Adobe has forced ETH to move from impersonal serial numbers to Adobe Cloud accounts, linked to your full name and personal @ethz.ch email address. All previous installations will stop working after November 30th 2019. ETH encourages users to switch to one of the many alternatives to Adobe software. You may also consider using the free Adobe Reader to open PDFs, as many don't need the features of the paid Acrobat Pro. If you really need to keep using Adobe software, you have to migrate to the new personalized license. The detailed usage conditions and disclaimer regarding the Adobe Cloud will be visible when ordering the software in the IT Shop.

Unfortunately the central IT services only provided the new installers two days ago, meaning that everyone is forced to have migrated within 5 weeks. We tested the Windows and macOS installers and explain the activation and installation of Adobe programs in our readme.

Impact on managed workstations

The change in the Adobe licensing also affects our ISG D-PHYS managed computers. Given that all Adobe licenses must now be personal, we can no longer order the licenses for you. This, in turn, implies that we must exclude all Adobe software from our yearly software license accounting. Starting with the current 2019/2020 period, we will not charge you for Adobe products, as you will have to pay them directly yourself while ordering from the IT Shop.

All managed Windows and macOS computers will be migrated to the new Adobe Creative Cloud on

Wednesday, November 20th

In case you need to keep using Adobe software, we advise you to already order the license from the IT Shop. Starting on November 20th, you will need to log in with your personal Adobe account and install the programs, as explained in our readme. Feel free to get in touch with us, if you want us to migrate your computer before that date.

ISG sits on a pile of old hardware that for various reasons cannot be used in our setup any more. Various people have expressed interest in and that still might be useful for certain scenarios (e.g. lab use or tinkering at home). We will therefore host a grab-your-used-piece-of-hardware session with mostly TFT monitors (15" - 19"), a few Mac Pros (2010) and printers, free of charge for ETH-internal use, prices for private use according to the rules: Wed Oct 18 in HPT H floor, between 11:00 - 13:00.
As usual, some rules apply:

• this goes to all D-PHYS members
• no registration necessary. Just come by and take whatever is left.
• all items come as they are. We do not have any details or specifications
• there’s no warranty or service whatsoever. All devices have successfully been turned on, but that’s it
• if your item doesn’t turn on, you can bring it back within 5 days and get a full refund (if it wasn’t free in the first place)
• no OS, no software, no manual, no keyboard, often no cables. You get one piece of hardware. All HDs are blank
• all proceeds go to the D-PHYS funds, not ISG
• bring cash

Microsoft will provide a final bunch of patches for Windows Server 2003 on July 14th. 2015. After then, no more security and stability fixes are going to be released. This means that still running Windows Server 2003 machines conflict with the ETH Bot (Acceptable Use Policy for Telematics) which requires that every computer connected to the ETH network must be fully updated and secured.

The central IT security group of ETHZ continuously inspects the network streams for signatures of XP and Windows Server 2003 computers. If you have a running Windows Server 2003 machine connected to the public network, please migrate the operating system to a newer version i.e Windows Server 2012.

If you have any questions or need help please do not hesitate to contact the ISG D-PHYS Helpdesk

Microsoft provided a final bunch of patches for Windows XP in April 2014. Since then no more security and stability fixes are going to be released. This means that still running Windows XP machines conflict with the ETH Bot (Acceptable Use Policy for Telematics) which requires that every computer connected to the ETH network must be fully updated and secured.

The central IT security group of ETHZ continuously inspects the network streams for signatures of XP computers. In the D-PHYS public networks they still detect around 15 Windows XP based computers. If you have a running XP machine connected to the public network, please migrate the operating system to a newer version i.e Windows 7.

In case you are forced to keep Windows XP up and running, you can migrate the machine to our eXile network. Simply send the required information to isg@phys.ethz.ch after you've read and understood the eXile Terms-of-Use, so we can prepare the machine for the eXile network.

If you have any questions or need help please do not hesitate to contact the ISG D-PHYS Helpdesk

Yesterday (August 21), between about 13:42 and 21:25, the virus filter on our mail server flagged some legitimate mails as containing a virus. The reason was a bad signature in the virus database that came in via the automatic updates. This signature was automatically removed by a subsequent update.

Like all viruses these false positives were quarantined. Once we understood the problem we could reinject them back into the regular processing of mails. If you were affected by this, you should receive the mails shortly.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Last night the regular daily software update on the managed Ubuntu workstations removed the network-manager package. This left most of the workstations unusable. We are working to restore the network connectivity.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Apart from the file-, mail- and web servers exists another crucial element of our core server infrastructure, namely the servers managing the account information and logins (LDAP). With a current uptime of a remarkable 550 days, it is time for an upgrade of the operating system and high-availability cluster software. For this reason we schedule a downtime on Wednesday 18th July between 07:00 and 08:00.

Most services will be affected and unavailable during that time, as they require an authentication with your D-Phys account (email, file server, print server, managed workstations). Note that, even though you will not be able to check your emails or send new ones, all incoming mails will be received and safely delivered to your inbox afterwards.

If everything goes smoothly, the actual downtime should be considerably less than the scheduled hour.

It is my pleasure to welcome Thomas Berchtold into our team. He joins us from isginf and will strengthen our Windows support. His employment marks the beginning of our collaboration with IGP of D-BAUG.

Welcome Thomas!

After 3 years in our current offices in HPT D floor we will move to our new (and hopefully final) location in HPT H. Tuesday to Thursday this week our services will be somewhat limited, but the helpdesk will be staffed at all times.

We're looking forward to welcoming you in our new quarters!

Following recent incidents we would like to remind you as well as stress that our terminal servers plimpy.ethz.ch and plompy.ethz.ch must not be used for long running or resource demanding computation jobs. Please use our computation node plumpy.ethz.ch instead.
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