Radboudumc DRE newsletter - March 23, 2023

Radboudumc DRE newsletter - March 23, 2023

Dear Radboudumc DRE user,


We have several big announcements for you concerning the DRE, most of which were also presented last Tuesday during the DRE super user meeting. The topics in this newsletter are:

Kind regards,

Andrea Frielink-Loing

Data steward and support for Digital Research Environment (DRE)

---

New DRE portal look-and-feel

MyDRE will undergo a big transformation over the weekend (24-26 March). This transformation will mostly entail a new design (colours, icons and layout), but there are also a few small feature additions (new role assignments, improved VM creation menu, dark mode). See below for a little sneak peek.

We are expecting approximately 8 hours of downtime during the update. In that time, you will not be able to log into the portal and interact with your workspaces. Please note that background Azure functionalities will not be affected (such as already-running VMs). Our apologies in advance for the inconvenience.

After the update, you can still log into the myDRE portal at mydre.org. You'll notice that the landing page and portal itself will look different, but no worries: your current workspaces will all still be there.

You might find that some buttons and functionalities are in different places. anDREa is doing their best to update all documentation in time. If you're still left with questions, feel free to ask them via a ticket on myDRE support. Read the official announcement by anDREa here: New end-user portal deployment March 24th, 2023 (mydre.org).

 

New virtual machine templates

Within the next few weeks, three new virtual machine templates will become available, replacing the current Windows-RUMC-1.0.3 template. The contents of these templates has been based on the input received from users through the survey sent out in May 2022.

The new templates are:

  1. Windows-RUMC-PythonR-1.0.0

With Anaconda/Jupyter & R/Rstudio

  1. Windows-RUMC-Matlab-1.0.0

With Matlab + SPM

  1. Windows-RUMC-Atlas-1.0.0

With Atlas.ti

All templates will also contain the following software:

  • Notepad++
  • LibreOffice
  • 7Zip
  • SPSS
  • Azure Storage Explorer
  • Chrome & Edge
  • .NET Framework 4.8
  • New Software installer

New software installer

We are also launching a new software installer, based on a program called Chocolatey. This new software installer will be part of the new templates, but we will also make it possible to set up Chocolatey on existing machines. Instructions for this will follow in the Radboudumc section on the myDRE support website. The software that is available through this installer has also been based on the May 2022 survey, and can be expanded with other software upon request. Here is a sneak peek:

 

Connecting to your virtual machines via Bastion

In the past, connecting to a virtual machine within Radboudumc workspaces was only possible using Remote Desktop Protocol (rdp). From now on, it is also possible to connect to a virtual machine using Bastion. This solves two problems:

  1. Linux users no longer need a Windows virtual machine to connect to their Linux virtual machine.
  2. External users whose organization blocks rdp can now use Bastion to make use of the DRE.

Instructions on how to connect to your virtual machine through Bastion can be found here: Azure Bastion to connect to your VM (mydre.org)

Domain-based internet access

Last November a change was made to the proxy settings of all virtual machines to enable a new feature called domain allowlisting. Unfortunately, the change resulted in some internet-based services to no longer be available, including IP-based internet access and access to blob storage. At the time, we did not promote the new feature to our users, as it was not yet very user-friendly, and so we advised users to manually revert the proxy settings change. With the launch of the new portal, we expect that the further development of the feature will continue very soon. We are already hearing positive feedback from other UMCs that have started using the feature, and so would like to invite you to try it out as well. For more information on domain allowlisting, have a look at External access in your workspace (mydre.org). To request access for your workspace, go to Request access to web service(s), or find the tile below in the myDRE ticket system (log in to support website required).


SPSS 25 license

The license for SPSS has been moved to a new license server, and we have made sure that all workspaces now point to this new server to validate their SPSS license. However, the license for the older 25 version has not been moved to the new server, which means that if you are currently running IBM SPSS 25 on your virtual machine it will tell you that there is no valid license. As a quick solution you can manually set the old license server in SPSS (only possible for owners). This server will remain available for (at least) the next few weeks. We will also make sure that the new templates and software installer include SPSS 29.

For more information on how to change the license server, please have a look at SPSS 25 - license expired (Radboudumc ONLY) (mydre.org).

DRE support

Did you know we organize monthly information sessions about the DRE, both for Beginners and for Advanced users? Have a look at Digital Research Enviroment (DRE) on the Online Learning Environment (login with Radboudumc credentials) and sign up!

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