Math Phys computer news

Math Phys Alpha cluster machine names - a reminder

Users of the Compaq Alpha XP1000 systems should note that the old, deprecated single letter machine names are now no longer available and the longer names based on the six wives of Henry VIII are now the only names by which these systems are known.

The longer names and their equivalent single letter names are listed below:

aragon	d
boleyn	f
cleves	g
howard	h
parr	p
seymour	s

Both the new and old names have co-existed since September 2003 and users were at that time encouraged to start using the new names. However, some users seem to have continued using the old names and have forgotten the new ones, hence this reminder.

Closure of the Maths Physics computer room, 6m36

The Maths Physics Computer room 6m36 on Huxley level 6m is due to be closed soon and converted into postgraduate office space and the facilities provided by this room will be relocated elsewhere. There are a number of reasons for this closure:

ever increasing pressure to provide accommodation for staff, student and research

better provision of desktop computers elsewhere and the increasing use of remote logins mean users no longer have to physically sit at the computer they are using or running jobs on

falling usage of the Maths Physics DEC Alpha cluster as the performance of other systems catch up

The computers will be relocated as follows:

the four DEC Alphas in the Maths Physics Alpha cluster known as f, s, g and pbak will all move to the basement computer facility in Huxley 131 and will henceforward become headless compute systems for remote access only (ie, inaccessible to users with no screen, keyboard or mouse). They will remain in the Maths Physics cluster.

Professor Henrik Jensen's dual Opteron computer, tangled, the DEC Alpha d and Dr Martin Howard's Linux HP system, cathedral, will all move to the Huxley 613 Computing room and will continue to be available as part of the Maths Physics cluster for direct interactive use.

the two Dell Linux systems aachen and bremen will join the Pentium 3 compute farm in Huxley 616, bring the total number of machines in this farm to 14

The moves of d and cathedral will be delayed since there are jobs running on both of these systems and I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Our apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Older Maths Physics items:

July 19th, 2001: termination of the Maths Phys mail server and move of mail to central MS Exchange servers

May 17th, 2001: new multi-operating system login scripts, new print queues, new software additions

April 3rd, 2001: reorganisation of the Alpha and Ultrix clusters, introducing Linux