Operational Meeting

Apologies for absence

Gordon, Tim.

minutes of the last meeting.

These were accepted.

4. College server room

   Asked whether the current technicians room adjacent to the server area would be incorporated into the College server room, Alastair said this was unlikely in the short term. A major overhaul of this area is scheduled for 2009. Stephen pointed out that we may have to consider additional security measures such as lockable enclosures for sensitive machines such as KDCs in shared server areas.

Reports from units.

• Infrastructure.
• Managed Platform.
  1. LCFG Client Issues

     Paul suggested that it might be worthwhile turning on client debug logging before the switch to client lockdown mode on the 13th of December.

• Research and Teaching.
  2. Umask for AI1/CS1

     It was agreed that Tim should consult with Stuart Anderson on what a suitable setting for this would be.

  Craig asked when GPFS was expected to become generally available. Iain replied that due to a number of issues such as the need to install SL5 on machines using GPFS, it was too early to give a date. More information can be found in the GPFS article in the forthcoming issue of the newsletter.

• Services.
• User Support.

  The next issue of the newsletter is due out on Monday the 17th of December.

The following topics were discussed:

• Appleton Tower Power Shutdown

  The agreed procedure for the shutdown is as follows: a member of each unit will be responsible for shutting down all machines belonging to that unit in the AT server unit. They will then then inform George that this has been done. The representatives of the Units are

  • Infrastructure - George
  • MPU - Stephen
  • RAT - Graham
  • Services - Craig
  • US - Alison

  Once all the machines have been shut down, George will open the circuit breakers and inform the contractors that it is safe to proceed.

  On Sunday, George will be contacted when the power has been restored. He will inform Neil who will travel in to the tower, close the breakers and (hopefully) restore normal service.

• Laptop Support

  After a lively debate, the following courses of action were agreed.

  • Ken and Alastair will meet and attempt to draw up a temporary policy for laptop support.
  • The User Support Unit will investigate IS's Managed Laptop Platform to see if it might be suitable for some of our users.
  • The User Support Unit will investigate what sort of support IS are willing to provide for non-managed laptops.
  • In an effort to allow the debate concerning the various issues regarding laptop support to continue, a Wiki page will be created recording the main points raised at the meeting. All are encouraged to contribute to this page which can be found here.

AOCB

There was none.

The next meeting will be on January 9th in the Buccleuch Place Seminar Room and chaired by Tim Colles.