From predragp at andrew.cmu.edu  Fri Dec  6 20:01:50 2013
From: predragp at andrew.cmu.edu (predragp at andrew.cmu.edu)
Date: Fri, 6 Dec 2013 20:01:50 -0500
Subject: [auton-users] UPLOAD Resurrected
Message-ID: <7d154148fb8b2354835dafe0d0d3e1ea.squirrel@webmail.andrew.cmu.edu>

Dear Autons,

I am happy to announce immediate availability of UPLOAD a secure
file share server. At this time the server can handle sensitive
information only. It is my hope that we would be able to handle
classified documents in the future. If you need to receive or
make available documents/data that require protection of
confidentiality, integrity and availability please contact me
via private e-mail.

Most Kind Regards,
Predrag Punosevac



From predragp at andrew.cmu.edu  Thu Dec 12 17:49:30 2013
From: predragp at andrew.cmu.edu (predragp at andrew.cmu.edu)
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2013 17:49:30 -0500
Subject: [auton-users] [Fwd: SERVICE OUTAGE: Instance Manager and License
	Server]
Message-ID: <79f8872d38ac7d2145178547a9a50fd2.squirrel@webmail.andrew.cmu.edu>

Unfortunately most of our servers still use MATLAB with university licensing
server. I am in the process of systematically replacing such installations.
This is exactly the reason why I would like to do that.


Predrag




---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: SERVICE OUTAGE: Instance Manager and  License Server
From:    "Help Desk" <help at cs.cmu.edu>
Date:    Thu, December 12, 2013 4:44 pm
To:      help at cs.cmu.edu
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

DATE: Tuesday, January 7, 2014

TIME: 8:00PM - 10:00PM


SERVICES AFFECTED:

- License servers for MATLAB, Pro/Engineer, and Simics

- Windows account management via the Instance Manager

DETAILS:

On January 7, 2014, SCS Computing Facilities will perform software
upgrades on virtual machine hosts supporting a variety of services, to
  address a recurring problem with a disk controller driver.  This will
result in these services being unavailable for part or all of this
maintenance period. In addition, the MATLAB license server will be
upgraded during this outage, in order to allow us to support MATLAB
R2013b and newer.

Please contact the SCS Help Desk at x8-4231 or send mail to >
help at cs.cmu.edu <mailto:help at cs.cmu.edu> if you have any questions
regarding this outage.


Thank you for your attention,

SCS Help Desk






From predragp at andrew.cmu.edu  Thu Dec 12 21:22:52 2013
From: predragp at andrew.cmu.edu (predragp at andrew.cmu.edu)
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2013 21:22:52 -0500
Subject: [auton-users] MATLAB no univeristy licensing server needed on LOV3
	and LOV4
Message-ID: <222df0302913d9bc73820f4d2c08513e.squirrel@webmail.andrew.cmu.edu>

This is an important information for MATLAB users. I just updated MATLAB
and all toolboxes to the latest R2013b version on LOV3 and LOV4 but
more importantly LOV3 and LOV4 do not use university licensing server
anymore. In another words if you are on LOV3 and LOV4 you can disregard
"outrage info" I forwarded earlier today.


To use the latest MATLAB use the full path

/usr/local/MATLAB/R2013b/bin/matlab -nodesktop

or if you are are bash shell user you can just log out and log in again
so that your shell profile is updated and then simply type matlab.

As usual users are very strongly discouraged to use MATLAB version
form NSF mounted /auton file system. Once all computing nodes are
updated MATLAB will be removed form /auton.

Cheers,
Predrag



From predragp at andrew.cmu.edu  Sat Dec 21 01:34:57 2013
From: predragp at andrew.cmu.edu (predragp at andrew.cmu.edu)
Date: Sat, 21 Dec 2013 01:34:57 -0500
Subject: [auton-users] LOU1 back on-line
Message-ID: <68079cb774df9d5ed9d90e7b3d8176fd.squirrel@webmail.andrew.cmu.edu>

After almost a month LOU1 is fixed and back in business. The good
news is that I refreshed this computing node with the latest version
of RedHat 6.5. R-0.2, Python 2.7.3, MATLAB 2013b Perl 5.10 and all
other good stuff. Consider this deployment beta version. I am sure
that machine still have lots of  rough edges. There is no scratch
directory yet as I have not mounted second HDD.

I have a semi-working ansible server so computing nodes LOV3, LOV4, LOU1
as well as NAVY computing nodes LXV1, LXV2 are pretty much now in sync
software wise.

Unfortunately in the past 20 minutes MATLAB license manager have
crashed several times on LOU1. I will not look into it before Monday.

Machine is not well monitored at this time and I have no plans to plug
things into the status page and Ganglia server. I have in works a
complete monitoring solution Zabbix which will be made available to
all Auton affiliates.


Lastly this is preliminary announcement that in the very near future
all computing nodes will be available via GUI at least from the
Auton internal network. I am using NX X server
to access VBox on LOU1 already. Unfortunately the free version of
proprietary NX X server which is installed allows only for two
concurrent sessions. I will soon test OpenNX server version.
In order for uses to have GUI access to this computing nodes from
home I have to rebuild our OpenVPN sever and then give secure
OpenVPN access to each individual desktop/laptop which will be used
for GUI access from home.

Happy Holidays to All!
Predrag



From predragp at andrew.cmu.edu  Sun Dec 22 00:31:01 2013
From: predragp at andrew.cmu.edu (predragp at andrew.cmu.edu)
Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2013 00:31:01 -0500
Subject: [auton-users] Remote GUI to computing nodes available
Message-ID: <7201ccad39179b23e7f922f774865405.squirrel@webmail.andrew.cmu.edu>

Dear Autons,

This is to let you know that Remote GUI access to selected
newly installed computing nodes (LOV3, LOV4, and LOU1) is now
available from within Lab's internal network (VPN-desktops)
and from outside of Lab. NAVY cluster is also accessible. but
that is not the topic of this message

Access is available via three different servers: FreeNX, X2Go, and VNC.
In an ideal world I would have enabled only NX X server (compresses ssh -Y)
but the open source version FreeNX didn't quite work for me as well as
proprietary which unfortunately allows only for two concurrent session.
I have not spent any time trouble shooting this but it looks that it
might have to do with the propriety client I was using to connect.


X2Go (another compressed ssh -Y) works like a charm but I have hear
of mixed review for clients

http://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php/doc:installation:x2goclient

I strongly recommend only lunching an xterm and then starting
a MATLAB or whatever you need to use with the FULL path to binaries.
This is well tested!


Finally I also installed tigervnc-server which of course uses VNC
protocol and uses ports 5900 and above. Using VNC is not hard but
requires some reading
http://math.arizona.edu/support/account/remotedesktop/vnc.html
This is also well tested!


I expect that an immediate reaction on my claim that above services
are available outside of Auton Lab netwrok from many of you will be "What in
the world is he talking about when we all know that the Lab is firewalled
and on the top of it computing nodes have only internal DNS records".
That is indeed true and a proper access from outside the lab will require
VPN credentials which I will provide as soon as I rebuild our VPN gateway.
However I know that many of you are well versatile in ssh wizardry so am I.

In what follows I will describe how to access LOU1 via VNC session.
To bypass AutonLab firewall log from your home computer via one of
ssh gateways to one of the computing nodes you would like to have GUI access.
Then do reverse ssh proxy to bypass firewall. For example to have my
VNC session on LOU1 available at home on I did this

predrag at lou1 ~ $ ssh -R 5901:localhost:5901 bagdala2.dyndns.org

Where bagdala2.dyndns.org is my home machine which has dynamic IP but
it is accessible via DynDNS services. Then just open vncviewer and
type localhost:5901 as a destination server and your normal Auton Lab
password. Miraculously you will be taken to LOU1 via GUI.

If you are trying to do this with SSH make sure you use non privileged
port on your home computer.

Please sent me a private e-mail if you want to learn more about this
or stop by my office after the break.

Enjoy,
Predrag Punosevac

P.S. I tested MATLAB 2013b on LOU1 and licensing manager works as expected.



From predragp at andrew.cmu.edu  Mon Dec 30 13:49:16 2013
From: predragp at andrew.cmu.edu (predragp at andrew.cmu.edu)
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2013 13:49:16 -0500
Subject: [auton-users] LOR1 and LOR2 decommissioned
Message-ID: <2d1419ccbe25aff610934ad82511ea6b.squirrel@webmail.andrew.cmu.edu>

Dear Autons,

I hope everyone is well enjoying holiday season with your family and
friends!

This is just a short notice that computing nodes LOR1 and LOR2 are
going to be decommissioned and re-purposed today 3:30 EST. These two
machines have being barely used since I came to Lab due to the fact
that most of your have much more powerful desktops. My plan is to put
them back shortly. They will be running Mantis bug tracking software
as well as various Lab monitoring systems.

Most Kind Regards,
Predrag