DICE Meeting 2002-08-06

Agenda

1. Search lists
2. Mixed staff/student networks
3. amd
4. Actions Arising from minutes of meeting of 2002-07-23
5. Misc

Decisions

1. /etc/resolv.conf searchlist: The default searchlist will only contain inf.ed.ac.uk. Users can configure their own one for their local machine.

Actions summary

• actions carried forward from previous meetings
• all actions generated from this meeting.

1. Actions Arising - DICE deployment publicity: Site managers to provide (noted 2002-03-19)
   [Alastair/Jeremy/Ken]
2. Actions Arising - MIS feed: check about getting data direct. (noted 2002-04-02)
   [Neil]
3. Actions Arising - Trusted host list: generate list automatically (noted 2002-05-28)
   [Alastair/Paul]
4. Actions Arising - Searchable cos@inf : setup Harvester/glimpse (noted 2002-06-11)
   [Julieta]
5. Actions Arising - MSc/Phd group: check whether new group needed (noted 2002-06-25)
   [Ken]
6. Actions Arising - Associates: advertise policy to staff (noted 2002-06-25)
   [Jeremy]
7. Actions Arising - Legacy mail redirects: publicise plan (noted 2002-06-25)
   [Jeremy]
8. Actions Arising - Milestones: review with Alastair/George (noted 2002-07-09)
   [Jeremy]
9. Actions Arising - Rollout plan: need more detailed one (noted 2002-07-09)
   [Jeremy]
10. Actions Arising - Pilot: fix KDE blank screen for pilot desktops (noted 2002-07-23)
    [Iain]
11. Actions Arising - Newsgroups: what teaching newsgroups are needed (noted 2002-07-23)
    [Ken]
12. Logserver: resource for disabling for certain components (noted 2002-07-23)
    [Paul]
13. Searchlist: set to inf only (noted 2002-08-06)
    [George]
14. amd: cross-link from a dcs to cogsci homedir (noted 2002-08-06)
    [Neil]
15. amd : investigate rhymer bug further with Sun (noted 2002-08-06)
    [Jeremy]
16. amd: assess use of 'private' network for cogsci backups (noted 2002-08-06)
    [Jeremy]
17. 64-bit UID: check kernel issues RH 7.1 and above. (noted 2002-08-06)
    [Alastair]
18. inf mail : install updated sendmail.cf (noted 2002-08-06)
    [Neil]
19. inf mail: fetchmail/SSL support (BP/FH/SB) (noted 2002-08-06)
    [John/Jeremy]
20. Pilot: Java installation to be rolled out (noted 2002-08-06)
    [Carwyn]
21. Pilot: environment fixes (noted 2002-08-06)
    [Toby]
22. Informatics web front page: rename Division to School (noted 2002-08-06)
    [Neil]
23. Teaching s/w: another reminder to go to teaching staff (noted 2002-08-06)
    [Carwyn]
24. Newsletters: repeat some information already announced (noted 2002-08-06)
    [Jeremy]
25. support email address: alternative address needed (noted 2002-08-06)
    [Chris/John]
26. Documentation: DICE-oriented Inf/Systems page (noted 2002-08-06)
    [Alison/Chris]
27. VMWare: licensing issues to be clarified (noted 2002-08-06)
    [Carwyn]
28. older laptop support: draft an announcement (noted 2002-08-06)
    [Jeremy]

Minutes

1. /etc/resolv.conf searchlist

   It was decided this should only contain inf.ed.ac.uk but that individuals can override it in LCFG. The central config needs to be updated and relevant instructions for LCFG local configuration sent out.

   [ACTION: George]

2. Mixed Networks

   It was noted that initially networks will contain a mix of staff and student machines so if additional filtering security were required some machines would have to be moved.

   No decision has been made about how an inf wireless network will be organised.

3. amd

   There are continuing problems with machines hanging that have mounted filesystems from rhymer.cogsci in particular. George has incorporated various iterations of fixes. The bug is tickled by the particular situation of rhymer.cogsci which stops responding to pings for a shortish amount of time but has queued them up. amd seems to get confused when it receives pings from a host that it thought was down.

   More debugging will be added to the code. Additional fixes/workarounds to be used are:

   • a cogsci home directory to be moved to dcs to see if the problem persists.
   • create a link from a dcs home directory to an associated cogsci one and have a script use it every few minutes.
     [ACTION: Neil]
   • investigate the rhymer bug further (it seems to be a reoccurence of a previous one even though a fix is in place)
     [ACTION: Jeremy]
   • investigate using a different (private) network between rhymer and the cogsci backup server.
     [ACTION: Jeremy]

4. Matters arising from minutes of last meeting (2002-07-23)
   1. Actions Arising - DICE deployment publicity: Site managers should make sure that this publicity is provided. [Alastair/Jeremy/Ken]
      Ongoing
   2. Actions Arising - MIS feed: check about getting data direct.[Neil]
      Waiting for the feed to be setup in due course.
      Ongoing
      
      Neil noted that the uid server will disappear at some point once the automation server is up and running.
      There was also a concern over whether it will issue 64-bit UIDs and whether there are kernel issues under 7.1 and in particular whether applications will handle them. This needs to be checked.
      [ACTION: Alastair]
   3. Trusted inf hosts generate list and populating LDAP. [Alastair/Paul]

      This will be generated from the inventory by providing an additional resource. [This is just a temporary fix while we need to provide lists of trusted inf hosts to legacy file servers.]

      Ongoing

   4. searchable cos@inf: tweaking the Harvester config. [Julieta] (noted 2002-06-11)
      Ongoing
   5. Actions Arising - MSc/PhD group: check what may be needed. [Ken].
      Ongoing

   6. Associates: advertise policy. (noted 2002-06-25) [Jeremy]
      Ongoing
   7. Mail redirecting from legacy: publicise plan (noted 2002-07-10) [Jeremy]

      A draft version will be circulated to mail team. Situation has changed since original plan as we have put in system-level redirects from inf back to legacy to avoid dual mailboxes existing.

      Ongoing
      sendmail.cf needs to be updated to change from mailing to dcs. and also to include the 's' prefix for student redirects.
      [ACTION: Neil]
      fetchmail with SSL support is being looked at for dai/cogsci.
      [ACTION: John, Jeremy]
   8. License servers: check CogSci non-FlexLM ones. (noted 2002-06-25) [Jeremy]
      There is an old installation of Xwaves (speech analysis) using a non-FlexLM license server. This will need to be looked at in stage 2 under the License Servers task.
      Done
   9. Milestones: review with Alastair/George (noted 2002-07-09) [Jeremy]
      
      Ongoing
   10. Rollout plan: need more detailed one (noted 2002-07-09)
       Ongoing
       CEG decided recently that it would be good to convert a couple of student labs to increase the load on the various servers/services. This is happening for KB/SB. (At BP the MScs are using the only lab facilities so these won't get converted until after the MSc finishes.)

   11. Pilot service progress: turn off the KDE screen blanking for the public-access pilot (noted 2002-07-23) [Iain]
       Ongoing
       The JAVA installation has been finished by Carwyn and is ready to go out.
       [ACTION: Carwyn]

       There are a couple of environment fixes required (background KDE screen and Java paths) which will be done by Toby since Craig is away.

       [ACTION: Toby]
   12. General-purpose sysadmin server

       A machine has been allocated and will be installed in due course.

       Done
   13. eduni.inf : find out what newsgroups are required for teaching purposes. (noted 2002-07-09) [Ken]
       Ongoing]
   14. Certificate Authority: arrange one for Informatics (noted 2002-07-23) [Neil]
       Done
   15. logserver: add resource for controlling logging. (noted 2002-07-23) [Alastair/Paul]
       Ongoing
5. Misc
   • DICE name: rather than change anything for School, the DICE name will become a recursive definition: DICE Informatics Computing Environment.
   • School: the front page of the Informatics web pages will be changed from 'Division' to 'School' but nothing else needs to be done as a priority.
     [ACTION: Neil]
   • teaching s/w: teaching staff need another reminder about teaching s/w. The pages with all modules listed need to be publicised.
     [ACTION: Carwyn]
   • newsletters: need to repeat some of the information already announced.
     [ACTION: Jeremy]
   • support email address: since all users will be required to use a web form for support, there needs to an alternative to support@inf for use for external contacts (eg in DNS records). The Help/Support team will propose a name.
     [ACTION: Chris/John]
   • documentation: the doc page has been reorganised and a revised, DICE-oriented inf/Systems page has been created. This will become the default shortly
     [ACTION: Alison/Chris]
   • VMware licensing issues need to be clarified.
     [ACTION: Carwyn]
   • hardware speed: although DICE will be run on some older machines there aren't any real concerns about older slower desktop hardware. However, there will almost certainly be problems with the older officially supported laptops. Need to announce that machines older than 3-4 years will probably not be supported. Draft announcement required.
     [ACTION: Jeremy]

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