Fall 2011

DECS has launched a new website making it easier to manage features of your Engineering account. New features support editing of Spam whitelist and blacklist, activating new EGR NetIDs over the web from anywhere, changing your password and changing your Unix shell.  Other features included are:  viewing quota usage, controlling the Spam filter and setting email forwarding and email auto responder.

This past year, a migration away from Sun Calendaring to the Zimbra Collaboration Suite began. The Zimbra Collaboration Suite offers an integrated calendaring and mail system. Coupled with Engineering’s existing mail server, this is a robust system which continues to offer Spam filtering and other features available to Engineering users.

Zimbra Collaboration Server is an enterprise-class open source email, calendar and collaboration server. Zimbra provides rich email, contact management, shared calendaring, mobility (via iPhone, Blackberry, Android and any mobile web browser) and desktop synchronization. DECS has recently updated to the latest version of Zimbra, version 7. Zimbra 7 boasts a newly streamlined web interface, an enhanced mobile experience and email and SMS reminders.

Click here for more information about the Zimbra calendar.

Recently DECS began the process of moving office drive spaces to the NetApp (a network storage device). Migrating this data to the NetApp provides many benefits, two of which are improved access control and, most importantly, rotating snapshots for easy recovery of recently deleted or corrupted documents. Some departments have already been moved to the NetApp, and DECS is preparing to move more departments and/or units. DECS will be contacting each group to arrange moving their respective office drive spaces, or departments can contact the DECS Support Office to schedule a time that would be convenient for them to be moved.

DECS recently completed the installation of a new backup server. The new backup server will provide DECS with greater capacity and improved capabilities for keeping the College of Engineering mission-critical data backed up and safe. A tape library is used for preserving data on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, with tapes stored at on-site and off-site locations. Backups are performed on all user file systems, mailboxes and web pages. Engineering users are familiar with the networked storage spaces provided through the use of home, office, research and web space. Using these spaces ensures that your data is backed up regularly, stored in a controlled environment, protected under disaster recovery plans and, best of all, available to users from anywhere. These spaces are backed up daily and quickly recoverable.

DECS is preparing to switch Engineering's authentication system to Kerberos. This change in Engineering’s authentication system is necessary to implement newer standards. As a result of the change, all Engineering users will be required to visit the new "My Account" website to review/change their password. The change will be phased in over time which will provide Engineering users with ample opportunity to update passwords.

For more information about how to change your password, see this How-To.

A ZPrint 250 3D printer is now available in the DECS Support Office. The printer is available for use to faculty, staff and students. The printer allows for high resolution and movable parts, thus making it able to print complex parts, models and prototypes. It has the ability to print multiple objects at once which saves time and resources. There is little waste as extra materials are recycled by the machine! With every print being unique, print-quota cannot be used to pay for parts; however, estimates of final cost are available. Click here to see more photos of the process.

Specifications for the 3D printer are:

• Build size: 9.3 x 7.3 x 5 inches (236 x 185 x 127 mm)
• Vertical Speed: 0.8 inch/hour (20 mm/hour)
• Resolution: 300 x 450 dpi
• Color (number of unique colors per part): 64 colors (basic spot color)
• File Formats for Printing: STL, VRML, PLY, 3DS, ZPR

Improving the DECS public computer labs is always a high priority to us. Three of the DECS computer labs were upgraded with new computers this past summer: EB1318, EB1312 and Wilson G79 (110 total computers). These new computers offer faster processing power and increased energy efficiency. Energy usage has been reduced by approximately 30 watts per computer. Thirty watts may not seem like much, but when you multiply that by 110 computers, that is a significant energy reduction. In addition, when the computers are in hibernation mode, they use less than 1 watt of power, which is about a 95% reduction in energy consumption when compared to the computer systems that were replaced.

In a continued effort to conserve energy, all the lab computers managed by DECS have been configured to hibernate when they are not in use. Hibernation saves the computers’ memory to the hard drive and then the system completely powers off. This hibernation process saves an enormous amount of energy since the computers are not running 24 hours a day; the computers are only on when someone is actually using them.

Recycling keeps us green! DECS worked with MSU Recycling to install recycling stations in each of the DECS public computer labs. The recycling containers are similar to the containers present throughout the Engineering Building and around campus, thus making it easier for everyone to recycle.