Unix and Linux Support

The mission of University of Texas at Arlington Office of Information Technology Enterprise Operations and Systems is to anticipate and service the computing needs of the University of Texas at Arlington community by offering full-service academic and administrative enterprise operations and support. In addition, the operations staff provides a variety of operations-related support and consulting services to educate and orient users who wish to take advantages of the services offered.

You can contact the Linux and Unix Support Staff through the OIT Computing Helpdesk at (817) 272-2208 or helpdesk@uta.edu.

Unix or UNIX is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s by a group of AT&T Bell Labs employees including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and Douglas McIlroy. Today's Unix systems are split into various branches, developed over time by AT&T, several other commercial vendors, as well as several non-profit organizations, such as individuals who write code under the GNU general public license.

The present owner of the UNIX trademark is The Open Group. Only systems fully compliant with and certified to the Single UNIX Specification qualify as "UNIX" (others are called "UNIX system-like" or Unix-like).

Supported Computing Platforms

We provide support for most Unix and Unix-like operating systems including GNU/Linux, Apple Mac OS X, Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, and HP Tru64 UNIX on industry standard equipment. We support the enterprise computing infrastructure of the university by maintaining authentication and authorization services, electronic mail gateway service including centralized anti-virus and anti-spam services, the official university web site, as well as many application and database systems. We support both generalized and specific computer systems for academic, business, and research use, including UT Arlington's High Performance Computing cluster.

Contact us for support information on your specific architecture and platform.

Supported Versions of Linux and UNIX

Official support is offered for departmental (faculty/staff) workstations running Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions 3 and above managed through our Red Hat Network proxy server. Departmental server support and management is offered for Red Hat Enterprise LInux versions 3 and above. Please read below for details.

Initial installation support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux is provided without charge for individual departmental workstations. This service includes network based installation instructions, advice with packages distributed with the operating system, and network setup configuration. The no-cost installation services do not include departmental or workgroup server configurations, customized package building, installation, or configuration, any on-site or after-hours services, or any media required to perform your installation. Details on Non-Standard Consultation and Assistance service offerings are available through our Service Offering web page.

Students using Red Hat Enterprise Linux may receive limited support from the Linux and Unix Support group if they are doing so in an official capacity on university-owned computer systems. Although our site subscription allows for home use of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, no direct support is offered. You are encouraged to consult the Arlington Linux Users Group for assistance with your home installation.

There is no support for individuals or departments using other operating system vendors or versions. Departments are encouraged to utilize our site subscription for Red Hat Enterprise Linux.