June 25th, 2020 Research Tech Talk Announcements

  • Updates to ERIS Customer Service Ticketing Workflows
    Starting July 1, 2020, you’ll notice a different auto-reply when emailing rcc@partners.org for support. The full text of your email inquiry will be provided back to you in the Description section of the auto-generated email. An IS Service Desk ticket number and link to view the status will also be provided. The auto-reply will come from IS Service Desk. You can continue to reply to this auto-generated email to correspond with ERIS regarding your ticket. 
     
  • Intune: ERIS and ITS are dloing an Intune Pilot for unmanaged PC devices and need volunteers – contact Nick Yale if interested.
     
  • Existing Analytics Enclave users: Christine Wasunna will host the next Q & A and Demo session on Tuesday, June 29th - you will receive an updated invite. This is to review our recent migration from our old BioBank Disease Challenge URL to https://beta.analyticsenclave.org
     
  • Information Security and Privacy Office (ISPO)
     
    • PhishMe: Information Security and Privacy Office (ISPO) is in the process of updating the PhishMe button so that it can be available for Mac users who use Outlook mail client, Web Outlook mail Client, and mobile Outlook client (Android/iOS). There will be communication emails sent to everyone when the new button is deployed. 
       
    • Netskope: Information Security and Privacy Office (ISPO) is in the process of testing and deploying Netskope CASB client. CASB provides ISPO team with visibility to usage of 3rd-party cloud applications, Dropbox, OneDrive, SharePoint, Azure, AWS, and GCP. It also provides us with Data Loss Prevention (DLP) capabilities to protect confidential data.
  • Training
    • R User Group Meeting: COVID-19 Data Analysis and Visualization

      Tuesday, July 14 from 2-4p.m. on Zoom

      At the next Mass General Brigham R User Group, individuals will share and collaborate regarding useful R packages, tricks or Shiny apps for data analysis on COVID-19. The MGB R User Group seeks to bring a community together to share ideas, discuss R related topics, and provide direction for new and experienced users. R is a free and open programming language for statistical computing, data analysis, and graphical visualization. Visit https://rc.partners.org/R-group to learn more about the MGB R User Group.

    • SIR Covid-19 model in Python:  An introduction to classes, Pyplot, and numpy

      Wednesday, July 15 from 1-2p.m. on Zoom

      This training course targets research scientists who have no or little knowledge of Python; some programming experience is required. Python has been really popular in recent years not only of its powerful ability to manipulate data in a relatively easy and fast manner but also because of its statistical capability, and its ability to utilize a wide variety of packages for all tasks. Python is a programming language that lets you work quickly and integrate systems more effectively. Visit https://rc.partners.org/python-user-group to learn more about the Mass General Brigham Python User Group.

  • Maintenance

    • A reminder of Simches Data Center Power Shutdown CNPZ 3rd Floor starting Friday night July 10th from 11pm to Saturday morning July 11th at 8am.

    • Production Patching for June is Saturday, June 27th, 9:00 am - 3:00 pm

    • ERIS Proxy Configuration: Migrated the majority of sites using proxy1.research.partners.org to HAproxy.partners.org. Sometime in the next 3 weeks, we will shut down proxy1.research.partners.org.

    • Teams that have Centos 6 VM's will need to migrate their VM's to new Centos 7 VM by the end of November 2020.

    • ERIS is starting to offer Centos 8 VM's however we have not automated the deployment process. Once the deployment process has been automated all-new VM requested will be Centos 8 VM's.

  • ERIS Core, new offerings

    • FlowJo: The ERIS Research Computing Core is working with FlowJo to finalize pricing options. Once available to purchase (~August 2020), FlowJo information will be updated: https://rc.partners.org/flowjo. Thank you to those who completed the survey! This will be a subscription service with an annual licensing fee per user that includes maintenance and upgrades. If you are interested in a per computer license, please let us know as this may be possible. 

    • Database Services https://rc.partners.org/it-services/database-data-services. The Research Computing Core will begin charging for database storage consumption that exceeds 50GB. Though always advertised as the service model, invoicing will begin on a monthly basis based on utilization starting in August 2020.