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SciTech Services - Research Support

Research Support

Here is a list of some of the services SciTech provides. It is not comprehensive, as SciTech is adaptable to support many Research IT support needs. Please contact us with any questions.

Day to Day Support

Research Desktop and Laptop Support

SciTech will provide support for a desktop or laptop if:

  • used for research purposes ( including graduate student devices)
  • attached to a scientific instrument
  • is not part of the STS domain ( controlled by IST )
  • it is part of the STS domain, the task is non-administrative, and IST cannot do the task.

Support may be provided by IST or SciTech based on a case by case basis. Research desktops and laptops, no matter which team supports the device, may research specific applications. These will be supported by SciTech.

Examples
Hardware diagnostics repair and replacement
  • Finding and replacing power supplies
  • Scavenging hard drives, or other parts, that are no longer being made
  • Searching the internet for parts for computers not under warranty
  • Assisting with ordering replacement parts
Hardware Upgrades

Pull out old GPU from Dell Alienware PC, check hardware requirements of other components, upgrade Power Supply due to this research, install new GPU, test installation

OS trouble shooting

Windows won’t boot on Dell system attached to instrument, determine issue was BIOS upgrade, enable downgrade of BIOS so research continue while we look for long term solution to BIOS issue

Software trouble shooting

Google Meet won’t allow annotations whereas this worked 2 weeks ago. Did some troubleshooting and looks like it was due to an older version of Chrome installed

Software interactivity with instruments

Assisted with connecting an instrument to a PC using secondary network port in Chemistry, while allowing the PC to be on the regular network as well

Network configuration and troubleshooting
  • device connection to the network
  • intra-device communication
  • Laptop won’t load any websites, on-site diagnostics revealed they had McAfee NetGuard enabled but license had expired, removed software and system started working as expected again
Firewall requests

Determine port number(s) for special service running on a Roof Top device in EAS and submit request for IST to open those ports to a specific EAS subnet only so the device is still moderately secured

Network name/address allocations

Added a new desktop PC in BioSci for a researcher that required a static IP and custom name to be assigned for remote access

Research Servers, Appliances, Clusters

SciTech will provide support for research servers, appliances, and clusters. This includes purchase planning, hardware purchasing, internal cluster networking, setup and installation, user account creation and deletion.

Examples
  • Nelson Amaral's cluster, heldar, has a virtual headnode hosted on SciTech\'s highly available virtual machine infrastructure. SciTech set up the operating system, and clustered the physical nodes.
  • Paul Myers has several network attached servers in the data centers. SciTech provides hardware diagnostics, and disk swaps, while Paul is in charge of the operating system configuration and user administration.
  • Small network attached appliances have been configured, purchased and installed by SciTech in various research labs.

Operating System Support

SciTech will provide support for any operating system needed for research.

Examples
  • Windows 3.11
  • Windows 95
  • Windows 7
  • Windows 8
  • Windows 10
  • Windows 11
  • MS-DOS
  • HP-DOS
  • IRIX
  • Linux
  • BSD This includes but is not limited to:

Identity and Access Management

SciTech does not support systematic identity management systems such as LDAP or Active Directory. Old identity management systems were taken over by IST or turned off as no longer needed. SciTech will support local accounts or internal cluster identity management if requested by a research group.

Examples
  • heldar cluster LDAP setup and support
  • SciComp cluster LDAP setup and support

Research Lab Support

Any research IT equipment and software in a Science research lab can be supported by SciTech.

Examples
  • Growth Chamber in Biology that has been configured with multiple raspberry pi devices with individual cameras to do timelapse image capture which is then stored on a centralized server for data processing and analysis
  • Older model PC with a typically unsupported OS (Windows XP for example) that is required to talk to an expensive piece of lab equipment which is not feasible to upgrade

Research using IST Learning Spaces

If a researcher wants to use a IST lab (public or private) for research experiments, SciTech will coordinate and schedule with IST to accommodate such requests.

Network Support

SciTech supports internal cluster networking. IST supports all other networking for Science, including Edge (networking to the desktop) and Core (networking in the data centers and backbone) support.

Data Centers

SciTech will leverage IST Data Centers and will consolidate existing faculty satellite server rooms into these IST data centers.

Software Licensing

SciTech will manage Science research software licenses. SciTech will leverage IST licenses servers when possible. New software licenses server requests will be evaluated by SciTech and IST to determine the best place for support.

Examples

GeoScout license management including client installations to use the appropriate sub-license and updates of the software and license expiry

IT Security

IT device security is ultimately the responsibility of the researcher. SciTech will aid researchers, upon request, to secure devices, operating systems, and software security on Science Research equipment only. Research IT device security must be kept to University of Alberta standards.

Examples
  • SciTech provides several researchers a monthly patch service, where on the first Tuesday of each month their systems are patched and, if needed, scheduled for reboot.
  • IST contacted SciTech that they detected a device acting badly on the network. SciTech physically removed the device from the network, helped reformat and harden the device before returning it to the network.

Service Ticketing Support

SciTech uses the University of Alberta default ticketing system, Freshservice

System Administration Services

SciTech provides a full spectrum of system administration services. Here are some of the services we can provide upon request:

  • Patches & updates
  • User IDs
  • Network Services
  • Security
  • Application configuration and installation
  • Hardware support
  • Replacing failed components
  • Machine/cluster life-cycle
  • Decommissioning of research IT equipment
  • Data backup and recovery