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ENGR computing resources (for use in grant applications)

1. Networks

  • Wireless (802.11g) network
    • extends throughout the College, as well as to many public areas on campus
    • open (free) to all OSU students, faculty, and staff
  • All buildings are connected by gigabit fiber links
    • network service to the desktop is a minimum of 100Mbs
    • many faculty are connected at 1Gbs

2. Servers

  • Most disk (home directory) servers are Linux or Solaris
    • feature RAID-5 for reliability on all disk servers where data is kept
  • College maintains a student/development web server separate from the production web server used for publicly accessible college websites
  • Single-point authentication for logins on all platforms
  • College maintains comprehensive file backup system with a total capacity of ~110 TB
    • All disk, web, application, and email servers are backed up daily
    • Archives are kept online for 3 months of immediate data retrieval

3. Research cluster

  • College maintains a high-performance computing cluster
    • Currently 78 nodes, 166 CPUs, 560GB of memory
    • Funded and used by multiple departments and research groups throughout the College

4. Software

  • All software for college computers is maintained through a central repository
    • Available to faculty, staff, graduates, and undergraduates
    • May also be installed on personally owned computers (depending on individual licensing agreements)
  • College maintains and supports software for
    • Redhat Linux
    • Solaris
    • Windows
    • Mac OS X

5. Student computing labs

  • College maintains 1-2 labs in every major COE building used by undergrads
    • some are open on a 24x7 basis
    • feature a mix of Windows, Linux, Solaris, and Mac OS X
  • Distributed environment means student sees same desktop wherever he/she logs in
  • Labs are on a 3 year refresh basis (so all computers are less than 3 years old)
  • Labs are staffed by knowledgeable and trained student consultants

6. IT Staff

  • All IT services are supported by a team of IT professionals who service the entire College
    • Includes 12 full time employees assisted by approximately 55 students
    • Each person has a focus area but is also cross-trained to support other personnel

7. Additional (departmental) resources

  • Most departments in the college have their own IT resources too
    • Specifics can be provided by the IT staff in each department
    • E.g., EECS has its own file and email server infrastructure, totaling 9.5TB of disk space and 23 CPU servers all with either Sun Ultra-sparc or Pentium Xeon processors
  • Departments also maintain specialized department-only labs for research-specific or course-specific uses

Related Articles:

High Performance Computing Cluster resources (for use in grant applications)

Article Information:

Date Created: Feb 15, 2006
Last Modified: Wed, Jul 25, 2007 1:30 PM
Views: 1509