Operational Meeting

The question of acceptance was not raised

Actions discussed:

None

Actions added or revived:

None

Actions deferred:

None

Actions completed:

None

Blog articles completed:

None

Report from Computing Executive Group

1. Appleton Tower
2. Informatics Computing Plan 2017

Reports from Units

• Infrastructure

  1. AT basement power
  2. JCMB CSR PoP switches
  3. Core switch firmware
  4. tycho (old loghost)
  5. OpenVPN
  6. SL7 iptables
  7. Tardis and Cereproc

• Managed Platform

  • The MPU's AT Power-Down To Do List
  • SL7 Server Upgrades
  • Recent meetings

• Research and Teaching

  1. TexLive

• Services

  1. smtp/virtualrelay.inf blocked by IS over New Year
  2. AT Power Off
  3. SL7 progress

• User Support

  • Exams
  • Does v1 always mean a visitor account ?

Topics for discussion

• AT powerdown - lessons learned and things to think about.
  • The order in which machines were shut down should have been planned better. For instance, the AFS file servers were shut down before the student NX server, the shutdown of which was then delayed by the need to wait for AFS callback timeouts.
  • The structural volumes should have been removed from the file servers affected by the power-off. Not doing so menat that machines being brought back up were delayed by the need to fall-over to an off-site structural volume.
  • Machines may take significantly longer to shut down than anticipated. Shutting a machine down shouldn't be left until the last moment.
  • Under SL7, shutdown doesn't automatically create /etc/nologin. This now needs to be done by hand.
  • It seems likely that some machines were only shut down, not powered off leading to a higher than expected drain on the UPSs while power was off.
  • Some machines were not configures to automatically restart when the power came back on. Intentional or oversight?
  • On a related topic, it would appear that our racks didn't actually lose power at any point on Wednesday night meaning that the above point was moot anyway.
  • During the course of the work on Tuesday night, the power was 'bounced' several times. This might cause problems if it stays on long enough for machines to start booting though this wouldn't have happened on Tuesday thanks to the previous point. Never-the-less, perhaps perhaps the power should be turned off at the plugbar on future occasions.
  • Staffmail unexpectedly stopped working for some of us during the power down. We need to ensure that we always have a viable out-of-band communication mechanism available.
• The "rescued" open space in AT Level 7

  Ian suggested that this be used as a comfortable space to sit, ponder, read, eat, drink and talk and that it should therefore be furnished with selection of tables, chairs and sofas. we should also install some proper bookshelves to provide a suitable home for the computing library. Any final decision should be delayed until we have had a chance to see the space for ourselves.

None

AOCB

The next meeting will be on Wednesday 25th January 2017 at 10:00 in IF-4.31, chaired by Craig.