On Saturday, April 4 at 11:00 p.m., ITS will perform maintenance on the U-M AFS servers. During this maintenance, CAEN users may have trouble accessing their AFS home directories and logging into CAEN Linux computers (including the Login/VNC servers). Further updates and information on this maintenance can be found on the ITS Service Status page.
Starting Thursday, April 2 the following CAEN computer labs will close until further notice:
Update 12:25 p.m.: Power has been restored to most of the North Campus buildings.
At around 10:34 a.m. on Monday, March 30, there was an unscheduled network power outage on North Campus. Staff are investigating. Further information can also be found on the ITS Service Status page.
Many updates occurred to CAEN’s Windows Remote Desktop Service in the month of March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and we want to ensure the community stays informed of all changes.
The University of Michigan has moved to online classes for the remainder of the Winter 2020 term, as well as the Spring and Summer 2020 terms. In order to meet increased demand on CAEN’s Windows Remote Desktop service, the following changes have taken place.
The hardware that powers CAEN’s Windows Remote Desktop Service was upgraded on March 6. This was a planned upgrade that began in the Fall 2019 term with the purchase of six new Dell servers, which provide:
Using this new hardware, the CAEN Windows Remote Desktop Service is now providing 100 virtual machines with the following specs:
In benchmarking the new environment, we have found performance to be increased by a factor of up to 12x the performance of the old virtual machines. In addition, the new hardware allows 4K (3840x2160p) connections to the Windows Remote Desktop Service. We heard community feedback regarding this feature, and are pleased to announce that 4K displays are now fully supported.
In addition to the hardware upgrades covered above, we have also increased the available remote connections in other ways.
With the closing of the Duderstadt Center in mid-March 2020, CAEN staff worked with VMware to make computers that reside in the building available via the Windows Remote Desktop Service. There are currently 204 Duderstadt Center computers available through CAEN’s Windows Remote Desktop Service. Remote access to these machines also includes the ability to use the GPU in the systems, providing an excellent remote use experience for demanding Engineering coursework.
To connect to CAEN’s Windows Remote Desktop Service, we recommend using the VMware Horizon Client for the best experience. One you have VMware Horizon installed, set your connection server to caen.midesktop.it.umich.edu within the software. After signing in with your U-M uniqname and password, and completing the Duo two-factor authentication steps, you will be greeted with the following pool options:
For the best user experience, we recommend connecting in the order listed above, starting with the CAEN Labs 2019 All Software systems, and followed by the CAEN Labs Duderstadt Center physical desktop machines. As a final choice, the CAEN Labs Overflow pool is available, but it uses similar (older) Windows virtual machines to those from last year.
CAEN is committed to providing Michigan Engineering students the best remote access experience possible. Because of this, we also plan to continue expanding capacity of the Windows Remote Desktop Service with physical desktop systems in CAEN labs. This will most likely occur as CAEN labs are shuttered due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Thursday, April 16 between 5:00 and 8:30 a.m., maintenance has been scheduled for servers that support the CAEN Lab Software Environment (CLSE). This maintenance is intended to apply recent operating system and software application updates, and install patches for software vulnerabilities.
The following CLSE services may experience an outage during the above maintenance timeframe:
Updated March 30, 2020: Refer to our latest service status posting for new updates to CAEN’s Windows Remote Desktop Services.
On Thursday, March 5 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., the CAEN Lecture Recording service will be undergoing maintenance. The ability to view recordings may be unavailable during this time.
On Thursday, March 12 between 5:00 and 8:30 a.m., maintenance has been scheduled for servers that support the CAEN Lab Software Environment (CLSE). This maintenance is intended to apply recent operating system and software application updates, and install patches for software vulnerabilities.
The following CLSE services may experience an outage during the above maintenance timeframe:
From Monday, March 2 at 7:30 a.m. until Friday, March 6 at 5:00 p.m., the CAEN computer lab located in NAME 134 will be closed for maintenance.
UMNet will be replacing external battery power (UPS) that supports networking equipment on the first floor of the Chrysler Center. This maintenance will impact wired and wireless networking technologies for faculty, staff and students, including but not limited to desktops, laptops, network phones, and printers. Further information on this maintenance be found on the ITS Service Status page.