Services Provided By CS IT

Revision as of 17:18, 21 September 2023 by Steve410 (talk | contribs) (→‎CS Online Services)

SCOPE OF SERVICES

CS IT Staff members work in a hybrid schedule, so some of the staff might be working remotely, while others may be on campus at Malone Hall. We will continue to be available M-F, 8:30 to 5pm, but although we might be on campus, some of our services may only be provided via online means. Please see: Obtaining CS IT Services Remotely page for further information.

The CS IT Support Group offers a variety of IT services to its customers (CS Faculty, students, staff, etc.)

Our goal is to provide friendly, helpful IT support in a timely manner. We are very customer-oriented and strive for keeping our users informed and up-to-date with the status of support requests and the status of our CS computing infrastructure as a whole.

We provide a documentation wiki we call the CS IT Support Wiki at https://support.cs.jhu.edu with extensive details on the many services we provide. (The page you're reading now is a part of the CS IT Support Wiki.)

We are available via email at support@cs.jhu.edu.

For general user support, we are available M-F 8:30am - 5pm. (Please see the yellow bar near the top of this page.)

We also provide a Notices page available at https://support.cs.jhu.edu/wiki/Notices providing the status of our servers, computing labs, etc.


As the CS IT group resides in Malone Hall, most of our support and services are directed there.

Our main areas of IT Support include:

  • The educational mission of the CS Dept.(computing resources for coursework, including its computing lab Linux systems.)
  • The day-to-day operations of the CS Dept. (IT support for the CS Office's administrative computers.)
  • Providing CS infrastructure-based services (email, web space, networking, printing)

To support the above, our specific CS IT Support services can be broken down into three categories:

Below is a comprehensive list of the services that the CS IT Support Group provides to our users. You can find more specific details about these services within the categories found in our aforementioned CS IT Support Wiki. If you have additional questions, please email us at our support address.


Computer Systems We Manage/Maintain/Support

We maintain...

  • CS Office staff (MH 160) Windows systems (CS IT does not provide support for Macs.)
  • Centralized servers providing CS online services.
NOTES:

  • CS IT does not offer direct support for individual's or research lab's computer systems (laptops, desktops, servers, tablets, smartphones, network equipment, etc.) Instead...

  • CS Faculty and researchers and their students typically self-maintain their own systems. (This includes server room rack setup and server installs.) See Research Computing for more information.

  • If you're having an issue with or need to configure your own or research lab's system, we might be able to offer you advice, but, for any support work to be done on them, you may want to consider the following options:

    1. Try contacting WSE's (Whiting School of Engineering) IT group. They can look at your system, but if it is something they cannot address, they might be able to provide you with other resources for further troubleshooting or repair. In some cases, WSE IT can help administer your system.
    2. or try contacting JHU's IT Helpdesk.
    3. Mac users might want to visit JHU's Technology Store in the Levering Hall Room 113, as they offer some technical support for Apple products. See our CS IT Support Wiki's page on Personal or Research Lab-owned Computer Issues

  • CS IT does not purchase, spec, or price out computer-related equipment for other than the CS Office Staff systems, the CS Teaching Computer Labs located in Malone Hall, and for CS central infrastructure support in Malone Hall. If you need the department to purchase a computer for you, you'll need to speak with your PI, advisor, or someone in the CS Dept office (MH 160.)

  • CS IT does not provide cables (USB, Video, adapters, other computing supplies) other than Ethernet cables. If you're looking for different cables/adapters, thumb drives, SD cards, etc., please visit JHU's Technology Store in the Levering Hall's Sherwood Room.

  • Ethernet cables: We do have ethernet cables that we can make available, as needed.
  • Power cables: We do have a limited number of power cables we can make available, as needed.
  • Thumb drives: Currently, we have a limited number of thumb drives that we can lend out for short-term use. Otherwise, you can try the Technology Store mentioned above.
  • Mac Users: The JHU Technology Store has a wide range of Apple products available.
  • Other computing supplies: Also, in a pinch, there is a local Micro Center store, or of course, you can try Amazon.)


CS Online Services

CS IT provides the following online services to CS-affiliated users.

  • CS Email Services: CS runs its own email services and can provide you with a CS email address, if requested. (A CS Linux shell login account automatically provides you a CS email address.) You can choose to forward CS email to your preferred email address.) For receiving CS mail, we provide both IMAP and POP services. We also make available a web interface for CS email access we call webmail. CS also provides mailing list services. Additionally, we filter our emails in a variety of ways to combat spam. All email stored on our email servers is backed up regularly.
NOTE: CS IT does not maintain the JHU Exchange email service. If you have issues with JHU Exchange email (or calendar), please open a trouble ticket with JHU IT.
  • CS-based DNS Service: We can set up hostnames in the cs.jhu.edu domain for your CS-affiliated system.
  • CS-Web Services: We provide space (via a linux shell login) and instructions for creating webpages accessible through our CS webservers.
  • MySQL Database Service: CS hosts its own MySQL database service and can provide you a database for you to design and maintain. Our databases are backed up regularly.
  • CS-provided File Storage: CS provides storage in the form of home directories for those with Grad Net and Ugrad Net CS Linux accounts (although CS Ugrad accounts are subject to disk quotas). CS Grad Net accounts may access their home directories as network shares (for example, via Windows systems.) CS Grad Net accounts also have storage for (limited) large data available on our Grad Net Static Datashare.
NOTE: CS IT does not maintain the JHOneDrive (Microsoft OneDrive) storage service. If you have issues with JHOneDrive, please contact JHU IT Support. Alternatively, you can contact WSE IT's Help Desk for JHOneDrive assistance as well.
  • Virtual Machine Services (VMs): CS hosts a Virtual Machine server for coursework and light research. CS faculty, instructors, and students may request a VM be created for CS class use and CS-related school projects. A VM we create for the requester is then configured and maintained by the requester. VMs are not centrally backed up.
NOTE:
Please remember that other than for the CS office staff's systems, the CS Teaching Lab computer systems, and the CS infrastructure servers, CS IT does not provide direct support (repairs/configuration/troubleshooting/etc.) for other people's/labs' computers.


Infrastructure

Network

Malone Hall contains several different networks used by different groups within the building. Three of these are networks available for CS user access.

CS IT provides:

  • Network jack-activation for CS-related offices, including initial troubleshooting of the actual network port.
  • Static or dynamic IPs. Note: We do not configure an individual's or research lab's computers' network configuration. Due to the differences in network configurations amongst the variety of operating systems that exist now, we merely provide you the IPs and related information with general CS Networking documentation.
  • We can provide you a network (ethernet) cable, if needed. Please email support@cs.jhu.edu to request an ethernet cable.
NOTES:
We do not manage WiFi in Malone Hall. For WiFi, please see Wireless Networking.
CS does not have its own perimeter firewall, however, JHU does. For firewall issues, please see Requesting Open Ports on the JHU Firewall.


Printing

  • We provide access to the CS IT-Managed printers located on each floor of Malone Hall, in addition to the department's copier in Malone Hall 154.
  • We also change toner in the CS IT-managed printers when necessary.
NOTES:
The CS IT group does not supply or change paper in the printers we manage. Users can obtain paper from the CS Admin Office, Malone 160.
Our CS IT-managed printers are currently available to anyone to print to from your own system on the CS (and some JHU) networks.
The CS IT group does not configure user-owned or research labs-owned computers to print to our printers.


Additional Infrastructure And Service Notes

Audio/Visual (including conference room and office A/V) services and support in Malone Hall are handled by other groups within JHU. Please see: Audio-Visual.
Power, HVAC-related, and other physical issues in a room or office are handled by JHU Facilities You can also submit a Facilities Request NOTE: You may need to be on a JHU network on the JHU VPN to access the Facilities Request page.
Support for office telephones are handled by JHU Telecommunications. JHU also provides a page about cell phones
For office furniture issues, please visit the front desk person in Malone Hall 160, who can direct you to the appropriate staff member.
Malone Hall room scheduling is handled by the CS Dept's Administrative staff. Please visit http://engineering.jhu.edu/siteauth/malonerooms/request.html
Maryland Hall 310 Classroom's Computers are handled by others at JHU, not by CS IT. Please see: Maryland Hall 310 Classroom
Cables, adapters, computer supplies, and Apple (incl. Mac & Ipad) products are available from the JHU Technology Store, located in the Levering Hall's Sherwood Room.
Electronics And Paper Recycling is handled by JHU Recycling. Email them directly at recycling@jhu.edu
Mail/Shipping/Receiving: Please speak to a member of the CS office staff in Malone Hall 160.