Computing/BioMicro Center

Intro

The BioMicro Center’s computing mission is to support a core set of bioinformatics applications and also to provide advanced computational, data storage, data security and data backup services. From BioMicro Center home page.

Accounts

DNA-NET domain accounts give users access to storage on centrally managed fileservers. Data stored on these servers can be access from multiple operating systems. To get a DNA-NET account, send email to biosupport@mit.edu with subject "new user" and the following information:

• First/last name:
• Athena username:
• Lab PI:
• Department:
• Room number/address:
• Phone number:

You can check the status of your request at the BioMicro Support Center You will receive a confirmation email when your account is created.

You must login for the first time using a Windows machine. Your username is your Athena username and your temporary password is your username. Your password must be changed on first login to a different password. This should be your Athena password, for uniformity.

Access

In Windows

Drive X: is mapped to your home directory at \\bionet\endy\homedirs\username
You may want to map drive Z: to \\bionet\endy to get easy access to the top level of the file share hierarchy:

• Right click My Computer
• Map network drive:
• Pick a drive letter: example Z:
• Folder: \\bionet\endy (or use IP address: 18.79.1.147\endy)

In OS X

Press Cmd+K in Finder to connect to server. Then type in: cifs:\\bionet\endy

In Linux

Create a mount point:

# mkdir /mnt/bionet

Add the following line into /etc/fstab:

bionet:/vol/vol0/endy   /mnt/bionet     nfs     rsize=32768,wsize=32768,hard,intr 0 0

Mount the file share:

# mount /mnt/bionet

Off campus

1. Download and install VPN client for your operating system from MIT Software Distribution
2. Access the lab file share:
   • Windows: type \\bionet.mit.edu\endy (or use IP address: 18.79.1.147\endy)
   • OS X: press Cmd+K in Finder to connect to server. Then type in: cifs:\\bionet.mit.edu\endy
   • Linux: follow instructions above (substitute bionet:/vol/vol0/endy for bionet.mit.edu:/vol/vol0/endy)

Windows users may also be able to join the DNA-NET domain from off-campus. In this case your local username may be not the same as your DNA-NET credentials:

• select: connect using a different username.
• enter you DNA-NET username as follows: yourusername@dna-net.mit.edu
• your DNA-NET password

Description of folder structure

• admin - administrative documents
• backups - backups of shmoo, model and habanero
• projects -
• homedirs - home directories of lab members
• .snapshot - an archive of the whole network file share:
  • weekly - last week
  • daily - last two days
  • hourly - last two hours

Miscellaneous

Storage quota for the lab as of June 9, 2005 is 100GB.

Joining DNA-NET domain:

• Need to have a working domain user account
• Use dna-net.mit.edu as domain name when joining

Local Administrators can install software locally. Automatic updates through MIT SUS (Software Update Services) server.

Domain controllers:
bmc-win2kdc1.dna-net.mit.edu
bmc-win2kdc2.dna-net.mit.edu

Hosts and websites:

• BioMicro Center Wiki (requires MIT personal certificate)
• bionet.mit.edu - FQDN for network file share
• Network Applicance help pages (real-time usage stats for bionet.mit.edu)
• BioMicro Center BioIT Group
• Master host file for DNA-NET
• Resources for system administrators

Troubleshooting:
Add the following line to /etc/hosts (or equivalent on your OS):

192.168.4.25    bionet.mit.edu    bionet