Research Computing Support Pages
Artificial Intelligence Group
University of Toronto

The point of contact (POC) for all computing needs for the AI group is Relu Patrascu.  CSLab maintains computing infrastructure, such as file servers, email and web servers, etc.  Relu will help you with all your computing issues that do not fall under the auspices of CSLab. 

Current contact information for Relu:

Office: Pratt 396C
Phone: (416) 946-8487
Email: pocai [at] cs.toronto.edu

Overview

We're in the process of upgrading all the AI desktop workstation from the old Linux to the new one. Some more info below.

• the Linux distribution is Red Hat 7.3
• no longer maintained by creators, or CSLab
• old libraries, old kernel, old everything
• home, work, web, and special purpose directories mounted

• the Linux distribution is Ubuntu Long Term Support 6.06.1
• up to date operating system, libraries, software, user interface
• actively maintained and updated
• every computer has a name such as name.ais.sandbox, denoting that it lives inside a local subnet, not seen from outside (the internet at large)
  • more secure
  • to connect to it from outside campus, an ssh connection must be made first to a CSLab time share server such as
    apps0.cs.toronto.edu
    apps1.cs.toronto.edu
    apps2.cs.toronto.edu
    apps3.cs.toronto.edu
    and then another ssh connection to name.ais.sandbox
• the home directory is mounted (for those who gave permision to the POC) but personal website space must be mounted individually by every user via Samba (more details in the FAQ ); these directories are backed up by Core
• work directories (e.g. /w/199) of each group are mounted if permission was give to the POC; these directories are not backed up
• special purpose directories such as /cs/lists or /var/mail are not mounted on machines running the new operating system. There are various ways to read email outlined in the FAQ, the simplest being with an IMAP capable client, such as Thunderbird, installed by default.

More technical information

• An FAQ on the AIS system
  http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~pocai/sysadmin/notes/faq.txt
• Over the years CSLab has maintained documentation helpful for all users. This documentation is still available here:
  http://www.cs.toronto.edu/support/index.html
  

Maintainer: Relu Patrascu pocai [at] cs.toronto.edu