Solution Center

For nearly any problem with your computer, you should try the following steps first:

• Reboot your computer or device.
• If your computer hardware, such as a mouse, keyboard, webcam, or monitor, is not working ensure that all cables are securely connected, including USB, power, and display cables.  If possible, try a different port or plug.
• If you are having a home network issue, reboot your router and modem.
• Make a note of any error messages, unexpected behavior, and troubleshooting steps you’ve tried.  If you need to contact the Help Desk for further assistance, including this information will expedite our ability to solve your problem.

If you are unable to log in to your SSCC account, you should first try to reset your password.

If you do not have an SSCC account, you can request one here.

For all other account related issues, see our Accounts page.

Almost all of SSCC’s resources can be used from anywhere, making remote work practical and easy.  You can connect remotely to your office PC or access resources like network drives and software from personal machines.  Additionally, the SSCC is able to provide full remote support for our members.

For more information on getting access to SSCC resources from home, please see Working from Home and Other Remote Locations.

You can install common research and productivity software from our Software Center.  You are also able to install any software from the Windows Store.  For security purposes, users do not have administrative privileges on SSCC-managed computers, but if you need software that is not available in either of those locations contact the Help Desk for assistance installing it.

SSCC Staff will perform many software updates automatically, but if you need the latest version of a program you can also update your software from the Software Center.

Winstat is the SSCC’s Windows Remote Desktop Server cluster. Winstat allows many people to share a pool of powerful servers, but each user gets a session that looks and acts just like Windows on any other computer. While using Winstat you’ll have access to SSCC software, network drives and printers. You can connect to Winstat from anywhere and use it to transfer files between your computer and the SSCC network.

Most users connect to Winstat using Citrix Workspace.  To install Workspace and learn more about Winstat, please see Using Winstat.

If you have trouble connecting to Winstat with Citrix Workspace or need to connect to Winstat from a computer where you cannot install software (such as a campus computer lab), you can connect to Winstat via a web browser by going to winstat.ssc.wisc.edu.

Silo is the SSCC’s secure computing enclave. It consists of secure Windows and Linux servers and data storage for working with data covered by HIPAA and other sensitive data.  There is a separate application process from your SSCC account to access Silo.  Depending on the nature of your data you may still need to get explicit approval from your IRB, the UW-Madison Office of Cybersecurity, or other relevant authorities before you can store data in Silo, but using Silo will expedite that process because it has already been approved for other projects.

If you would like to access Silo, please contact the Help Desk to begin the application process.

To access Silo, make sure you have Citrix Workspace installed and then go to silo.ssc.wisc.edu.  The first time you access Silo, you will be prompted set up multifactor authentication using Duo.  For more information on accessing Silo, please see Using Silo.

Slurm is a powerful system for scheduling and managing computing jobs. The SSCC has Slurm clusters in both our regular environment (Slurm) and in Silo (SlurmSilo). You can submit jobs to Slurm from Linstat and to SiloSlurm from LinSilo. When you submit your job you’ll tell Slurm how many cores and how much memory it needs, and you’ll get exclusive use of those resources while your job is running.

To submit a job to Slurm or SlurmSilo, first log into Linstat or LinSilo and then use the ssubmit command.

Slurm Assistant is a web form that will ask you questions about your job and craft an appropriate ssubmit command for you. You can then copy the command and paste it into your Linstat session. We highly recommend it if you’re new to Slurm, want to use options you haven’t used before, or are putting together a complicated submission. Note that Slurm Assistant was designed for Slurm, and the command it gives you may need some tweaking before it will work in SlurmSilo.

For more information on connecting to and using Slurm, please see our Guide to Research Computing.

VPN (Virtual Private Networking) allows a computer to connect to the SSCC network as if it were in the building regardless of its physical location. This gives you access to SSCC network drives and printers from anywhere in the world you have an internet connection.  It also encrypts all of your network traffic, protecting your privacy on public wireless networks.

Connect to the SSCC VPN using GlobalProtect

If you are a Mac user and GlobalProtect appears to hang while connecting, go to Apple -> System Preferences -> Security and Privacy and check the General tab for a message to grant permissions to the software to run.

The SSCC provides network printers accessible to all SSCC members in 4218, 3218 and 2470 Sewell Social Sciences Building.  Many departments and groups also have SSCC managed network printers available to their affiliates.  You can access these printers from both office and personal computers.

Connect to printers from Windows
Connect to printers from MacOS

The SSCC provides networked disk space to all members on both our Windows and Linux file systems.  Mapping this disk space allows you to use it as if it was a hard drive connected to your computer.  If you are logging into the PRIMO domain, most of the shares you might want to use are mapped automatically, but if you are using a personal computer or working remotely you may need to map the network drives manually.

Map a drive to a network share