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Introduction to the Building 37 Windows Cluster
What is the Building 37 Windows Cluster?The Building 37 Windows Cluster is a specialized cluster which contains twenty-five high-performance Dell workstations running WinAthena. Located in 37-312, it used to be a standard Athena cluster (adjacant rooms still are). Starting in 1999, I/S noted increasing numbers of worries amongst the faculty about the non-availability of more and more applications on non-Windows platforms. To address this problem, I/S began to look at the possibilities of Windows NT4 as a system on which to provide access to those applications as well as to the rest of MIT’s standard computing services. With the release of Windows 2000, I/S found its solution. Windows 2000 Server is the first Microsoft Operating System with built-in Kerberos authentication, allowing MIT to create a secure Windows domain that is integrated with the existing Athena system. In 1999 and 2000, I/S created a scalable, centrally manageable Windows Domain. This domain was the beginning of WinAthena. Since the spring of 2001 the production domain win.mit.edu has been up without interruption. The Domain is a data structure designed to use existing MIT repositories of information. Member machines are allowed to join into a container within the Domain; for instance, machines in the 37-312 cluster are in one WinAthena container. Users perform a single sign-on to the win.mit.edu domain using their Athena username and password, obtaining Kerberos authentication to their profiles and all other parts of AFS. The 37-312 classroom has ID card access. There are twenty-five student machines and an identical instructor machine in the Building 37 Windows Cluster. All machines are equipped with dual 2.4 GHz Xeon processors, 1GB RAM, dial 36GB hard drives, and dual LCD monitors. To reserve the classroom please fill out the Request Form. For more information, please see Software Installed on Athena Windows Machines and the Cluster Schedule. Where is the Building 37 Windows Cluster located?The Building 37 Windows Cluster is a specialized cluster which contains twenty-five high-performance Dell workstations running Windows XP and members of MIT's WIN.MIT.EDU domain. It is located in room 37-312, behind 37-332 and 37-318, two standard Athena clusters. Below are two diagrams, showing the location of building 37 on MIT campus, and showing the location of 37-312 on the third floor of building 37. Note that there are two doors into room 37-312. Only one of them is an entrance door. The other is an exit door. To enter room 37-312, you need to first enter through the Athena cluster door, using the Athena cluster combo. Type tellme combo at your athena% command prompt to find out the combo if you don't know it. You then need to swipe your MIT ID card at the door to 37-312 to enter the room.
The room is used for scheduled classes during certain hours, at which times it is unavailable for individual work. Please check the room schedule before visiting.
What does the Building 37 Windows Cluster look like?The photo on the left shows the Building 37 Windows Cluster from the back of the room. The photo on the right shows a close-up of one of the workstations as well as the view from the instructor's podium. The pictures were taken in the Spring of 2002. A few things have changed since then:
Who can use the Building 37 Windows Cluster?The Cluster is now open to anyone with a valid MIT ID Card. Classes are currently being taught: Please refer to the Cluster Schedule. Permanent access to the room is currently held by the following people. Cluster Rules of UseRules of Use for the Building 37 Windows Cluster are essentially the same as those for Athena - for details, please refer to the Athena Rules of Use. In short, these rules are as follows:
How does WinAthena differ from standard Athena & standard Windows?WinAthena, while based upon standard Windows, has a good deal of capability borrowed from Athena and the AFS filesystem. The look and feel of WinAthena is virtually identical to standard Windows. There are, however, certain add-ons and utilities as detailed in the following table:
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![[Picture of cluster from rear of room]](images/cluster_photo_small.jpg)
![[Picture of workstation from front of room]](images/workstation_detail_small.jpg)
