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Department of Computer Science

Technical Services and Support

Getting Started

 

Updated: May 19, 2020

This page contains what you need to get started . If you are new to Computer Science, please refer to a brief Introduction to the Computer Science Computing Resources. Access to our resources must adhere to acceptable use policy.

Note: Throughout this document “Computer Science” is used to refer to the Rutgers University New Brunswick Computer Science Department.

1. Types of Accounts

There are different computers or sets of computers for different groups of people. Here are the systems that New Brunswick computer science students are most likely to be interested in. In the list below, the first few (labelled as “CS”) are run by the Computer Science department and are available primarily to CS faculty, staff and students. The others are run by the University, and are available to members of the University community.

A. Computer Science resources

Computer Science faculty and researchers use a wider array of computing resources. We recommend looking in the left margin for computer systems, storage, and networking. Below is a list of CS computing resources run and managed by Laboratory for Computer Science Research staff.

    • CS iLab Linux Computing
      This resource is called the “Instructional” or “iLab” cluster. This resource aids all students matriculated in the Department of Computer Science for a degree, students who are enrolled in a Computer Science course and CS faculty in their coursework.  Only students who are registered for CS Classes or Student who are officially a CS student can get access to this resource. Newly admitted student has to wait until s/he is officially registered for classes to activate account on this system.  For more details of name, make, models and type of machines, see List of machines in iLab cluster. 
    • CS Faculty Linux Computing
      Faculty cluster is used to aid CS faculty and administrative staff in their work. For more details of name, make, models and type of machines, see List of machines in Faculty cluster. 
    • CS Research Linux Computing
       “Research” cluster is used by CS faculty, Students and guest researchers in their research work.   This cluster is owned by specific research groups in CS Department who control access to their resources.
      For more details of name, make, models and type of machines, see List of machines in Research  cluster. 
B. University Resources

Below is a list of a few important University computing resources, run and/or managed by Office of Information Technology (OIT). These resources are available to eligible member of University community.

    • Email System for Faculty/Staff
      All faculty and staff at Rutgers (including student employees) are expected to use Rutgers Connect (@cs.rutgers.edu), an Office365 based email system, for all work-related email. You can activate this account when you activate your services during NetID creation process at https://netid.rutgers.edu.   Students who later become University employees will need to activate the Connect account  at the time they become an employee from netid.rutgers.edu site.  When you no longer have role at Rutgers, deactivation notice from OIT, your Connect email will go away and very difficult get any data out of it because University  policy 70.1.7. must be followed. See the section about Leaving Rutgers for more details.
    • Email System for Non Faculty/Staff
      University also have an Email System named ScarletMail. It is a rebranding of GMail system made available for all educational work for all University members. Note that faculty and staff (including student employees, TAs, RAs, etc) are required by University policy to use Rutgers Connect for all University business. Those who graduated do not loose his/her ScarletMail account after graduation. See https://oit.rutgers.edu/scarletapps/faq for more info
    • Remote Techonology Resources for Students and Faculty 
      University has a collection of resources for remote learning. These systems includes learning management system like Canvas, Sakai and Blackboard, Web conferencing software like Zoom, WebEx, Microsoft Teams, Virtual Computer Labs,  and software portals providing everyone  with site license software like Microsoft Office.
    • Digital Classroom Services.
      This group help faculty with classroom digital resources
      University resource to help faculty with teaching and learning
    • Top Level netid@rutgers.edu email address
      To simplify email delivery, many people prefer to have  netid@rutgers.edu address. This address will work no matter whether you are faculty, staff, or student. You can control where mail sent to @rutgers.edu address is delivered by managing your email from netid.rutgers.edu site
    • Forwarding Email Policy
      Faculty and staff cannot (by policy) forward email. It must to sent to Rutgers Connect  address. However students can have mail sent to NETID@rutgers.edu forwarded to any mail system they want, including non-Rutgers mail systems.
    • Personalized Email account
      You may add “personalized addresses” such as john.smith@rutgers.edu. Mail sent to one of your personalized addresses will be sent to the same place as mail sent to NetID@rutgers.edu.
    • For more IT services at Rutgers, please see it.rutgers.edu.
2. Sponsoring a CS Account for Student or Guest

Only people with university NetID can create account on any Rutgers system. If the user do not have a NetID, you will need to sponsor and request a NetID for your guest.

If a faculty member needs an account for a student or collaborators on specific cluster, simply add his/her netid to your group on specific system. See How to Manage Your Guest Users on CS Computer System, if you need guidance.

Once added, please notify your guests or students about it and ask them  activate their own account and set CS password.

3. Changing your password; Forgotten Passwords
4. Activating a CS Computing Account

Most systems and services run by the University uses NetID for the username and password. CS resources will be based on your NetID but a different password which needs to be set separately. If you don’t have a NetID yet, or don’t know your NetID and password, please go to https://netid.rutgers.edu to activate your NetID or reset your NetID password.

IMPORTANT: Only people with university NetID can create account on any Rutgers system. If the user do not have a NetID, you will need to sponsor and request a NetID for your guest.

Before you can login to CS Linux systems, you need to activate your account and create a CS password on Computer Science computing cluster. Note: Only students who are registered for CS Classes or Student who are officially a CS student can activate his/her CS Linux account. Newly admitted student has to wait until s/he is officially registered for classes to activate CS Linux account.

5. Account Deactivation

Access to resources at Rutgers are controlled by your University role. Example: Student, Faculty, Staff, Alumni, Retiree etc.  When your role at Rutgers changed, you may loose access to certain resources.

CS Accounts

Your CS Linux account are normally deactivated when you are no longer affiliated with Computer Science or no longer taking any CS classes. Normally account deactivation is done a few week after the end of a semester. A warning is sent to your NetID@rutgers.edu address to warn you about account closing before deactivation. Make sure your email is correctly set.

Rutgers Accounts

University resources are controlled by OIT. Example of such resources are your email, VPN, Canvas, Sakai, WebEx, OneDrive, Box, Zoom, Teams, Software license etc. These resources  go away as soon as your specific role for the resource goes away within 4-6 weeks after the semester ended. Please make sure you make a backup of everything you want to keep at the end of the semester. For those users who graduated or retired from Rutgers, you get to keep only your ScarletMail account. Please make sure you forward your NetID@rutgers.edu email to this scarletmail account before your Connect account is closed.

Other Rutgers Resources that will go away

Please look at OIT Access to Rutgers technology resources for graduating students page for what resources that will immediately go away after you graduate.

We also have many more info such as our Introduction to CS ResourcesGeneral Computing Info along with HowTo’s pages

For help with our systems or If you need immediate assistant, visit LCSR Operator at CoRE 235 or call 848-445-2443. Otherwise, see CS HelpDesk. Don’t forget to include your NetID along with descriptions of your problem.