Requirement for users to get GI VPN access

If you need VPN access to the Genomics Institute firewalled/secure area (aka the "Prism" Environment), please make an appointment with the GI SysAdmin team by emailing cluster-admin@soe.ucsc.edu and Rochelle Fuller (hrfuller@ucsc.edu) requesting access. There are several requirements to gaining access to the firewalled area - please complete all these requirements BEFORE coming to have the VPN software set up for your laptop.

1: You are required to copy cluster-admin@soe.ucsc.edu on an email from your PI or supervisor requesting a VPN account for you - this email should include:

 Your name
 Your PI's name
 PI's approval for this access
 What other access do you need such as a UNIX server account or access to OpenStack. 

2: You must take the NIH Public Security Refresher Course online, then print out the Completion Certificate (which should have your name on it) at the end of the training and deliver it when you come to your appointment to install the VPN software:

https://irtsectraining.nih.gov/publicUser.aspx

Click on the "2018 Information Security, Counterintelligence, Privacy Awareness, Records Management Refresher" link to begin the course. At the end you will be able to print out the completion certificate that should have your name on it.

3: You need to print and sign the Genomics Institute VPN User Agreement and bring it with you to your VPN software installation appointment, located here for download:

Media:GI_VPN_Policy.pdf

4: Read and sign the last page of the NIH Genomic Data Sharing Policy agreement, located here for download:

PDF DOWNLOAD

5: You will need access to the "eduroam" wireless network prior to your appointment. Other UCSC wireless networks such as "cruznet" will not work with our VPN software, so please make sure your laptop works with eduroam before coming to your appointment. Instructions on how to get on eduroam are detailed here:

https://its.ucsc.edu/wireless/eduroam.html

When using the VPN software off-campus, it will usually work unless the wireless network you are on has restrictions preventing it from functioning. Some other universities have such restrictions (notably UCSF), but most other wireless network and home wireless networks should work fine.

6: Before your appointment, please make sure you install the appropriate OpenVPN software on your laptop:

A laptop running OS X, Windows or Ubuntu
 

For Macs, please download and install Tunnelblick from https://tunnelblick.net/downloads.html. Select the Latest Stable version.

For Windows, please download and install OpenVPN Client from https://openvpn.net/index.php/open-source/downloads.html. Select openvpn-install-x.x.x-xxxx.exe

For Ubuntu, please install network-manager-openvpn by typing:

 sudo apt-get install network-manager-openvpn network-manager-openvpn-gnome

Please do NOT worry about how to configure the software at this point. We will help you to set it up at your appointment.

We will correspond with you via email on when the appointment will be. The appointment can take up to 30 minutes per person depending on whether or not any issues come up during the software setup.