Operational Procedures for Using Computing Resources at the University of Southern California
Section 1. Printing
Section 2. Password Changes
Section 3. Username Changes
Section 4. File Restorals
Section 5. Disabled & Expired Accounts
Section 6. Software Acquisition
Section 7. Temporary (/tmp) Space
Section 8. Quotas & Quota Increases
Section 9. Setting Up Mail Lists, List Servers & News Groups
Section 10. Reserving a Computer Classroom
Section 11. Public User Areas
Section 12. Deletion of Email in Trash Folders
ITS provides printing resources at a number of locations throughout campus. Printing is provided on a per-use fee basis; that is, customers are charged for each page they print. Payment can be made through USCard. Computer users who print jobs to an ITS printer are expected to pick up and pay for their output.
In order to provide account and system security, ITS requires that passwords be changed on a regular basis. At this time, the system automatically requests that passwords are changed every six months.
If you are on a UNIX system, know your correct password, and would like to change it, you can do this yourself by logging into your account and typing the UNIX command passwd at a system prompt.
University Park Computer Accounts
Account holders who forget their passwords and need to have them changed can do so by visiting an ITS computer consultant. Consultants are available in Leavey Library's Lower Commons at the Reference and Computer Consultation Desk. To have a password reset, the customer must present his or her USCard or another form of picture identification. Passwords cannot be changed based on requests made via electronic mail.
Health Science Computer Accounts
Customers with accounts on the the health sciences server (hsc) can have their passwords reset by contacting the appropriate authorized signer for their area. Passwords cannot be changed based on requests received through electronic mail.
3.1 There are various naming and authentication conventions in place on the USC Network. Some of those conventions, like UNIX IDs (formerly called usernames) and friendly names (or friendly aliases), are visible and require administrative structures to ensure their integrity.
3.2 UNIX IDs (usernames) are created automatically by the system based on your legal name and have an 8-character limit. Due to the difficulty in meeting all requests for custom UNIX IDs, there are only four instances when a UNIX ID can be changed on an ITS system:
- The user's name has been legally changed, and he or she can provide documentation of the change (driver's license, passport, USCard).
- The legal name on which the UNIX ID is based was misspelled at the time of account creation.
- The user wishes to change his or her UNIX ID so it matches his or her already existing UNIX ID on another USC system. The two systems cannot share password files for this type of change to be possible.
- The UNIX ID yields a word in English or another language that is derogatory, defamatory, ethnically or culturally insensitive, or in violation of one's religious beliefs. USC's Information Council must review and approve all requests of this type.
In the case where a UNIX ID is changed, it can only be changed to reflect all or a portion of the user's legal name. No aliases or nicknames can be used as a UNIX ID. Additionally, it may not be possible to change a UNIX ID if the proposed change is already an existing ID for another individual. In this case, a middle initial will usually be inserted.
If you meet the criteria for a UNIX ID change, and you wish to have your ID altered, please send your request via email to accounts@usc.edu or contact the ITS Customer Support Center at 213-740-5555.
3.3 Friendly names, likewise, are generated automatically as a derivation of your legal name, without the 8-character limit (e.g., tommy.trojan@usc.edu). Due to the difficulty in meeting all requests for custom friendly names, there are only four instances when a friendly name can be changed on an ITS system:
- The user's name has been legally changed, and he or she can provide documentation of the change (driver's license, passport, USCard).
- The legal name on which the friendly name is based was misspelled at the time of creation.
- The friendly name yields a word in English or another language that is derogatory, defamatory, ethnically or culturally insensitive, or in violation of one's religious beliefs. USC's Information Council must review and approve all requests of this type.
- An alternate friendly name derivation, for a prominent member of the university community, will enhance the visibility and image of the university. USC's Information Council must review and approve all requests of this type.
In the case where a friendly name is to be changed, the new name must reflect all or part of the user's legal name. Additionally, it may not be possible to change a friendly name if the proposed change is already in use by another individual. In this case, a middle initial or numeral will likely be inserted in the friendly name.
If you meet the criteria for a friendly name change, and you wish to have yours altered, please send your request via email to accounts@usc.edu or contact the ITS Customer Support Center at 213-740-5555.
ITS makes nightly backups of files on the major timesharing systems and departmental machines that are under ITS support. This means that your file(s) must have existed for at least one night in order for a backup to exist. Backups are generally kept for two weeks. Therefore, depending upon when your files were lost, if they existed for at least one night and it has not been more than two weeks, your files should be retrievable from our backup tapes. If it has been longer than two weeks since you've lost your files, the backups may no longer exist. End-of-semester archives are kept, however, and sometimes older files can be retrieved from these.
The necessary steps for submitting a file restoral request depend upon the host on which the files resided.
If your account is on a ITS-owned machine (e.g., student, faculty/staff, research, health sciences, and some departmental accounts), there is a $20.00 fee for the restoral. You must take an internal requisition (IR) or a departmental order (DO) for $20.00 to the Customer Support Center (Leavey Library Lower Commons) and speak with an ITS consultant on duty. You will need to tell the consultant when you deleted your files and when you last modified them, if you know. The consultant can record the necessary information to submit your request. Processing a restoral request may take up to 2 weeks.
If your account is on a machine that is not owned by ITS and has backup support by ITS (support must be for the partition on which the requested files reside), there is no fee for the restoral, and you can submit your restoral request by sending email to consult@usc.edu. In your email message, please include the complete path name(s) of directories and/or files to be restored, as well as the creation and last modification dates of the files.
ITS encourages account holders to take measures to prevent loss of data. These measures include using the -i option with the rm, mv and cp commands which will help prevent accidental data loss and also downloading important information to a backup diskette. For more information on downloading speak with an ITS consultant.
Section 5. Disabled and Expired Accounts
Once an account has expired and been disabled, the files will be archived to tape. For a $100.00 fee, an account holder can retrieve his/her files. ITS will download the files to a CD-ROM or diskette (to be supplied by ITS). The customer can then pick up the CD-ROM or diskette or have it mailed to them. In order to retrieve files from an expired departmental, faculty/staff or research account, the approval of the appropriate authorized signer is required.
To request a file download, the account holder must contact the ITS Customer Support Center at 213-740-5555 or in person at the Leavey Library Lower Commons during regular business hours to make the necessary arrangements and provide the relevant information, which will include verification of identity and payment.
Section 6. Software Acquisition
Software for shared host computers and for managed desktop systems located in the primary public user areas of KOH, LVL, SAL, WPH, and in the general use multimedia presentation rooms, is evaluated and purchased by the Information Technology Services (ITS) in consultation with the university community. Basic general-purpose software libraries exist in all locations and for most common operating systems. More extensive instructional or research software collections are available for specific hosts or operating systems.
Software is expensive, costly to support and maintain, and has a wide variety available. ITS, therefore, is able to provide only software used by reasonably large audiences for instruction or research purposes. More esoteric software, discipline-specific software, or software required by a limited number of individuals must be funded by the relevant unit(s). Two types of unit-level funding are available:
- direct funding from a department or school
- an allocation to the unit's computing indirects—this action requires prior approval of the relevant dean(s)
ITS will evaluate and install unit-funded software for teaching or research purposes after it has been found to meet system and administrative requirements. ITS will provide system support for software installed on host computers or in the public room(s) for the duration of the contract or course. Note that ITS can provide instruction or consultation only on fully supported software. USC infrastructure and policy cannot support the use of USB or parallel port dongles (hardware locks) in our managed desktop and systems environment. ITS cannot support many types of client/server applications (i.e., Microsoft SQL Server, Filemaker Pro 5.x, Oracle database, calendaring systems, etc.)
Only ITS can load software applications and modify desktop configurations on ITS-supported systems located in user rooms, instructional labs, auditoria, and classrooms, (whether maintained directly by ITS or covered under an ITS Service Level Agreement).
Requests for installation of all software must be presented to the ITS Software Office, at 213- 740-3019 (x 03019) or its-software@usc.edu, at least 60 days prior to the scheduled class or the beginning of a semester, whichever occurs first. Please note that new software or upgrades cannot be installed mid-semester. The requesting customer must authorize ITS to bill for the software installation and provide the appropriate account information to the ITS Software Office prior to work's being initiated. Generally, when there are a high number of software installation requests, the queue is processed in a first-come, first-served order. However, higher service prioritization may be given to critical classroom applications over less essential software requests. If a unit requires its software request to be given urgent priority status that would circumvent the standard process and waive the 60-day lead-time policy, the department will be assessed an additional $1000 non-refundable exception fee on top of any other charges incurred during the software installation process. These charges will apply once work has begun, regardless of whether the software installation is completed.
Under normal situations where ITS has been provided the appropriate lead-time of 60 days, software installation costs are free for the first hour and subject to a $125.00 per hour charge thereafter. Within 5 days of receiving the request, ITS will contact the requester to advise if the request will exceed the first free hour and provide an estimate of the total hours required to perform the software installation. If work is not finished within the estimated time frame, work will cease. Contact will be made with the software installation requester or authorized department signer to either abandon the installation effort or agree to additional time and funding to continue the effort.
Due to the variety and complexity of software applications, we cannot guarantee that all applications will load and function properly. The ITS Software Office will verify authenticity and licensing and will notify the appropriate staff in ITS for implementation. If situations are encountered that will prevent the installation or use of the application, ITS will notify the requesting customer within 10 business days after starting the installation process and explain the situation and any alternate options that might be available.
Once the software installation is complete, the ITS Software Office will notify the customer and will remain the contact point between ITS and the requesting customer.
In order to maintain a current and robust software collection, ITS will conduct an annual review of the general-purpose collections each spring. Software determined to be used infrequently or by a limited number of individuals may be removed, or may, if approved by the relevant budget officer or dean, be allocated to unit-level funding. Changes in software availability will be communicated via email to faculty and instructors whose names have been placed on the class reservations file in the ITS Software Office. Review and renewal of special-purpose software funded by a unit will be conducted in collaboration with that unit and require affirmative action on the part of the relevant budget officer or dean(s).
As operating systems are upgraded, ITS will work with its customers to identify any issues with software currently in use. Software on general use computers that is not supported by the manufacturer and that does not function properly with the latest level of the operating system may need to be replaced with a new, fully supported application or be removed from the general use environment. The costs associated with purchasing or upgrading the applications will be the responsibility of the requesting department.
For more information or if you are interested in acquiring software for a special purpose please contact ITS Software Administration Office at x03019 (213-740-3019) or by email: its-software@usc.edu. We strongly recommend that you not purchase software until you receive confirmation from us that the package will work in our environment.
You can also make requests online using the Software Request Form available at: http://www.usc.edu/its/software/labs.
Section 7. Temporary (/tmp) Space
USC's UNIX time-sharing hosts provide temporary storage space at /tmp. Boths users and the UNIX operating system can access and store files in this location. Because only a limited amount of space exists in /tmp, ITS has developed a set of policies to govern this directory. These policies attempt to ensure that tmp space is available for the system, which requires temporary storage for proper operation and users alike.
Please note that /tmp space is temporary and, therefore, is not backed up. It should not be relied upon as primary storage. Users are encouraged to make backup copies of data onto another location. ITS reserves the right to remove files stored in /tmp whenever neccessary in order to ensure continued operation of the system. If needed, ITS will make every attempt to remove the oldest files and/or ones causing a problem for the system.
The following policies governing /tmp will be enforced:
Student Computing Facility (scf)
Files saved to /tmp on time-sharing hosts (aludra, nunki) will be deleted if they have not been modified in the past 24 hours.
Basic Computing Facility (bcf)
Files saved to /tmp on time-sharing hosts (mizar) will be deleted if they have not been modified in the past 24 hours.
Health Sciences Computing Facility (hsc)
Files saved to /tmp on time-sharing hosts (hsc) will be deleted if they have not been modified in the past 24 hours.
Research Computing Facility (rcf)
Files saved to /tmp on time-sharing hosts (almaak, kottos, ferret, sequoia) will be deleted if they have not been modified in the past 5 days. SAS work files saved to /tmpsas0 will be deleted as soon as the SAS job using the work directory ends. Files saved to /tmpsas0 that are not associated with an active SAS job will be deleted immediately.
On almaak, there is a 100Mb quota on /tmp. Quotas on /tmp will not be increased. Users who require more that 100Mb of temporary storage on almaak are encouraged to use /tmp1. There is a 500Mb quota on /tmp1. Quotas on /tmp1 can be increased at the user's request. This request can come directly from the user. Please contact the Customer Support Center via email at consult@usc.edu to request a quota increase.
Users who must store large files for more than five days should not use /tmp (or /tmp1 on almaak). A quota increase is recommended instead. For information on quota increases, please see the ITS accounts web page.
Section 8. Quotas and Quota Increases
All ITS computer accounts are subject to a disk space quota. Quotas limit the amount of files a given user can store in his or her account. Current usage and quota for an account can by viewed using the command quota -v typed at a UNIX prompt.
Quotas may be adjusted (increased or decreased) with the approval of the authorized signer for the department or unit the account is associated with. The list of authorized signers is available online (www.usc.edu/its/services/accounts/signers/).
Requests for quota changes should be sent by the authorized signer to the ITS Customer Support Center via email to accounts@usc.edu.
For student accounts, quota adjustments will only be valid for the current semester while quota adjustments for faculty/staff and research accounts are valid for the life of the account. For faculty/staff and research accounts, quota increases can be requested at anytime throughout the year, however, quota decreases can only be requested at the time the account is renewed for the upcoming fiscal year.
Section 9. Setting up Mail Lists, List Servers, and Newsgroups
ITS provides several alternatives to electronic communication that is intended for a large audience. Mail Lists, List Servers, and Newsgroups provide three distinct approaches to handling mass electronic communication.
Mail Lists
Mail lists can be setup for a list of email addresses. This approach is most commonly used for department mail lists or other groups on-campus. For example, a list of staff members in the computing organization might have the mail list address computing-staff@usc.edu. When a message is sent to this address it is then forwarded to all members of the list.
The mail list is a text file that resides on one of the UNIX servers that contains all of the addresses that will receive the mail. A mail list must have a USC faculty, staff member, or member of a recognized student group (with a faculty/staff sponsor) as the list owner. The list owner will be able to change the list.
To request a mail list, send email to action@usc.edu and include the name/purpose of the list along with a list of the people to be placed on it initially. When the list is setup, ITS will reply to the request with information about how to change it.
List Servers
List servers provide an email address (usually based on the group's common interest) that participants can send mail to. The list server then forwards a copy of the message to all members of the list. USC maintains mailing list management software (listproc) to assist its community in electronic communication, in accordance with its electronic mail policies. This software allows computer users to subscribe and unsubscribe from the list online.
A list must have a USC faculty, staff member, or member of a recognized student group (with a faculty/staff sponsor) as a list owner. It is the list owner's responsibility to deal with the errors on the list, to be the final authority of list content, and to be the point of contact when dealing with the systems support staff. There may be more than one list owner at the same time. All the list owners need not be from USC. The list must be of interest or benefit to the USC community.
For more information, or to submit a request for list creation contact listmgr@usc.edu
Newsgroups
Newsgroups provide a public forum for discussion about a topic. Newsgroups are commonly set up for classes and other groups that have a common interest. Unlike the case of Mail Lists and List Servers, where messages are sent directly to participants, participants must access the newsgroup in order to read new information that is posted to it. A newsgroup must have a USC faculty, staff member, or member of a recognized student group (with a faculty/staff sponsor) as the newsgroup owner. To request the creation of a newsgroup, send email to mail action@usc.edu and include the name/purpose of the group. When the newsgroup has been setup a reply will be sent indicating the name that was given to the group.
Section 10. Reserving a Computer Classroom in King Hall, the Leavey Information Commons, Salvatoria Hall, or Waite Phillips Hall
These rooms are designed for hands-on computer instruction only. All other classes should be scheduled with Classroom Scheduling by calling 740-4612.
WPH B36 has a capacity of 29 students, KOH 208 has a capacity of 21 students, SAL 126 has a capacity of 30 students. SAL 127 has a capacity of 36 students, SAL 128 has a capacity of 29 students while LVL LRB has a capacity of 25 students. Moving additional seats into the classrooms is not allowed.
The rooms can be reserved only by a department's head, a faculty member or a staff member. The department head, faculty member or staff member will be held responsible for damages to the rooms and its equipment during the session.
Reservations for the rooms are made only for the current semester. ITS will start taking reservations three weeks prior to the beginning of the semester. One class may utilize a maximum of 4 reservations per month and a maximum of 3 hours per reservation.
Reservations for evening hours will be restricted after the middle of the semester through finals to maximize the number of computers available to students. All reservations are subject to availability and administrative approval.
If a session is cancelled the Scheduling office must be notified by either calling 740-0049 for reservations in LVL or 213-821-8021 for reservations in WPH, KOH or SAL. If the instructor does not arrive 30 minutes after the scheduled time and fails to provide notification of the cancellation, the class will be cancelled automatically.
The following guidelines are intended to provide all users with a positive working environment in public user areas. These guidelines are subject to change without notice.
User Conduct
A valid USC ID is required for entry between the hours of 8:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m.
Eating, chewing gum, drinking, making loud noise, smoking, wearing skates or Roller Blades, or bringing pets (except for guide dogs) is not permitted in the user areas.
You are expected to pick up and throw away your trash. If your behavior is disruptive or you refuse to follow the policies, you will be asked to leave. If necessary, security will be contacted.
Computer Usage
- Monday - Friday, 12:00 a.m. (midnight) to 8:00 a.m.
- Saturday All day Sunday 12:00 a.m. (midnight) to 12:00 noon
If others are waiting to use a computer, game playing is not allowed. The computers are intended for school work.
Game playing is not allowed on the Sun and SGI workstations.
For Windows and Mac OS during the regular Fall and Spring semesters, game playing is only allowed during the following hours:
If you are using an elevated station, you may be moved to another computer so that a disabled person can use the raised table.
If you leave your assigned computer unattended for over 10 minutes, you will be logged out and the station assigned to another waiting customer. The stations are for interactive work. If the station is locked, this time limit is still enforced.
Installing software on Windows and Mac OS is not allowed.
Facilities
The public is not allowed to move equipment or furniture. The consultant computers and furniture are not for public use.
Cordless telephones are provided for calling Customer Support Center. After checking out a phone, you will be held responsible for loss or vandalism of the phone and charged accordingly.
Hardware
No personal forms or paper are allowed on the printers.
Do not power off equipment. Electronics and software can be damaged by this. Speak to the operator if you are having a problem with the equipment.
If a Sun or SGI workstations crashes or freezes, please contact the user area operators. Do not power off these machines or attempt to re-boot them. They are designed to be left on at all times and can be damaged. The user area staff will be able to assist you.
Do not attach electronic equipment to the computers, except for the Multimedia Stations (see sign about designated station).
Waiting Lists
Computers cannot be reserved. If no computers are available, your name will be placed on a waiting list. You need to be present in the room when your name is put onto the waiting list. You cannot get onto the waiting list by phone.
People on a waiting list must be present when their name is called or their name will be crossed out and the next person called. If you are going to step away for a moment (e.g. to visit the rest room), let the operator know that you will be back.
Section 12. Deletion of Email in Trash Folders
Deleted email messages contained in trash folders will be purged from the email system on a regular basis.
Last updated: Friday, April 17, 2009, 15:31PM PDT