ON THIS PAGE:

Overview

Computing Facilities

Services Provided by the CSRC

Billing:

Faculty and Staff

Graduate Students

Undergraduate Students

Guests

Collaborative Researchers/
Short-term Visitors

Computer Services Recharge Center (CSRC) Mission
(Reviewed and updated 1 July 2007)

Overview
The UNC-Chapel Hill Department of Computer Science is a nationally recognized leader in cutting edge research and teaching, being ranked by U.S. News and World Report as first in the nation in Graphics: User Interaction (commonly referred to as "virtual reality"), 13th in systems, and tied for 17th overall. Our 38 full-time faculty, 25 adjunct faculty, 6 visiting scholars, 12 post-docs and EPA non-faculty positions, 30 staff, 160 graduate students, and over 100 undergraduates require a highly sophisticated computing environment and level of technical support. Through the Computer Services Recharge Center, we provide the required technical staff to provide these critical services.

This Recharge Center is reviewed by the University periodically to ensure it is in compliance with all applicable federal and state regulations, including OMB Circulars A-21 and A-110, as well as applicable university policy. Rates are adjusted annually to ensure that the Recharge Center is operating on a strict cost recovery basis. The current rate is $535 per Full Time Equivalent (FTE) per month. Rates apply to each user and are charged based upon each person's salary distribution, e.g., if a person works 50% on one project and 50% on another during the month, each project pays 50% of the fee for that month. All employees and students are assessed the same rate without regard to their salary source (federal, state, foundation, commercial). No additional fees are charged and all services included within the Recharge Center are available to all users.

General Computing Environment
The department's computing environment includes over 1000 computers, ranging from older systems used for generating network traffic for simulated Internet experiments to state-of-the-art workstations and clusters for graphics- and compute-intensive research. Departmental servers provide compute service, disk space, email, CVS (version control software), web service, database services, backups, and many other services. All systems are integrated by means of high-speed networks, described below, and are supported by a highly skilled technical staff who provide a consistent computing environment throughout the department. Each student is assigned a computer, with computer assignments based on the students' research or teaching assignments and their seniority within the department. In addition to the departmental servers and office systems, our research laboratories contain a wide variety of specialized equipment and facilities.

General computing systems include 800+ Intel-based computers plus about 40 Macintosh systems.

Our systems primarily run the Windows XP operating system, with a smaller number of systems, including many of the servers, running Red Hat Linux. In addition, a large number of network research systems run FreeBSD. We use the AFS file system for central file storage. Languages most commonly used include J++, C++, Java, C, and Turing. Document preparation is usually accomplished with standard applications on PC systems. Our extensive software holdings are continually evolving.

The department's computer systems are connected to one another by a high-speed data network. The network provides switched 100 megabit connections to every desktop, plus fiber, video, and multiple voice and data connections in each office. Special purpose systems and switches use gigabit connections. The campus Internet II connection is in Sitterson Hall and provides even higher speeds for applications that require it.

Services Provided by the CSRC
The Computer Science Department's Computer Services Recharge Center provides a wide variety of services for its users. Most of these services are either unavailable from ITS or only available on a fee for service basis. Even when services are available from ITS, the CSRC provides a substantially greater level of service and customization to meet the department's specialized research and education needs. Examples of services that go far beyond what is available to other campus employees are given below.

7X24 emergency support
CSRC personnel share an emergency pager and are available to handle emergencies around the clock. This may entail bringing systems up after power outages, handling water leaks or HVAC outages, troubleshooting server problems, or responding to literally any issue that our users consider an emergency.

On-site Dell and Macintosh hardware support
Two members of the CSRC staff are Dell Certified Technicians, and one is an Apple Certified Technician. This allows our staff to provide in-house warranty service on Dell and Macintosh computers as well as service once the warranty runs out, and our technicians have access to special rapid channels for obtaining repair parts, so they can fix these systems far more rapidly than would be possible. 75% of the department's 1000+ computers are Dells.

Special event support
When the department's faculty host conferences on campus, CSRC staff provide on-site technical support. This includes support for attendees connection to the department-supported wireless network, A/V support, recording of talks, teleconferencing support, and assistance with any other conference needs.

Backups
The CSRC staff provide user data backups for Windows, Linux, and Macintosh desktop systems as well as backups for departmental server systems.

Video projector support
CSRC staff provide custom installation and maintenance for video projectors in faculty offices, often with two projectors in an office.

The above services are simply not available to other University employees unless their department pays ITS or their own technical staff for the service.

Telephone service
The department has its own telephone switch, supported by CSRC personnel. All faculty, staff, and graduate students have department provided voice mail and telephones in their offices. When a user changes offices (which happens frequently with graduate students), CSRC moves the telephone number from the old office to the new, so no one's number ever changes.

Detailed list of services

• Operating system support (Windows/Linux/Mac)
  • installation
  • upgrades
  • patching
  • reghosting
  • troubleshooting
• Application support (standard and additional applications)
  • ordering
  • installation
  • upgrades
  • troubleshooting
• Computer and peripheral configuration and ordering
• Backups
  • AFS
  • Windows
  • Macintosh
  • Linux servers
• Computer security
  • monitoring
  • firewalls
  • intrusion prevention
• Email service
  • SMTP (mail forwarding, @cs.unc.edu, mail lists)
  • IMAP (mail storage and retrieval)
• Web services
  • department web server
  • CGI server
  • class web services
  • custom administrative web pages
• Databases
  • administrative systems – development and support
  • user systems – limited disk space and backups
• CVS version control system
• Other central software services
  • Disk service (AFS, NFS)
  • Software update service
  • Antivirus control service
  • Software distribution (Windows, Mac)
  • Domain controllers, WINS service (Windows)
  • DNS, DHCP, NIS, LDAP, time
  • Compute and login service (Linux)
  • Calendar service
  • ITWorks (administrative data) service
• User accounts and disk space
• Software licensing
• Training – one-on-one and in groups
• Documentation
• help web page
• howto articles
• Network
  • standard production network
  • specialized research setups
  • wireless
  • Dial-in lines
• Telephones
  • voice connections
  • voice mail
  • moves
• Projector installation and maintenance
• Multimedia and videotaping
• Videoconferencing
• Room control systems (AMX)
• Graphics hardware support
• Computer hardware maintenance (Windows/Linux/Mac)
  • initial setup
  • troubleshooting
  • warranty and post-warranty repair
• Printers
  • black and white
  • high quality color
  • lesser quality color
  • large format color (plotter)
• Copiers and scanners
• Equipment moves
• Office furniture
  • moves and replacement
• Building security
  • access control
  • video
• Electrical, HVAC, plumbing
• Inventory
• Special event support
• Emergency support
• TSC
• Interface with campus support group, ITS

Billing

1. Faculty and Staff
The fee is $535 per month per FTE. Part-time employees will be charged based upon the fraction of an FTE represented by their work schedule, e.g., a 30 hour per week employee will be charged 75% of the full fee. The fee will be paid by the source(s) of salary support for the employee, e.g., if 60% of an employee's salary is paid from a particular grant, then 60% of the CSRC fee will also be paid from that grant. When state supported faculty or staff are cost sharing their time to particular contracts or grants, the fee may be charged to the contract or grant based upon the cost shared effort.

2. Graduate Students
Academic Year
The typical graduate student has an assistantship that requires them to work 20 hours per week during the academic year. Thus 50% of their CSRC fee is charged to the account(s) that pay their support. Since the other half of their effort is devoted to classwork and other educational activities, this half of their CSRC fee is charged to state instructional/educational accounts.

Summer Months
During the summer, students work 40 hours per week on research projects and are not enrolled in classes. Therefore, their full CSRC fee is charged to the appropriate research project account.

The following special cases apply:

• Part-Time Students: Since part-time students generally do not have an assistantship and take only half the full-time course load, their CSRC fee is 25% of the full-time rate. This fee is charged to appropriate state instructional/educational accounts.

• Fellowship Students: Fellowship students have the option of affiliating with a research project for 10 hours per week. If they choose to affiliate, their CSRC fee is divided as follows: 25% to the research project paying their supplement, 25% to their fellowship, and 50% to appropriate state instruction/educational accounts.

• Students with Primary Work Site Outside Sitterson: Since computer science students sometimes work for a department outside of Sitterson Hall, their use of CSRC resources for their assistantship is less than students who conduct their assistantship within Sitterson Hall. Therefore, the source of their assistantship will be charged at a rate between 5% and 50% of the normal rate as certified by the faculty member sponsoring the graduate student based upon their knowledge of the user's activities.

3. Undergraduate Students

• Undergraduate students with a declared computer science major will be given an account for the duration of their program of study. Since they typically are not heavy users of CSRC services, their fee is 10% of the full CSRC fee and will be paid from state instructional/educational accounts.

• Other undergraduate students taking a course that requires access to the Department's computing facilities will be given an account for the duration of the course only. This fee is 5% of the full CSRC fee and will be paid from state instructional/educational accounts.

• Undergraduate students working on research projects will be charged a fee based upon the fraction of an FTE represented by their standard work schedule, e.g., a student working 10 hours per week will be charged 25% of the full fee. This fee will be paid from the contract or grant that supports the student.

• Alumni and retired faculty/staff are given a guest account for the primary purpose of forwarding mail and reading news on the departmental system. These users will be charged 5% of the full CSRC fee. The fee will be paid from departmental funds and the Department Chair will serve as the faculty sponsor. The level of use in their account will be limited to 100 megabytes (MB) of home directory disk space.

• If sponsored by a faculty member, other guests may be given an account for the primary purpose of forwarding mail and reading news on the departmental system. These users will be charged 5% of the full CSRC fee, i.e., $27/month. This fee will be paid from the source designated by the sponsoring faculty member. The level of use in their account will be limited to 100 MB of home directory disk space.