Information about the IT services provided by NTNU-IT (fagit) for the Lab Clients at the NV-faculty.

Norsk versjon - LabPC og Labnett

Lab PC setup

The research laboratories at the NV-faculty have computers with a range of different instruments attached. Some of these instruments and associated software require old and specific operating systems. Simultaneously, all faculties with research activity are required to archive their data in a secure and accessible way.

Each laboratory client is therefore categorized into one of the following setup solutions. All solutions are giving secure, user friendly and stabile operation of the laboratory clients at NV.

Solution 1: Update

If the software, drivers and instruments are compatible with Windows 10, the computer is installed in a similar manner as the PCs for employees, with all the latest updates available for manual instalation.

Solution 2: Virtualization

Not all instruments are compatible with Windows 10. In some of these cases, it is possible to create a virtual machine. This means that the computer gets Windows 10 installed, which runs a virtual machine with the Windows version and software the PC had originally. With this PC, you can get access to local disk(C:), your home directory(M:), the NTNU shared directory(T:) and e-mails on the host machine via RDP to Farm.

Solution 3: Run as before

Virtual machines do not support all types of connections, and thus not all instruments will work with a virtual machine.

System backup

We make a copy of the disk before and after the changes. That makes it easier get up and running again if somthing happends (software/hardware)

Labnett

For security reasons, all laboratory clients are placed in a restricted network, called “Labnett” (lab network). This network gives access to most NTNU services and has a restricted Internet access outside NTNU. Some of the external services that are available on Labnett are FEIDE and license services. You can reach external Internet pages via RDP to farm. Note that moving the client and connecting to other networks will not give further Internet access.

Remote Control

Remote Control for laboratory clients is possible via the Aurora, where you can log in by using your FEIDE-account. For external users, see Getting to use it on the doc-pages. The laboratory responsible user for a client can give access to remote control for other users.

You can start a session by clicking Remote Control in the main menu in the archive system. In the pull-down menus, you choose the PC you want to control and which program (protocol) you want to use for the remote control. There are three types of software you can use.

• Remote Desktop. Found on most Windows-PCs. For Mac, you can download Microsoft Remote Desktop from the AppStore. When using this option, the lab PCs local username and password is required.
• SSH. For an SSH connection, you can use Putty. This is a software found on "Software Center"
• VNC."TightVNC Viewer" is a software found on "Software Center"

VNC is recommended because you can connect without a password.

After choosing the client and protocol, you will be sent to a page where a sequence of numbers appearing in lighter blue will be given. This is an address. If you have chosen to use Remote Desktop or VNC, this address works as a download link. The downloaded file is opened in the associated program, given that this program is installed on your computer. If you use SSH via Putty, you can copy the address and paste it into the Hostname-field in Putty.

Archiving laboratory data

Aurora can retrieve data from the lab PCs through an ordering system. Orders and archiving of laboratory data is done in the archive system, described on the doc-pages. An email is sent to you when the order is completed, and the data is ready in the archive system. All users can give other users access to their personal storage. Laboratory responsible users have access to data saved on the Lab PCs they are responsible for. It is also possible to create shared storage areas for some laboratories.

Calcfarm

We put a shortcut to "rdp on calcfarm" at the desktop. If you have a NTNU-user, you can log in there (win.ntnu.no<user>) and access lots of software, "internet", M:, T:, and the local disk on the laboratory client. This makes it easy to retrieve your files, but you have to make sure you store them securely yourself.