Computing

In the Residencia

Seven Linux PCs have been set up for visiting astronomers in the Residencia. There is one visas account per PC and the boxes are spread throughout four offices:

Box name   Account  Location
============================
fett       visas1   Office 14, level -3 (below reception, facing the pool)
chewbacca  visas2   Office 14, level -3 (below reception, facing the pool)
c3p0       visas3   Office 12, level -3 (below reception, facing the pool)
r2d2       visas4   Office 12, level -3 (below reception, facing the pool)
boba       visas5   Office 10, level -3 (below reception, facing the pool)
alder      visas6   Office 10, level -3 (below reception, facing the pool)
lott       visas7   Office  8, level -3 (below reception, facing the pool)

You can login on the machine for which you have been assigned an account upon your arrival. This machine gives access to the external network via netscape, ssh, telnet, ftp and ncftp. From your PC you have access to the printer laser2, which is located in the room next to the library (same floor as the offices).

Remote access to the DAT tape drive on c3p0 (Office 12) from other visas machines / accounts than visas3 is possible using the command: tar [switches] c3p0:/dev/st0 [filename] e.g
To get data from a tape type: tar xvf c3p0:/dev/st0
To write to the tape type: tar cvf c3p0:/dev/st0 <filename>

The visitor PCs have been installed with P2PP, Fims, etc. and a collection of scientific data reduction packages, called SciSoft. In addition a few useful non-scientific applications are available such as xv, latex, gv, soffice and acroread. Please check Paranal's Data Reduction Software page for details.

In the VLT Control Room

P2PP and FIMS are run on wu#dhs (# represents the UT1-4). First your OBs have to be ftp'd from your visas account to the wu#dhs machine. Note that the files must be transferred from the wu#dhs machine, as this machine is within the control room firewall. Both workstations wu#dhs and wgsoff# have access to the printer laser1, in the control room.

Data Reduction Software

For a quick-look data reduction you are invited to use the offline workstation wgsoff# where the data are transfered automatically during the night. See Data Reduction Software to find out what is installed on the wgsoff# workstation and how to use this software.

Connecting a Private Laptop

If you bring your own laptop you can connect it to the network from your assigned visas-office, your room (ask for a cable at the reception) and during your run in the control room at the UT console you are observing (only one laptop can be connected per UT console).

Support relating to laptop connection can be requested from SERCO (phone nr. 5167).

If you plan to use MS-Windows, you must have your laptop scanned and certified before connecting it to the ESO network. Please contact SERCO (phone No 5167) to organize this.

Whether you use Windows, MacOS-X or Linux, you need to make sure that the network configuration has been set to DHCP. The laptop will then be assigned an IP nr automatically.

Transferring Data to Your Laptop

If you wish to transfer data from the offline machine (wgsoffX) to you laptop, please make sure that :

• your laptop has an ftp-server installed and configured
• any software-firewall on your laptop is configured to allow incoming ftp connections
• you know the IP nr of the laptop.
  • On Linux type /sbin/ifconfig eth0 to display the IP nr.
  • On Windows select Start->Run and type ipconfig to display the IP nr.

From the offline machine you will need to connect to your laptop using the IP nr, eg. ftp 134.171.184.10 and that should connect you to your laptop for file transfer.