System Management and Support

The basic infrastructure environment is hosted, maintained, and managed by the CIT. Specifically:

• Network infrastructure;
• System hardware;
• Virtualization services (VMWare ESX & Citrix);
• Server and Desktop OS;
• Middleware (e.g., Database management, IAM);
• Workspace management (EUM);
• User management;
• Data management;
• Application delivery services;
• Backup services.

The CIT provides the infrastructure for this system, consisting of hosting the virtual research environment on (virtual) hardware of the UG.

In addition, the CIT ensures:

• Technical system management, including incident and change management of the operating system and database, security and keeping the operating system of the system up to date, monitoring of the system, data storage and back-up of the data of the application systems;
• Linking to the data storage system and back-up system of the CIT and allocating the required storage space;
• The conclusion of a processing agreement between the University of Groningen and external parties, in the context of the General Data Protection Act (AVG);
• Communication and consultation with the customer of the system in the event of malfunctions and incidents.

Service Level A Regular (Monday – Friday 09:00 - 17:00).

Type of service Basic service.

The following support desks are available for incidents, disruptions, information and feature requests:

Research Support UG DCC: Users of the University of Groningen contact DCC of the University of Groningen with questions, incidents, and disruptions e-mail dcc@rug.nl or go https://www.rug.nl/digital-competence-centre/contact/.

Support general CIT Incidents and disruptions: CIT Service Desk, tel. 050-363 3232, e-mail citservicedesk@rug.nl.

By design and regardless of type and quantity basic or premium every individual study includes 100 GB of free storage space for the Group drive(s) G:\ & I:\. We use by default Windows 11 as desktop operating system.

The following configurations and additions are available:

• Basic: The standard configuration is a highly available virtual workspace with 1 GB home drive, 4 vCPUs, 8 GB memory (no vGPU) that is always guaranteed. Most suitable for regular research, where demands are made on performance and / or functionalities;
• Premium (Default): The standard configuration is a highly available virtual workspace with 1 GB home drive, 8 vCPUs, 2 GB vGPU and 16 GB memory that is always guaranteed. Most suitable for advanced research, where high demands are made on performance and / or functionalities;
• Customization. Based on a personal intake, a quote can be given for desired capacity and performance. Custom-made VRE compared to option 1 & 2 where the following building blocks or a multiple thereof can be used: 1 GB extra Memory and / or 1 GB vGPU Frame Buffer (extra vGPU only possible with premium VRE);
• Additions. Only to be added to an existing study, optionally supplemented with various hard-
• and software such as servers, Dockers, databases, etc., all fully tailored to the research.