Guidelines for research groups

Here are some information and contact persons on the internal operation the department for computer science for research groups.

The department for computer science has some special roles in certain fields on the campus of the TU Darmstadt. Usually most departments and research groups use the services of the Hochschulrechenzentrum (HRZ).

But some research groups have special needs for research and teaching. Therefore they run their own infrastructure and corresponding services. Here are some examples:

• hosting the own website
• network / DNS
• mailservices
• licence server
• own user management
• …

Additional to the services of the HRZ, the dean also offers services via the ISP (formerly Rechner Betriebs Gruppe - RBG). These include, among other things, basic services:

• website of the department - webserver www.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de
• E-Mail service with SMTP/IMAPv4/POP3/Webmail and mailing lists
• website independent from the official website
• datasynchronisation / Sharing (similar to Dropbox)
• networks / V-Lans
• …

The decision if and if yes which services are going to be offered by whom should be made very early in the process, so the process can go correctly.

This is only recommended in research groups that have the appropriate know-how and (ideally) can fill ATM positions for these tasks. There is a lot of work to do - depending on the kind of requested service and the number of stuff. It depends on which services the specialist area would like to provide itself, since mixed operation is also possible. For example, the website is self-hosted, while e-mail comes from the HRZ or ISP.

The HRZ offers nearly all needed services to run a research group. For example:

• network
• firewall
• telefon
• TU-ID
• website
• mail / mailing-lists
• DNS zonen-management
• …

While some services are free in the basic version, other services are only available after you pay a certain fee. To get the information on these fees please ask at the support.

Some services like the TU-ID, DNS zone management and mail etc., are global services for the whole campus and they must be used indirectly in order to ensure a proper process.

Many services require for the login a TU-ID, which most of the time show the state as stuff of the department. This mainly includes services for the HRZ administration tools and offers access to internal documents.

If you have no special approval of the HRZ, all mail servers must use the HRZ-server for in- and outgoing mails. Also only registered mail adresses are able to recieve and send mails. The HRZ offers a Whitelists. It exists to protect everybody from spam and defective configured systems.

In order for server and computer to have access to the internet, they must be connected to the HRZ. It is not relevant which kind of computer you use, but the combination of IP adress, hostname and domain. Depending on the domain this is the job of the ISP (e.g. informatik.tu-darmstadt.de → netz@informatik.tu-darmstadt.de) or the person assigned for that special domain. To do so there is a special form, which sends the request to the person assigned for domains. The alternative is to download the generated file and send it to netz@hzr.tu-darmstadt.de.

You should in the beforehand send a mail to netz@informatik.tu-darmstadt.de, to make sure how is in charge with which domain.

Research groups without the financial or personal ressources should use the services of the HRZ or the ISP.

Other than the HRZ the ISP can react much faster and more flexible on the needs of research groups. Like the HRZ we are restricted by certain rules (take a look at TU-ID/DNS/mail), but we are (still) able to offer our services cost-neutral.

Our services are e.g.:

• mail
• Unix account for C-Pool/E-Pool/SSH
• websites using Typo3 instead of First Spirit
• webhosting
• mailing list server (lists.fachgebiet.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de)
• dropbox alternative Seafile
• DHCP server
• network / V-Lan
• Backup services using Bacula/Bareos
• Bachelor VMs
• ….

Limiting for a lot of services is the TU-ID, which must be use to creat the ISP account. This applies in particular for the use of the Unix and the mail Accounts (@rbg.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de).

Therefore it is important to remember: ISP (RBG) account is not equal to the TU-ID of the HRZ because they don't know anything about each other.

If a research group doesn't want to use neither the services of the HRZ nor the services of the ISP, this is absolutely possible. If you want to do that, please keep in mind the legally unsure situation of certain data outside of the TU Darmstadt (e.g. papers etc) and/or outside of germany.

Furthermore there might be some technical issues, especially while using external mail-services like Google.

TODO Translate!