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Cornell Restricted Access Data Center

CRADC News and Announcements

May 5, 2008

Dear CRADC Researchers,

Due to CIT's planned network outage for all systems at Rhodes Hall, the CRADC computing system will be inaccessible on Sunday, May 18th, 2008 from 7 AM until 10 AM (EDT, USA).

Please plan your work accordingly.

4/17/2008 4:00PM(EDT,USA)

Dear CRADC Researchers,

Thank you all for your patience. We are pleased to announce the installation of one new compute node named CRADC201 for your research.

Due to hardware concerns, we have taken some of the old CRADC nodes out of the service. The old nodes still available for service include CRADC02, SIMULATOR and MADISON.

The details of the nodes are as follows:

cradc201.cradc.cornell.edu    (new node)

  • OS: x64 bit Windows
  • CPU: Four-Quad core (=16 CPUs)
  • Memory: 128 Gigabytes

madison.cradc.cornell.edu

  • OS: 64 bit Windows
  • CPU: 4
  • Memory: 16 Gigabytes

simulator.cradc.cornell.edu

  • OS: 32 bit Windows
  • CPU: 8
  • Memory: 4 Gigabytes

cradc02.cradc.cornell.edu

  • OS: 32 bit Windows
  • CPU: 2
  • Memory: 4 Gigabytes

Please note that to access the SAS on a CRADC node, the researchers have to edit the properties of their SAS shortcut to point to their own copy of SAS.CFG file which was modified to create SAS -WORK under the researcher's authorized folder. Detailed instructions for the steps involved in this process are available inside CRADC nodes at http://info.cradc.cornell.edu/CRADC/computing/online_Help.shtml ( this link is accessible only inside the CRADC domain).

Let us know if something is not clear and we will be happy to help.

e-mail cradc_custodian-mailbox@cornell.edu

April 3, 2008

CRADC Computing System Downtime Thursday, April 17th from 6AM until 6PM

Dear CRADC Researchers,

Please note that the CRADC computing system will be down for maintenance on Thursday, April 17th from approximately 6:00AM until 6:00PM(EDT, USA). We thank you for scheduling your work to avoid this time period.

2/28/2008 4:00PM(EST, USA)

All CRADC compute nodes cradc01, cradc02, cradc04, simulator and madison are now back online.

2/28/2008 2:35PM(EST,USA)

The CRADC computing nodes cradc04, simulator and madison are now back online. We are still conducting maintenance on cradc01 & cradc02, and will let you know as soon as they are available. Thank you for your patience.

February 14, 2008

CRADC Computing System Downtime Thursday, February 28th from 8AM until Noon

Dear CRADC Researchers,

Please note that the CRADC computing system will be down for routine maintenance on Thursday, February 28th from approximately 8:00AM until 12:00PM(EST, USA). We thank you for scheduling your work to avoid this time period.

December 6, 2007

CRADC Computing System Downtime Thursday, December 20th from 8AM until Noon

Dear CRADC Researchers,

Please note that the CRADC computing system will be down for routine maintenance on Thursday, December 20th from approximately 8:00AM until 12:00PM(EST, USA). We thank you for scheduling your work to avoid this time period.

Sept 20, 2007

Dear CRADC Users,

The CRADC computing system is now back online.

During the downtime, we have added SPlus & R, and upgraded Stata to Version 10. In addition, there were a number of important updates to SPSS and Gauss.

September 10, 2007

CRADC Computing System Downtime Thursday, September 20th from 8AM until Noon

Dear CRADC Users,

Please note that the CRADC computing system will be down for routine maintenance and upgrade on Thursday, September 20th from 8:00AM until 12:00PM(EDT, USA). One of the planned upgrades is to install Stata 10 on all nodes. We thank you for scheduling your work to avoid this time period.

July 24, 2007

CRADC Computing System Downtime August 5th

Dear CRADC Users,

Due to CIT's planned network outage for all systems at Rhodes Hall, the CRADC computing system will be inaccessible on Sunday, August 5, 2007: 5 AM - 2 PM (EDT, USA).

We thank you for scheduling your work to avoid this time period.

June 27, 2007

CRADC Computing System Back Online - User folders under new S:\ and all Restricted Data under R:\

Dear All,

We are pleased to inform you that the CRADC computing system upgrade has been completed and the system is now back online. During the downtime we updated the software, added a fileserver and restructured the file system. Under the new file structure, all restricted-use data are housed under drive R:\ and all user folders are now housed under a new drive S:\. The Structure of the subfolder layout under R:\ and S:\ are unchanged

Please note that as a result of this file restructuring, you may have to modify your programs to point to the appropriate drive. The SAS users will need to modify the location of the -WORK folder in their SASV9.cfg file and will also need to edit their SAS shortcut to point to the new drive S:\.

Let us know if you experience any problems accessing your files and we will be happy to help. We thank you immensely for your patience during this extended downtime.

June 21, 2007

Update: CRADC computing system downtime extended until morning of June 27th

Dear All,

Due to unexpected hardware issues, we estimate that the CRADC computing system will stay down at least until the morning of Wednesday, June 27. We are very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. Thank you for your cooperation.

June 5 , 2007

Rescheduled- CRADC Computing System Downtime now on June 18 - 24

Dear All,

Due to a delay in the arrival of our new file server, the CRADC computing system downtime is being moved to Monday, June 18 - Sunday, June 24. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. Thank you for your cooperation.

May 24 , 2007

CRADC System Downtime Alert

Dear CRADC System Users,

This message is to alert you that there will be an extended downtime of the CRADC nodes in mid-June, most likely beginning Monday, June 11 until Sunday, June 17. 

During this downtime we will be adding a new file server to the CRADC system and we will be implementing a new file structure on the system. The new file server and the restructured file system will provide us with the resources needed to meet the growing demand for our restricted-use data services, and they will allow the implementation of a new disk space policy for the coming academic year. We will keep you updated on this system upgrade as we have more details. We will do our best to make sure that this file restructuring does not cause unnecessary inconvenience for our researchers. We thank you for your cooperation.

February 13 , 2007

CRADC Downtime Notice

Dear CRADC Users,

Please note that the CRADC computing system will be down Wednesday, February 21st from approximately 6:00AM until 11:00AM(EDT, USA) for maintenance.

We thank you for scheduling your work to avoid this time period.

December 01, 2006

CRADC Downtime Notice

Dear CRADC Users,

Please note that the CRADC computing system will be down Thursday, December 14th from approximately 8:00AM until 12:00PM (EDT, USA) for maintenance.

We thank you for scheduling your work to avoid this time period.

October 03 , 2006

CRADC Downtime Notice

Dear CRADC Users,

Please note that the CRADC computing system will be down Thursday, October 12th from approximately 6:00AM until 10:00AM (EDT, USA) for maintenance.

We thank you for scheduling your work to avoid this time period.

August 4, 2006

CRADC Downtime Notice

Dear CRADC Users,

The CRADC computing system will be down for maintenance from 7:00 AM on Wednesday, August 16th until approximately 5:00 PM on Friday, August 18th (EDT, USA). If you have any files saved on local disks T:\ and C:\ (including the desktop) on any of the CRADC compute nodes (CRADC01-CRADC05 or Simulator), please move them to your appropriate work folder on R:\ (or L:\). Send your questions and concerns to CRADC_custodian@cornell.edu. We thank you for your cooperation.

March 20, 2006

CRADC System Testing Alert

Dear CRADC Users,

Please note that on Monday, March 27th 7:00AM-10:00AM(EDT, USA) we will be conducting some tests on the CRADC computing system. This will not affect any of your jobs running on the servers, but you may experience inaccessibility to the network at times.

We thank you for your cooperation.

December 22, 2005

CRADC Downtime Notice

Dear CRADC Users,

Please note that the CRADC computing system will be down Thursday January 12, 2006 from approximately 8:00AM until 1:00PM (EDT, USA) for system maintenance.

We thank you for scheduling your work to avoid this time period.

November 7, 2005

CRADC Downtime Notice

Dear CRADC Users,

Please note that the CRADC computing system will be down Thursday November 10, 2005 from approximately 8:00AM until 1:00PM (EDT, USA) for system maintenance.

We thank you for scheduling your work to avoid this time period.

September 21, 2005

CRADC Downtime Notice

Dear CRADC Users,

Please note that the CRADC computing system will be down from 12:00PM on Saturday, Sept 24th through 10:00 AM , Sunday, Sept 25th (EDT, USA).

This downtime is required due to a Cornell power shutdown to enable an upgrade of emergency systems.

We apologize for this short notice and thank you for scheduling your work to avoid this time period.

August 15, 2005

CRADC Downtime Notice

Dear CRADC Users,

Due to Cornell network maintenance, the CRADC computing system will be down this Wednesday, August 17, 2005 for two hours from 5:00AM until 7:00AM (EDT, USA).

During this downtime we will update the Microsoft Security patches on all CRADC nodes and will reboot the nodes.

We apologize for this short notice and thank you for scheduling your work to avoid this time period.

May 3, 2005

CRADC Downtime Notice

The CRADC computing system will be down for system upgrade from 7:00 AM on Monday, May 16th until approximately 5:00 PM on Thursday, May 19th (EDT, USA). If you have any files saved on local disks T:\ and C:\ (including Desktop files and folders you may have created) on any of the CRADC compute nodes (CRADC01-CRADC05 or Simulator), please move them to your appropriate work folder on R:\ (or L:\). Send your questions and concerns to cradc_custodian@cornell.edu. We thank you for your cooperation.

April 27, 2005

CRADC Downtime Scheduling Alert

We are planning to schedule a 3-4 days of downtime to upgrade the CRADC computing systems sometime between now and June 1, 2005. Please let us know as soon as possible about any scheduling concerns you'd like us to consider.

April 6, 2005

Important: CRADC logon via Internet Explorer - New URL for TSWEB client

All those who use Windows Internet explorer to logon to the CRADC compute nodes, please note the following updates effective Wednesday April 6, 2005 8:00AM (EDT, USA):

  • bookmark the new URL for the TS web client http://nodes.cradc.cornell.edu/tsweb/ the old location for the tsweb client will no longer be accessible; please logoff all your current tsweb active/disconnected sessions and login via the updated URL.
  • the first time you use this web client you may get a pop-up window asking you if you wish to download and install "Active-X". Please say "yes" as this is required and only takes a few seconds. (Contact your network administrator if you are unable to install Active-X on your PC.)
  • for additional details, visit the updated CRADC "getting started document" at http://ciser.cornell.edu/CRADC/Computing_System.shtml.

February 3, 2005

Downtime Scheduled

Please note that the CRADC computing system will be down Thursday February 17, 2005 from approximately 8:00AM until 4:00PM(EDT, USA) for the system maintenance. We thank you for scheduling your work to avoid this time period.

November 9, 2004

Join us for a discussion about the new
New York Census Research Data Center (NYCRDC) at
Cornell University

Friday, November 19, 2004
1:00 - 3:00pm
109 Ives Hall

Featured Speakers


Nicholas Greenia
Senior Disclosure Analyst, Director's Office, IRS Statistics of Income Division

“IRS Data -- Access and Use by Census, Including Researchers”

Statistics of Income Division (SOI) within IRS Research, Analysis, and Statistics (RAS) is charged with coordinating access to confidential federal tax information (FTI) from IRS to authorized recipients for statistical purposes under section 6103j of the Internal Revenue Code, especially the need and use aspects. Since September 2000, this responsibility has included the co-development and implementation of the Census-IRS agreement, Criteria for the Review and Approval of Census Projects that Use Federal Tax Information, regarding new proposed uses of FTI by Census, especially by external researchers at its Research Data Centers (RDC's). It is critical to the mission of both RAS and SOI, as well as the IRS, that FTI be used only for authorized purposes, in keeping with established safeguarding standards and procedures.

The presentation will summarize some of the pertinent background and history of the current inter-agency arrangement based upon the Criteria Agreement, including constraints on FTI usage, and also an IRS perspective on the current research proposal review process. In addition, it will stress the responsibilities of RDC researchers in both their written proposals for and subsequent access to FTI, especially regarding the preferred model for this process.

John Abowd
Edmund Ezra Day Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University
Director, Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research (CISER)
Distinguished Senior Research Fellow, US Census Bureau

"Academic Research Using Confidential Census Data The Role of the Title 13 Benefit"

The Census Bureau developed the Research Data Center network to permit active use of confidential Census microdata by academic researchers. This use is predicated on the development of a suitable research project that clearly benefits both the scientific community and the Census Bureau. The presentation will focus on practical aspects of developing and implementing the Title 13 benefit from research conducted at Census RDCs.
    

Nicholas Greenia’s paper (attached with this e-mail and) available upon request to
Pinky Chandra, Cornell Census RDC administrator (pc17@cornell.edu)

Sponsored by the Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research (CISER)

Greenia Paper - Developing Adoptable Disclosure Protection Techniques3.pdf

August 11, 2004

Downtime Scheduled

Please note that the CRADC computing system will be down Tuesday August 17, 2004 from approximately 7:00AM until 5:00PM(EDT, USA) for the system maintenance. We thank you for scheduling your work to avoid this time period.

March 22, 2004

Census Research Data Center at CISER

Beginning in the Summer of 2004, CISER will operate a full Census Research Data Center as part of the New York Census, Research Data Consortium, which includes 14 universities and research institutions in New York State and surrounding New York City. The NYCRDC will administer two Census Restricted Data Center locations, one at Baruch College and one at Cornell as part of CISER.

Census RDCs provide researchers with access to confidential microdata collected by the Census Bureau with all safeguards appropriate to protecting data confidentiality. At Cornell, this will operate in a physically secure room at 391 Pine Tree Road, with a dedicated encrypted T-1 connection to the Census computing facility in Bowie, Maryland. A general description of the RDC program, as well as a list of RDC datasets available to researchers, are at the Center for Economic Studies site.

The site also describes the proposal requirements and process for submission. The approval process can take six months or more, which includes an extensive review procedure. For more information, contact Pinky Chandra RDC administrator.

December 4, 2003

Recent improvements on CRADC

The next time you log onto the Cornell Restricted Access Data Center (CRADC), check out the new info.cradc.cornell.edu help system. CISER staff (Pinky and Irene) have now imported much of CISER's statistical analysis software help system to CRADC. You'll find extensive help for SAS, Stata, Gauss and many other programs. You'll also find all the CRADC help pages nicely re-organized. They will continue to work together to keep the CISER and CRADC help pages "in sync." (Remember, though, you are still inside the CRADC firewall, so the external URLs on info.cradc.cornell.edu will not lead you outside the system. We left them on the CRADC info system so that you could see that more help was available "outside.") To get to the external URLs, visit ciser.cornell.edu.

Other news: CISER sponsored the conversion of ASReml 1.1, a sophisticated generalized linear mixed model estimation program, to the Windows-64 (Itanium) environment. That program and the 64-bit version of SAS 9.1(beta) are now available on madison.cradc.cornell.edu. ASReml is also available in its standard Windows version on all the other CRADC nodes. For more information, see Instructions to Invoke ASReml on the CRADC Nodes and ASReml Documentation.

Let us know if there are other improvements we can make.