Human file content analysis is extremely rare. This almost never happens. This is usually in response to a user request ("Can you look at my .cshrc?") or to a system integrity emergency (a file system integrity problem for example). The sysadmins will usually attempt to inform the user before such access. In some cases this is not possible. In this case the user will usually be informed after such access. In some very strange cases a user might not be informed (If the user were being investigated for example). The sysadmins will also provide such access to law enforcement officials.
File modification. This almost never happens unless a user requests it. ("Can you fix my .cshrc?") or a system integrity emergency arises (a file system integrity problem for example). The sysadmins will usually attempt to inform the user before such access. In some cases this is not possible. In this case the user will usually be informed after such access. In some very strange cases a user might not be informed (If the user were being investigated for example).
For this document we differentiate between kinds of process access.
PID read access can/will occur at the discretion of the system administrators. PID access will not regularly be announced before or after it has happened. Examples of this kind of access are
Memory image/dump analysis almost never happens. The sysadmins will usually attempt to inform the user before such access. In some cases this is not possible. In this case the user will usually be informed after such access. In some very strange cases a user might not be informed(If the user were being investigated for example).
PID write access is very common. Look at the section: Resource Use
If the sysadmins wish to see the plain text contents of an encrypted file---that is they want a user to decrypt it---then that user is required to decrypt it or to give the decryption method to the system admins. If the user refuses then thier account will be locked and every effort to decrypt the file may be used.
The OSU Math Department tech staff respect the users right to privacy. While system administrators do monitor resource usage and check for files the compromise system security, they will not read your email or the contents of your personal documents unless you use your math department account for illegal activites, hate mail/threats, or there is an ongoing investigation. If you use your math department account for any of the above mentioned activities you forfeit your right of privacy on your account.
An authorized user is responsible for any use of his/her account. This includes usage of an account by some person other than the authorized one. Here authorized user is defined to the the person the account was assigned to. This authorized user may also be called the account owner.
Even if an account is compromised due to a break in it is still the responsibility of accounts owner. This policy implies
An account's authorized user is the only person that should use that account. Here authorized user is defined to the the person the account was assigned to. This authorized user may also be called the account owner.
Account sharing is strictly forbidden. Account sharing is grounds for account deactivation.
A quota is a limit placed on the amount of drive space a user may use. Some quota systems only monitor the disk usage in a users home directory, but ours can monitor disk use anywhere on the system.
We have a quota system because we only have limited disk space. If it were not monitored, we would fill up our mounts. On a UNIX system a full mount usually leads to file damage and a lot of people who can't get there work done.
Every user on the math departments computers systems has a quota assigned. This quota and the enforcement of this quota varies from user to user. The files under the quota system include the users home directory and mail INBOX. If the user has other directories, they are monitored too.
The quota mechanism in place is not the hard quota system that many UNIX versions--including Solaris--use. Rather it is a home grown quota system that provides for much more flexibility for both users and system administrators alike.
Each evening the system checks the disk usage of each user. It compares this usage to the allowed usage--the quota--for those files. If the use is greater than the quota then some action is taken. The action taken depends on the type of quota enforcement the user has on those files.
The system has several levels of quota enforcement. They included
Active monitoring is used for users that become a problem. These people have their usage monitored at random times. This monitoring occurs all day and can shut down there account in a matter of hours or minutes if they go over there quota.
Eventually, in all enforcement levels except "none", your account will be deactivated.
What are the standard quota assignments?
| Faculty | minimum | typical | maximum | enforcement |
| Home dir | 30Mb | 50Mb | 100Mb | lax |
| Grad Student | minimum | typical | maximum | enforcement |
| Home dir | 15Mb | 20Mb | 30Mb | normal |
| Visiting Faculty | minimum | typical | maximum | enforcement |
| Home dir | 20Mb | 30Mb | 40Mb | lax |
| Guest | minimum | typical | maximum | enforcement |
| Home dir | 10Mb | 15Mb | 25Mb | normal/harsh |
| Staff | minimum | typical | maximum | enforcement |
| Home dir | 15Mb | 25Mb | 30Mb | normal |
| Lecturer | minimum | typical | maximum | enforcement |
| Home dir | 15Mb | 20Mb | 30Mb | normal |
Reply to a quota message. Include in the reply why you need more space. Be specific. We can be quite accommodating for genuine work related space requirements. Some very special arrangements have been made in the past and can be made in the future. The quota system should not get in the way of your WORK.
Yes. You can use the OSU SUNs, one of our Samba shares on hardy, and various other OSU computers.
The UNIX computers in the department have a regular backup schedule.
Yes. However, this is a time consuming task for the system administrator. If you accidentally delete a file, you cannot expect to have it restored from a backup immediately. The admins will get to it as soon as they can. It may take 24 hours to get a file restored.
Read the OSU acceptable use policy regarding computer use. It applies to us too. Basically you must remember that some things are just not acceptable. These include, but are not limited to :
Ask the system administrator if it can be installed. Once a piece of software is targeted as potentially useful the following steps are performed.
If you are aware of a new version of some piece of software on our servers and would like to see it installed ask the system administrator. There are several factors that figure into whether or not updates are installed:
The sysadmin and the faculty computing committee have the final say.
It depends on whether the new version of the software can run with the old version still installed, how compatible they are, etc. It's probably a good bet that older versions won't be preserved.
The operating system of choice for office PC's is Windows. RedHat Linux is also available. However, if you want Linux on your desktop machine you must chose between:
You are responsible for that system's security. An unsecured Linux box in your office can be a gateway for a hacker to get into our departmental systems.
By resources we mean the components of the computer that are used by processes. Only limited resources are available and thus must be conserved. What you will find here are the general polices with regard to how much of a given resource a process or user may use.
Hardy as 4 CPUs. These CPUs are Pentium III's. A single process may use up to one of these CPUs. Hardy has a gig of physical ram and utilizes much more virtual ram. Hardy only has one Ethernet adapter that is active. It is 10base-T.
| cpu | 25% for 30 min |
| cpu | 100 hours total |
| memory | 50Mb for 30 min/100mb for 2 sec |
| ethr | 25% for 10 min/60% for 2 sec |
| cpu | 10% for 30 min |
| cpu | 50 hours total |
| memory | N/A |
| ethr | 10% for 30 min |
| cpu | 30% for 30 min |
| cpu | 200 hours total |
| memory | 70Mb for 30 min/110mb for 2 sec |
| ethr | 25% for 10 min/60% for 2 sec |
| cpu | 25% for 30 min |
| cpu | 100 hours total |
| memory | N/A |
| ethr | 10% for 10 min |
Copies of xlock and Netscape may be killed at any time. If the system is loaded these are the first target processes.
You talk to your sysadmin. Talk to your sysadmin whenever you run a CPU or memory hungry program. There may be a more appropriate place to run the program.
There are two basic things that you can do to conserve system resources. First you can just avoid running programs that are wasteful of resources. The following programs may be very wasteful of resources: netscape, mathematica, maple, olwm, Emacs, TeX, ghostscript and xlock.
Many of the above programs are necessary on a day to day basis. What to do? Well if you are doing something like a long computation in maple or Mathematica you could nice the process. That means that you use "nice" to run it. For example "nice -20 netscape" will run netscape at a reasonable scheduling level. Some programs we just don't use like xlock and olwm.
Accounts may be deactivated at the discretion of the sysadmin. To have your account reactivated you must go to your sysadmin and discuss what ever it was that got your account deactivated.
If you are still associated with the OSU math department, your account can be deleted if you abuse the math department computing resources. The department head has the final say in this.
If you are leaving, or have left the OSU math department your accounts will remain active for one semester after you leave. If you need your account for a longer period of time talk to the system administrator.
The typical process is
The current schedule for automatic account deletion is the second week of each semester.
Yes. You may supply a NEW CDR disk(s) or a NEW zip disk(s). These must still be in the original package and unopened. The system administrator will copy your data onto whatever media you supply. If you want your data saved, you need to let the system administrator know at least a week in advance.
Your user id is created from the intial letter of your first name and your last name. Existing user ids on our system are also a consideration - i.e. if two people have the same or very similar last names. If you want your math department user id and your regular OSU user id to match, your math department user id can be changed. If you have another good reason for wanting to change your math department user id ask the system administrator. With over 200 users on our system, user id's can't be changed just because you don't like what you ended up with.
As part of regular maintenance, hardy is rebooted monthly. This kills off any old login files, zombie processes, etc that can hang around and slow the system down. Monthyly reboots will take place on either Tuesday or Thursday of the first week of the month at 5:00pm or on weekends. A notice will be sent out to all users reminding them of the scheduled reboot.
Periodically departmental systems will need to be taken down for maintenance, software upgrades, etc. A message will be sent to everyone in the department before systems are taken down. Every effort will be made to schedule downtime so that systems are taken down after 5pm and not during the week when grades are due, etc. Optimally 24 hours notice will be given. If that's not possible you may be notified during the day that downtime is scheduled for that evening.
Only in emergency situations will the systems be taken down during the day and/or on short notice. Every effort will be made to notify users in advance, even if it's only 5 minutes in advance, when an emergency arises.
Xterminals in 421, the terminal room, are available for use by anyone with a key to that room. If you're using a terminal in that room you need to log out completely before you leave the room. There are instructions on how to do this in the How do I log out from an X-terminal?.
Not logging out creates more work for others who have to log you out before they can use the system, it also ties up resources and creates a security risk. Anyone who walks into the terminal room can sit down at a terminal you've failed to log out of and have access to anything on the system that you do.
If the Sys Admin walks into the terminal room and finds that you've left and are still logged in you'll receive a warning message the next time you log in. The second time you fail to log out from a terminal in the terminal room you'll receive a less friendly warning. If you fail to log out a third time your account will be locked.
If your account gets locked you'll have to go talk to the Sys Admin(s) to get it back and they'll probably be rather grumpy.
All system users are responsible for selecting a good password. Most Unix systems are hacked via poorly chosen passwords that someone from the outside cracks. In order to remove this danger some system administrators do not allow users to chose their own passwords; users have assigned passwords that are generated by the sytem. We've chosen not to do that here.
If a users account is repeatedly compromised (i.e. used to hack into the math departmental systems) that users account can be deactivated and the user may lose the privilege of creating his/her own passwords.
The OSU Math Department employs a full time system administrator and two or three computer techs to keep all the equipment in the department running happily. These are the folks who keep our servers, PC's, and printers in Math Sciences and the MLRC running. It is their job to make sure the equipment is working, keep all the software up to date, etc.
It is not the tech staffs job to teach you how to use the computers. There online computing howtos to answer some of the more common questions on computing in the math department. In 421, there are books available on Unix, LaTex, etc that you are welcome to use also. Helping users learn to use the machines or software is one of those things that the tech staff can do if they have time. If you ask one of the tech people for help with software, etc please keep in mind that there are 200+ users and three tech people. You may have to wait to get help.
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This page was last updated August 16, 2000. Questions, suggestions, and general grumpings should be sent to webmaster@math.okstate.edu.