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To: staff@informatics.ed.ac.uk
From: Stuart Anderson <soa@dcs.ed.ac.uk>
Subject: [Staff] DICE update
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2002 07:34:57 +0000
Dear All,
As most of you will know, DICE is the new division-wide
computing infrastructure. This is keeping most of the CO's very busy
at the moment. The following summary aims to give an outline of what
is going on and why all the COs seem very preoccupied.
Yours,
Stuart.
DICE and allocation of CO resources
-----------------------------------
Summary
-------
- 1st stage of DICE will be rolled out for October 2002
- the majority of all CO effort will be focused on that
----------------
Introduction
------------
For the past 22 months there has been considerable effort going into
the DICE project to develop a new computing infrastructure for the
Division of Informatics. Despite lack of resources this has now
reached a state where it is possible to deploy DICE-based systems in
significant numbers.
The deployment is planned to happen over a period of 2-3 years across
the Division. It will affect different sites in different ways. For
the sites that are not predominantly PC-based (BP/FH/SB), there will
be a gradual replacement of machines each year (approximately 1/3, in
line with the write-down policy). It would be possible to speed this
process up but it would introduce a very large and undesirable
financial and workload peak into the replacement cycle.
Rollout
-------
The first stage of DICE rollout is planned for October 2002. While
the whole project is complex, this first stage is a particularly large
and complex process. It involves two key aspects:
- deployment of new technologies
- transition issues with respect to legacy systems
Since October, all the Division's COs have been working in teams
producing reports that clarify the issues involved in 25 or more
technical and policy areas. These have to be addressed in order to
achieve just the first stage of the rollout. The result of these
reports will define the timeline for the intermediate stages.
A further 20 areas have already been identified for the subsequent
stages and there will be more as the DICE systems are rolled out.
[In order to keep the process as transparent as possible these reports
will be made available but, due to finishing touches being applied,
are not ready just yet.]
Resources
---------
In terms of resources the main points are:
- for the foreseeable future the emphasis of all CO effort will be on
DICE. Otherwise the more dilute the effort, the harder the process
becomes and the more difficult it will be to manage the introduction
of DICE effectively
- the amount of effort at each site will partly depend on the
continuing support required for legacy systems.
- it is anticipated that at least 80% of the CO effort at KB will be
expended on DICE, and a similar, but slightly lower, proportion of
effort at the other sites.
The rollout obviously has a significant impact on current user needs.
However, it will be essential to focus on DICE. Local site managers
will assess requests from staff for work but unless the item is
essential it is unlikely to be prioritised over DICE work for the
foreseeable future.
First stage
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The following is a brief overview of what will happen with the
rollout:
- everyone in the Division will get an @informatics user account,
even if they don't get a DICE machine, so they can login to try
things out, etc.
- KB will convert all Linux clients/servers to DICE.
- FH/SB/BP will introduce/convert in the order of 1/3rd of total
clients (because of 3-year replacement cycle).
- all sites will establish local DICE infrastructures under the
@informatics domain. At KB the old @dcs domain will largely die
off (except for incoming email and Suns)
- FH, SB, KB and BP will have site-managed DICE 'clusters' (for
robustness) accessing central services as required
- certain services will be shared (eg @informatics mail domain) and
therefore managed centrally.
- users will have a nominal home site for their home directory but
it will be shared everywhere.
- major work will be finished by mid-May 2002 to allow for
- testing/final integration by CO staff.
- users to prepare for the academic year 2002/2003. DICE
machines will be remotely accessible for testing purposes as
early as possible and no later than June
What happens next
-----------------
- later in January the reports on the various stages/tasks will be
publicised.
- an outline will be given of the the transition process and the
effects on users. Every effort is being made to minimise the impact
where practical.
- the timeline for individual stages will be finalised as much as
possible and made available.
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