We are going to upgrade fileserver “peck” on Friday June 19th 2026. The plan is to do it early in the morning, but you may experience some issues after the upgrade as well. Rebooting the client computer may solve the problem in that case. Please keep an eye on this page to check whether the upgrade is completed or not.
Lilo7 was running ubuntu 20.04 LTS (LTS=Long term support). Since the LTS support period has ended for ubuntu 20.04, we have turned off lilo7 on June 2nd, because there are no (free) security updates anymore for this OS release. We will repurpose the hardware for other tasks for the faculty. We have a new lilo9 with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. We will make this the new lilo on August 1st 2025. Lilo9 will remain available until end of May 2029. ...
Update 2025-05-20 This has been activated around 11 ‘o clock. On May the 20th we have enabled mandatory multifactor authentication for the following services: DIY web site. Roundcube, for reading mail. SSH from the internet to public servers, like the lilos. Below you can read how you can log in for each service. DIY Enter your Science login name, your password and the TOTP code from your authenticator app. If you have configured a Yubi key with us, you can also use the Yubi key’s OTP. ...
A new version of Mathematica (14.2.1) has been installed on all C&CZ managed Linux systems, older versions can still be found in /vol/mathematica. When connected wired or wireless on campus or through VPN, the software for Windows, Linux and macOS can be found on the C&CZ Install disc. During the installation you must specify: License server: mathematica.science.ru.nl License: L4601-6478 According to the Mathematica Quick Revision History: “Version 14.2.1 includes critical updates for Chatbook and code captions along with other bug fixes and stability improvements.”
The latest version of Maple, Maple2025, for Windows/macOS/Linux can be found on the Install network share and has been installed on C&CZ managed Linux computers. License codes can be requested from C&CZ helpdesk or postmaster.
On the 20th of May 2025 we are enabling 2FA (second-factor-authentication) on the C&CZ services: DIY, Roundcube and SSH on the login servers. In this article you can find information on this roll-out and how to activate 2Fa on your Science account. As mentioned in an earlier news item, we’ve finished the tests and reached the following conclusions: Anyone with a Science account can enable 2FA in DIY using this procedure. For about 6 weeks you can enable 2FA in DIY. You must have activated 2FA by the 20th of May 2025 if you want to use: DIY, Roundcube or SSH on the login servers. ...
After our previous news message concerning the new implementation of DIY, we are now ready to announce: The new DIY will go live on Thursday the 20th of March. The previous DIY server will be kept running on https://prev.dhz.science.ru.nl. If there is are things that work in the old one, but not in the new one, please let us know. The old DIY will be turned off on the first the 11th of April 2025.
We have updated the authentication process for login servers after a succesful test we announced in CPK#1383. As of now, your ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file on lilo is ignored!, instead you can send us your public ssh key (contents of the .pub file) to keep for your account. This change is designed to prevent bad actors from easily gaining persistent access. For convenience we have added the keys we have found in homedirectories that were added or modified after we restricted access to lilo, if your key is from before December 9th, you will need to send the public key to us. ...
At the end of last year we’ve promised an update on how we are planning to make access to our services more secure. In this post we expand on those plans. In short: we are going to deploy 2FA on Science accounts and make it mandatory for services that are reachable from the internet. How this all works from an organizational standpoint is, at this point, not complete clear yet. Do we need a “in-person” vetting procedure? Or do we allow users to enable this themselves in DIY? Ideas on this will surface after the test period. ...
A new version of Mathematica (14.2.0) has been installed on all C&CZ managed Linux systems, older versions can still be found in /vol/mathematica. When connected wired or wireless on campus or through VPN, the software for Windows, Linux and macOS can be found on the C&CZ Install disc. During the installation you must specify: License server: mathematica.science.ru.nl License: L4601-6478 According to the Mathematica Quick Revision History: “Version 14.2 introduces a powerful tool in Tabular, which provides a very streamlined and efficient way to handle tables of data laid out in rows and columns, with hundreds of other functions enhanced to make use of its special features. Additional new functions and improvements have been added to enhance neural nets and LLMs, work with game theory, improve GPU computation, and expand images and videos.”
Due to a phishing attack targeting science accounts, and the subsequent abuse of RU mail servers to sent out spam and phishing from valid science e-mail accounts, we were forced to employ a set of defensive measure as evident from cpk/1381, cpk/1382, cpk/1381. To prevent further abuse (and disruption) caused by compromised accounts, we have had to temporarily restrict access to some science services. These services include: Anything related to e-mail: Roundcube, authenticated SMTP, IMAP, and POP3. SSH access to the LILOs (see cpk/1383 for a workaround). DIY as well as the new replacement. Email services are now being reopened on a per science account basis. A set of approximately 1,000 accounts has regained normal access. To request access, please contact us. ...