Overview

SBGrid provides comprehensive system administration support for Linux, Mac, & Windows systems for the Harrison and Chou labs at HMS.

All SBGrid supported systems are located on an integrated, private network segment. To reach this network for access to local resources from an external location, please ssh to crystal.harvard.edu.

If you are a member of the Harrison Lab at CLS, please see the BCH Harrison & Chen page.

Get Help

For general questions, email SBGrid at help@sbgrid.org and include your name and the name of your lab. Email questions about your software installation to bugs@sbgrid.org.

New lab members should contact help@sbgrid.org to complete their initial setup.

Email Access

Lab members have a Crystal Google Account with access to email and other Google services, including Google Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, and more.

Access mail from the following address (you will be redirected to Gmail):

• http://mail.crystal.harvard.edu

Access the Google Calendar from this address:

• http://cal.crystal.harvard.edu

If you encounter problems, go to:

• https://mail.google.com/

Login using your Crystal Google account: username@crystal.harvard.edu.

If you do not have an account, email help@sbgrid.org and cc your PI in the request.

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See faqs/using-crystal-google-apps for more detailed information on how to use Email, Calendaring.

Email Lists

Harrison Lab

The Harrison Lab at SGM has a private Google group for internal communications and communications with SBGrid:

To view the Harrison Lab Google group go to:

• https://groups.google.com/a/crystal.harvard.edu/forum/#!forum/sch

To post to the Harrison Lab Google group send your email to:

• sch@crystal.harvard.edu

Contact Karen Lee if you are not currently a member of this list and wish to be added.

Chou Lab

The Chou Lab has a private Google group for internal communications and for communications with SBGrid.

To view the Chou Lab Google group go to:

• https://groups.google.com/a/crystal.harvard.edu/forum/#!forum/jc

To post to the Chou Lab Google group send your email to:

• jc@crystal.harvard.edu

If you are not currently a member of this list and wish to be added, contact Professor Chou for approval.

Accounts

SBGrid manages two different types of Crystal accounts. For simplicity, we use the same username for both accounts, but each has a different password. The first gives you access to Linux systems in your lab. The second is used to access your Crystal Gmail and other Google services.

• Linux access via ssh to crystal.harvard.edu
• Google Account https://crystal.harvard.edu/mail

Computers

SBGrid supports Linux, Mac, and Windows computers in the Harrison & Chou labs.

Linux

Most Linux computers use network accounts, meaning that your home directory is located on a network storage server and is backed up. If you accidentally delete important files, please let us know as soon as possible and we may be able to restore the file for you.

Linux systems have network home directories and access to the SBGrid programs tree (via /programs). See this link for information on how to access the software.

Mac

Mac computers rely on either network accounts or local accounts. We will soon transition all Mac computers to local accounts because of problems many people have encountered Macs & network accounts.

For Macs with local accounts, users will have administrative access with permission to install and update software. The SBGrid Installer will be used to access the SBGid software tree and will allow users to install and update the software independently. These computers are backed up via Crashplan, hosted by HMS. If your Mac is not backed up, or you receive warning messages about Crashplan backup failures, please contact us immediately to ensure that no data is lost.

Windows

Windows computers used to run instruments in the labs should not be used for browsing the Web. If you encounter any problems with these machines, please contact SBGrid as soon as possible. If SBGrid is unavailable, please contact HMS-IT, with details about your problem and the buiding and floor where where the machine is located. Be sure to notify SBGrid that you have contacted HMS-IT so that we can liaise with them.

Data Collection Machine

There is a Mac Mini named bcmp-remotedata-macmini for use when collecting data from beamlines.

Harrison Lab members can share data via this Network directory: /nfs/userdocs/sch/COMMON

Chou Lab members can share data via this Network directory: /nfs/userdocs/jc/COMMON

EM Facility

To access the EM Facility in the basement of SGM, please contact Zongi Li or Melissa Chambers.

If you need a data directory created on the EM systems, please email SBGrid and cc Zongi Li. Please remember that data directories on the EM systems are not backed up. It is essential that you store your data elsewhere.