Category: CLSE Release Notes

Beginning Wednesday October 3, 2018, access to all CAEN remote access services, both Windows Remote Desktop and Linux Login/VNC, will require Duo Two-Factor Authentication at U-M (previously only off-campus access required it). In order to use Duo two-factor authentication, you will need to enroll a device as described in the CAEN Knowledge Base. In addition, you may also need to update your remote access client software. Links to download and use the latest versions are provided below:

• Windows Remote Desktop using the VMware Horizon View Client
• Linux Login/VNC using the CAEN VNC Client
• Linux Login/VNC using Secure Shell (SSH)

If you want to use the remote linux computers for file copying or synchronization (SFTP/SCP) without the Duo prompting, please follow the instructions in this related CAEN knowledge base article.

CAEN is requiring the use of Duo on all remote access services in order to help protect the account data of Michigan Engineering students, faculty, and staff, as well as better secure the College’s IT infrastructure.

Two-factor Authentication (2FA) is a security tool being used to mitigate the threat of online attacks. It provides an added layer of protection by requiring an additional security check, in addition to your password, when logging into your computing account. For example, it is especially useful in preventing malicious intruders from accessing University resources using stolen or hacked passwords, such as those obtained via phishing attacks or malware.

The University of Michigan has adopted Duo as its two-factor authentication solution. Any U-M student, faculty, or staff member can enroll a device in Duo at no cost. In addition to using it for securing login to CAEN remote access services, it can optionally be used to protect access to other University systems that use the U-M Weblogin page. Doing this helps protect web-based access to your online University data, including:

• Personal information in Wolverine Access, such as enrollment and payroll
• U-M Google services, such as Email and Drive storage
• U-M Box storage
• Canvas course data

Contact the ITS Service Center at 734-764-HELP [4357] or 4HELP@umich.edu for assistance with Duo. If you have any other questions or concerns about this change, please send email to caen@umich.edu.

 

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A new CAEN software listing website is available for the Fall 2017 term. This website offers an improved search for finding and viewing CAEN licensed software. It is now possible to search for software applications that match titles as you type them in real time, as well as obtain application version numbers, supported operating systems, and details about the licensing restrictions on usage.

 

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Updated 9/29/2017 – The full suite of Adobe Creative Cloud applications have been deployed to the following locations:

• Duderstadt Center 3rd Floor East Alcove
• EECS 1230
• IOE G610
• LBME 1310
• NAME 134

The available applications in the suite include:

• Adobe Acrobat
• Adobe Audition
• Adobe Dreamweaver
• Adobe Illustrator
• Adobe InDesign
• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Premiere Pro

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Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Acrobat Pro DC are replacing the older Adobe applications in the new 2017 CAEN Lab Software Environment (CLSE). The new software will be available in late September due to licensing delays. GIMP has been installed in CAEN labs as an alternative to Adobe, and is available today in all labs. Those needing Adobe Creative Suite or Acrobat Pro can still use the old versions which are available in the Duderstadt Center Lower Level, and via the Windows remote access service by connecting to the CAEN Labs 2016 pool. These computers will run the older 2016 CLSE for legacy access until October 3.

Important: When installed, the new Adobe Acrobat Pro DC will be available on all computers in CAEN labs, however the new Adobe Creative Cloud will only be licensed to run on 160 specific CAEN lab computers. Once available, a list of locations for those computers will be updated here, and provided in the CAEN software listing website.

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Beginning with the Fall 2017 term, students will no longer be assigned a “roaming profile” when using Microsoft Windows 10 on CAEN lab computers. With this change, students should see a more consistent and improved user experience with the Microsoft Windows 10 environment on CAEN lab computers.

After this planned change takes place, students can expect to see the following:

• Desktop and Documents folders will continue to follow the student from computer-to-computer
• Applications settings for some applications will no longer follow the student between computers
• Validation to the CAEN software web page (Cloudpaging) completes more consistently
• The Windows Start Menu will be customized by CAEN for a better user experience

If you have any questions concerning this change, please Contact CAEN.

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The OpenAFS client for Windows will no longer be included as part of the CAEN Lab Software Environment (CLSE) beginning in the Fall 2017. Usage of the AFS service (a.k.a. the “H:” drive) has been steadily declining for several years, and after reviewing the usage statics form the last academic year, we believe the software should be retired. College of Engineering students will continue to receive a 50 Gigabyte Windows-based home directory (a.k.a. the “N:” drive); that is not affected by this change. This space is also accessible from the CAEN Linux hosts. Other storage services, such as U-M Box and U-M Google Drive, will also continue to be available from the Kumo Client, and may be a useful alternative.

Students will still be able to access their U-M AFS space by connecting to MFile: http://mfile.umich.edu/

Accessing U-M AFS as the home directory on the CLSE Linux environment will not change.

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CAEN is piloting a service called Kumo which allows you to map your cloud-based storage drives such as U-M Box and U-M Google Drive to a CAEN lab computer. Originally developed by Indiana University, it is simple to use and allows easy access to your Box and Google drives.

Setup is easy; just authorize your cloud storage accounts, and they’ll show up as a network drive on any CAEN lab computer. To start using the service, simply go to the website kumo.it.umich.edu and sign in with your uniqname and UMICH password. You can then authorize your account to access any or all of the available cloud storage services. You only need to authorize once. After authorizing, the next time you sign into a CAEN lab computer you should see those cloud storage options appear as network drives under the “Computer” icon.

See our poster about Kumo from the 2016 Michigan IT Symposium:

(Click image to view full size)

Important Notice: The Kumo service is in a pilot deployment state. CAEN is in the process of finalizing software licensing for the Kumo service, which is expected to be completed by the end of January 2017. Students can register and use the Kumo service normally today, and should not notice any difference in the service once the software licensing is finalized and the service moves from pilot to production.

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Changes to the CLSE this summer included upgrading the base operating systems to Microsoft Windows 10 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3, as well as removing the “I” (Instructional) or “R” (Research) computer designations. For further details on these changes, and more, refer to our recent CAEN News Article.

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When logging into CAEN Windows lab computers, ITS AFS home directories will no longer be automatically mounted to the H: network drive. This change is being made due to a number of compatibility problems associated with AFS storage technology and the Windows operating system (see this previous news article for more information about the problems). Students are encouraged to instead use their CAEN Windows home directory (N: drive) to store all of their class work. Recently, the CAEN Windows home directory quota was increased to 50 GB.

While the ITS AFS home directories are no longer automatically mounted, they can be mounted manually by double-clicking on the Mount AFS (IFS) Drives desktop icon:

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The CLSE changes this summer included upgrading the base operating systems to Microsoft Windows 10 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3, as well as removing the “I” (Instructional) or “R” (Research) computer designations.

No more “I” and “R” version of lab computers

Students no longer have to decide between an “I” (Instructional) or “R” (Research) computer when walking into a CAEN student computer lab. Instructional versus research licensed software is now selected when launching software, either using the software-on-demand environment in Windows, or using specifically-configured environment modules in Linux. For example, MATLAB now has two options to launch; one for “Student Instructional” use and one for “Academic Research” use. To stay in compliance with software licensing agreements, it’s important for students to select the correct software depending on how they intend to use it. This software listing website should be helpful for those who need help in determining this.

Changes to CLSE for Windows

The base operating system has been upgraded to Windows 10 for the CLSE for Windows. Windows 10 has greatly improved the performance of the CAEN software-on-demand environment (a.k.a, Cloudpaging, Application Jukebox). Students should immediately notice the improvement in launch speed of software applications.

Changes to CLSE for Linux

The GNOME 3 Classic user interface has now replaced Cinnamon Desktop as the default window manager in the CLSE for Linux. As a result, students will notice a difference in their login environment, including new system menus, icons, and file navigation windows. Although the Cinnamon Desktop was introduced as the default user interface only last year, the change back to GNOME 3 Classic was made for several important reasons, including that it:

• works better with the CAEN VNC (remote access) client. In particular, students can now set the default screen resolution again.
• has better support for alternate language input.
• is supported by Red Hat, which means it will receive updates as soon as they are released.

The remote access Linux server that requires dual-factor authentication to login, restricted-course.engin.umich.edu, has been upgraded to use the University’s new Duo two-factor authentication method. Students should make sure their VNC client is the latest supported version.

The following software applications are now locally installed on Linux: Altera, cadence-ic, calibre, mmsim, synopsis-synth, and vcs. In addition, MATLAB has been updated to version 2016a.

Your Windows home directory is now accessible from Linux in the /studenthome/uniqname directory. This means all Linux software applications are able to read and write files directly to your Windows home directory.

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We have removed QuickTime from being available in Application Jukebox on computers running the CLSE for Windows. This was done in response to the following CERT advisory:

https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/alerts/TA16-105A

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