Database Group Collaboration Resources

We currently have the following collaboration resources:

• Database Group Wiki
• Database Group Mailing List
• Computer User Group
• Shared Group File Space
• Shared Group Web Space
• Software Development Repositories

Database Group Wiki

The Wiki you are reading now is for use by all Database Group members to share and disseminate information. Anything relating to the Database Group is welcome to be added to this Wiki. For more information on how to use the Wiki see TWikiTutorial.

Database Group Mailing List

The Database Group has a group mailing list for keeping everyone in the group up to date with what is going on and for informal discussions. To use this list you must first subscribe to it. This can be done for you or you can subscribe to the list yourself via the Database Group Mailing List Information Page. Note that if someone else subscribed you to the list you can still change your subscription details by using the Unsubscribe or edit options option in the dbg-list Subscribers section of the information page. This will also let you retrieve your mailing list password.

Mailing list administrators can manage the mailing list options via the Database Group Mailing List Administration Page.

Computer User Group

For administrative purposes (namely access control to machines and files) the Database Group is associated with the user group dbg in the DICE authentication database (LDAP/Kerberos). This group can be used on DICE and Database Group machines to delegate group ownership to groups of files.

To see what groups you are a member of you should use the groups or roles command on any DICE machine. Similarly to see a list of all the members of a group use the getrolemembers command on a DICE machine, e.g. getrolemembers dbg will list all the members of the dbg group.

To get yourself added to the user group you should contact the DBG administration staff who will then submit a support request on your behalf requesting that you be added to the group.

Shared Group File Space

A shared group file storage area is available for use by members of the Database Group, i.e. all those that are in the UserGroup dbg on DICE. See the UserGroup section above for more information on how to tell if you have been registered as a member of this computer user group.

The file space itself is accessible via various mechanisms:

UNIX File System

The simplest method of accessing the shared file storage area is via the UNIX filesystem. It is accessible via the /group/project/dbg filesystem hierarchy on any DICE machine.

Windows SMB/CIFS Share

For Windows and Mac OS X clients possibly the most suitable access method is via the Windows SMB/CIFS protocol (samba). Not that this access method is only available from within the Informatics network for security reasons. The notation used to access via this protocol varies depending on the client.

• On OS X connect to server smb://smb.inf.ed.ac.uk/group then navigate to project/dbg.
• On a Windows client enter \\smb.inf.ed.ac.uk\group then navigate to project\dbg.

SFTP and SCP

This method is the best option for accessing the shared storage area from outside the University of Edinburgh computer networks. Most Linux and OS X clients will have command line tools for accessing files via SFTP and SCP as part of their SSH software stack. There are also a number of very good graphical SFTP and SCP tools such as Fugu and WinSCP. Those looking for an enhanced command line client should look at LFTP. The url used to access files should be: sftp://ssh.inf.ed.ac.uk/group/project/dbg/ although different clients have different methods of inputing this information.

Shared Group Web Space

Coming soon (support request is in, waiting for action). This will probably appear at http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/group/dbg and point to a sub-area of the FileSpace directory. It is not intended as an area for creation of web pages but rather for sharing of files over the web. Note that this can also be done by attaching files to Wiki pages.

Software Development Repositories

There are various software development repositories available to members of the Database Group. These are in the rough order in which you should consider using them for your own new development projects:

Informatics CVS and Subversion Hosting Service

This is a fully managed service provided by Informatics support. This service has the advantage of excellent backup provision and remote accessibility. It does not however have any web interface or project managment tools built in at present though. To request creation of a repository using this service or for any related questions you should contact support.

Database Group Project Management Service

This is an in-house service developed to provide both a Subversion repository service and a Trac project management interface. The long term aim is to merge this with the Informatics CVS and Subversion Hosting Service however it is a viable choice for those wanting bug tracking and website facilities closely integrated into their development environment. It also has the benefit of being integrated with the DICE authentication systems hence anyone with an Informatics account can potentially use the service with little administrative overhead. To request setup of a repository send a request to the dbg-list@infREMOVE_THIS.ed.ac.uk mailing list.

Legacy Database Group CVS

This is the legacy CVS service hosted on crunch.inf.ed.ac.uk. User account on this machine are ad-hoc and the operating system is dangerously out of date. The data is not automatically backed up either. Avoid if possible. For more information about this repository please send an email to the dbg-list@infREMOVE_THIS.ed.ac.uk mailing list.

-- CarwynEdwards - 07 Jun 2006