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New Starter Guide 👋

Welcome to the Isambard Team! 🥳 This documentation is designed to help you get started within the Isambard Team and the University of Bristol itself.

If you have any questions or are unsure of anything please ask a member of the team who will be happy to help!

New Laptop

Apple MacOS Laptops

When setting up a new Apple MacOS laptop for the first time DO NOT use eduroam. Set up your device at home, use a 5G/4G hotspot from a phone or use the UoB Guest WiFi. If you use eduroam your laptop will not be configured correctly and will need to be reset by IT Services.

Reset Password URL

  • You'll be given your short username with your laptop. There is no default password supplied. To create a password visit the Reset UOB Password page on another device (such as your personal phone) and create a new password for your account. The QR code to the right can be scanned on your phone to access the password reset URL.

  • Set up your new laptop using the instructions provided by IT Services. You'll be walked through the process by a member of the team on your first day. IT Service documentation can be found here:

  • Apply for Elevated User Rights.

    • As a part of the request state the reason for EUR is to install Homebrew.

Apple App Store

To create an Apple Account you can use plus addressing:

  • [firstname].[lastname]+apple@bristol.ac.uk

Then complete the sign up, validate the email address and you can now download things from the Mac App store.

MyERP

  • Ensure your details are correct in MyERP.
    • Triple-check your bank details! Pay is usually on the 26th of each month.
    • If issues accessing the MyERP system, message the team to help find email for queries.
  • You can send your P45 to Onboarding Employee Services Hub Mailbox

Email, Calendar and Phone

  • Request a friendly email address.

    • Default email addresses are in the form of ab12345@bristol.ac.uk, but can be changed to something friendly as a member of faculty. You will still login using the default form and both email addresses will work to reach you.
    • This process can take up to 24 hours to complete. Wait until your friendly address is active before starting to register for services.

  • Ensure you are aware of this years bank holidays on GOV.UK.

  • Ensure you are aware of this years university closure dates in the University Almanac.

  • You can import important Bristol dates into Outlook using University calendar

  • You can request a Teams telephone number by filling out the request form here.

  • Email signature advice can be found at University Branding Toolkit or just copy from someone else in the team.

  • You should request to be added to the service desk shared inboxes, brics-support@bristol.ac.uk and brics-technical@bristol.ac.uk by sending an email to brics-admin@bristol.ac.uk

  • There are a number of other shared inboxes which can be accessed as part of the team, please check with others about the most appropriate ones to access.

  • The timezone in the Web version of Outlook may be set to an unexpected timezone. Navigate to your calendar and click gear icon to bring up settings. In the calendar tab there is a time zone section. Check and correct as required.

SharePoint, Teams, Slack and GitHub

  • Ensure you can access the grp-Isambard SharePoint site, Teams group and shared Outlook calendar.

  • Ask a Lead to invite you to the isambard-group organisation in Slack using your friendly email address.

  • You can update emails from other Slack workspaces by clicking on menu for workspace -> Tools and Settings -> Customise workspace. A webpage opens and you can then click on menu on leftside and change email in "Account and profile".

  • Sign up to GitHub using your friendly email address.

  • Ask a Lead to invite you to the isambard-sc GitHub organisation.

  • Sharepoint has some useful documents, for example to record your local train station to help book travel home_stations.xlsx

GitHub Global Campus

GitHub Global Campus offers a number of benefits including free access to GitHub Copilot. If you wish you are able to access this with your University of Bristol email address. Keep in mind that you do not have to create a new account and can add your UoB email to your personal one.

Note

You will need your friendly email address and proof of employment/study at the UoB to apply for the GitHub Global Campus. A picture of your UCard is sufficient even without an end date.

Info

Joining the GitHub Global Campus and getting your benefits can take several days even after your application is accepted. Your GitHub account is still functional until your educational benefits become active. You will get an email when your benefits become active.

Admin accounts and security keys

In order to get access to any platforms with elevated privileges, you will be provided with an admin account. This account is entirely separate from your university-managed user account. This admin account will be given access to any services that you are working on at any time. As you move from project to project, your access to those platforms will be added and removed from your account.

To securely access the account, you will be provided with two YubiKeys. You should pick up the keys from the BriCS admin staff and register them as MFA tokens in the AWS account portal as described below.

When your account is first created, you will be sent an invitation email from AWS IAM Identity Center. You should accept the invitation, set a password and when prompted to add an MFA device you should register both your YubiKeys. Keep one key safe as a backup and use the other as your primary.

If you need to register a YubiKey after initial account creation: 1) Go to https://isambard.awsapps.com/start/ 2) Log in with your *-admin account. 3) In the AWS access portal, click on your name on the top-right and then MFA devices. 4) Click Register device and follow the steps for a Security key.

If you lose a YubiKey, you should log in using your backup key and remove the lost key. You should then report it to the BriCS security lead.

1 Cathedral Square Desk Booking

If you plan to work from the office at 1 Cathedral Square (1CS), you can book a desk in advance using the 1CS desk booking spreadsheet.

The spreadsheet lists the available desks along with dates:

  • To book a desk, find a free desk on the date you want and enter your initials, then highlight the cell yellow.
  • This will guarantee a desk is available for you in the office when you arrive.
  • If you no longer intend to use a desk, please remember to remove your entry.
  • If a desk is not available on the day you want, or you only need somewhere for a short duration, you will find chairs and tables in the various public areas in 1CS.

KeyTravel - Travel booking website

If you are planning on travelling (e.g. to a conference), make sure to create a KeyTravel account before your trip.

There is a registration link at the start of this page: Register for a travel profile (direct link to form is here: Key Travel Registration). Once you have submitted your registration form, your profile will be set up within 24 hours. This only needs to be done once.

Once your registration is complete, you can book business travel using this link.

Homebrew Package Manager

Tip

Elevate your privileges before starting this section. If you are prompted for a password enter your UoB password. Once complete remove your elevated privileges.

  • Install Homebrew's latest GitHub release.
    • Do not use the bash/curl install method which is bad practice in general. Download and install the "pkg" version.
    • It may ask you to install Xcode command-line tools. Do not install Xcode from Self-service. You can install the command line tools in a terminal by running xcode-select --install.
  • Install recommended software via the brew command:
    • brew install github keepassxc slack to install GitHub Desktop, KeepassXC Password Manager and the Slack Desktop client.

About the Team Page

  • Add yourself and write a short biography on our About the Team page!

Welcome Event

Essential Training

  • Complete all essential training on Develop:
    • CyberSecurity and Data Protection Essentials
    • Health & Safety Essentials
    • Workstation and Display Screen Equipment (DSE)
    • Fire Safety
    • Introduction to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)
    • Fraud Awareness

Policies