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General Support Procedures
Often, when a department acquires a piece of scientific instrumentation it comes from the vendor with a connected or supporting computer. ITC’s ability to provide primary support for these instrument-specific computers is limited for several reasons:
- The computer is not a Dartmouth-provisioned computer; it will have been pre-configured with settings and software designed to work with the instrument.
- The operating system will have been licensed through the vendor.
- Often, the vendor will have created a backup image for the computer to restore it to a known-good configuration if problems arise.
Instead, the computer must receive primary support from the vendor, and the point of contact for the vendor should be the lab PI or department's lab support contact if there is one.
- If necessary, ITC can offer to work with the lab's PI and the vendor to help perform diagnostics or, with approval from the lab's PI, can help with guided support from the vendor via a remote session.
- ITC would not make any configuration changes or install any software without conferring with or working with the lab PI and the vendor to ensure they do not interfere with the instrument’s operation.
- Outside of security software (Crowdstrike), network connection requirements, and KMS Microsoft Office, the best practice for vendor-provided instrument computers is to be as hands-off as possible.
Network Access
If the computer or instrument requires internet or other network access, ITC can help identify feasible options. The different types of available network connectivity have specific requirements:
- Full Internet Access
- Must be able to receive regular operating system updates
- Must have Dartmouth’s licensed version of Crowdstrike installed to provide antivirus and malware protection
- Do not add the computer to the Kiewit domain or device management
- Remote Desktop Connection or Management
- Full internet access requirements, above, and
- a static private IP address in the 10.x.x.x IP range (this will necessitate a VPN connection to connect to the host from off-campus)
- Network VLAN allowing only operating system updates and access to storage (e.g.: DartFS)
- If operating system updates are deemed safe for the instrument configuration and vendor software
- Off-network or storage access-only VLAN
- If operating system updates cannot be supported by the instrumentation and Crowdstrike cannot be installed, the computer must be either off-network or on a network VLAN that only allows access to storage (e.g.: DartFS)