Have you ever wondered what kind of servers are hidden in and around the SmartXP and what keeps all the electronic devices running? In this article there will be a short explanation about all the servers which are contributing to the SmartXP and Protopolis. These servers are maintained by our colleague students from the HYTTIOAOA committee.

Atalanta

Atalanta is also known as a virgin huntress in the greek mythology and always keeps hunting for information and helps websites and the database survive. Atalanta is a server that takes care of hosting the Proto website, but also the omnomcom.nl and caniworkinthesmartxp.nl, which shows us what is still available in the Omnomcom and when the SmartXP is occupied. Even some of the committee websites are hosted from this server, for instance the study trip page and most importantly, the Proto.ink website.

Besides website hosting, Atalanta also takes care of the primary email, the database and storage backup. It makes sure that the board disks are backed up each night, so every piece of information is safe.

Atalanta is the main DNS server. DNS is a system and network protocol that is used on the internet to translate computer names to the IP-addresses and the other way around.

Iris

Iris is the messenger of the gods and takes care of the screens in Proto and the SmartXP. This includes the Protube screens, the fishcam, the SmartXP screen and the small narrowcasting screens that can be found in the SmartXP. These screens show the class schedules, the Proto activities, the time and the bus schedule.

The way the screens communicate is quite interesting. They communicate through Mondo. It is a device at the back of the screen that transfers network to video. Proto is the only association active in the SmartXP which actually uses these devises. Iris has Mondo units which make sure the network is distributed to all the screens. There are transmitters and receivers, but the units can’t be both. The Mondo system is rather expensive but it was already present in the SmartXP when proto was founded, so why not use it?

Themis

Themis is the goddess of divine justice and is running VMware ESXi. It means that it’s a hosted hypervisor that enables you to set up multiple VMs (virtual machines). Each VM can run its own operating system and the VMs running on Themis are Ceres, Eos and Sentry.

Ceres is the domain controller and makes sure you can log in(AD/LDAP) on the servers and the Protobooks. It also takes care of data storage for the board and some committees.

Eos can be seen as a the maid of Atalanta. Because Atalanta isn’t located at the university but somewhere in Amsterdam. It’s not practical if some things need to be done locally and some things like authentication are not allowed from outside the campus. So here is where Eos will plays his role of secondary DNS.

Sentry is used for error logging. If something happens which shouldn’t happen, it shows what went wrong and when the error occurred.

Hestia

Hestia is named after the goddess of hearth. She takes care the Omnomcom screen. Hestia is hidden at the back of the Omnomcom screen and is rather small. While Iris is the ruler of all screens, the Omnomcom screen is an exception, because it has a touchscreen. Hestia is a Next Unit of Computing also known as NUC. It’s a small-form-factor personal computer made by Intel.

Helios

Helios is named after the god of the sun and the name is rather appropriate, because this server uses Raspberry Pi to keep the lights on in Protopolis. (Domotica). It also keeps the wheel of misfortune turning which is used in Feuten laps and soon the flashing sirene lights in Protopolis will also be taken care of by Helios.

Any more questions: the HYTTIOAOA committee is maintaining these servers and are happy to answer any questions you may still have. You can contact them at: haveyoutriedturningitoffandonagain@proto.utwente.nl or visit the website: haveyoutriedturningitoffandonagain.nl.