Hi all:
Background: I'm a Stata user who's found himself in an IT leadership role where I'm trying to improve how we (Ohio State University, but our medical center and college of medicine in particular) support analytic compute environments and software e.g. Stata. We've created some virtual desktop images for our users so they can bring their single-user licenses, run Stata in a compute environment in our data center that's close to network data storage, etc.
More background: We want to have multiple versions of Stata installed and ready for users to show up with their license (we're not funded to buy a network license, so this is about providing consistent and reliable infrastructure for people to run Stata using their individual license). And, we want to preinstall Stata partly so people have a consistent experience and partly because we can't provide local admin on the virtual infrastructure for people to install themselves. We've done all the configuration required for this (a script manages moving stata.lic to/from the user's home directory so it's available to them during their user session but so that the logged-in user has their license applied and so that a user without a license can't run Stata). We've tested with a couple users who have Stata 15 - success so far.
The problem: Stata Support says they won't provide installers unless you have a license. If you're in an IT role where you're not buying Stata but you need to support it, this is a problem. I admit I'm really confused by this - the installer alone doesn't let you run Stata, but not having the installer is a barrier to IT being able to anticipate demand and get things ready for the people who need it.
The question: How are your institutions handling this, if they are? Is it the (bad) approach of waiting for someone to buy and then having them obtain the installer, sharing it with IT, waiting for IT to have the bandwidth and prioritize installing in a managed environment, and then being able to use Stata in that environment? Or have you/they been able to achieve something better?
Cheers!
Colin
Background: I'm a Stata user who's found himself in an IT leadership role where I'm trying to improve how we (Ohio State University, but our medical center and college of medicine in particular) support analytic compute environments and software e.g. Stata. We've created some virtual desktop images for our users so they can bring their single-user licenses, run Stata in a compute environment in our data center that's close to network data storage, etc.
More background: We want to have multiple versions of Stata installed and ready for users to show up with their license (we're not funded to buy a network license, so this is about providing consistent and reliable infrastructure for people to run Stata using their individual license). And, we want to preinstall Stata partly so people have a consistent experience and partly because we can't provide local admin on the virtual infrastructure for people to install themselves. We've done all the configuration required for this (a script manages moving stata.lic to/from the user's home directory so it's available to them during their user session but so that the logged-in user has their license applied and so that a user without a license can't run Stata). We've tested with a couple users who have Stata 15 - success so far.
The problem: Stata Support says they won't provide installers unless you have a license. If you're in an IT role where you're not buying Stata but you need to support it, this is a problem. I admit I'm really confused by this - the installer alone doesn't let you run Stata, but not having the installer is a barrier to IT being able to anticipate demand and get things ready for the people who need it.
The question: How are your institutions handling this, if they are? Is it the (bad) approach of waiting for someone to buy and then having them obtain the installer, sharing it with IT, waiting for IT to have the bandwidth and prioritize installing in a managed environment, and then being able to use Stata in that environment? Or have you/they been able to achieve something better?
Cheers!
Colin
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