CSL: What's New History

Webmail has been updated to .0.8.1. For more information on the new release see the CS Webmail website 10/04/12
Mathematica has been updated to 8.0.4. For more information on the new release see the Mathematica web site Mathematica 8.0.4 10/02/12
Matlab has been updated to 2012b. For more information on the new release see the Mathworks web site Matlab 2012b 10/02/12
Maple has been updated to version 16. For more information on the new release see the Maple web site Maple 16 10/02/12
We've upgraded and migrated our CUPS (Unix printing) server from version 1.1.23 running on Solaris to 1.5.2 on Linux. Print jobs are now dispatched as PDF natively to printers rather than as PostScript. 9/19/12
The matlab license has been updated. 8/15/12
The linux cluster has been updated to version 12.04 of the Ubuntu operating system. For more information take the Ubuntu tour or see the CS cluster page. 8/13/12
Front-end scripts are now available for the vacation program to allow for pre-scheduling. See vacation-on-at and vacation-off-at. 7/16/12
Work continues replacing the older solaris/sparc equipment with linux servers. We have replaced many of the core services already including network monitoring, NIS, and DHCP. 7/07/12
Our central file servers have been upgraded to a clustered file server. The two FAS3240 servers will serve most of the department's data. As a result of the expansion we will be raising quotas in the coming weeks. 6/30/12
Matlab has been updated to 2012a. For more information on the new release see the Mathworks web site Matlab 2012a 3/07/12
Ten new linux cluster machines have been added. The machines all have 64GB of RAM, and dual,quad-core processors. 10/7/11
Matlab has been updated to 2011b. For more information on the new release see the Mathworks web site Matlab 2011b 9/21/11
The lectopia system has been replaced with panopto. You can access all of the CS content at compsci.capture.duke.edu. Some content is restricted to NetID login. If you have not changed your NetID password within the last year, you will need to do so in order for the new system to authenticate you. More information about panopto can be found at OIT's panopto site. 3/10/11
Information about options for forwarding e-mail have been updated. Please see: Forwarding E-mail & Filtering Spam with Procmail. 9/22/10
Instructions for accessing the CS file systems from a Mac have been updated. You can view the updated instructions here, MacOS X Filesharing. 8/25/10
Our annual machine upgrade will begin shortly. We will be upgrading any CS supported desktop to the latest release of Ubuntu. Also, we will be replacing many Optiplex 755 systems with new Optiplex 980 systems. For details on these new computers, please see the desktop computer list. 8/05/10
We are replacing the remaining HP 4350 network printers with HP P4015dn printers. Please see the printer list for updates. If you experience any issues, please report them to the lab staff; 8/05/10
Alert: There was a problem with a critical service on the mail server today. This problem has been corrected and all services should be functioning properly. Please report any additional issues you experience to the lab staff; 6/29/10
The machine that houses webmail experienced a power supply failure yesterday. It has been restored to service. Please contact the lab staff if you experience any issues; 6/29/10
Note: We will be patching the main web server on Friday th 11th of June. The downtime may last as long as 30 minutes while the patches are applied. The server should be back in service by 5am. Please let us know if you have any concerns or questions; 6/9/10
Note: There will be a test of the fire alarm system in the building today. This is only a test and you do not need to leave the building; 6/03/10
Note: Department members should be aware of possible issues resulting from the recent OIT migration to Microsoft Exchange; 5/27/10
Note: The main file server upgrade was successfully completed this morning. Please contact the lab staff if you experience any problems.; 5/20/10
Alert: On Thursday, May 20, the lab staff will update the main file server for the department, in the morning between 4:45 and 5:15am. Users may experience some disruption in accessing their files at this time.; 5/18/10
As a reminder to faculty, due to recent changes in AT&T's usage policy, we have canceled our AT&T wireless accounts. Please see the mobile FAQ page for more information; 5/11/10
Alert: Department members sitting in D-wing perimeter offices should be on the lookout for water leaks from the radiators and contact the facilities people if detected; 5/11/10
Faculty can now review their sponsored accounts online and make adjustments to the expiration dates; 5/5/10
Notice: OIT will be rebooting our switches on May 5th between 5-6am. The actual downtime should be less than 10 minutes, but they have allotted 1 hour. Please let us know if you experience issues after the update; 5/3/10
Alert: It appears there is a problem with DNS for external sites this morning. Most popular sites are working since those addresses are cached in our servers, but sites accessed less frequently are returning errors. We do not have any more information on the problem yet; 5/3/10
Matlab has been updated to the latest release (2010a). Release 2010a marks the first release without support for the SPARC platform. Accordingly, the login machines will not receive the update. The 2009b release should continue to work for sometime though. Please report any problems you experience to the lab staff. 3/9/10
Notice:The lab staff will upgrade the SAMBA server (share) tomorrow at 5am. This should cause no issues, but please notify us if you experience problems.; 2/23/10
Alert: the issue with the server housing both share and the /usr/xtmp/ filesystem has reoccurred. We are continuing to monitor the situation.; 2/07/10
Alert: There will be a brief downtime for share tomorrow at 4:45am. It should last no more than 5 minutes. This is part of an ongoing effort to track down a software issue causing intermittent outages.; 2/04/10
All of the machines in the linux cluster have been updated to use the latest revision of Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala); 1/21/10
Alert: a bug in the department's spam-processing software may have caused legitimate email to be marked as spam; please check you spam folders; the bug has now been corrected; 1/02/10;
Alert: We are currently experiencing difficulties with the /usr/xtmp/ filesystem we are working to correct this.; 12/16/09
Note: Steam in the LSRC will be shut down on Wed. Dec 9 all day; 12/08/09
We have implemented procmail logfile rotation, see if this affects you; 11/24/09
Alert: We believe the problems with the networking on the central filer have been resolved, please contact the lab staff if you experience any problems; 11/11/09
New machines have been added to the compute cluster; 11/10/09
Alert: We are currently experiecing some difficulty with our central filer which may cause intermittant outages. We will provide more information as it become available; 11/10/09
Alert: CS file server maintenance on November 8th in the early morning will cause a short downtime of departmental services; 11/08/09
Alert: CS research file server howl is currently down to a hardware failure; 11/05/09
Alert: UPS installation in North will cause a service outage on Friday October 30th between 6-6:30am. The outage will likely not take the entire alloted time; 10/28/09
CS Linux cluster (linux.cs.duke.edu) upgraded to Ubuntu Linux distribution; 10/21/09
Alert: The server providing SAMBA shares, as well as the /usr/xtmp filesystem will undergo maintenance tomorrow (10/21) at approximately 4:30am, lasting for up to 1 hour; 10/20/09
Due to a new campus licensing agreement, we are no longer able to distribute Matlab software is to users. The software is still available on our trusted machines; 9/28/09
A community-supported wiki has been set up for users to contribute practical knowledge of interest to others; 9/03/09;
As of today, the department has enabled Spam filtering by default on all new user accounts. This is an opt-out system; that is, you may opt in or out or make adjustments however you like, but initially an account will be opted in; 8/11/09
Users who forward e-mail to gmail (or other) accounts are advised to filter spam before forwarding; failure to do so causes the department server to be tagged in anti-spam databases and causes forwarded messages to be delayed or rejected; 7/14/09
Notice: The faulty network switch was successfully replaced last night; 7/02/09
Notice: Last night the lab experienced the failure of a redundant module in the network switches, starting at about 7pm. While everything generally appears to have continued working, there might have been some issues related to the failure. We have disabled the redundant module and a replacement has been ordered. We will follow up later if the replacement involves any downtime. Please let us know if you continue to experience issues.; 7/01/09
Department desktop OS changing to Ubuntu Linux distribution; 6/09/09
Department-maintained fileserver space set aside for Time Machine users; 5/26/09
Notice: This morning, the department web server experienced a problem that caused intermittant or interupted service to the web site, and to various other department services. The issue has been resolved and we are keeping an eye on the web server to make sure there are no further issues; 5/15/09
Alert: A power outage has affected many core OIT services; 5/06/09
Changes are being made to the departmental remote access accounts maintained for faculty use during travel; 5/06/09
Users should be aware of a problem with the driver for the new Sharp copiers, where they assume an incorrect paper size. Please follow these instructions as a temporary measure; 4/02/09
The department network equipment will be upgraded on Jan 6, 2009, please see the announcement for more details; 12/10/08
The department's USENET server will be discontinued (pending check of actual usage of the service, on October 1, 2008; 9/24/08
Department desktop computers have been upgraded, as part of the standard replacement cycle, running Centos 5.2; 8/04/08
Notice: LSRC building emergency status is available online; 5/15/08
Users should be aware of phishing emails attempting to gain privileged information by posing as legitimate administrators; 5/06/08
Due to a recently discovered vulnerability in the operating system, all trusted desktop machines will be reinstalled starting tomorrow; 2/13/08
Department desktop computers operating system upgraded, Centos 5; 9/24/07
Our primary file server has been upgraded to a NetApp FAS3020 with 14 TB storage. [read more]; 4/16/07.
Lectopia, video capture software installed for D106 classroom; 3/19/07
Department desktop computers upgraded, standard replacement cycle, running Centos 4.4; 2/20/07
Department mail server hardware upgraded; 2/19/07
Learnspam now uses timestamp files, and has had some option changes [read more]; 9/25/06.
The /usr/project/xtmp/ disk storage area has been upgraded to four terabytes on a RAID-5 w/ spare, and retention time has been increased to 180 days. For additional information, please see our Disk Usage Policy page; 9/15/06
A new multifunction color copier was added to room D108. In addition to printing, you should now be able to scan documents and send them via email to anyone! But you will need to update your drivers. For information and drivers see the CS Printers list (See printer pr108c) 9/14/06
Department desktop computers upgraded to Centos 4.4; 9/6/06
New vacation program (e-mail autoreply), please see the Vacation FAQ; 7/14/06
We have added two LTO-3 tape drives (400/800 GB) to our data backup infrastructure. For additional information, please see our UNIX Backups page; 6/1/06
Remote filesystems access changed, no longer uses ssh; 5/22/06
Solaris login server (login.cs.duke.edu) SSH Keys changed; 5/19/06
Department desktop computers upgraded to Centos 4.3; 3/20/06
Printing FAQ updated with LPRng vs. CUPS info; 2/17/06
Wireless Printing added to the department 2/22/06
CSL Facilities Introduction major update; 12/21/05
SpamAssassin upgraded to 3.1.0 for more information see SpamAssassin site ; 12/08/05
Desktop Computers Desktop linux machines upgraded to Centos 4.2; 12/07/05
Proprietary Software Matlab upgrade to service pack 3; 10/14/05
Desktop Computers facilities page update for summer machine replacements; 07/20/05
Change to department email system; 05/26/05
New Desktop Computers facilities page added, with information on new Dells; 08/11/04
New Transitioning to Trusted Linux FAQ page added; 08/11/04
LearnSpam System added to help department members with automated Bayesian filtering; 08/09/04
``More effective filtering'' section added to Spam FAQ; 06/21/04
Tools to help prevent automated harvesting of emails from web pages; 03/23/04
There has been a Printing System Upgrade; 12/26/03
Modems Retiring: discontinued as of 1/30/2004; 12/11/03
Connectivity issues for users outside the department; 12/05/03
Updated info on calendars and crontabs; 09/17/03
USENIX Proceedings added; 07/17/03
Duke Search Engine FAQ; 06/19/03
Critical Windows RPC vulnerability; 09/11/03
Sobig Virus alert; 08/20/03
Project Space rentals available; 04/23/03
Virus from admin@cs.duke.edu; 08/06/03
New main FAQ page layout!; 12/26/02
Mail Mirroring FAQ; 12/26/02
Using SMTP AUTH FAQ; 12/12/02
Department access anouncement; 5/17/00