For MBI Staff: Using VPN to connect to internal resources from off-site

During the current COVID-19 outbreak, many MBI teams and personnel are working remotely. VPN provides a way to logically connect an off-site computer to resources connected to internal networks at MBI and NUS.

Summary of VPN Usage Recommendations

Applications

VPN not required

NUS VPN:
Pulse Secure

MBI VPN:
Viscosity

General internet browsing

✔️

 

 

Outlook / NUS email account

✔️

Zoom / Skype 

✔️

 

 

NUS internal websites
(Also available from the main NUS website)

✔️

NUS Staff Portal
(Also available from the main NUS website)

✔️

SAP 

✔️

MBI storage
(Access to smb.mbi.nus.edu.sg to download small quantities of data (<10)

✔️*

✔️

MBI compute servers

✔️

MBI internal websites
(OpenFreezer, ITcore, meeting room scheduling, etc.)

✔️

MBI software licenses
(Volocity, Imaris, Metamproh and Amira all require access to the MBI or CBIS license server.)

 

 

✔️

 *Access to the MBI storage server is temporarily available from the NUS network during the Corvid-19 work schedule restrictions. 

Installing the NUS nVPN client, Pulse Secure

From the NUS Inside website at nus.edu.sg/inside-nus, choose: Off Campus > Connect to VPN and follow the instructions.

  • Window users with existing Pulse Secure installed, use this guide.
  • Window users without Pulse Secure installed, use this guide.
  • Mac OS users with existing Pulse Secure installed, first you must delete the application from your Applications folder. Then re-install it using this guide.

Installing the MBI VPN client, Viscosity

Users who need to access the MBI network (including servers, storage and internal websites) from outside MBI, use these guides:

Be aware of VPN’s limitations

Current VPN servers and software have limited capability compared to a direct connection to internal networks, so you should limit your usage as much as possible.

The MBI VPN can currently support only a limited number of simultaneous sessions. Please disconnect from your VPN session after you have accessed the data or software that you need.

Be advised that while you can mount MBI storage for external access, the VPNs are not capable of providing easy or fast access to your data files due to increased latency and limited bandwidth. At best, you can expect it to take at least 30 min to download a 10 GB data set to your external system.

More Help

All of these guides are available from the MBI ITcore website at User How-Tos. If you have questions, need help or would like to request additional guides, contact us at: mbit@nus.edu.sg