Service catalogue

Our Service Catalogue is a list of services provided by IT Services to members of the University of Sussex and certain categories of visitors.

Each service within the catalogue typically includes a brief description of the service and how to access it, who is entitled to use/request the service, details of availability and service maintenance, and links to further information. This is intended to help improve knowledge within the University of the range of services we currently provide and to help users get more out of them. The range of services offered is reviewed annually with the University IT Consultative Group.

Information and Support
Applications and Tools
Student Workstations
Teaching and Learning
Staff Services
Business Services
Research
Network and Storage

Workstations for Open Access and Teaching

Service ID

32

Summary

Provides and supports computing workstations in open-access rooms, and in other open areas and social spaces, including IT Services and the Library, for pre-booked classes or walk-up use.

Includes support for some agreed departmental labs with specialist workstations, where a special arrangement has been negotiated.

Permitted users

  1. Members of the University of Sussex.
  2. Eligible attendees at conferences and similar events being held at the University, where the use of computers comprises part of the event.

Gaining access

  1. Access to the service requires an IT Services username and password. This is issued as part of the enrolment/employment process.
  2. Eligible attendees at conferences and similar events without full student enrolment may be issued with access details by conference organisers to enable them to make use of the facilities.

Hours of operation

Dependent upon building opening hours. Please see: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/its/services/clusterrooms/clustercomputers. For Library opening hours, please see: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/library/info/hours.

Supported period

Normal working days.

Scheduled maintenance

At least one working day’s notice will be given where work affects a single geographic location of the service. 

Change control

Proprietary software patches released to this service are tested prior to deployment.

Software application changes (upgrades, additions or removals) follow a procedure described here:

Software@Sussex FAQs.  Changes will be advertised in the normal ways.

ITS Responsibilities

Regular inspection, maintenance, cleaning, upgrade and repair of workstations. 

Service user responsibilities

  1. To save all work to the Documents folder.
  2. To log-out of a workstation before vacating it.
  3. Not to tamper with the equipment.
  4. Report to IT Services any equipment faults.

Service dependencies

Data Network (#1); Managed Filestore (#2); Windows Service (#4); Mac Service (#6).

 

Detailed service description

General open-access workstations are networked Windows and Mac machines, funded by IT Services, under four years old.  Open-access computing rooms are available for use if not pre-booked for teaching, for availability see: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/its/services/clusterrooms/clustercomputers and http://www.sussex.ac.uk/roombooking/view_timetable.php

The software available on workstations is described here:

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/its/services/programsandsoftware/software .


The location and number of machines are described here:

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/its/services/clusterrooms/clustercomputers.

This service includes support for some agreed departmental labs with specialist workstations, where a special arrangement has been negotiated, e.g. Department of Media, Film and Music, Psychology.

Workstations in labs run by the Department of Informatics, the Sussex Centre for Language Studies and the Genome Damage and Stability Centre are excluded from this service.

Links to ITS documentation

Definitions

Normal working days
These are defined for all ITS services as Monday – Friday inclusive, but excluding Bank Holidays and University Minimum Service Days.
Scheduled Maintenance
IT username and password
These are the login credentials, issued by IT Services to registered students and current staff of the University of Sussex, enabling access to email, workstations and other services requiring authentication.

New and changed services

Information about changes to services including any scheduled maintenance, are posted on the IT Services website and distributed by the IT Services Facebook, Twitter and RSS feed. Current service status traffic light information is also displayed on the IT Services website.

If the service you are enquiring about is not described below, please get in touch.

User responsibilities

All service users are expected to abide by the rules and regulations described in Regulations for the use of Information and Communication Technology and to report faults, as they arise, to IT Services.

Updated on 17 October 2013