The Hub: Published By, For and About ITS

Following a brief mid-summer break, the Carolina Training and Orientation Program Sessions (CTOPS) are back in full swing. Throughout the summer, the University will host close to 4,000 first-year and transfer students at the two-day sessions, offering students a solid foundation on which to build their life at Carolina.

ITS’ contribution to CTOPS requires collaboration and a huge commitment of staff from all of the major ITS divisions. Each group works with other teams from across campus to prepare facilities, software, hardware, processes and applications to ensure a smooth introduction to technology for new students.

Behind the Scenes

When students receive their Carolina Computing Initiative (CCI) machine at CTOPS, they have little idea of all the behind the scenes activities that have to take place in the preceding months.

The ITS ImageUltra team works well in advance of CTOPS to develop the CCI software load and place the image on a server which is maintained by the Windows Infrastructure group. The server houses the latest image which is continually revised throughout the summer as updates become available.

ITS Networking sets up a temporary distribution room so the ITS Response Center (ITRC) staff can connect new CCI computers to the campus data network in order to install the image. While students are involved in non-CCI-related activities during day one of orientation, the ITRC staff uses the temporary network connection to image the CCI laptops and load the latest image onto the computers which will be distributed on day two.

To aid distribution of CCI machines, the RAM Shop worked with ITS Remedy Services and Development to develop a custom application to track distribution, populate student and machine identities in a database and automatically register each machine for the campus data network.

On-site Functionality

Three hundred students attend each CTOPS session and all are required to register for classes and configure their new computers on-site. To ease that process, the ITS Identity Management team provides a special Onyen page that allows students to quickly reset their passwords while Windows user accounts using a new student’s Onyen username and password are created using a script developed by the ITS Enterprise Storage Management group.

Staff members from the ITS Computer Labs and ITRC work with the University Registrar, Carolina Orientation and Academic Advising offices to provide lab space to students so they can register for classes using Student Central.

So at CTOPS, when students hold the CCI machines in their hands for the first time, it truly took an ITS team effort to put them there.