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| "It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to
carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to
handle, than to initiate a new order of things." |
However, it is important to note that even when it is fully deployed the DICE project will not be finished. In principle it never will be as technology keeps changing and there always changes and new services and features that the School will require.
Equally important to note is that DICE is a large and comnplex system: designing and integrating improvements and additions requires careful planning and implementation..
The current write-down period for machines is three years. The first stage provides the minimal set of functionality that we require to get a working DICE infrastructure. It includes interim solutions to some current problems. In subsequent stages these will be redone to implement them correctly/fully and additional features will be implemented as well.
This initial stage is significantly more than just deploying the new
DICE technology. It involves a transition process for many users from
their accounts on legacy systems to using new accounts in the
@informatics domain.
It is the most substantial of the stages as so much has to be in place to get the infrastructure off the ground. However, there will be a lot of work for the subsequent stages as well. There will be a detailed list of the Stage 1 targets/requirements available soon.
In terms of scheduling, given that the core infrastructure will be in place and the transition of users will have happened, changes and additional features can more easily phased in gradually. Replacement of equipment will probably be done in larger chunks though to avoid bulges in the replacement cycle.
If you want to try it out please talk to your local support team.
There is further information here:
Please use the Support web form to report your feedback, questions, and problems with DICE.
| Start | Finish | Stage | Activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2001 | Feb 2002 | 1 | Task definition and report writing |
| Nov 2001 | Feb 2002 | 1 | Setting up of master Kerberos/LDAP servers |
| Feb 2002 | May 2002 | 1 | Implementation of tasks |
| Mar 2002 | May 2002 | 1 | Home directory restructuring |
| Jun 2002 | Jul 2002 | 1 | Systems available for testing/feedback from users |
| Jul 2002 | Sep 2002 | 1 | Deployment of new hardware as appropriate; varies depending on each site |
| Oct 2002 | Sep 2003 | 2 | Stage 2 deployment |
| Oct 2003 | Sep 2004 | 3 | Stage 3 deployment |
In order to provide a record of the issues faced and the decisions made and there are quite extensive reports into each area. These are often works-in-progress but, warts and all, are available for everyone to look at.
Each task has an individual file with short name and prefixed with '<N>_' where N is the stage.
There is a decisions summary page with all the decisions from the meetings.
There is also a list of ad-hoc meetings.
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Please contact us with any
comments or corrections.
Unless explicitly stated otherwise, all material is copyright The University of Edinburgh |
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