Operational Meeting

Apologies for absence

Alison.

minutes of the last meeting.

These were accepted.

1. Monitor Resolutions

   (See also item 2 of the Managed Platform report.) As the new mechanism was failing for large monitors, of which there are quite a few, MPU have reverted to the previous mechanism. This will require headers to be added to those (few) machines which are having problems, but this was felt to require less effort overall.

3. Adobe Connect Accounts

   US would love to help, but would like instructions for next time. RAT will oblige.

Reports from units.

• Infrastructure.
• Managed Platform.
• Research and Teaching.
  3. Laboratory Examinations

     It was noted that Inf-unit were testing LDAP configurations in the North AT5 lab. This wouldn't be used for the initial lab-exams run-through, but Toby would remove the changes in time for the Real Thing. Iain will check the condor situation. Tim mentioned that he had a script which could easily adjust the configuration of a batch of machines as necessary, and that once the profiles are generated machines should switch easily between "lab" and "open" states without requiring rebooting. He expected that the machines would be locked down even more for the final exams.

• Services.
  • Craig will be meeting shortly with Alison to discuss CUPS.
• User Support.
  • Ken will check the situation regarding condor in the Appleton Tower staff base

The following topics were discussed:

• Meeting times

  As a result of the IS Awareness Sessions, which take place on Wednesday mornings, being opened to all computing staff, it had become necessary to review the times of our Wednesday meetings. For simplicity and to fit in with the shuttle-bus timetable it was generally felt it would be best to move the start times of all our Wednesday meetings to 11:00. Ken had adjusted our room-booking for next week's technical talk accordingly (after the meeting he also did the needful for our other bookings).

  Nick Stroud had been made aware of web page access problems, and would be taking corrective action.

• Power outage on Tuesday

  Following extensive discussion, the following points emerged:

  • It wouldn't be a good idea to have all machines automatically come back on when power is restored. This has the potential to trip breakers (as used to happen at KB, and still does at BP), and doesn't take account of any sequencing required for kit and system interdependencies. However, some selected machines should be set up this way. Inf-unit will look into the possibilities.
  • There is some pressure from some parts of the School to move towards 24/7 working. Ken has been looking at the implications of this (see item 2 of the CEG report). Investing in remote-management hardware should allow more things to be fixed from home. However...
  • It was noted that there was no official remote login machine at KB. Services-unit will look into the siting of a login server there. Inf-unit intend to maintain a fully replicated set of KDCs, LDAP servers and the like at KB, even after the move to the Forum.
  • Although Inf-unit would like to get rid of it, there will have to be auth-portal machines for a while yet! Toby will arrange to put one at KB.
• System maintenance slots

  Services-unit raised the question of having an advertised system maintenance slot, particularly with reference to patching the fileservers. It was felt that this should not be within "normal" working hours, even if this meant that some maintenance plans would need to be upgraded to ensure that hot-line cover would be available. It would also be good to check with the ITO, to avoid deadlines and booked classes.

• Newsletter

  George reminder the meeting again that the next edition of the newsletter is due to be published in early December meaning that the deadline for articles is the end of November. All computing staff are encouraged to suggest possible articles.

AOCB

There was none.

The next meeting will be on November 28th in the JCMB 2511, chaired by George Ross.