Grads & Researchers

SFU VPN is available to all SFU employees, including faculty and staff, and also to graduate students. It is also available to all CMPT undergraduate students - this means students enrolled in a CMPT course have access to SFU VPN.

Other students, volunteers, unpaid interns, visitors, retirees, alumni do not have VPN access but we might obtain it by request where it is needed in support of our school activities. Supervisors can make the request by emailing us.

Although it is not officially supported, users connecting to the VPN from an off-campus Linux computer have had some success with .

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FAS network is retired (since Fall 2022)

FAS network is officially retired.

All hosts with *.cs.sfu.ca name are no longer accessible.

Please email us if you still need it - we will migrate it to SFU Backbone network.

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Special notes on RCG Ubuntu hosts

RCG folks are working on deploying Ubuntu 24.04 LTS; but it is not ready yet. (Summer 2025)

Deployment of RCG Ubuntu 22.04 had started on Monday, March 13th 2023. This is still the default/standard RCG Linux deployment. All new RCG Ubuntu workstations will be installing Ubuntu 22.

If you need an old or different version:

(Deployment of RCG Ubuntu 20.04 is now suspended, but available upon request. It started on Monday, October 19th 2020. RCG people have configured on these systems for remote access.)
(Deployment of RCG Ubuntu 18.04 is now suspended. It started on Friday, April 3rd 2020. Please ask for RCG Ubuntu 22.04.)
A few research lab workstations are still running RCG Ubuntu 16.04 - which are subject to be blocked from SFU wired networks in the near future. Please backup everything on the local storage and send the upgrade request to us ASAP.
(Newer-than 22.04 releases of Ubuntu might have backward compatibility issues with many major research tools people use; we will keep researching the best one for our enterprise computing environment.)

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Special notes on Windows 10 systems - End of Life

SFU IT support for Windows 10 is ending.

All CMPT's Windows 10 workstations must be either upgraded to Windows 11 or decommissioned soon.

If you like to upgrade/rebuild your Windows workstation, please backup everything on the local storage and contact us for more details ASAP.

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Essentials

As a new graduate student of the School of Computing Science; which facilities I can jump-start my career?

You can start with these:

- The SFU Library - you may always use computers in the SFU Library for web browsing and emailing.

- There are also university-wide wireless networks you can access once you have your SFU Computing ID;
please check out the details on the .
special note: we (helpdesk of CMPT) highly recommend using manual method to configure the SFU Wireless network on your mobile device.

- Your supervisor may have assigned you space in a research lab; please check the emails from your supervisor for more details.

Burnaby campus:

ASB 10700 (the general office of the School)
TASC1 9401 (the graduate student lounge, mailroom)
TASC1 9204 (the meeting room)

Surrey campus

SRYE 3020 (the general office of the School - Surrey)

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What is the basic computing network environment of SFU/CMPT?

For starters, there are two networks you should know about: the Campus wired network (it is also called SFU Backbone network) and the campus wide wireless network.

The people are in charge of these networks.

- The services on the campus wired network include: the SFU Mail, WebCT, Active Directory SFU (ADSFU), SFU Maillist, and many-many more.

- The is a member of .

Some other networks may be available in your research lab; your supervisor and the lab admin will be able to provide the details.

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How can I get access to a computing lab?

All the CMPT computing labs are behind card-access-only doors. A user must have an active access card/fob and an active SFU Computing ID to use the computers in a lab.

Before getting an access card/fob, an SFU Computing ID must be activated.

We refer it as username on this page
This is the same ID you use to access SFU mail via
For most graduate students, this happens automatically and you will receive notification via the external email address you provided when you registered with SFU
If you do not have an active SFU Computing ID, check with your supervisor or the Graduate Program Assistant in the School's general office

Once your SFU Computing ID is activated, please ask your supervisor (or the lab directors), or the lab admin of the lab) to proceed with these steps:

login to the .
start editing the specific reference group for the faculty member
click "Add members" to add your SFU email address (NOT alias of any kind) to the lab's official Grouper group (aka official maillist)
click & "Submit" to save the changes.

Without these steps, you will not be able to use any research lab computer.

Getting an access card/fob:

For most grad students, you will be given an access card/fob request form on your orientation day.
For Burnaby campus, you can get the access card/fob from the SFU Access Control Office.
For Surrey campus, you may visit the Security Desk located in the Mezzanine.
Please check out our Door Access FAQ page.

Once you have your SFU Computing ID and access card/fob, you can get into the labs and start using the computers.

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How can I access my email?

The address: username@sfu.ca.
The username: your SFU Computing ID.
It is recommended using web client A片资源吧 Mail; please check out the browser compatibility of the web client.
Please check for more information.

As a CMPT student, you will also have a CS email account, which has the format username@cs.sfu.ca.

All emails sent to this account are automatically forwarded to your SFU Mail account.

*IMPORTANT*: Please do NOT forward your SFU email (including SFU Alumni email) to anything else.

The forwarding had stopped working from February 2024, even if you have it configured.

Click here for the announcement. (Please note: this change applies to all SFU students, faculty and staff.)

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I noticed that the display name for my account is incorrect; what I should do?

SFU IT people are trying to keep everyone's information correct and up to date; but odd things do happen: from time to time, a user account contains wrong display name or some other outdated information.

Fortunately, it is quite easy to fix this on your own. Please login to the webapp: /sfuds

- click "Edit My Entry"
- now, change your own profile
- (please ensure the Access Control is set to "Allow SFU users only". By doing this, the display name is visible to the SFU community but it is hidden from outsiders.)
- when you are satisfied with the changes, please click "Save Changes"

The changes will be made for all SFU services in about 2 hours.

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How can I setup my personal web page on CS web site?

Before you could setup your own personal web page on CS site, please email csweb AT sfu DOT ca to request your official page under

https://www.cs.sfu.ca/people/graduate.html

Graduate students' profile pages on the CS web site are maintained by the School, which has URL

https://www.cs.sfu.ca/~username

If you need to have details of this page changed, email helpdesk. We will maintain the page even after your graduation; so it is a good link to put on your publications. Let us know if your contact information changes in years to come and remember us when you make your first billion :)

To update your personal files:

(Obsolete) Access from FAS Linux/UNIX hosts:

/cs/csweb/people/GradStudents/username/personal

Access from Windows hosts:

(please use SFU campus network credentials to logon to this server)

\\rcga-bluebell.dc.sfu.ca\cs\csweb\people\GradStudents\username\personal

Alternative: On the other hand, if you would like to build your own web page on SFU main web server, you may try:

URL: /~username

Access from Linux/UNIX:

/home/username/pub_html/

Access from Windows hosts:

\\sphinx.sfu.ca\username

You can find more instructions here. You may contact ITS for more assistance.

Here are some very important technical reminders:

please do NOT use file/folder names which contain space on any SFU web service.

please name your default index file index.html - please note: all lower case (case sensitive!)

Warning: please do not put any copyright material, media files or any big download files on your personal web page. Your account will be revoked if illegal sharing occurs.

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I have some questions regarding the research lab I work in; who I should talk with?

Each CMPT research lab has a lab admin.
The lab admin should be the first person you contact if you need assistance in the lab.

The lab admin is a fellow graduate student works in the lab and volunteers to manage the lab equipment.

Once you have experience and want to help out other people in the lab, you could volunteer to become the lab admin. Please contact your supervisor for more information.

In case that the lab admin is not reachable, please email helpdesk for help.

To find out more on the lab admin issue, please check out our "Research Lab Administrator's Handbook".

Also, you could find some essential information by visiting the resources page for the research labs in the School
- please note: members only.

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Where I could find information about CMPT courses for graduate students?

All the CMPT courses are listed on our Course Central.

Please to see the list on Coursys.

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Are there any pages I could read to get all the information I need?

Basically, you should go through all these pages:

Get software for home use

The Research Computing Group ()

The following pages are not directly related to research labs, but it is good to get familiar with them as well:

When you encounter any issues, please do a search on these sites, the result will amaze you:

/fas

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Important FAQ pages by RCG

We all love their documents. These FAQs are now on TeamDynamix (TDX).

The main index page and the tree structure of these FAQs

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How do I report problems and address CMPT related technical issues?

Please contact your lab admin first.

For urgent matters, please come to ASB 10700 (CS general office) while you are on Burnaby campus.

Otherwise, please email helpdesk. Please use your SFU email account and include your lab's acronym in the subject line of your message.

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CMPT provides information on copyright policy here:

The School of Computing Science respects the rights of copyright holders. Copyright infringement is the theft of intellectual property. Under Canada's copyright law, it is illegal to copy most published materials without permission; therefore, you must obtain permission before recording or reproducing copyrighted materials.

SFU provides information on copyright policy here:

Please be aware that Canadian law and university policy may prohibit downloading or sharing of copyright protected files, media, code or documents from online sources. If you violate University policies of Canadian laws you will be held personally accountable. In particular your SFU account will be immediately locked should any complaints about copyright violations be made against it.

Please visit for more details.

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Basic computing lab Policies, Etiquette and Ethics at the School of Computing Science

All of the School of Computing Science computing laboratories are governed by A片资源吧's GP24 (Fair Use of Information and Communications Technology) and other policies.

Here are some of the most important DON'Ts:

do NOT share your accounts. NO exceptions.
do NOT hook up you own laptop to wired network. (email us if you need this for your research.)
do NOT hook up a device to more than 1 network.
If your research is on networking, or you need to change your lab network, please consult helpdesk every time before you modify the network configurations on any production network. NO exceptions.
If you create a network topology loop and overwhelm the network, the people that have to find and fix the problem might be very upset... please do not upset them.
No food or drink in the open labs or CSIL, this includes during TA office hours. NO exceptions.
do NOT lock any computer in a public lab for more than 30 minutes.
Exception: you may do so on the system designated for you in your assigned research lab. If the system is shared with other people, please ask them first.

And here are some pages you should read:

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Computing Labs

What is the CSIL?

CSIL stands for Computing Science Instructional Labs.

Most CMPT courses use resources in CSIL.

All students enrolled in CMPT courses, all CMPT TAs and graduate students can access CSIL.

An active access card/fob is needed to access CSIL.

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What are the Assignment Labs?

The Assignment Labs are ITS operated open computer labs in the Academic Quadrangle (AQ), Library and West Mall Centre.

These labs are open to all SFU students. There is no access fob needed to use these labs.

Visit for more information on SFU Labs.

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What are the research labs?

The Computing Science research labs are the facilities for our faculty and graduate students to do their research.

Each research lab has one or more lab directors and one or more lab admins.
The lab admin will help you use the computing resources within the lab.
Click here for the information on the research labs.

All the research labs are fob access only.

Only the people within the research group have access to the specific lab.
Please discuss with your supervisor to get access to a research lab.
Your supervisor can have access added to your access fob by emailing us.
Please do _not_ submit such request directly by yourself.

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How can I access SFU computers off-campus?

Yes.

But, please be sure you have connection while you do so.

You may SSH into RCG's Linux terminal server rcga-linux-ts1.dc.sfu.ca (since February 2020).

There might be other servers available for your research, please contact your supervisor to know more.

You may have remote access to your workstations in your research lab.

Please Click here for step-by-step instructions.

A reminder: be sure to use FQDN while you make the connection.

A workstation on SFU Backbone network has FQDN like: myworkstation.cmpt.sfu.ca
Click here to know more about workstations in a research lab.
Login here to know more about computing resources for researchers.

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Accounts and login issues

What are my accounts to access a CMPT computer?

The essential/crucial account is:

SFU Computing ID

(aka SFU campus network account)
(aka SFU UserID)

You will be issued an SFU Computing ID upon your arrival. The password you set for this account will be your SFU Mail password as well.

The password for an SFU Computing ID can be changed via a link on the normal SFU login screen .

You may have extra accounts on other servers for your research; please contact the people who support these specialized servers for more information.

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Why I cannot logon to certain computers in the lab?

There are a few know possibilities.

1) you may have used wrong domain name (Windows only).

To logon to any ADSFU domain binding Windows workstation: please use "ad.sfu.ca\username" as the username or explicitly set the domain name as "ad.sfu.ca"

2) your account is not recognized by the authentication server (Linux only).

If you haven't changed the password for your SFU Computing ID for long time, this may happen.
Please go to the MySFU tab in SFU Mail webapp and change password; the process results SFU AD can recognize you from Linux.
If you are a postdoc or an undergraduate research assistant (URA) working in a CMPT research lab, please ask your supervisor to inform helpdesk with the start and end date of your appointment - and of course include your official SFU Computing ID. There are some extra steps we should take to ensure your account is setup properly.

3) you may not have been granted access to this lab.

If you are new to this lab, this is the most likely cause.

Please email helpdesk about this - and your supervisor's confirmation is required.
Please also contact the lab admin so your account (not alias of any kind) could be added to the lab's official maillist.

4) you may have used up your disk quota for your profile under Ubuntu.

5) the host may be on a different network; please be sure to use its FQDN when you access it remotely.

Please check out this Q&A for more instructions.

If none of the above applies to your encounter, please email helpdesk.

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Why is my account locked out? And how to get it unlocked?

The account may be locked out for a period of time after multiple failed logon attempts. In general, the account will be unlocked automatically in an hour or so.

Your account may also be locked without warning for the following reasons:

Excessive network traffic.
Connection to high-risk internet sites.
Concurrent connections to multiple computers on the internet.
Copyright complaints.
Legal violations.

Your account will not be unlocked automatically in these cases. if you think this may apply to you.

If your research will require network traffic that would ordinarily be viewed with suspicion, email helpdesk in advance so we can help make arrangements for you.

If your account gets locked out regularly or without apparent reason, please contact helpdesk asap, there might be a security breach!

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I suddenly cannot logon to any Ubuntu/Fedora/CentOS workstation; what I should do?

The most common cause of this issue is: you've used up your disk quota for your roaming profile under Ubuntu/CentOS.

For complete instructions on how to free up common space, click .

And to avoid this issue in the future, please follow our guidelines on "where I should NOT store my files".

Beyond this, we've seen two possible causes:

the "root" partition has no space left.
the old kernels occupy too much space.

When any of these happens, please contact helpdesk so we can clean out space.

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Computing Environment

What are the unique characteristics of CMPT Windows systems (on Burnaby Mountain campus)?

Here is the list of the most important characteristics for CMPT Windows systems on Burnaby Mountain campus, compare with default Windows installation:

	CMPT Windows systems on Burnaby Mountain campus	Default Windows installation
%TEMP%	c:\temp	~~C:\Windows\Temp~~
%TMP%	c:\temp	~~C:\Windows\Temp~~
%JAVAHOME%	C:\Program Files\java\jdk	~~C:\Program Files\Java\jdk<version#>~~

Please note: %% denotes an .

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My computer restarted itself after some updates - which killed my running experiment! May I disable the restart?

The short answer is: no.

We need to keep our computing environment safe for every one and we have seen so many security breaches directly related to unpatched systems.
We had seen some hosts are pending for restart for 6 months, and they got infected during these 6 months.
So, when your computer is pending for restart, please restart it at your earliest convenience (save all your work first of course).

About the restarts related to Microsoft Updates (Windows):

There is a 22-hour grace period before the restart after the installation of the updates. So please pay close attention to the system notification area so you could schedule the restart at your convenience.
In general, there are less than 14 Microsoft-updates-related restarts annually. Most likely, the updates are released on the second Tuesday of each month. Your computer may get these updates later in the same week.

About running big experiments:

In general, we recommend running the big experiments on servers. Check out some options on this page. Please contact us if you need more computing power.
If the experiment must be run on a workstation, we would recommend making sure it has check-points so it could resume from the interrupted point due to the restarts and other unplanned interruptions.

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I cannot set environment variables under Windows; what I should do?

Apparently, the most common/intuitive way to set variables is:

Control Panel -> System, and click the "Advanced system settings" on the left pane.

Unfortunately, as a regular user, this won't work - even for setting user-specific variables.

Here is the workaround for a regular user to set user environment variables:

launch Control Panel
make sure set "View by" to "Small icons"
(Please note: "Small icons" is the only valid viewing option for Control Panel)
click "User Accounts"
from the task list one the left pane, click "Change My Environment Variables"

Now, you will be able to edit the user environment variable list.

(To set a system environment variable, administrative privilege is a must.)

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When I use a Windows computer outside of the School (within the SFU), all my personal settings are gone! Why is this?

This is by design.

Due to the complexity of the computing requirements of SFU, it is quite impossible to keep a single universal Windows environment for all SFU Windows hosts.

In general, user's personal settings are consistent within a department, but not synchronized between different departments.

If you have suggestions on this issue, please make your voice heard by .

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Suddenly my account stopped working on my own Windows workstation; what's going on?

The most common possibility:

Your user profile is corrupted; it must be reset by helpdesk.

Further reading: the most common symptoms of profile issue:

cannot launch applications properly
cannot write to desktop, documents etc.
cannot sign-out/logoff
while sign-in/logon, a temporary profile is used so all favorites and bookmarks are gone.

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May I use local profile for my lab computer (Windows)?

The short answer is yes.

The fact is: we are using local profile for all research labs' Windows workstations (and Ubuntu workstations as well).

The roaming profile with folder redirection method is configured for every Windows computer in CSIL by default; and it is the de facto standard practice for enterprise computing environment.

When local profile is used:

All the customization you've done on a computer will be on this computer only; if you move to another computer, you have to do it from scratch.
All the data you saved on to default locations (Desktop, Documents etc.) are stored on the local hard disk. If the hard disk is faulty/stolen, your data will be gone.

On the contrary, if roaming profile with folder redirection method is used:

All your settings are on stored on the network storage, which have daily backup.
All the data you saved on to default locations (Desktop, Documents etc.) are on stored on the network storage, which have daily backup.
The settings and data follow you when you move from one computer to another within CMPT.

We understand there are a few applications do not work well with roaming profile with folder redirection.

But we believe the right thing to do would be: inform the vendor and urge them to make their products work better under enterprise computing environment.

Just remember: when local profile is in service:

We (helpdesk) will not be able to assist you if there is any issue related to your user profile. (From our experience, a substantial portion of Windows issues are related to user profile)
If there is any data loss on the local hard disk (e.g., your Desktop, Documents folder), we (helpdesk) will not be able to assist you.
Please always save your valuable data to network storage - this holds for all situations.

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What is the full name of my workstation and the servers I have access to?

Commonly, the name (aka hostname) of your workstation is formatted like this:

cs-<acronym of the lab>-##

But, if this is a self-managed system, it has a name with "s":

cs-<acronym of the lab>-##s

To know the full name (aka : Fully Qualified Domain Name) of a host, you need to know the exact DNS suffix for it. Here is how to determine the DNS suffix of your designated lab workstation (provided by the School of Computing Science):

most likely, the workstation is on SFU Backbone network, it has DNS suffix

cmpt.sfu.ca

so, the FQDN would be like:

cs-<acronym of the lab>-##.cmpt.sfu.ca

For the servers, the situation is slightly different and much more complex. Please contact the lab admin and/or your supervisor for more details.

Please login here to know more about the computing resources of the research lab you are in.

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We need to use wireless routers for our research; anything we shall be aware of?

Wireless routers are allowed in SFU research labs; but here are a few important guide lines:

1) Every wireless router must be registered (by helpdesk) in advance - before powering up - no exception.

please submit a ticket to helpdesk; the message shall contain basic info of this wireless router:

the room & desk#
the make & model
the MAC address of the uplink (on the device)
a brief intro of its basic purpose (e.g. controlling robots)
if this is a temporary workaround, please let us know its last day in service in the lab.

The helpdesk will register this router, label it and update the records.

2) Please be sure to configure the wireless router properly to ensure its private network does NOT conflict with any SFU networks

(check out: and )

(warning: portion of are in service within SFU)

3) Any registered Ethernet port (on SFU Backbone) of a workstation must NOT be hooked up to a private wired network (e.g. behind a wireless router).

An exception (temporary workaround): when the wireless router is disconnected from SFU Backbone network.

temporarily, the designated user of a workstation my hook its registered Ethernet port to this wireless router.
but, the SFU Backbone connection must be restored at the end of the day, in order of over-night maintenance tasks could be performed properly.

4.A) when this wireless router will be hooked up to any SFU wired network (e.g. hook up to a switch on SFU Backbone network)

Generally speaking, when a workstation needs wired connection to a wireless router, a secondary Ethernet port is mandatory.

e.g., the onboard Ethernet port connects to SFU Backbone network and the 2nd Ethernet port connects to private network provided by the wireless router.
such workstation must be carefully configured to prevent forming of any network loops.
some motherboards have multiple Ethernet ports.
purchase a disrete PCIe Network Card is recommended if there is only single onboard Ethernet port.

4.B) when a workstation only needs wireless connection to the private wireless network provided by a wireless router

such workstation must be carefully configured to ensure no network loops.

A gental reminder: before adjusting network connections to any lab equipment, please inform other lab users in advance so everyone is on the same page.

For lab admin use: please track all changes of the settings on wireless routers in the lab, and share the records with the lab users.

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About Workstation Setup

My supervisor bought me a new computer in the lab; how do I get it set up?

Please inform the lab admin first, and then please contact helpdesk to get basic system installed and configured on the network. Many commonly used software packages, like Matlab, Office suite will be installed by default.

Provide us with a detailed software list if you have specific requirements.

All of the desktop computers/workstations will be placed onto wired network (SFU Backbone network) by default. So, if the computer comes with a "Home" edition OS, it must be wiped/replaced before proceeding.

Please note: do not hook up the computer to the network before helpdesk approves doing so.

Please ensure the new computer has sufficient power (electricity) source and wired network connection near the desk which it will be placed on. If you are not sure about these conditions, chat with the lab admin and contact helpdesk in advance.

If this is a laptop, you may ask helpdesk to have it configured as well. Here are some Q&As that should help you in the long run.

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Which Operating System I should use for my research?

Generally speaking, it is your choice.

Please chat with your supervisor to confirm the choice of OS.

As a rule of thumb, we recommend using the most stable, most secure and leading-edge version of a specific OS.

e.g., for year 2025, the choices would be Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and Windows 11 with Feature Update 24H2.

And the OS must be enterprise-network-ready - e.g., any "Starter/Home" edition of Windows will NOT be accepted.

Please note: this applies to laptops as well.

Due to the complexity and high maintenance cost, we do not recommend dual-boot your research workstation (with Linux and Windows).

In practice, virtual machine is a better choice over dual-boot.

If you choose an Operating System other than these we recommend, we may not provide sufficient support for this system due to resource constraints.

And you may not be allowed to connect a system with this OS on a specific network.

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My research lab computer does not work as I expected; can someone help me?

As the first step, please chat with the lab admin; s/he will triage/diagnose the issues.

If the lab admin is not reachable, please email helpdesk.

- don't forget to add your lab's acronym to the subject line.

Please note: if you like to change the Operating System (e.g., from Windows to Linux),

we need the approval from your supervisor and lab admin
and, we would proceed only after all data on local storage device have been backed up to network space
one more thing: you may want to chat with the lab admin and lab mates - a system suits your research might exist in the lab already.

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I need both Linux and Windows for my research; any suggestions?

In general, please discuss this with your supervisor first.

Due to the complexity and high maintenance cost, we do not recommend dual-boot research workstations with Linux and Windows.

Fortunately, there are other ways to gain access to multiple Operating Systems simultaneously.

If you prefer Windows desktop

Access the rcga-linux-ts1.dc.sfu.ca.

Warning: This is a console server for lightweight tasks shared by many people; it is NOT the appropriate place to host long-running CPU/memory intensive jobs.
Tip: To have X running, please configure a VNC session.

If you need a dedicate system for non-graphics tasks, a virtual machine may be a better choice.
There are High-Performance Computing clusters for researchers; please check out .

If you prefer Linux desktop

Please contact your supervisor to request building a Windows Terminal Server (for general use) for the School.

This server will be for lightweight tasks shared by many people; it is NOT the appropriate place to host long-running CPU/memory intensive jobs.

And of course, the following two options are always available:

prepare a second physical workstation with alternative OS on it (ask for your supervisor about spare hardware).
build, secure and manage this one on your own (self-manage).

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I want to use Ubuntu for my research; any advice?

Great! We (SFU IT people) build & support Ubuntu systems for research or teaching use.

Please be careful when you make the request to have an Ubuntu box built:

If this system is for research:

RCG provides Ubuntu 22.04 LTS for all researchers.
(deployment of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS is on the way.)

As a comparison, if this system is for teaching:

The system will be more stable with more proven (but possibly old) applications.
The ssh port will be set to a non-standard one.
Basically, it will be very similar to our CSIL Ubuntu workstations.

If you prefer to build a workstation from ground up (self-manage):

please let us (helpdesk) know your plan.
we (helpdesk) will/must register this computer on the SFU Backbone network first.
and then, you will be responsible to make it work and keep it secure.

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Which Linux Distro I should choose for my research?

In short, we recommend RCG Ubuntu as described below.

Here are a few scenarios:

(1) - aka RCG Ubuntu would be a good choice when:

you are not so knowledgeable of the Linux system itself
you know exactly which libraries and applications to use for the research (either they are available now or you could contact us to get them configured as modules.)
you like to have plentiful support from RCG folks

(2) A managed Ubuntu box on SFU Backbone network supported by CSTS (aka CSTS Ubuntu) is a choice

when you need a clone of CSIL Ubuntu workstation.
* due to security constraints, You will not be granted sudo access on this box.

(3) A system with your favorite Linux Distro - provided your research involves constantly updating kernels, drivers, libraries and system applications.

a few things first:

the system's Ethernet interface must be registered on SFU Backbone network (for bookkeeping).
its Wi-Fi adapter's address shall be kept on record for monitoring purpose.
you have to build it from ground up and manage (secure, update & etc.) it yourself.

If you choose this option (self-manage):

you must discuss with your supervisor and get approval from your supervisor about this self-managed system.
you must be very knowledgeable of the Linux system since the support will be limited; you may spend lots of time on managing the system instead of your main research.
you must make sure this host has exact registered FQDN on the network.
when the system is compromised, you have to rebuild the system from scratch
please always keep your data/codes on SFU networked storage!

** IMPORTANT ** you will be relieved of self-managing duty during your stay in SFU when the following things occur:

you don't setup BIOS password
you don't setup root password
you leave the system unlocked (people could see/use your login session) for long period of time (more than 30 minutes).
copyright infringement
license violation
this system gets compromised and has negative impact on our networks

** TIPs ** to see if RCG Ubuntu will work for you, please follow these steps:

compose a list of the libraries and applications you will be using (with the exact version numbering and architecture info etc.)
check this list against the output of "module avail" command.
- if it is within the output, it means this package is already available for you to use.
- to find out more, please see .
contact helpdesk to request the missing ones and get the existing/outdated ones up-to-date

* When all the pieces come together, you should be using RCG Ubuntu.

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I want to hook up my lab computer only to wireless network for my research; any suggestions?

In short: please do NOT do this.

Once a computer is hooked up to wireless network, it is considered a mobile device, also a self-managed system. Please read our Q&A page for mobile devices for more information.

Here are some important notes if this is a must for your research:

You will not be able to remotely connect to this computer.
Please always use regular account for daily tasks and use administrative account for system maintenance only.
Any datum on the local hard disk is considered volatile. Please always use network storage provided by SFU to store your research data/codes.
If this computer is using Microsoft Office, the activation will expire every 180 days. It must be activated manually; please contact helpdesk for this.
Supports from helpdesk (including CSTS and RCG) will be minimum. In general, we will only rebuild the system to its initial stage. You will be personally responsible for maintaining a healthy system.

So, please register the MAC address of your lab computer's Ethernet interface on SFU Backbone network by emailing helpdesk.

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My research needs a lot GPU computing power; any suggestions?

For research around Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Machine Learning etc., utilize GPGPUs on workstations would be a good low-cost alternative or as prototyping.

A few important tips here:

the onboard Intel graphics won't be sufficient.
try to determine which kind of GPU card to use: "a low-end GPU w/ tons of RAM" or "a high-end GPU" or "a high-end GPU w/ tons of RAM".
place a discrete GPU card into a regular desktop system (e.g., Dell Optiplex line) probably won't work well either (due to power restrictions).
place a new GPU card into an old chassis or place an old GPU card into a new chassis will result an unbalanced system; we don't have much good experience with these kinds of "upgrades".
place a discrete GPU card into an existing running system won't work right away - re-configuration must be done first.

If you like to know more about CUDA, TensorFlow and Keras etc., please check out .

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For my research, I really need sudo access on my designated lab computer; how to proceed?

When you are using a managed Linux workstation (as of year 2025, it is RCG Ubuntu), please confirm this request with your supervisor and contact helpdesk.

Here are a few points when you are a sudoer on an RCG Ubuntu workstation:

Please do not attempt to upgrade kernel of the system, never - leave this to RCG experts.
Please do not promote any other user to become a sudoer on this workstation.
And please do not touch root account in anyway, never.

Please read our guidelines on self-managing systems for helpful tips.

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For my research, I really need to have full control of my designated lab computer; how to proceed?

Please confirm this with your supervisor and contact helpdesk. Someone from helpdesk will discuss this with you.

The SFU IT people (we) provide fully managed systems for research use.

These managed systems are fully supported by the SFU IT teams.
We will keep the system and software updated regularly.
If you need certain software which is not available on the managed systems, please send request to helpdesk.
We will try our best to get it working for you promptly.

Even if you only connect your lab computer to SFU wireless networks, please do inform helpdesk promptly.

Be aware: the system will be blocked from SFU wireless without warning when
   it causes problems on the SFU networks
   or
   it is identified as a source of undesirable network traffic.

Your authentication to SFU wireless will associate the system with you personally.
- thus, your SFU account might get suspended when the system is blocked.

WARNING:

Self-managing your lab computer is NOT for you,

if you are not already comfortable installing, maintaining, updating and securing operating systems, applications and services.

Please read our guidelines on self-managing systems for helpful tips.

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How to determine If I should self-manage my workstation?

As you've read the details about the difficulties of full control (self-manage) your own workstations, if you have one of the following requirements for your research, a self-managed system is a must:

you need multiple OSes on the hardware but VM is not an option.
you need alter system configurations on weekly basis.

Please confirm this with your supervisor and contact helpdesk. We recommend you get a 2nd workstation (a reliable but not so powerful one) for general/collaboration tasks like emailing and documentations.

btw,

if you want to become administrator of your designated managed Windows workstation, just email helpdesk - there is no benefit self-managing it.
only one (1) user could become the designated local administrator of any specific managed workstation.

Please read our guidelines on self-managing systems for helpful tips.

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I need a new kernel on my RCG Ubuntu workstation; may I upgrade it myself?

No. 100% not.

If you need a different kernel on an RCG Ubuntu workstation for your research, please email us so we could work with you to get it configured.

In the similar token, if you want to have a newer release of Ubuntu, please email us.

In short, please leave the critical/crucial/essential upgrades of the Operating System to us - we are here to provide a suitable computing environment for your research.

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Important notes on GPU related software with Ubuntu 20

Here are some known issues:

CUDA 10 (the old version) is NOT available for Ubuntu 20.04 - it is more than 36 months old and it is at end of its life.
RCG people have compiled PyTorch 1.5 against CUDA 11 on Ubuntu 20; it is now a loadable module.
Tensorflow 1.x is a lost cause. RCG folks are focusing on newer releases.

If your current research projects depend on older Tensorflow (1.x), older PyTorch, or old CUDA (10.0 or earlier), please let us know asap:

For every software package you need which depends on any of these old libraries, please let us know the package's name and the exact version.

Once we have these info, RCG folks will try their best to compile the package from source against CUDA 11; and make the newly compiled package available for all RCG Ubuntu 20 users.

Since we don't have the manpower to compile every old package, we recommend people try newer releases, and/or seek alternative ones.

Once you finish up with these old software packages, please inform helpdesk - upgrade to Ubuntu 22 is in order.

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About Software

Can I install software on any managed computer in the School?

No would be the short answer.

In most of the cases, the applications you need might have been installed or configured on the managed system :)

On a Windows workstation,

here is the list of basic set of applications.
you could easily find this out by searching within the start menu.

On an RCG Ubuntu system,

,
and you could execute "module avail" to check the application availability.
- if the application you need is on the list, you could load and use it without installation.
.

(*) when you need to compile your own software, use something like

./configure --prefix=/cs/<thislab>/software

... so that you can maintain the software you need without requiring sudo/root privileges.

(**) if the "installation" needs huge storage space for scratch (and/or intermittent data, original datasets),

please consider using "/local-scratch" for the installation.
just remember: always keep your own codes and irreplaceable data on network storage with backup scheme.

If you could not find the applications you need on the managed system,

please contact your lab admin for this.
if the lab admin is not reachable in time, please email helpdesk
please put the lab's acronym on the subject line.

If your research involves constant system changes,

please read through this FAQ page.
please email helpdesk - with the confirmation from your supervisor, other arrangements could be made.

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I noticed that some of the software packages are out dated for my research; may I get them updated ASAP?

Yes!

Please contact helpdesk with the details of these software packages in question; we will work with you to ensure they are up to the task.

Please note: we will examine the feasibility of all requests (cost, compatibility, network security, disk space requirements, etc.). Since this does take time, please make your request once you noticed the anomalies.

* If you need some packages which are not on the system, please do the same.

BTW, have you read this Q&A about software availability on a managed research computer?
- The updated packages may have been configured as a separate module already :)

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Some of the applications are now blocked; what's going on?

To better serve SFU community, is now implemented on all of managed Windows workstations in SFU.

If some of the applications you were using now become blocked, the most likely cause would be: they were "installed" under user space (e.g., under user profile), not system space.

Please remove these non-standard "installations" and the shortcuts point to them; then email helpdesk so we could install them for you on your designated workstation.

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I get a prompt on my managed workstation indicates some applications need updates; what I should do?

The SFU IT people are working hard to ensure all the systems are secure and up to date. The software updates are investigated and approved for installation regularly.

As a regular user, you may not be able to upgrade/patch the applications on the spot. But there are ways to proceed:

reboot the computer; this may trigger the installation of the updates.
contact the lab admin to perform an out-of-bound update - if this is a Windows system.
contact the RCG experts to get the specific software updated - if this is an RCG Ubuntu system.

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The blacklist of software packages - those have known issues within our enterprise computing environment.

Here is the blacklist of the applications which don't work properly within our enterprise computing environment.

application name	issues	workaround
TeamViewer	severe security issue, it is regarded as malware by many security experts. NOT freeware	use default Remote Desktop on Windows and xrdp on RCG Ubuntu
Anydesk	severe security issue, it is regarded as malware by many security experts. NOT freeware	use default Remote Desktop on Windows and xrdp on RCG Ubuntu
Sogou PinYin input method	does not work 100% with roaming profile with folder redirection feature	1. use alternative products. 2. use local profile
ReadCube for Windows desktop	does not work with roaming profile with folder redirection feature	1. use alternative services. 2. use local profile
Android Studio for Windows desktop	does not work with roaming profile with folder redirection feature	1. use alternative services. 2. use local profile

Please note: there are quite a few Windows applications require administrative privilege to run. For these applications, we recommend the following (in order):

find and use alternative products which do not suffer from this issue
urge the software vendor to upgrade their products so they will be suitable for enterprise computing environment
ask helpdesk to make permission changes for the specific application (for some applications, this will solve the issue).
become the administrator of the specific computer (contact helpdesk and provide details to make a clear case; your supervisor's approval is required.)

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I want to use TeX tools on my workstation; anything I should know about?

On a managed Windows workstation, here are some points:

We use MiKTeX as the basic LaTeX tool. We will install a few popular TeX tools on the systems too.
Please note: for technical reasons, on all managed Windows systems, MiKTeX must be installed by helpdesk. So, if you don't see MiKTeX on your lab workstation, just contact us.
Tech note: We had trouble installing MiKTeX on our Windows systems for some time. It turned out that some of its components were blocked by our anti-malware tool. Please contact the vendor to urge their developers to make the changes.
You may also use the MiKTeX portable package on our Windows systems.
The vendor has .
If you notice that any tool which does not work with MiKTeX portable, please contact the vendor for updates.

On an RCG Ubuntu workstation, here are the tools available:

TeX Live suite - latest version.
pdflatex - (part of TeX Live) the most common command-line tool for generating output from TeX source.
TeXStudio - a nice TeX IDE

Special notes on ShareLaTeX (a web application, as well as software-as-a-service, for editing & sharing TeX documents):

The School of Computing Science has purchased license of ShareLatex for our researchers.
Please register your official SFU email address on ; if your SFU email address had been registered for the free license, the School's subscription will unlock the professional version features for you.
For a research graduate student, you could register your official SFU email address (alias won't be accepted) at and start using the license.
If you are a postdoc or an undergraduate RA working in a CMPT research lab, you could request for access to our subscription by emailing helpdesk. Just remember to include your official SFU Computing ID and your supervisor's name in your request.
Of course, a lab director could submit a single request for all incoming new researchers of the lab.

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I need to use an older version of Matlab; how to achieve this?

On an RCG Ubuntu box:

The default "matlab" executable is actually a .
So, you can easily access older versions of MATLAB by running e.g., "matlab-2024b".
For a full list of available versions of Matlab,
  in the shell, you may key in "matlab" then press TAB key
    or
  in the shell, execute command: ls -1a /cvmfs/rcg.sfu.ca/sw/local-linux/bin/matlab*

On a managed Windows workstation:

Please contact helpdesk so we could install it for you.

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I want to use Docker for research projects; anything I should know about?

First of all, although Docker does provide convenience on certain aspects, it does have more security exposure than many other environments.

If Docker is a must for your research projects, please be sure to secure it tight.

And you must configure Docker's "default-address-pools" to avoid any conflict/interference with SFU enterprise computing environment.

Warning: The default private address range of Docker will conflict with . When such conflicts occur, you will not be able to remote access your computer from off-campus!

i.e. you must edit file: /etc/docker/daemon.json on the workstation:
make sure it has the lines like this:

"default-address-pools":
[
{"base":"10.17.1.0/24","size":24}
]

In short, the recommended IP ranges for Docker on SFU networks:

10.17.1.0/24

If you need more than 254 private addresses, you may increase the private address pool size (e.g. change the "/24" to "/23").

* please do restrict the pool size to "/20". Please contact helpdesk in advance if you need more than 16K private addresses for this Docker instance.

If you are not sure which private IP address range to use for your Docker instance, please feel free to contact us.

Technical details:

has more details on private IP addresses:

The Internet Engineering Task Force () has directed the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority () to reserve the following IPv4 address ranges for private networks:

10.0.0.0/8
172.16.0.0/12
192.168.0.0/16

But, SFU IT people have reserved big portion of 172.16.0.0/12 for infrastructure use.

To avoid potential IP conflict, please do not use ~~172.16.0.0/12 or its sub networks~~ on SFU networks.

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About Remote Access (remote login)

Which servers I could remotely access for my research?

* The Linux terminal server:

rcga-linux-ts1.dc.sfu.ca

Warning: The terminal servers are for lightweight tasks shared by many people; please do NOT place long-running CPU/memory intensive jobs on them.

Tip: To have X running, please configure a VNC session.

* The Windows Terminal Server (for general use): no longer available

If you believe the School shall provide such server for lightweight tasks, please contact your supervisor.

* You may also access .

Please be sure to use FQDNs for all remote hosts while you make the connections.

For faculty and staff only, RCG provides a new general use Windows Terminal Server:

rcga-wints-01.dc.sfu.ca:3389

For step-by-step instructions, please click here.

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May I access my research workstation from home?

Yes, in general. Please contact your lab admin for the policy for the specific lab.

For a Linux system in the lab, you could use SSH/RDP while is connected.

Please see .

For a Windows system in the lab, you could use Remote Desktop Connection tool.

Please click here for (password protected) step-by-step instructions.

* Warning * If you cannot SSH into this workstation and Docker is present on it, please be sure to read this Q&A for the workaround.

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Can I access my research workstation by using its IP address?

No.

The IP address of a specific host may get changed without advanced notice.

All of our workstations and most of the servers within SFU are getting IP addresses using & .

Please always use the of the host to make the connection.

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I don't get proper desktop when I remote connect to my research Windows workstation from home; suggestions?

The symptom: after the credentials have been accepted, but screen shows blank/black - sometimes not even the cursor.

Here are some of the steps you may want to give a try (in order):

1. wait for a couple of minutes; it might be just waking up.

2. launch the Task Manager on the remote system and attempt to bring back desktop:

maximize the remote session window
within this window, hit "Ctrl-Shift-ESC" - this should bring up the Task Manager on the remote system.
- when the Task Manager is up, you may start a new explorer.exe, and in general, your desktop will show up.

3. change the connection parameter on the home computer to use less resources:

close the current non-working remote session window.
when launching the "Remote Desktop Connection", click "show Options"
now, click the "Experience" tab, select "Low-speed broadband (256kbps - 2 Mbps)"
click "Connect" button; maybe you will get better result.

4. logon as another account if you have a second account on the system.

if you have a local account on the system, you need to try "hostname.cmpt.sfu.ca\specialusername" in the username field.

5. physically logon from the console of the system when you come to the lab. Dahhh...

If none of these works, you may have to reboot the workstation.

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Our lab has a Windows Terminal Server; how come I cannot remote in from home?

This is due to the licensing restrictions.

You may remote desktop to your lab workstation, and from there you should be able to remote into the lab's Windows Terminal Server.

Here are the details:

SFU has a Microsoft site license that includes *version upgrades for Windows desktop OS* on SFU owned machines, provides licenses A片资源吧 users to login to servers to access files shares, queues etc., and provides licenses (CALs) A片资源吧 owned computers to connect to SFU Windows Servers and for connecting to a terminal server.

Please note: this license does not cover users outside of SFU to connect to a Windows Terminal Server on SFU network directly.

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I have a mobile device and I would like to use it to remote into my research workstation; how to proceed?

For connecting to your Linux workstation, a modern SSH client tool should always work. Please check this Q&A for details.

For RDP-ing to your lab workstation (Windows and/or Linux), we strongly recommend "".

There are many alternatives out there; since most of these products require extra configurations on workstation and the network devices, we prefer to keep them off the chart.

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When I remote desktop to a Windows system, it gives certificate error and fails on authentication; how to fix this?

First of all, please make sure the of the remote system is correct.

Then please update the RD client's configuration for this workstation (on your personal device); we use Remote Desktop Connection tool (aka mstsc) as example here:

click "Show Options"
click tab "Advanced"
under "Server authentication", for "If server authentication fails:"
choose "Connect and don't warn me"
(optional: save the setting for future use) and click "Connect"

Basically, this will give you the real login screen and you could be sure you are connecting to the host you are trying to reach. This is the recommended setting to use for all Windows users.

We believe you could find similar option within alternative remote desktop client you are using. If the client does not offer this option, please try another client tool.

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My workstation runs latest Ubuntu release but I cannot SSH into it; how to fix this?

For connecting to most recent Ubuntu systems, you need a modern SSH client too.

You may want to try (portable version) or .

* IMPORTANT * For security reasons, direct SSHing into your lab workstation is only available on SFU wired network.

first, please SSH into a Linux terminal server (e.g., linux.cs.sfu.ca);
from within the sessions on this server, SSH into your lab workstation (using its FQDN)
(please use compression to for best performance.)

Click for more tips from the experts of RCG.

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How to get GUI interface to a lab Linux box from my personal computer?

All managed RCG Ubuntu (20.04+) workstations are deployed with X11 forwarding and xrdp enabled by default.

If your workstation is running RCG Ubuntu 20.04/22.04, please check out the next Q&A (using RDP instead of VNC).

Here are some very basic (yet very crucial) steps for you to get remote graphics interface on a Linux box from a Windows device.

Preparations:

make sure you have latest SSH client and VNC viewer on your Windows device (we recommend & ).
- do not add any firewall exceptions.
- do not allow VNC server to be installed.

Tech note: the "vncserver &" command will show a virtual display number
- which you must memorize for future use,
- we assume it is "1" in this Q&A.

Step 1: connect to on your Windows device.

Step 2: connect to the remote system via SSH using MobaXterm, within this SSH window,

(option A): when shell is tsch, please run the following commands in order:

vncpasswd
vncserver &
setenv DISPLAY :1
mate-session &
exit

(option B): when shell is bsch, please run the following commands in order:

vncpasswd
vncserver &
export DISPLAY=:1
mate-session &
exit

Step 3: launch MobaXterm on your Windows device, click "Start local terminal", from the "local terminal" window, run a command like:

ssh -L <VNC port number>:<FQDN>:<VNC port number> <username>@<RCG TS FQDN>

e.g. ssh -L 5901:server1.cs.sfu.ca:5901 psudoname@rcga-linux-ts1.dc.sfu.ca

the VNC port number is 5900 plus whatever your virtual display number is.
please also complete the command line with your own username and the FQDN of one of the RCG Linux Terminal Servers.

Step 4: launch TightVNC Viewer on your Windows device, make the connection to:

127.0.0.1:<VNC port number>

e.g. 127.0.0.1:5901

Please note:

You must set up a local SSH tunnel of TCP port from your Windows device to the remote system through one of the RCG's Linux Terminal Servers - NO exceptions.
You will have to repeat these steps if the remote Linux system is rebooted.

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May I Remote Desktop into my RCG Ubuntu workstation?

YES!

All managed RCG Ubuntu (20.04+) workstations are deployed with X11 forwarding and xrdp enabled by default.

For detailed instructions provided by RCG, please click .

First of all, we are using a special port for Remote Desktop access, click here to find out which one.

From your own devices, you may try these tools:

Mac OS X: or latest Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection 10 from the app store
Windows: Remote Desktop Connection
Linux:

Just a reminder: please always use the of the remote host to make the connection.

If the lab workstation is still running older version of Ubuntu: prepare your workstation (backup everything) and ask for OS upgrade!

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My xrdp session on my RCG Ubuntu box is stuck; how to fix this?

Please SSH into the workstation and run the following commands:

pkill -9 -n xrdp-sesman
pkill -9 -n xrdp
pkill -9 -n gnome-session

* If you need to kill all processes being run by yourself (including all xrdp processes), please run following command:

pkill -u username

(please be sure to use your own SFU Computing ID in place of username)

Just a reminder: xrdp session consumes quite a lot resources, we recommend SSH when you don't need GUI.

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After installing Docker on my lab workstation, I cannot SSH/RDP to it; what I can do now?

First of all, Docker does have more security exposure than other environment, please avoid using it.

If it is a must for your research, please secure it tight.

When the Docker interferes with remote access to the workstation, it is a configuration issue - please see this Q&A for a workaround.

How to determine if a network configuration issue on this specific workstation caused the trouble with SFU VPN?

1. if Docker network interface uses its default IP range (i.e. in the 172.17.x.x range).

no one can access this computer with SFU VPN.
please check out this Q&A for the workaround

2. run "ip addr" command on the workstation, if the results show a bridge,

if docker is present, please check out this Q&A for the workaround
it might be a KVM (like VirtualBox/VMware)) network bridge, please destroy and recreate the bridge with a different IP (ensure which has no conflict with SFU VPN).

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I suddenly cannot remote into my lab workstation using SFU VPN; what's going on?

In most cases, the issue is caused by Docker - please avoid using it.

If it is a must for your research, please secure it tight.

When the Docker instance on this lab workstation causes trouble, please find a workaround in this Q&A.

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Special Topic: How to keep the Windows system up to date

Some of the common applications are out dated; what I should do?

We have many techniques to keep our Windows hosts up to date

for most applications, we are using .
the default setting was: the maintenance task runs every night.

We are using for monthly updates on our Windows systems. The reboot after these updates should trigger the maintenance task.

The maintenance task may take about 2 minutes to more than 30 minutes; so please plan ahead.

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Some of the applications are still out dated after maintenance task run; can someone help me out?

There are two possible causes of this issue:

The maintenance task encountered errors while updating the applications.
The specific applications are not managed by our MEM scripts.

Please email helpdesk with the name of the host and the name of the applications; we will fix this.

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Special Topic: The Storage

What is my home space (on SFU networks)?

As a Computing Science graduate student, you have (at least) 2 home spaces.

SFU home

from an RCG Ubuntu workstation, you could
from a Windows system, you should map U: to \\sphinx.sfu.ca\username
(please use "ad.sfu.ca\username" with SFU Mail password to gain access)
from any CSIL Linux system, it is auto-mounted as /sfuhome for you

Research Network Home (formerly known as FAS Home)

from an RCG Ubuntu workstation, you could simply visit /net/home/username
(please check out if there is any trouble.)
from a Windows system (regardless of the network location), you could map Z: to \\rcga-bluebell.dc.sfu.ca\username
(please use "ad.sfu.ca\username" and SFU Mail password to gain access)

From this index page, you could check out network storage for the specific research group you are a member of.

Here is a simple matrix to help:

Platform	binding domain	Research Network Home	SFU Home
RCG Ubuntu 20.04/22.04	ADSFU	/net/home/username	not auto-mounted; SFTP to rock.its.sfu.ca
Windows	ADSFU	Z: (\\rcga-bluebell.dc.sfu.ca\username)	U: (\\sphinx.sfu.ca\username)

Please save all of your study & research work on network storage.

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What is the quota of my home space?

The quota for your SFU home is 10GB (Giga Byte) from October 2015.
The quota for your Research Network Home is 10GB (Giga Byte) from October 2022.
Also, the research lab may have dedicated space for your research, please chat with the lab admin and your supervisor for more details.

Please save all of your study & research work on these network spaces.

users: Please stop using it and migrate to Microsoft OneDrive within the SFU's Microsoft 365 implementation ASAP.

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Where I should store my files?

You should store all of your data (especially study/research work) on a backup-enabled, secured network file space.
- The data on network file space are being backed up regularly and monitored regularly by IT professionals.

1. When you login to any RCG Ubuntu system,

you could visit /net/home/username folder for your Research Network Home
you could for your SFU Home

2. When you login to a CSIL Linux system,

you will see the network storage space (SFU home space) which is provided by mounted as the directory /sfuhome

3. When you sign in to any ADSFU Windows computer,

you could map Z: to your FAS network home which is \\rcga-bluebell.dc.sfu.ca\username.
And you also have your SFU home (\\sphinx.sfu.ca\username) mapped to U: (by default)

4. The research lab you are in may have special network storage for you to use - check them out.

About utilizing local storage:

You may store shortcuts on your desktop.
You may store unimportant files on local storage space and remove them after you've done with them.
You may have to store intermittent computational data on a local drive for speedy access... read the following warnings.

Warnings:

Regular maintenance of the lab computers may wipe out the data on local storage - this may happen without advance notice.
Although not often, but the computers did occasionally get stolen at SFU.

In short: do not store anything valuable on local storage.

Last but not least:

You should NOT store anything illegal, stolen or that you would not want your mother to see on the systems provided by SFU or the School of Computing Science. Please.

We do not want to have to deal with any of that.

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Where I should NOT store my files?

To ensure the best system stability and data integrity, please follow this guide:

When you logon to any ADSFU Windows system, do NOT store anything valuable on local storage; e.g. NOT under any of these folders:

Any folder under "C:\"
"C:\temp"
"Desktop" (with the exception of shortcuts)
"My Documents" folder, "Documents" folder
"Application Data" folder, "AppData" folder
Any folder within your profile folder, i.e. C:\Users\username\
D:; E:; ...
Any portable storage (with the exception for data transporting)

When you use any Linux system, do NOT store anything valuable on local storage; e.g. NOT under any of these folders:

/local-scratch
/local-scratch2
/local-scratch* (basically, any folder with a name has "scratch" in it)
/tmp
/temp
/data1
/local-home
- please note: this is not on local hard disk, it is part of your profile. Since profile storage is very limited, NEVER save any files under profile.
"Desktop" (with the exception of shortcuts)

For intermittent data and scratch: you may use any "temp", "scratch" and additional storage units - but at your own risk!

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The storage space on network is not big enough for my research work; what I should do?

(this Q&A is under review)

The Faculty, the School and your supervisor will try to provide sufficient space for your research.

- please visit this index page and click into the lab you are in - which is password-protected. The available lab-specific network storage will be displayed.

Please contact helpdesk while you need more space.
- in your message, please provide detailed information on how you save your data.

Please do not use any non-networked or non-backup space for any important data or research work.

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There are lots of free spaces on local drives; may I use it to store some of my files?

As we have clearly stated, please do NOT use local disks (including Solid State Drives aka SSDs) on the workstation to store your important research programs and/or data.

On the other hand, if you need storage for scratch - e.g., the intermittent data outputted from your programs or the huge dataset that could be downloaded again from the internet - you may try the following:

on an RCG Ubuntu system: /local-scratch

Please create a folder - name it using your SFU Computing ID - under this folder;
then put all your scratch data under this sub-folder.

on a managed Windows system: c:\scratch

please create a folder - name it using your SFU Computing ID - under this folder; then put all your scratch data under this new sub-folder.
you cannot save files directly under "c:\scratch", you must create your own folder under this folder and save files under your own sub-folder. This is to reduce the potential confusion between users.
(the permissions set on this folder will prevent the other people access your files under this sub-folder.)

Warnings:

the helpdesk will not be able to assist you with anything under the scratch folder.
and when the space is used up on the system volume, the sub-folders under the scratch folder will be the first ones subject to deletion.

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I have a portable storage unit with huge capacity; may I use it to store my research data?

At your own risk!

We have seen so many portable storage failures. From our own experiences, we do not consider portable storage a viable storage solution.

Portable storage is prone to be dropped, lost or worse: stolen.

Portable storage may be used for transferring files (such as between home and campus, laptop and desktop) and it may be used as a local scratch space for computations that require it for speed.

Again, use it at your own risk!

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May I use Cloud service for my research data?

It depends.

First of all, you shall NOT use Cloud to store any personal data that is protected under the . Research data of a student that does not contain any private information about others should be OK.

We'd advise anyone that wants to capitalize on their research to be wary of the end user agreements for many of these services - many of the agreements give the company unlimited rights to use, copy and benefit from any file you store with them.

Please find out more on .

And please email your personal cloud storage request for cloud storage to . This makes it a more visible need A片资源吧 which helps to drive the IT force to provide such service.

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Do SFU provide cloud storage for my research?

Yes!

SFU now has new agreement with Microsoft so all of SFU users will be able to use OneDrive storage for free! .

Also, you may want to try out the storage provided by WestGrid and :

To gain access to this service, the leading faculty member of a specific research group must register first.
This will subsequently allow the other members of this research group to register and gain access.

*Important* SFU Vault is retired; please stop using it. (It had been in service for a few years now and it is now retired.)

If you need further clarification, please feel free to contact us!

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How to get Dropbox installed on my Windows workstation?

Please use storage (part of Microsoft 365 program SFU has implemented) instead.

About the saga related to this specific product:

The short story (tech note): the developers of Drobox had spent significant amount of time to prevent running Dropbox client for personal on a Windows using roaming profile with folder-redirection feature.

You may want to check out this page for more programming tips.

If you still need to use Dropbox, you may try the web edition.

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How to access my SFU home folder from my research Linux workstation?

On an RCG Ubuntu workstation, you could access your Research Network Home (formerly known as FAS Home) and you SFU Home.

To access your SFU Home, please follow the instructions on but just use server rock.its.sfu.ca

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How to access my SFU home folder from my research Windows workstation?

You could easily map a network drive (we highly recommend using U: - it is the de facto SFU standard) to your SFU home:

the share: \\sphinx.sfu.ca\username

the username: ad.sfu.ca\username

the password: (your SFU Mail password)

- if you plan to use it later, please check the re-connect checkbox and save the credentials.

On some of the systems, this mapping has been configured for you by default.

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What is the network storage for a specific research lab?

On this index page, click the research lab you are in - you will see the list of network storage designated for your research group.

Please let us know if there is lab specific storage you are using but it is not listed. TIA!
If you have no access to the network storage for your lab, please let your lab admin know.

To connect to these shares from an RCG Ubuntu system,

please simply cd to it
- i.e. use command "cd /cs/thislabspace" and it will be automounted in a few seconds.

To connect to these shares from a Windows system,

please map a network drive to it.
please use "ad.sfu.ca\username" and password for your SFU Mail account.

And you could about the storage provided by RCG.

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I just added a new disk to my RCG Ubuntu workstation; how to access the new storage? A new disk is added to my RCG Ubuntu workstation; how to access the new space?

Please email helpdesk to get the new disk installed; and we will help you get it mounted properly.

If you have to mount the new disk yourself in a hurry, please ask your lab admin to help (since this needs sudo access on this specific workstation). And please do email helpdesk so we could update our records for future use.

The sample commands:

sudo mkdir /mnt/local-scratch9
sudo mount /dev/sdf1 /mnt/local-scratch9

(please specify the volume name and a preferred name for the new mount on your workstation.)

Please note: this mount will not be accessible remotely.

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Special Topic: Equipment Mobility

I need to move a device from one place to another; may I just do it myself?

It depends.

If the move is within the lab (could be different rooms; but not in different buildings, not across campuses),

you could inform the lab admin and then you may do the move yourself.
the lab admin will/shall document the changes accordingly.
It is best to inform helpdesk.

If the move involves another lab or across different campuses (or different buildings on same campus),

please inform the lab admin, your supervisor and email helpdesk in advance.
this is to ensure the safety and functionality of the equipment.
NO exceptions.

Please note: if this is a network device, it may not function normally after the move.

In this case, please always email helpdesk in advance.

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I just moved one computer from another campus; why it is not working?!!!

This is by design.

You cannot attach a device to a random wall jack on SFU campus and expect it to work.

As you could see from reading this page alone, the SFU computing infrastructure is fairly complex.

We (the IT people) try to provide most functionality with strongest security.
In some cases, the flexibility has to give ways to security.

If you do need to move a network device across different campuses (sometimes even within the same campus; in the extreme case, within the same room),

please let us know in advance.
we will make sure the move is smooth and has minimum downtime for you so it won't impact your research.

If you have moved the device yourself, please email helpdesk asap.

in your message, please give us all the details about this device, e.g. hostname, MAC address, former location, future location (campus, building, room#) etc.

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I would like to take a lab computer home for my research; how to proceed?

Discuss this with your supervisor please.

The school of Computing Science expects most of our research to take place in our research labs where researchers collaborate and learn from each other.
The research lab computers are SFU property and will not normally be allowed to leave the campus.
In most cases the computers rely on campus network resources to function and will not operate properly from off-campus.
Never remove equipment from the lab without permission.

Inform helpdesk of any proposed equipment moves in advance.

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I would like to move a lab computer to the server room; suggestions?

The School provides some space in the server room for rack-mount devices. It is FCFS.

But, we only move the computers with all the following features into our server room:

it must be rack-mount ready.
it must be IPMI ready.
it must have redundant power supply (at least 2 PSUs).

Please send your request to helpdesk so we could get approval from your supervisor.

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Other Computing Resources

How do I print?

SFU recommends transferring documents electronically. You could generate a PDF file and it will be accepted globally.

For most of the computers on SFU network, there are pseudo/virtual PDF printers installed; you could generate PDF files with ease. There is no charge for generating PDF files using these pseudo printers.

If paper printout is a must, here are some scenarios:

At Burnaby campus, in a specific research lab,

there should be a network printer available for lab users to print.
please contact the lab admin to gain access.
from Windows hosts, please always use cs-papercut-p.dc.sfu.ca.

In CSIL@Burnaby,

print to printer "New Lab Colour" or "New Lab Mono" from a CSIL Windows workstation and release it
print to printer "NewLabColour" or "NewLabMono" from a CSIL Linux workstation and release it
- the charges will be deducted on your SFU printing account.

At Surrey campus, contact your lab admin.

Please note: these printers only support "letter" size paper (standard 8 1/2" X 11"). Do NOT use the A4 page format.

For more information on printing issue, please read through this document; and this page may help too.

Also, RCG has for all FAS users which is extremely useful.

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How do I burn CD/DVDs?

In a specific research lab, please chat with the lab admin. Some workstations might be capable of burning CDs and DVDs.

(We no longer provide DVD burners in CSIL.)

Please note: you are agreeing with the Copyright at the School of Computing Science while you are using any SFU/CMPT equipment.

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How do I scan paper/photos?

You may use the Ricoh Multi-Function Device in CSIL (ASB 9838) for scanning.

For Staff (TAs) only: In Burnaby Common Room (TASC1 9401), we have a Ricoh Multi-Function Device for scanning.

Please scan it to your SFU Mail email.

click here for more tips.
and remember: the size of the attachment is limited to 25MB (depends on the encoding as well).
(recommended: delete the scanned file from inbox to save space afterwards.)
please note: if you scan to a non-SFU email address and it fails, we will not be able to assist you.

Please note: you are agreeing with the Copyright at the School of Computing Science while you are using any SFU/CMPT equipment.

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How do I photocopy?

At this moment, please go to CSIL (ASB 9838 South) and use the Ricoh Multi-Function Device for CSIL.

Please note: you are agreeing with the Copyright at the School of Computing Science while you are using any SFU/CMPT equipment.

We do have a Ricoh Multi-Function Device in Burnaby Common Room (TASC1 9401), but it is not yet configured for graduate students use. Click here for more details.

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The supplies for the printer in our research lab are running out; how to get more?

If the toner of the printer is running low and/or the paper is running out in the lab, please inform the lab admin asap.

- If the lab admin is not available, please inform your supervisor (the lab director) asap.

* Since the refilling process does take some time, please make the contact early.

And please do not email helpdesk directly on this matter.

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I need more computing resources for my research; suggestions?

In general, please contact your supervisor on this issue.

There are other ways to get more computing power:

The High-Performance Computing Clusters for researchers of SFU and beyond; please check out .
More research related services provided by SFU IT Services; please check .

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I am using a laptop for my research; may I get some help?

You should visit this FAQ page when you use the School's laptops for your research.

Please note: we do not service personal computing devices for the graduate students.

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Can I get "free" software for my research on my personal computers?

Yes for some of the packages which usually must be purchased.

(1) SFU has subscription to "" program.

Any student enrolled in at least one CMPT or DDP course in the current semester is eligible to get selected Microsoft software for free.

A slice of history:
For many years, the School of Computing Science was a member of this MSDNAA (Microsoft Developer Network Academic Alliance) program.
Although it is not a carbon replacement, now we utilize ITS's subscription of "Microsoft Azure Dev Tools for Teaching" program.

Visit our "how to get software for CMPT courses" page for more details.

(2) The School of Computing Science is currently partnered with VMware Academic Program (VMAP).

This program provides access to licenses for select products for use in instruction and research.
The full details about this program can be found .

(3) * Important* SFU IT Services provide some specialized software for researchers as well.

you may find more information .
for most of the packages, your supervisor must register first then grant access to you.
please note: ITS will provide support on these products.
- the helpdesk of CMPT cannot assist you in this case.

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How to solve issues with SFU AEM site?

The is the current SFU's content management system; many of SFU web sites are running on this system.

At this moment, we recommend using Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge to authorize (edit and publish) your pages on SFU AEM site:

If you ever encounter issues with any AEM site, please try to clear the history of the browser first - this should solve 95% of the issues.

You may find a few tips on this page.

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About Thesis Defense, Presentations and Conferences

Where I should hold my presentation?

In general, you may use room TASC1 9204 on Burnaby campus (or ??? on Surrey campus).

Please contact the Graduate Program Assistant for this matter
before booking the room.
- especially when some other resources are needed for your presentation,

A gentle reminder: please make the reservation early to avoid any disappointment.

You may want to check out SFU's Meeting, Event and Conference services for more options.

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Could you give me some tips on setting up my presentation and/or thesis defense?

Here are some of the pointers:

鈼� Contact the Graduate Program Assistant and then book the room and other equipment well in advance

It is highly recommended: discuss all resource requirements before booking a room.

鈼� Prepare a computer which is free of malware, up-to-date.

you may book one from helpdesk

鈼� Please book equipment through the Graduate Program Assistant.

A complete list of equipment and detailed procedure would be very helpful.
book a laser pointer.
book a conference phone - the backup in case the video conferencing is not working.
Book a portable projector if necessary, most of our meeting rooms have projectors installed.

One thing to be noted: the projectors we provide only have VGA/HDMI connector; it is your own responsibility to bring any adapters your laptop may require.

鈼� If you need Teams/Zoom/Skype for this event, you have to setup video conferencing tool people offsite.

In general, you should use your own laptop and accounts.
Warning: if you use other tools, there is no guarantee in quality and reliability.

鈼� Please come to the specific room at the previous workday to test everything.

There were multiple incidents that the user's laptop could not connect to the projector in the room.

鈼� Please arrive in the booked room at least 30 minutes early, and test everything before the presentation.

鈼� Consider multiple alternatives while you prepare the presentation.

If you are not sure about the equipment, please email helpdesk.

You may want to check out SFU's Meeting, Event and Conference services for more details.

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I want to have video recording of my presentation; who can assist me?

Please get assistance from SFU's in advance.

There may be a charge for this service.

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May I reserve a computer for presentation?

Yes, please email helpdesk to make the reservation in advance.

In the request, please list which software you may need for your presentation.

We have a very limited supply of computers, first come first serve applies.

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How do I make conference calls?

SFU is moving to for conference calls, while is still available.

If the call is long distance, please book the room TASC1 9204W and hook up the conference-call-ready phone (to wall jack 10-28). Click here for more details.

* Since we cannot guarantee the the quality/performance of wireless access, please always book specialized conference equipment in advance.

If you prefer a location outside of the School of Computing Science, here are some other choices:

the meeting rooms at the ASB 10000 level (there may be a charge for using this service.)
of SFU library which can be booked.
SFU's Meeting, Event and Conference services may help out.

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Special Notes for TA/TM and Sessionals

Where I should hold my office hours?

It really depends. Please discuss with the course instructor.

In general, the TAs should hold office hours in CSIL.

If so, please use to book your time slots and room/area.
And please remember, you are entitled to have 10 minutes coffee break within each TA hour you hold.

Please note: all CSIL users - including the course instructors, TAs and students - need to follow all the CSIL policies.

to name a couple: NO FOOD OR DRINK; NO GAMING.
no exceptions.
please remind the students about the CSIL policies.

TASC1 9409 is a room reserved for sessionals of the School of Computing Science.

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May I hold my office hour in a research lab?

No.

The research labs (grad labs) are for graduate students and other researchers to study and do research work; quietness is one of the essential requirements.

Please hold office hours in CSIL.

The sessionals could hold office hour in TASC1 9409.

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Which computers I should use for my TA/TM job?

In general, you should use the computer provided in the room/area you booked for your TA/TM office hours.

For extra resources (e.g., for marking assignments), please talk with the course instructor of a specific course.

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How do I print for my TA/TM job?

If you need to print multiple copies of the single file:

Please print one copy first, and then photocopy this printout as the original on the MPS devices - just remember to use the special copier code issued to you for the specific course.

If you need to print many different files (e.g. submitted assignments):

(under review) Please print to the "New Lab Mono" or "NewLabMono" and release the jobs in CSIL.

Just a reminder: ask students to submit paper copy is more efficient if the TA has to print out each electronically submitted file.

If you don't have the code, please inform the instructor so it could be issued.

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I want to make hundreds of paper handouts, can someone help me?

First of all, there are many ways to publish electronically and get the students notified.

If you have to make large number of pages printed on paper, you could print or photocopy.

If this is for your TA/TM job, please remember to use the copier code issued to you for the specific course.

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Which web pages should I read to help me on my TA/TM job?

The CMPT courses heavily rely on using the CSIL.

Please go through all the CSIL FAQ pages will help you answer many questions.

And please guide students to read these pages; this will reduce your workload considerably.

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How to setup the web page for a CMPT course?

1) In general, the course web page will be linked from the Course Central, the default URL for this course will be:

https://www.cs.sfu.ca/CourseCentral/???/username

Where ??? is the course number. There is a placeholder index.html file there, which you can replace when the site is ready. One important thing to be noted here is: the file/folder names should not contain any space - otherwise, unexpected results will occur.

To contribute to this default course web page, you may do one of the followings or both:

. ssh/scp to a Linux terminal server (e.g. rcga-linux-ts1.dc.sfu.ca), the folder would be:

/fas-info/cs/CourseCentral/???/username

. from a Windows host on the SFU network, map a network drive to:

\\rcga-bluebell.dc.sfu.ca\csweb\CourseCentral\???\username

Please note: you may also use other web space and redirect there or ask for the link on the list of course home pages to be changed. Please email helpdesk for assistance.

2) The maillists are set up automatically for all courses. Please see our maillist FAQ page for more details.

3) To setup the course online submission system on :

create an activity

then on the activity's main page, there's a "configure submission" link to use for the ones where you want students to submit online

4) To setup a wiki page for the course, please visit .

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Miscellaneous

Will the School provide cable for me to hook up my laptop to an LCD in the lab?

Generally speaking, the School do not provide support for students' personal devices.

So, please bring your own cable if you need to hook up to a LCD in the lab.

* If you use the laptop regularly for research, please talk with your supervisor so suitable cables/adapters could be purchased for you.

Here are a few useful tips:

While you ask for purchasing a new laptop, please also ask for the proper cables and other accessories at the same time.
Please be sure to get the one with latest technology standards.
e.g., if either a "USB-C to VGA" cable or a "USB-C to USB-C" cable will work, please get "USB-C to USB-C" cable.
Please be sure to check the specifications of the laptop, the LCD monitor and the cable
- many cables only work for certain combinations of the devices.

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How to capture video clips?

From year 2014, we no longer provide this service.

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How to book a room for a meeting?

Anyone with an SFU account can view the schedule of CS meeting rooms here:

Please email the Confidential Assistant to the Director for assistance booking a room.

Research students: your supervisor can also book rooms.

A general reminder: when these meeting rooms are not booked, the graduate students are welcome to use the rooms on a drop-in basis.

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I cannot find certain software/device in the lab; what I should do?

For software packages for RCG Ubuntu systems, please check out .

- If you believe the missing software could benefit the whole lab, please contact the lab admin so we (helpdesk) can make it available on all the workstations in the specific research lab.

For extra software packages for managed Windows systems, please email us.

If you need certain device like keyboards and mice, please email us.

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The lab has insufficient lighting/power/heating/ventilation; how to get the lab into the working order?

For minor issues you can contact SFU Facilities Services directly by submitting a request here:

If the issue is quite complex, reoccurring or not getting resolved,

please address the issue with the lab admin (so the lab admin could contact helpdesk.
please contact your supervisor (so the faculty member could talk with the Senior Manager and/or the Director).
please contact helpdesk.
you may also report in person by visiting the CS general office.

In all cases when the AC power to the computers is lost, please inform helpdesk ASAP so we can investigate.

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I don't have enough power outlets around my desk; what I should do?

Please email CMPT Helpdesk and wait for assistance.

Any other action is prohibited.
We (CMPT Helpdesk) will discuss with your supervisor if there is cost associated with this.

We understand the needs for powering up personal computing devices, but we also want to ensure the safety of you and everyone at SFU. Please allow us to find ways to safely accommodate your needs.

all of the following actions are NOT permitted and will NOT be tolerated:

daisy-chain power bars
- This term means plug a power bar into another power bar.
  If "daisy-chained" power bars are discovered during routine inspections, they will be immediately disconnected.
  In addition, it will be noted on the inspection form, and a follow-up inspection schedule may be prescribed to monitor the situation.
plug a non-computing device to the power panel (or power bar) which hosts computing devices.
- This means you must not plug heater, microwave, kettle, fan, refrigerator etc. into the same power bar or same power circuit which has any computing device on it.
  Please note: every power outlet is clearly labelled. If two or more power outlets' labels match, they are on the same circuit!
move a power bar to a different location or attach additional power bar to any power outlet.
- Please allow the helpdesk to perform this task.
  - We will double check everything and evaluate alternatives before any action is taken.
use power extension cords with power bar (unless this is setup by helpdesk after reviewing the electrical load).
- The power extension cords are only be used as a temporary workaround, for short-term (say less than 4 weeks) only.
  - During this short period of time, we will find a better/safer/long-term solution for you.
use personal power bar in the lab
- Please do not do this, save the money & trouble. Take it back home please.
  The School will provide sufficient equipment for your research.
  CMPT Helpdesk will set up your research station properly and safely.
  - Disastrous results (of unauthorized power bars) had been observed in the past.

Please check out the official guidelines on Canadian government site.

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I feel the network is very slow; what I can do?

There are many causes which result slowness of the systems.

If you are using a managed and wired workstation, you could perform a speedtest by visiting on this system.

If the Read and Write reaches above 300Mbps, the network will be considered normal.
(This service is provided by )

On the other hand, there is no performance guarantee on wireless network.

If you believe a specific SFU server should perform faster, please contact the group who's in charge of the server.

For all other systems, please contact their supporting parties accordingly.

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How to use Microsoft Teams for collaboration?

is now available to all current active SFU graduate students.

Please be sure to use your account and enroll in .

We recommend the lab director creates a team for the specific research group to use.

Of course, you could just create a group chat to include all the people you wish to collaborate with on a certain topic.

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You may find more tips on our Miscellaneous Guides & Tips page.

Having comments, suggestions, inquiries and more questions? Contact us!

Please click here and use the best practices to get assistance from helpdesk.

Last updated on 2025.07.29