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Department of Engineering |
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An Introduction to the "Teaching System"
| The central computing system (aka "The Teaching System", "The DPO System", etc)
has undergone another change in the last year or so. This talk
describes the current set-up (with glimpses into the past and future) and the work of the IT Services Division in general.
WWW slides are available.
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The network structure of our system has changed over the years. Broadly
speaking it has changed from a Mainframe system to a distributed,
network system.
A long time ago, the machine room was twice as big as it is today and
contained an IBM Mainframe. That was replaced by an HP fileserver plus
HP terminals running HP-UX. The terminals proved too slow to run many
programs,
so we got some "CPU servers" to run programs, using the terminals merely
to do input/output (i.e. they became "thin clients"). Each group of
terminals connected to a CPU server was called a "cluster" - a term
that we still use, though the meaning has changed.
Small groups of Windows machines were added to the system - one at the end
of the DPO, for example.
Meanwhile, a few infrastructure machines and some machines in the EIETL
were running Linux. In addition, Peter Long's MIT-related MDP project
resulted in a CD containing Linux and many CUED programs. For the 2005-6
year we offered an MDP-like option on the DPO terminals alongside access
to the HP-based system. For 2006-7 we removed the HP option, though we
still have HP machines for teaching use in emergencies, and for admin use. Those HP machines
will disappear in summer 2007.
For 2007-8 we're using SuSE Linux 10.2 instead of the Knoppix-based MDP linux version.
Current Structure and Hardware
- Infrastructure - Most of our centralised services are now
provided by PCs running Linux. We have a new dedicated file-server.
- Linux Servers - We have about 10 big PCs (4 CPUs each. 64-bit - "Blades", not "Pizza Boxes") available
- concorde, khopesh, etc - see our linux servers page.
- Gateway machines - together they're called gate. Though
they're likely to be the same hardware/OS as the Linux Servers, they may
lack programs - they're intended to provide remote access to the department.
- Terminals: DPO; EIETL - These run linux (SuSE 10.2). Some have Windows installed too. They're powerful
enough to run most of the programs we use (dual-core Pentiums). They have names like tw107.
They're disc-less (2G of RAM) - when they're switched on, they get their operating system and programs via the network. They also "mount" (have access to) files on some central machines: user-files, big programs, etc. Both K Desktop Environment and Gnome are installed. Gnome is the default.
Details of the current set-up are online.
Operating Systems
- Windows - Available on several machines. Such machines are
often "dual-boot", meaning that they can run Windows or Linux.
- Linux - Linux is a version of
Unix. It's (nearly) free. Unix has been around a
long time, but it hasn't always looked
nice. Now there are several versions of Unix that have such a comprehensive
graphical interface that most users don't need to use the command-line. MacOS is perhaps the best known.
- What is Knoppix? - Knoppix is a Debian-based Linux distribution primarily designed to be used as a "live CD". The MDP disk uses it. A common misunderstanding is that
the Computing Staff produced the MDP disk. Only one or 2 of us had any
involvement, and that was peripheral.
- What is SuSE? - is another Linux distribution, dating back to 1992. It's widely used within the university.
Software
Linux has lots of free software. Amongst the big, free packages available are
- OpenOffice (like Office)
- GIMP (like PhotoShop)
- F-Spot (like iPhoto)
- OpenOffice.org Impress (like PowerPoint)
- Octave (like Matlab, except for the graphics and toolboxes)
One of the reasons we gave up HP-UX is that companies like Mathworks
were no longer going to support it.
Linux is supported
by many software companies.
Currently installed purchased programs include Matlab, ABAQUS, ANSYS, COMSOL, PATRAN and ProE.
The Web
Web-based admin and teaching facilities are supported centrally, though there's
a trend towards using University facilities. We currently run several web servers (all on linux machines)
- www.eng.cam.ac.uk - official pages
- www-h.eng.cam.ac.uk - help system
- www2.eng.cam.ac.uk - available to all
- www-g.eng.cam.ac.uk - managed group servers
- www-t.eng.cam.ac.uk - teaching material
- Others: for admin, research, etc
See the WWW logs
for traffic information.
Staff
Here's the
IT Services Division organisation chart!
Teaching Support
We used to have dedicated CBT programmers. Now most of the programming done
nowadays involves conversions.
We've added a few facilities to made the system easier to use as a teaching
aid.
Research Support
- Some research machines are in the main machine room
- GridEngine (for running long programs out of teaching hours)
Other Services Provided
- Networking
- Telephony
- Back-ups
- Printing - Quota'd (undergrads) or paid via a Job Number.
- Admin - Teaching-related (COMET, Teaching-office facilities),
Library, Central databases, Purchasing, Publication database, etc
- Teaching - Writing/converting programs for teaching
- Software Licensing - See our Packages License Information page for details
Connectivity
- Within CUED - You can't access the DPO terminals remotely, but you can use the linux servers.
- Remote Access - If you're outside CUED you can only access
gate. From that "gateway" you can access the linux servers. See our Remote access page.
- Wireless - now available!
The Future
- More video-viewers on the DPO terminals' web browsers - can you see this
DPO Movie?
- More Wireless access
- More video-link support?
- A GridEngine to use the DPO terminal CPUs overnight?
- More use of University-wide facilities?
- More reliability: Power cuts? Air-conditioning?
See Also
