{"id":277,"date":"2024-08-27T11:11:38","date_gmt":"2024-08-27T11:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/?page_id=277"},"modified":"2026-01-21T15:26:49","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T15:26:49","slug":"department-research-it-resources","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/department-research-it-resources\/","title":{"rendered":"Department Research IT Resources"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Researchers at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics can access several specialist resources for computing, in addition to the university network of windows-based computers. Do discuss your computing needs with your line manager or supervisor at an early stage to ensure you get the support (and equipment) you need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>University IT support<\/strong><br>For all questions about central IT resources, see the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.exeter.ac.uk\/departments\/it\/\">IT services<\/a> pages, which include information about security, accessing help, cloud computing, ordering IT equipment etc. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.exeter.ac.uk\/departments\/it\/help\/\">IT helpdesk<\/a> allows you to log calls for assistance, notify of errors and order equipment. When you raise a request (for example <em>IT help desk -&gt; I need something -&gt; Server\/Cloud\/Website -&gt; Server \u2013 Access Permissions<\/em>) it is recommended that you add \u201cFAO Research IT\u201d in the subject line as well as your line manager, in case approval is needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Access off-site<\/strong><br>For some of the resources here you need to access via a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.exeter.ac.uk\/departments\/it\/fromhome\/\">virtual private network &#8211; more details here: VPN<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>High-Performance Computing resources<\/strong><br>You can request access to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.exeter.ac.uk\/research\/researchcomputing\/e-infrastructure\/\">high-performance computing facilities<\/a>, namely ISCA, Isambard, Archer or DiRAC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Maths Clusters<\/strong><br>You can request access to several linux clusters (see below for instructions). These machines are freely available for anyone in the department to use &#8211; they have been purchased outright, and so do not require additional grant money to be provided. The maths machines have the following hardware\/software specifications:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>maths1: \n<ul>\n<li>Intel Xeon Gold 6226R CPU @ 2.90GHz, 16 physical cores (32 logical cores), 384GB RAM<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>includes magma computational algebra system <a href=\"https:\/\/eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fmagma.maths.usyd.edu.au%2Fmagma%2F&amp;data=05%7C02%7CP.Ashwin%40exeter.ac.uk%7Cf138d8c0864847240f4308dcc6a1f809%7C912a5d77fb984eeeaf321334d8f04a53%7C0%7C0%7C638603646143325959%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=vqT2vASiz%2Bfsfxv4Ye2uyyZtwflxcO%2FYNIaQ2Uvpl0Q%3D&amp;reserved=0\">http:\/\/magma.maths.usyd.edu.au\/magma\/<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>maths2: \n<ul>\n<li>2 x Intel Xeon Gold 6248R CPU @ 3.00GHz, 24 physical cores (48 logical cores), 384GB RAM<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>maths3: \n<ul>\n<li>2 x Intel Xeon Gold 6248R CPU @ 3.00GHz, 24 physical cores (48 logical cores), 768GB RAM<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>maths4:\n<ul>\n<li>2 x Intel Xeon Gold 6248R CPU @ 3.00GHz, 24 physical cores (48 logical cores), 384GB RAM<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>maths5: \n<ul>\n<li>2 x Intel Xeon Gold 6342 CPU @ 2.80GHz, 24 physical cores (48 logical cores), 512GB RAM<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>maths6:\n<ul>\n<li>2 x Intel Xeon Gold 6342 CPU @ 2.80GHz, 24 physical cores (48 logical cores), 512GB RAM<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>maths7:\n<ul>\n<li>2 x Intel Xeon Gold 6342 CPU @ 2.80GHz, 24 physical cores (48 logical cores), 512GB RAM<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>These machines all share the same home space, which is separate to the University&#8217;s own linux homedrives that you may be familiar with from older University linux machines. The maths machines&#8217; home space currently has no quota system, but please take care to make sure your usage is not excessive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maths1-4 are currently configured differently than maths5-7, as Maths1-4 use Scientific Linux, whereas Maths5-7 use Red Hat Enterprise Linux. In future maths1-4 will be updated to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, so if you are starting out with these machines it would make sense to use maths5-7. In addition, all the software available on maths1-4 will not automatically be available on maths5-7. If there is software you would like on maths5-7, please contact the IT support desk. (Note that some software is not available on maths5-7, but alternatives are installed. E.g. screen is now depracated, but tmux has been installed as a useful alternative.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Note that maths1 is the only machine with magma installed, so if you don&#8217;t need this software, please use one of the other machines instead if possible (besides, every other machine is of higher spec). Note that maths5-7 are slightly faster than the other machines, despite the lower clock speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To use one of these machines:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Request access by going to the IT helpdesk website <a href=\"https:\/\/uoeitservicedesk-apps.easyvista.com\/s\/selfservice\">here<\/a> and then following Staff &gt; Server\/Cloud\/Website &gt; Server &#8211; Access Permissions\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>These machines can only be accessed via ssh, this can be done from the terminal by default on MacOS or Linux, for Microsoft Windows it is recommended to download Windows Terminal from the Microsoft Store, or PuTTY to use ssh commands.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>When on campus, maths1-7 should be accessible via eduroam, but if you are working externally, the machines can only be accessed via the VPN.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>To log in, type the following into a terminal (replace ab123 with your University of Exeter short username): ssh ab123@maths1<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>For Windows login to machines if they wish to display any graphics from servers they will also need to download Xming as well as Putty for forwarding their display, e.g. a concise explanation: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.geo.mtu.edu\/geoschem\/docs\/putty_install.html\">https:\/\/www.geo.mtu.edu\/geoschem\/docs\/putty_install.html<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>GPU Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To access GPUs within the university, there are several options:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>The department has purchased its own server specifically for GPUs, known as &#8216;mathsgpu&#8217;. It is currently being configured by IT, but will hopefully be available soon. It will have two A100 NVIDIA cards.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The University&#8217;s supercomputer, Isca, has just had 32 A100 NVIDIA cards installed, and these will be released to the wider University shortly.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Isca also has some significantly older NVIDIA cards under its &#8216;gpu&#8217; queue. If your research application can make use of these, then please do.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>As a member of the GW4 alliance, staff at Exeter can access the Isambard cluster, which will include a substantial amount of GPU resource. See <a href=\"https:\/\/gw4-isambard.github.io\/docs\/\">here<\/a> for details. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Research Software Engineering and Research Data Science Group<\/strong><br>The University has created a centralised Research Software Engineering (RSE) and Research Data Science (RDS) groups, which together form the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.exeter.ac.uk\/research\/research-software-and-analytics\/\">Research Software and Analytics Group<\/a>, to assist our research community with complex and bespoke research software needs. You can contact them to get time written into a grant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Using Repositories and Coding For Reproducible Research.<\/strong><br>People can link their Exeter e-mail to a repository such as Github or Zenodo when creating accounts, and there are workshops available to support training: <a href=\"https:\/\/uniexeterrse.github.io\/workshop-homepage\">https:\/\/uniexeterrse.github.io\/workshop-homepage<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Data Backup<\/strong><br>Do make sure you have a backup solution in place to prevent loss of data from e.g. power cuts, support is available to provide backup solutions. Do contact IT helpdesk to make sure this is in place if you are not confident this is the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Department Research IT Working Group<\/strong><br>We have a small group of staff in the department who meet occasionally to advise on strategic directions for Research IT facilities and support. If you have any suggestions or want to know more, please contact <a href=\"https:\/\/mathematics.exeter.ac.uk\/people\/profile\/index.php?web_id=dp410\">Dan Partridge<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics can access several specialist resources for computing, in addition to the university network of windows-based computers. Do discuss your computing needs with your line manager or supervisor at an early stage to ensure you get the support (and equipment) you need. University IT supportFor all questions about [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2125,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Department Research IT Resources - Department of Maths and Stats local<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/department-research-it-resources\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Department Research IT Resources - Department of Maths and Stats local\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Researchers at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics can access several specialist resources for computing, in addition to the university network of windows-based computers. Do discuss your computing needs with your line manager or supervisor at an early stage to ensure you get the support (and equipment) you need. University IT supportFor all questions about [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/department-research-it-resources\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Department of Maths and Stats local\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-21T15:26:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/department-research-it-resources\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/department-research-it-resources\/\",\"name\":\"Department Research IT Resources - Department of Maths and Stats local\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-08-27T11:11:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-21T15:26:49+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/department-research-it-resources\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/department-research-it-resources\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/department-research-it-resources\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Department Research IT Resources\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/\",\"name\":\"Department of Maths and Stats local\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Department Research IT Resources - Department of Maths and Stats local","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/department-research-it-resources\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Department Research IT Resources - Department of Maths and Stats local","og_description":"Researchers at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics can access several specialist resources for computing, in addition to the university network of windows-based computers. Do discuss your computing needs with your line manager or supervisor at an early stage to ensure you get the support (and equipment) you need. University IT supportFor all questions about [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/department-research-it-resources\/","og_site_name":"Department of Maths and Stats local","article_modified_time":"2026-01-21T15:26:49+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/department-research-it-resources\/","url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/department-research-it-resources\/","name":"Department Research IT Resources - Department of Maths and Stats local","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-08-27T11:11:38+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-21T15:26:49+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/department-research-it-resources\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/department-research-it-resources\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/department-research-it-resources\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Department Research IT Resources"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/","name":"Department of Maths and Stats local","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/277"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2015,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/277\/revisions\/2015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/mathslocal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}