Finder" project created by the Information Security Office to find prohibited data such as Social Security numbers and credit card numbers that may be stored on local workstations. The goal is for Stanford to find and protect this data before hackers find it and use it for identity theft! Scanning of Stanford-owned workstations will begin on January 28, 2013.

Incoming SSH to be restricted on Earth Sciences wired network beginning Jan 28, 2013
The firewall for the School of Earth Sciences wired computer network will be modified on January 28, 2013, to limit incoming connections using the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol. SSH connections to Earth Sciences computers will generally only be allowed from other computers on the Stanford network (including the VPN). Exceptions will be made for certain servers and research workstations. This will improve the general security of the Earth Sciences wired network and cut down unnecessary network traffic.

No IT support in Earth Sciences Dec 22, 2012 to Jan 6, 2013
The School of Earth Sciences will be observing the university winter closure from December 22, 2012 through January 6, 2013. In general, there will be no information technology services or support available in Earth Sciences during this period.

Sesfs file server will be down for upgrade November 15, 5-7 pm.
The School of Earth Sciences file server, sesfs.stanford.edu, will be down on Thursday, November 15, from 5 to 7 pm for upgrade to a new file server cluster. Disconnect from all file shares before 5 pm. The sftp server sestransfer.stanford.edu will be down during the same time. Some research and facility websites on the pangea.stanford.edu server will be unavailable during the upgrade. Anonymous ftp on pangea will be unavailable during the upgrade.

New computer since July 2010? Power management coming Jan 11 (new date)!
The School's BigFix power management program is getting less effective over time as computers are replaced, since there has been no automatic enrollment of new computers. We will enable power management to all CRC supported computers that do not have any setting on January 11, 2012. You can change the setting yourself or opt-out entirely. Read the news item for more details.

GRID computer disk cleanup & software upgrades Nov 21, 2011
Operating system and application software will be upgraded on the Mitchell A59 G.R.I.D. lab computers and all user created files stored on the local hard drives will be erased on November 21, 2011. All files on the SCRATCH disk partition will be erased. Application preference files, browser bookmarks, and similar account customizations will be erased. Files saved on lab computers on the desktop or in your Documents folder will not be affected for normal users - they are actually stored on your home share on the School's file server, sesfs.stanford.edu. Exception: desktop and Documents folder files for users who don't have a home share, including most undergraduates and visitors, will be erased because they are stored on the local hard drive.

Computer network and telephone upgrades in June and July, 2011
During June and July, 2011, the computer network in Geology Corner, Mitchell Earth Sciences, and Green Earth Sciences buildings will be upgraded to provide gigabit (1,000 megabits/second) speed to all computers (ten times our current standard), and support new Voice-over-IP (VoIP) network telephones with advanced features that will replace all our old analog phones. Only selected network jacks will be activated for gigabit service as described in the article; all others will be de-activated. The Y2E2 building already has gigabit network service with VoIP phones, so it will not be upgraded.

G.R.I.D. lab upgrades will erase some user files on Jan 18, 2011
Computers in the Mitchell A59 G.R.I.D. lab will get operating system and application software upgrades on January 18, 2011. Some locally saved user files will be erased as a side effect. See full article for details.

Your computer can save energy with BigFix power management
To support energy saving goals, the School of Earth Sciences would like to see everyone configure their computers on the Earth Sciences network (whether Stanford or personally owned) with BigFix power management. You can download a simple tool to make your setting or "opt out".

GRID computer cleanup Oct 8, 2010: user files to be erased
All user created files stored on the Mitchell A59 G.R.I.D. lab computer hard drives will be erased on October 8, 2010, as part of a lab cleanup. All files on the SCRATCH disk partition will be erased. Application preference files, browser bookmarks, and similar account customizations will be erased. Files saved on lab computers on the Desktop or in your Documents folder (Mac OS X) or My Documents folder (Windows) will not be affected for normal users - they are actually stored on your home share on the School's file server, sesfs.stanford.edu. Exception: Desktop and Documents folder files for users who don't have a home share, including most undergraduates and visitors, will be erased because they are stored on the local hard drive.

Door codes changed for Mitchell computer labs
The combination codes needed to open the doors to the School of Earth Sciences computer labs have been changed. This is done periodically as a security measure and to limit use of the labs to authorized people. Anyone in the School of Earth Sciences may request the new codes.

Power management to be implemented on supported computers
As part of the university's sustainability intiatives, power management features will be centrally enabled on CRC supported computers in Earth Sciences using the BigFix program on July 14, 2010. The basic setting for all School computers will be to put the monitor to sleep after 15 minutes of inactivity. Office computers (but not lab computers) will be targeted for more aggressive energy savings by putting the entire computer to sleep after 30 minutes of inactivity. Users can switch between the two settings or "opt out".

OS upgrade on Sesfs improves compatibility with Mac OS X 10.5
The March 31 operating system upgrade of the School of Earth Sciences file server, sesfs.stanford.edu, fixed problems of compatibility among files created by different versions of Mac OS X, and problems saving files from Mac OS X 10.5 connections. An essential part of this fix is the presence of the special file com.apple.smb.streams.off file at the top level of every file share. Do not remove this file, or you will create problems for Mac OS X 10.5 connections.

School servers and network will be down on Mon, Dec 22, 2008
School computer network and server outages are planned for Monday, December 22, 2008 (during the university winter closure) to perform needed upgrades.

No IT support in Earth Sciences Dec 20, 2008 to Jan 4, 2009
The School of Earth Sciences will be observing the university winter closure from December 20, 2008 through January 4, 2009. In general, there will be no information technology services or support available in Earth Sciences during this period.

Upgraded G.R.I.D. lab computers ready for use
Computers in the School's G.R.I.D. lab in Mitchell A59 have been upgraded and are ready for use. See full information about the new computers, available software, login procedures, data storage, known problems, etc., on the lab website:

http://pangea.stanford.edu/facilities/grid/

Pangea logins end Sept 10; files transfer to new server sesfs
User logins to the pangea.stanford.edu server will permanently end at 5 pm on September 10, 2008. All files on pangea will be migrated that evening to our new high performance, high capacity School of Earth Sciences file server, named sesfs.stanford.edu.

Beginning September 11, 2008, logins to pangea will be rejected. You must connect directly to the new sesfs.stanford.edu file server to access directories as network file shares. You may also connect via the sftp protocol to the new sestransfer.stanford.edu server to perform file transfers.

AppleTalk and pangea service terminations completed
The advertised termination of AppleTalk support on the Earth Sciences network and elimination of obsolete services on pangea has been completed.

AppleTalk support on Earth Sciences network ends April 7
The obsolete AppleTalk protocol will no longer be supported on the Earth Sciences network beginning April 7. Existing Macintosh printer setups that use AppleTalk will break, and must be recreated to use TCP/IP instead, according to the instructions in the news article.

Obsolete pangea services end on April 7
Rarely used and obsolete services provided by pangea will be terminated on April 7, 2008. See the news item for details on whether you are affected by the termination of:

• The pangea "msgs" electronic bulletin board.
• Print spooling for Windows and Unix/Linux workstations.
• AppleShare file sharing for "Classic" Mac OS (the pangea Aufs server).
• PC/NFS access to pangea files for Windows workstations.
• Time-sharing computing cycles for teaching or research.

Pangea and IT service outages during winter break
Stanford University will be closed December 22, 2007 through January 2, 2008. In general, there will be no information technology services or support available in Earth Sciences during that period. The pangea server will be down all day on Friday, December 28, 2007, for annual hardware and software maintenance. There will be no electrical power (or computer network) in Mitchell Building on Thursday, December 27, 2007.

Email service on pangea terminated on November 1, 2007
As promised in news items and numerous email announcements, email service on pangea was terminated on November 1, 2007. Pangea is forwarding email that it receives, or returning it to sender if there is no forwarding address. Forwarding service will end on June 30, 2008.

**Act Now** Pangea email services END November 1, 2007!
In order to save limited staff time and finances for more important IT services, we are phasing out local email service on pangea. Local email service for existing pangea accounts ends on November 1, 2007. New accounts created since July, 2007, do not have any local email service at all. Everyone using a pangea email address must switch to another email account by November 1.

Plain telnet and ftp service on pangea ends July 16, 2007
The insecure, plain text versions of the network connection services telnet and ftp will be disabled on the School of Earth Sciences server, pangea, on July 16, 2007. The secure alternatives ssh and scp or sftp must be used instead, starting on July 16. Although ftp logins with normal pangea accounts will end, the anonymous ftp service will continue on pangea.

Earth Sciences network firewall tightened on June 25, 2007
A final change to the Earth Sciences network firewall rules at 9:00 a.m. on June 25, 2007, blocks all incoming connections to random TCP ports. Only the connections listed in the Earth Sciences firewall ruleset will be allowed. This change will increase security, but may block many peer-to-peer file sharing programs.

Improved anonymous ftp service on pangea
"Anonymous ftp" is a method for allowing anyone on the Internet to access files in a special directory on pangea's disks. It can be used to distribute files to colleagues or collect files from them. This service has been recently improved so it can be used without any special setup.

Computer network firewall coming on May 30!
A "firewall" will be enabled on May 30 to protect the Earth Sciences computer network from hacker probes of insecure services and self-propagating virus and worm attacks. Incoming connections will be filtered; outgoing connections will not. Average computer users will see no change; power users and research groups may find some services on their Earth Sciences computers are now blocked.