Currently we have a Linux cluster in the department. While there are other non-Linux machines in the department, the Linux cluster provides the main computing environment for the academic members of the department (for now!).

Linux is an open-source Unix operating system. We are running RedHat / CentOS Enterprise Linux on our computers since this provides long term support. We upgrade the machines on several year timescale as convenient.

The Linux machines are set up as an NIS (Network Information Services) domain for users accounts, mail aliases, and a few other things. This means that account information is kept on a few NIS servers and all of the other machines query a server for account information. As a result, once you have a Linux account on our cluster, it works on all of the Linux machines; your password will be the same, regardless of what machine you are logging into (exceptions - windows machines, SSOC, and other machines not on the NIS).

Before you can log into the astronomy cluster, you will need to get an account and a password. Note that an astronomy account is distinct from an NMSU account; the NMSU account is what you will use for registering for classes and university business. For best handling of email and general convenience, it is strongly preferred that your astronomy account name match the name of your NMSU account. The best way to ensure this is to get your NMSU account set up first. This is done by going to my.nmsu.edu, and using the Activate link to activate your account; it will ask for your desired account name, and will let you know if that name is already taken by someone else. Once you have your account name, then we can set up an astronomy account with the same name - to do this send an email to issues@… to request this account. We’ll let you know along with a temporary password when the account is created. You should immediately change this password using the yppasswd command; you will need to enter your old password and your new one twice.

Please send questions, problems, or issues you encounter to issues at astronomy.nmsu.edu - this will send an email to the department system administrators (currently - Jon H. and Zach E.).

When you encounter problems - please be a specific as possible and provide any error messages that were displayed. If you do not do this, we will ask for this information as it will provide us a better understanding of the problem and how best to assist.

You are welcomed to of course use your own personal computer (laptop or desktop!). However, since we are not the system admins for your machine, we will not have full control over your computing environment. If able, we will assist you on a “best effort” basis with the understanding that our solution might be to use the department's cluster.

If you bring a desktop computer into the department you can plug it into the wall and register it through netreg.nmsu.edu. This will give your desktop a dynamic (DHCP) IP. This is usually fine. However, there are cases in which a static IP is preferred. If this is the case, you must notify Zach E. or Jon H. (via issues at astronomy.nmsu.edu) so that they can contact ICT to set your machine up with a static IP.