IVRL-IT

WELCOME ! 

Last update: 02.04.2015

Purpose

This document is provided to help collaborators understand which computing and infrastructure resources are provided and supported by IC-IT, and the best practices on how to access and use them.

There will soon be a "leaving guide" explaining what you should pay attention to the day you decide to leave the EPFL, especially regarding the research data that you might want to keep safe or transmit to the colleagues who will carry on the good work.

For a more general discussion about working at EPFL, don't miss the staff portal, in particular the "just joined EPFL" section.

Disclaimer

Some information in this document may not reflect the actual situation, but it describes the way it should and will be sooner or later.

Newcomers should follow these directions, while old-timers will be gently migrated in a -- hopefully ! -- near future.

Accreditation

As an employee of the EPFL, or a visiting guest, you should have been accredited by the administration, and hence, own the following official information, among others:

  • e-mail address
  • username
  • user identifier (UID)
  • group identifier (GID)

This information, which will allow you to smoothly and securely access your lab's and the school's computing resources, can be found at http://search.epfl.ch/, after a quick lookup with your own name. Under "Administration", clic "Show data" to see them.

The password for this username is synchronized with your global Gaspar password, which can be managed under https://gaspar.epfl.ch/.

This information must also be used to configure a local user account on your workstation, even though it is locally managed, in order to facilitate access to the school's resources from it. As this local account is not synchronized with Gaspar, you can setup a different password.

Everything you want to know about accreditation.

For problems or questions regarding the accreditation, please contact the lab's administrative staff (refer to the "Contacts" section below).

Infrastructure

For any question regarding the following sections, please contact your IT staff (refer to the "Contacts" section below).

At your desk

Your office is equipped with the standard assets -- chair, desk, bulb --, and a phone. For any matter relating to these, please contact your administrative staff.

In your office, a network plug is already configured to wirely connect your workstation, be it a desktop or a laptop.

It uses DHCP only. No fixed IP addresses are allowed for personal workstations.

More information regarding network connectivity can be found under http://network.epfl.ch/.

On the road

Wi-Fi is available throughout the whole EPFL. For details about wireless connectivity, have a look at http://network.epfl.ch/ara/wpa.html.

A VPN client is also available when working from outside the EPFL network. Details under http://network.epfl.ch/vpn/.

More information regarding network connectivity can be found under http://network.epfl.ch/.

Printers

Two multi-purpose black and white printers are available on each floor.

Details about available printers.

How to configure a printer ?

If you need to print a color document, please contact the lab's administrative staff.

Computing resources

In most cases, you will use your lab's computing resources to perform data processing.

These computers are accessed via SSH, with your Gaspar username and password. The shell that you will use can be "bash" (preferred), or "tcsh". This setting can be modified in the EPFL directory.

Manage your unix preferences

List of computing resources.

Other specific computing power, eg. High-Performance Computing, or services, are provided by the faculty's IT group or centrally by the DIT, and details on how to use or access them can be found in their ad'hoc documentation.

Contact your IT staff if your have questions about these.

Storage resources

There are several places where you can write your files, each with their advantages and disadvantages:

your workstation's harddisk: close to you, relatively small space, no automatic backup (by default), only with ad'hoc solution (TimeMachine, etc.)

  • the faculty's storage servers:
  • the lab's storage servers
  • EPFL central storage servers: 

The school's storage spaces, ie. all but your workstation harddisk, can be accessed using various protocols -- generally NFS (aka NFSv3), NFSv4 and CIFS --, depending on each specific storage configuration.

They all rely in some way on your Gaspar username, and sometimes requires explicit authentication with your Gaspar password.

List of storage resources.

Other facilities

Other facilities are provided to you by the faculty's IT group or centrally by the DIT. Most of them are described here:

To get support, please use the contact specified for each service.

Some SVN repositories are not hosted on the SVN facility linked above. If the SVN repository name you are using begin with icsvn.epfl.ch and not svn.epfl.ch, please contact your IT staff (questions about access, password, etc.).

Need help?

To report a technical problem, contact the HelpDesk using either way listed under http://helpdesk.epfl.ch/ (or see below).

You can also send an email to "support-icit@epfl.ch". This will automatically open a ticket in the central HelpDesk system, and assign it to your IT staff.

Important: these are the only way to ensure that someone will take care of your problem or request. Personal emails or phone calls, may end up unresponded, or misrouted.

Still, in case of an emergency, you can try to reach one of your IT personal by phone (see below).

For open questions, or if you need to meet your IT personal for a general discussion, do not hesitate to get in touch with your IT staff.

Contacts

Administrative

Please contact Mrs. Françoise Behn

Email: francoise.behn@epfl.ch
Phone: +4121 693 7662
Office: INR 133

Technical / IT

Helpdesk

To report a problem or request a feature, send an email to support-icit@epfl.ch.

Research Projects & Specialities

For general discussion or questions, send an email to lcav-it@groupes.epfl.ch.

In case of emergency requiring direct phone contact, see the IC-IT Team page.