Apptainer is a container platform, and is a popular alternative to Docker on HPC clusters. It allows you to run containers that package up pieces of software in a way that is portable and reproducible. You can build a container using Apptainer on your laptop, self-managed desktop or a virtual machine and then run it on a DICE desktop or server or even move it to the cloud or a HPC cluster.
Now on the Informatics Computing Hub (University users only).
Are you having problems logging in? Here are some tips.
When you login to a DICE Linux computer, use your DICE username.
That username is the same as your University Username ("UUN" for short). For students it's the letter "s" followed by your matriculation number.
For example, if your username is s2345678 then type this to login: s2345678
Do not type: UUN
Do not type: [s2345678]
A firewall is like a doorman who keeps unwanted people out of a building.
Imagine that you are at home, using your laptop, and you want to use a computing service that's at the University. When your laptop tries to contact the University computer, its network traffic has to cross the internet, then go through the University's firewall computers.
The job of these firewall computers is to allow through only legitimate, harmless-looking traffic. Unwanted network traffic is not passed through, so it never arrives at the University computers.
This page contains more information on how the Gas Suppression System ("GSS") operates in B.Z14.
This page contains more information on how the Gas Suppression System ("GSS") operates in B.02.
The B.02 and B.Z14 server rooms are fitted with a gas suppression system ("GSS"), which may be operated automatically by the smoke detectors covering the rooms.
The School's DICE computers use Linux.
We've put together a couple of short tutorials for you:
If you would rather learn from a video, there are Linux courses on LinkedIn Learning:
We’re not planning to refresh Virtual DICE for 2026/27 because of resource constraints.
The 2024/25 version is still available, but its software will be more than a year out of date compared to proper DICE.
If this is a significant problem for you, please let us know.
Virtual DICE is distributed in an image file, which you download.
We’re not planning to refresh Virtual DICE for 2026/27 because of resource constraints.
The 2024/25 version is still available, but its software will be more than a year out of date compared to proper DICE.
If this is a significant problem for you, please let us know.
To run Virtual DICE, your computer will need to have the right resources.