astro-wiki

aandc

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-02-16T21:06:34+00:00

* AstroBackUp - (now astrodata, see below) * AstroData - * AStroBackUp3 - * Cosmology1 - * Cosmology4 - * Cosmology5 - * Helix - (or just ) These can only be accessed from within the subnet of the astronomy building. Notes Fo…

adminprintingfyi

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2025-04-03T18:15:16+00:00

Printing info for Admin For cluster: (Still cups - but note issues with selinux) For office: They have a color printer in there for office staff only. That IP is 10.33.5.4 - it is not shared with anyone who is not front office staff.

astronomypersonalwebpages

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2022-03-11T20:00:57+00:00

Creating a Personal Web Page on Astronomy.nmsu.edu Each user has their own personal web space on astronomy.nmsu.edu. This is controlled via httpd and the user's respective directory on the server located at /home/httpd/html/user. Files placed in your /home/httpd/html/username dir controls what is presented on the outward facing page - astronomy.nmsu.edu/username/

basichtml

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2022-03-29T20:57:45+00:00

Basics of HTML If you want to display information on a personal page located at astronomy.nmsu.edu/username/ you will need to place an index.html file into your respective directory at /home/httpd/html/username/ Basics of a index.html file - Example of a REALLY BASIC index.html file:

cascadepersonalpages

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2022-03-11T20:02:16+00:00

Cascade Web Page Information In Jan 2021, the Department of Astronomy made the change from hosting our web pages on astronomy.nmsu.edu using WordPress to using the university domain astro.nmsu.edu using the Cascade Content Management System. This was in compliance with NMSU's security initiatives, as Cascade offers better security than WordPress.

commonissues

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2022-03-11T20:03:03+00:00

SSH Denied Common Problem #1 NOTE - If you are trying to remotely log into a desktop machine directly (for example, Praesepe) you will (and should!) be denied access. The Astronomy Cluster is set up in such a way that access to the individual machines are only allowed from astronomy. I.e., you must first remotely (SSH) into astronomy, and then you'll be able to go to the individual machine.

computingresources

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2022-03-29T16:19:39+00:00

Computing Resources Astronomy is the main server that provides basic services. In general astronomy should not be used for any significant processing, as this could affect the cluster performance for all users. Your desktop is meant to provide basic computing services like editing of files, web access, email access, image display, plotting, and the capability to compile and run basic programs. Many basics programs are installed either on each individual system, or centrally on the server disks…

datahosting

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2022-03-11T20:01:55+00:00

Data Hosting on Astronomy If you want to simply host data on the astronomy server, and not create a fancy web page / outward facing page, this can be done by simply putting the data you desire to share publicly in your respective httpd dir. Each users as their own httpd / html dir located at:

filetransfer

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2022-03-11T20:03:33+00:00

File Transfer The preferred method for file transfers is to use encrypted file transfer via the scp or sftp commands - Please note that standard FTP service (not sftp) to individual accounts is turned off for all of the Linux machines. This is because username and password information used when accessing

getstarted

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2025-12-08T22:23:34+00:00

Welcome to the Department of Astronomy This page is to serve as a quick start to getting started with computing in the astronomy department. If you have ANY questions, please send an email to the department 'issues' email alias (astro-issues@nmsu.edu) which goes to both Jon Holtzman and Zach Edwards.

infoonbackups

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2022-03-11T20:52:50+00:00

Back-Up Information We perform two different types of system backups: a daily backup of small files only, and a weekly backup of all files on selected disks. In both cases, the backups are simply to other disks in the department; we do not have any tape backups, so there is an inherent risk in our backup systems, as any event that were to wipe out files on multiple disks in the department could wipe out both original and backup versions! If possible, all users are advised to backup critical fil…

introduction

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2024-12-12T21:55:09+00:00

Introduction to the Astronomy Clusters 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!).

inventory

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-02-02T16:53:16+00:00

Inventory FY 2025 Inventory for 2024 -> Excel Sheet for FY 2025's 2024 inventory Prior to 2020 NMSU required all tagged items to be scanned with a hand-held device. Post 2020, we now (currently) only have to visually verify items that have a cost of $5,000 or greater (at time of purchase).

jupyter

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2025-12-04T19:40:52+00:00

OK so there's not a lot of steps to go through here. Setting up the SSH tunnel itself is a one-command operation. My primary use-case is to launch jupyter-notebook, which adds a few more steps. * Item Choose a port that is not being used on Astronomy. Lets call it 1234.

matlabidl

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2022-08-02T19:30:47+00:00

IDL on Astronomy Currently we have both IDL 8.8 on astronomy. if you simply type the command: idl You will have access to IDL 8.8. Remote Access to IDL 8.8 on Personal Machines We have 25 licenses that can be check out from the astronomy server in order for you to be able to run IDL on your personal laptop / computer.

mount

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2022-03-11T20:53:21+00:00

External Hard Drives It is always best to use the internal storage of the Astronomy Cluster, however, sometimes users like to use external hard drives. If you are going to attach a external hard drive to your desktop - please make sure that it is formatted corrected for a Linux environment (usually it should be formatted as ext3 for Linux). NTFS or FAT32 formatted hard drives might cause issues.

network

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2022-03-11T20:01:23+00:00

Network usage Please be aware of the distinction between CPU usage/location and disk usage/location. When you log into a machine, you are using its CPU. However, each CPU can access either local disks or disks over the network. The locations /home/users, /home/httpd/, and /home/ftp are all located on the astronomy server. Thus, if you log into your machine but access files in one of these directories, you are creating network traffic. This is not a problem so long as the volume is relatively sm…

offices

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2025-01-09T17:48:21+00:00

Downstairs Office No. Type Name Computer / Machines OS Version 100 Front Office Riah Windows / Mac N/A 100A Inner Lydia Windows / Mac N/A

printing

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2025-07-14T15:39:22+00:00

Printing Information for the department Linux machines in the department are set up to print via cups. You are able to print from your laptops, but will need to add them using the below hostnames - Names (and IPs) for the printers: astro-rm118-color (IP: 10.33.5.25) - Color printer in AY118 astro-rm116-printer (IP: 10.33.5.12) - Copy Rm Copier (use LPD) astro-rm202-bw (IP: 10.33.5.20) - B&W upstairs printer (in Astro Library RM 207) (use IPP)

pythonuser

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2025-09-16T14:29:01+00:00

Python for Users Jon and Zach maintain a central python environment for all users on astronomy through anaconda. Below is how you activate this environment. If you do not use this environment (and just the default python on the cluster), you will likely run into errors with package dependencies (as they are not installed on the default linux python!).

redirect

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2022-05-09T18:21:52+00:00

Redirect local email to your NMSU email Note - Newer users should not have to be concerned about this, as it is now done automatically In order to have local emails sent to your NMSU email - you'll need a file called “.forward” in your home dir (/home/users/name/) with the content of your email address.

shells

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2022-03-11T20:00:00+00:00

Shells By default, your shell on Astronomy and other machines is tcsh. To confirm this, in your shell you can type the command: echo $0 This command will echo back to you which shell you are currently using. Note, most users will attempt to use bash commands while in the tcsh environment. This will pop up errors because the commands in bash are different than the commands in tcsh. Thus, tcsh will not recognize these commands.

skill

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2024-11-08T16:51:06+00:00

Overview Welcome to the Graduate Skills wiki page! You can find all the reference materials here. If you have an idea for a session or are interested in leading one, please fill out this Skills Form. We welcome all suggestions and contributions! All session materials will live here

software

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2022-03-28T17:56:46+00:00

Built-in RedHat / CentOS applications: - vi: A standard UNIX text editor. - emacs: A powerful text editor. - tex/latex: A standard text processing system. - evince/kghostview: Packages for viewing PostScript files (and more) - xfig: A package for making diagrams. Particularly useful for making large format posters.

sshissues

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2024-12-12T21:58:00+00:00

Logging into the Astronomy Cluster For desktops - normally you will log into a machine directly from a keyboard and monitor attached to the machine. If you want to log in from a remote location like home or another institution, note that we only allow external logins via the SSH protocol. Most Unix machines have the SSH command installed, and SSH software is available for Windows (PuTTy) and Mac machines as well (though now most windows machines have PowerShell which is a unix-like terminal).

start

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2025-01-03T23:09:09+00:00

NMSU Department of Astronomy Wiki Welcome to the internal NMSU department of astronomy wiki page! The purpose of this wiki is to provide documentation for our users. For assistance with issues concerning the department infrastructure, please contact Zach and Jon via the issues astronomy email alias (astro-issues at nmsu.edu). We use this alias to document and track issues in the department.

trackingissues

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2022-12-15T19:03:54+00:00

Tracked Issues **Network issues on Dec 14th / 15th** On Dec 14th it was noted that the performance on the cluster was horrible and very sluggish. Additionally, Riah and Lydia reported to me this morning that there were connection issues with the printers.

updatelog

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2025-07-30T20:35:24+00:00

Change in Yum Update Location Email from Jon -> “just created a redhat directory on astrobackup2, and modified /etc/auto.home on astronomy to point the automount (/home/redhat) to it, the did a cd /var/yp make to push this to NIS for all other machines.

usefulemail

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2023-09-07T19:55:45+00:00

Useful mail aliases As of Aug 8th, 2023, please use the new astronomy email distribution groups listed below. The old @astronomy.nmsu.edu email aliases will no longer be in use, and after September will be shut off. astro-office@nmsu.edu -> Goes to Lydia, Riah, Zach, and Jason

virtual

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2025-08-08T19:21:25+00:00

Virtual Desktop We used to use the x2go client (found here for verbosity - ) - however, after installing Rocky9, this appear to be having issues. We now use VNC, which requires some set up by root (Zach or Jon). VNC If you want a virtual desktop, a root user (Zach or Jon) will have to set this up for you.

vpn

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2023-02-07T23:38:24+00:00

VPN A VPN is now required to SSH into astronomy.nmsu.edu from off-campus. NMSU's VPN is Cisco Connect which can be obtained at vpn.nmsu.edu.