Guide to the USF Seismolab Computer Network

Welcome to the USF Seismolab! This Wiki article is intended to serve as an introduction to the computer network that is the heart of the lab, enhancing our research by enabling rapid access the software and data we need, without the need for excessive maintenance.

The goal here is to show where things are on the network, rather than how to use them, the assumption being that specific instructions can be found elsewhere.
This guide is meant to be updated and revised as often as necessary – so please contribute!

Probably the first thing you will note is that we use Linux or Mac OS. Most scientific codes of interest, including those used in seismology, run on some flavor of Unix. So you probably won’t see anyone using MS Windows.

Tips
• Use rsync –av when copying folders/directories.
• Your .bashrc file is key.

Description of the Linux network

Our computer network comprises a Linux server, and for each user either a Linux or MacOS desktop client. Our server has 40 TB of disk storage available. These drives are mounted on each desktop client. The plan is that they will also be mirrored to USF centralized storage. This centralized version is local to High Performance Computing clusters, which we can also utilize.

The computers on our network are:

• newton (our server, in SCA 219)
• feynman (Glenn's desktop, in SCA 526)
• lehmann (Heather's desktop, in SCA 210)
• schrodinger (Cassandra's desktop, in SCA 213)

The network domain is rc.usf.edu.

The only named MacOS computer at this time is Sonja's, which is called maxwell. The only reason to name MacOS computers and put them in the rc.usf.edu domain is to allow ssh login from home. If this is something you want (Alex, Steve or Jochen), we need to ask Research Computing to set it up for you. Everyone (in the seismiclab group) can however ssh to the server with their USF NetID. Issue a command like:

      ssh -l [YOUR_NETID_USERNAME] -X newton.rc.usf.edu 

for example:

      ssh -l thompsong -X newton.rc.usf.edu 

Software

If you have a Linux desktop, most of your software will be mounted from the server under the /rraid/apps directory. Locally installed software is typically installed at /usr/local.
If you have a Mac OS desktop, no applications are mounted from the server. Instead you will find them in your Applications folder.

Linux

Under the /apps directory you will find:
- MATLAB
- Antelope
- SAC
- GISMO
- ObsPy
- Earthworm
- Seisan

GMT is installed locally.