Difference between revisions of "Math Account"
(Created page with "== Math Account == In the old days, academic departments had their own computer systems with their own separate user accounts. Math was no exception. Most things are now cent...") |
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There's an F.A.Q. below, but we'll answer this one up front. The old system existed long before netids, and there are many people who are still using their pre-netid accounts for regular work. Also, there are many rules and contraints to connecting math department machines to the central Cornell system. The biggest one is performance. Some parts of the system need to make many calls across the network for some operations, and it would be much slower. Also, the central system can be changed without notice, or may go down for maintenance. So we've had better speed and reliability with our separate system. |
There's an F.A.Q. below, but we'll answer this one up front. The old system existed long before netids, and there are many people who are still using their pre-netid accounts for regular work. Also, there are many rules and contraints to connecting math department machines to the central Cornell system. The biggest one is performance. Some parts of the system need to make many calls across the network for some operations, and it would be much slower. Also, the central system can be changed without notice, or may go down for maintenance. So we've had better speed and reliability with our separate system. |
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The next reason is security. The Math account is controlled by the netid, such as for password reset, but there is nothing in a person's netid account that is accessible from their Math account. So, math researchers can do what they want, and this separation keeps the Cornell system safe. |
The next reason is security. The Math account is controlled by the netid, such as for password reset, but there is nothing in a person's netid account that is accessible from their Math account. So, math researchers can do what they want, and this separation keeps the Cornell system safe. |
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| + | In the future, it may be desirable to set up access to the system that uses NetIDs as the primary username. This is possible if it's found to be necessary. |
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==== Math Account Resources ==== |
==== Math Account Resources ==== |
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* A consistent desktop environment across all systems, from desktop workstations, to large number crunchers, to pay-as-you-go systems at the Center for Advanced Computing, or Amazon AWS. |
* A consistent desktop environment across all systems, from desktop workstations, to large number crunchers, to pay-as-you-go systems at the Center for Advanced Computing, or Amazon AWS. |
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| − | * A personal file storage area that is backed up regularly, in your home directory. |
+ | * A personal file storage area that is backed up regularly, in your home directory. |
* Access to a very large, fast volume for larger datasets, in the /space volume. |
* Access to a very large, fast volume for larger datasets, in the /space volume. |
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* Access to very fast local storage on all of the machines, in /local |
* Access to very fast local storage on all of the machines, in /local |
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* In-browser file transfer in and out of the system, using JupyterHub or Webdisk. |
* In-browser file transfer in and out of the system, using JupyterHub or Webdisk. |
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* In-browser access to the Linux desktop environment where all of these tools are available. |
* In-browser access to the Linux desktop environment where all of these tools are available. |
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| + | ==== Getting a Math Account ==== |
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| + | Anyone at Math who is a member of the math.instructors group may send an invite to a NetID to set up a Math account, by going to https://accounts.math.cornell.edu/ and clicking the 'invite user' link. |
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| + | If you don't have a math account and you would like one, ask a math instructor, or email mathsystems@cornell.edu to request one. |
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| + | Anyone with a NetID may have a math account, all we ask is that they're respectful of system resources (details below). |
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Revision as of 12:04, 22 March 2023
Math Account
In the old days, academic departments had their own computer systems with their own separate user accounts. Math was no exception. Most things are now centralized, or hosted on external services, but the Math department has a few unique needs that would not be cost effective in the centralized model. Also, there are many people at Math who prefer to work in the computing environment they have always found familiar. So, we took our old traditional system, fixed it up, updated it, and modernized it. The result is a system that meets both the old needs and the new needs, and does it in a way that is orders of magnitude less expensive than equivalent services from outside the department.
The math account is a username and password that is used to access the math department computing resources.
Why not just use NetIDs?
There's an F.A.Q. below, but we'll answer this one up front. The old system existed long before netids, and there are many people who are still using their pre-netid accounts for regular work. Also, there are many rules and contraints to connecting math department machines to the central Cornell system. The biggest one is performance. Some parts of the system need to make many calls across the network for some operations, and it would be much slower. Also, the central system can be changed without notice, or may go down for maintenance. So we've had better speed and reliability with our separate system. The next reason is security. The Math account is controlled by the netid, such as for password reset, but there is nothing in a person's netid account that is accessible from their Math account. So, math researchers can do what they want, and this separation keeps the Cornell system safe. In the future, it may be desirable to set up access to the system that uses NetIDs as the primary username. This is possible if it's found to be necessary.
Math Account Resources
- A consistent desktop environment across all systems, from desktop workstations, to large number crunchers, to pay-as-you-go systems at the Center for Advanced Computing, or Amazon AWS.
- A personal file storage area that is backed up regularly, in your home directory.
- Access to a very large, fast volume for larger datasets, in the /space volume.
- Access to very fast local storage on all of the machines, in /local
- Commercial software such as Matlab, Mathematica, Maple, Magma, and many others, already configured for GPU and cluster access.
- Major free software titles, configured and ready to use, with GPU or cluster support as applicable. These include GAP, pari/gp, Macaulay2, Sage, Python, R, Julia, and many more.
- Latex composition tools as well as LibreOffice, pdf conversion tools, and much more.
- Access to all systems using JupyterHub, to take advantage of all of these resources through a persistent jupyter notebooks interface.
- In-browser file transfer in and out of the system, using JupyterHub or Webdisk.
- In-browser access to the Linux desktop environment where all of these tools are available.
Getting a Math Account
Anyone at Math who is a member of the math.instructors group may send an invite to a NetID to set up a Math account, by going to https://accounts.math.cornell.edu/ and clicking the 'invite user' link. If you don't have a math account and you would like one, ask a math instructor, or email mathsystems@cornell.edu to request one. Anyone with a NetID may have a math account, all we ask is that they're respectful of system resources (details below).