Harris School Computing Resources

	HSIT resources include an integrated Windows Network supporting faculty and staff desktop computing and file management, dedicated UNIX research servers providing more advanced statistical capability, and both a public internet website and secure internal intranet, as well as the Harris School graduate student computer lab and training room.

Windows Network

HSIT maintains two Dell PowerEdge 2600 servers running as domain controllers for the faculty/staff Windows network. Supporting logins from approximately 100 faculty and staff desktop machines, these servers contain 3.06GHz Intel processors, 2GB of RAM, and currently allocate approximately 1TB of disk space for users to store files in a secure, consistently backed-up location.

Each network user is assigned their own "U: drive" mapped from their desktop machine to a secure directory on the server, accessible only to that user. Network logons are accomplished via "roaming profiles", therefore if a user's desktop machine is not operational they can login from an alternate location and retain access to files and settings. Additional secure server directories allow shared files among defined sets of users. Windows 2003 Server software provides users the advantage of backing up their own files and folders without the need to contact the IT staff.

User desktop machines are secured with the latest operating system patches, as well as McAfee's VirusScan and Zone Alarm's Integrity Client firewall software to prevent attacks from outside the Harris School network. The implementation of Microsoft's SMS software will soon allow security updates to be applied remotely from a central location, eliminating the need to double-check individual user machines.

Piecemeal backups occurs twice daily on the servers themselves, allowing users to restore previous versions of their own files and folders. Complete backups of server data occur nightly via a Dell PowerVault 122T, which provides compressed storage capacity up to 640GB and backup rates of up to 21.6GB per hour.

UNIX Research Servers

For more intensive statistical computing applications, Harris School users also have access to a SunFire V440 Server running Solaris 8 and supporting applications such as SPSS, Stata, SAS, S-Plus and Matlab. This machine contains 4 UltraSPARC IIIi 1.28GHz processors, 16GB of available memory, and currently allows 144GB of storage space. Accounts on this server are available to Harris School faculty, staff, and graduate students.

Internet/Intranet

HSIT maintains the Harris School website, which can be viewed at http://harrisschool.uchicago.edu, as well as internal intranet portals for both faculty/staff & students. These allow Harris users to access files and folders on their home drives from any remote location via the web. The student intranet site also includes career services tools, including a placement survey and searchable database of job postings. Harris web applications are run on Dell PowerEdge 2450 & 2650 servers and are protected behind a Cisco Pix 515E firewall.

Graduate Student Computing

HSIT maintains the main computer cluster for Harris graduate students, located in the basement of the Harris School (Room 043). Open 24 hours a day, this lab contains 22 Windows XP machines running Pentium 4 processors at 2.8GHz, with 1G of RAM and 80GB of hard drive space, as well as CD-RW/DVD-RW drives. This lab also contains 2 HP8150 printers and an HP Laserjet 4350 printer, as well as 2 scanners (1 high-speed and 1 color).

The HSIT training room, located across the hall in room 043, contains an additional 13 machines (12 students & 1 instructor machine) and can be used for instructional workshops, TA sessions, etc. The training room machines are 2.4GHz Dell GX260s, with 1GB of available RAM and 80G hard drives. When not occupied for training sessions, these machines are available for student use as well.