General computing info for those new to BCS/CVS/UR
Welcome to BCS/CVS! This purpose of this wiki is to describe the basics of the computing environment within the BCS & CVS departments. It will also provide some useful basic info about computing at UR in general.
River Campus & the UR Medical Center
The university is divided into to main groups, River Campus (the academic side) and the Medical Center (URMC). The computing environments within each group developed separately of each other, and as such policies and procedures differ between the two. While there is an effort underway by the University to unify the computing environments, this is a recent initiative and as such there still exist many differences between the two that will have an impact on you (especially if you are a member of CVS).
BCS exists entirely on River Campus. CVS exists both on River Campus and at the Med Center and utilizes resources on "both sides of the street".
Who provides my computer support?
The short answer is that a few people/groups will.
I (Chris Freemesser) am the systems administrator for both BCS and CVS, and provide primary technical support for everybody in BCS as well as the core userbase in CVS. However, while anybody affiliated with CVS can ask for my help, all faculty in CVS have primary appointments in other departments, and those departments may have their own IT staff that a CVS faculty member may choose to rely upon.
IT support at the University-level is provided by two different groups: University IT (for River Campus matters) and ISD/Academic IT (for URMC matters). Both have help desks that can be contacted via phone or e-mail.
Who supports what?
As the departmental IT manager, I provide primary technical support. This includes all support related to your BCS/CVS-provided computer(s) as well as printing and data storage issues. If you're a member of BCS, I also provide support for networking (wired and some wireless) within Meliora Hall.
Support for University-provided services (like e-mail, HRMS, Blackboard, etc.) is typically provided by University IT or ISD and requires opening up a trouble ticket with them. However, contact me first if you have an issue with such things, as I can resolve some issues with these services myself.
User accounts
All employees of UR are issued a set of credentials called your "NetID". These credentials are used to log into things such as the human resources system (HRMS) and some other systems distributed around the University.
All employees are also issued an Active Directory (AD) account. These credentials are used to log into other things such as e-mail, wireless networks etc. However, there are separate AD credentials for River Campus employees and URMC employees. As expected, RC AD credentials let you log into things on River Campus, and URMC AD credentials let you log into things at the Med Center.
It is common for your NetID credentials and your primary AD credentials to be synchronized with each other. To view your credentials and make changes to your accounts (like changing the password), visit http://myidentity.rochester.edu. If you select the "change password" option, you'll see what credentials you have and what services each one is used for.
Please note that these credentials are NOT what you will use to log into any BCS/CVS-specific resource (like any computer we provide you or any of our departmental servers). You'll have separate BCS or CVS credentials for these resources.
Employees who are considered River Campus employees will be assigned an e-mail account in Microsoft's Office365 environment, and you will use RC AD credentials to log into it. O365 e-mail addresses end with "@ur.rochester.edu".
Employees who are considered Medical Center employees will be assigned an e-mail account in the URMC Exchange e-mail environment, and you will use URMC AD credentials to log into it. URMC e-mail addresses end with "@urmc.rochester.edu"
It is possible for a member of CVS to be physically located at the Med Center but be considered a River Campus employee.
Both BCS and CVS maintain several departmental mailing lists...a list of them can be found here: https://wiki.bcs.rochester.edu/ComputerHelp/MailingLists
Computers
Users within BCS and CVS are typically provided a computer by the department. These computers are typically configured and maintained by the department, not configured/centrally managed by either University IT or ISD (who centrally administers most computers at the Med Center, but not ours). As such, any questions/problems/concerns regarding your computer should be directed to me, not to UnivIT/ISD.
Printing
All printers within the areas I administer are owned/operated/managed by the department/myself. As such, any questions/problems/concerns regarding printing should be directed to me, not to UnivIT/ISD.
Backup system
BCS & CVS own/manage our own centralized computer backup systems that perform regular backups of computers within BCS/CVS. Participation in our backup system is ultimately optional but STRONGLY recommended.