Hosted server

RITlug has a hosted server in the Institute Hall data center. It is currently owned and maintained by Solomon Rubin (Serubin). It is permanently on lend to RITlug. He remains the primary contact for any major issues. RITlug-related use is maintained by the RITlug President, Vice President, and Project Coordinator.

Specifications

PowerEdge R410 Server

  • Storage:
    • 4TB x2 (only 2TB usable due to RAID card)
    • 1TB x2 (in RAID 10 for 3TB)
  • Memory: 32GB RAM
  • CPU: Intel Xeon 6500
  • Software: Proxmox

Management

This section is for management of resources on the hosted server. Some parts of RITlug’s infrastructure are hosted in GitHub, like our website (see The Website).

Create new VM

When creating a custom VM or a new template, use this set of instructions.

  1. [General] Set Resource Pool to RITLUG
  2. [General] Set VM ID using the following notation:
    • 3xx: Student VMs
    • 2xx: RITlug club VMs
    • 1xx: Solomon’s private VMs (not for club use)
    • Keep IDs incremental if possible
  3. [General] Give it a clear name!
  4. [OS] Select OS
  5. [CD/DVD] Select your ISO from the local storage.
  6. [Hard Disk] Set Bus VirtIO and 0
  7. [Hard Disk] Set Format to QEMU
  8. [Hard Disk] Do not change the Cache item
  9. [Hard Disk] Select Size
  10. [CPU] Set Type to host
  11. [CPU] Set Cores. Do not change Sockets
  12. [Memory] Use fixed size memory
  13. [Network] Set Model to VirtIO
  14. [Network] Set MAC Addr as necessary
  15. Profit!

Create VM from Template

When creating a new VM from a template…

  1. Right click on desired template and click “Clone”
  2. Set VM ID using the following notation:
    • 3xx: Student VMs
    • 2xx: RITlug club VMs
    • 1xx: Solomon’s private VMs (not for club use)
    • Keep IDs incremental if possible
  3. Set Mode to Full Clone
  4. Set Resource Pool to RITLUG
  5. Set name and continue
  6. Resize disk, modify resources as needed
  7. Change MAC address in network settings. Use an unallocated MAC from the list on the eboard GitLab and record the new use in the list.
  8. Start VM, follow any setup scripts
  9. Profit!

Use and Access

Use and access of Titan is limited to the President, Vice President, and Project Coordinator. In the future, there may be opportunities for club members to participate in managing RITlug’s infrastructure.

How to Gain Access to Titan

Access to Titan first requires access to the VPN, as Titan’s Management Interface (Proxmox) is IP restricted. To get on the VPN, Solomon needs to give you the OpenVPN file to initiate the connection. This VPN does not allow anything but local traffic through, so tunneling does not work.

Lastly, Proxmox itself needs an account. Proxmox is used in order to avoid unnecessary unix accounts. This requires a username, and Solomon provides a temporary password that should be changed upon log in. So, for approved users, this is the process for gaining access to Titan:

  1. Start a conversation with Solomon Rubin
  2. Give Solomon a username and PIN to be used with the OpenVPN connection.
  3. Give a username to be used with Proxmox

Contacts