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June 21, 2005
Server Crash
Last night was a fun night. Got off work around 5:00pm went home and hung with the family. About 1:00am I get a call that Goose is down. ( 1/2 of the cluster ) So I spent about 2 hours from home trying to get it back up; and decided to come in to work and fix things here on site. So after a clean cluster shutdown and reboot everything was up and running. Now its 9:00am and I'm tired. Been a long day. Have a couple more hours and then I'm heading home for the day.
Posted by knabet at 08:57 AM | Comments (0)
June 16, 2005
Instant Messaging
Although not many people know about this tool, or how it works, its there.
If you have specific questions please post to the forum so others can learn from any Q & A that goes on. If you like, or want to use the forum, feel free to email me and I'll reply. I'll also post your question ( anonymously ) to the forum.
Once you get IM running feel free to add me as a contact. But don't be surprised if I show online but don't answer every message that comes in :)
I KNOW THIS IS CONFUSING BUT: Only those who have been migrated can use IM. AND if you've been migrated you have to use your OLD email userid and password to log-in to the forums.
So for now you must be brave to use these tools.
If the "start" in the middle of the page doesn't work, try using the "USE JAVA PLUG-IN" at the top of the page.
It seems to work pretty good. The only oddity I've seen is it messed up the J-Initiator for banner, but that was only on one machine and it had other problems. So I'm not jumping to the IM as the problem for that instance.
Works great on my Mac!!!
As always, enjoy!!
Posted by knabet at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)
June 15, 2005
Eating my words
When I was a freshman in High School, one of my teachers had a picture on his wall of a gumball machine. Underneath it said "Keep your words nice and sweet, someday you may have to eat them"
Well I didn't and I am!!!
In the past I have never liked Microsoft products including the operating system. That hasn't changed. However I used microsoft stuff because it was easy to use. For the past 4 years I have used nothing but Unix, and love it!!!! I don't have to worry about virus' or other security issues. What I'm getting at is the use of Mac's. I have hated them. I always felt they were very difficult to use, and there were was little to no usable apps written for them. Well I have a mac on my desk, and am loving it.
MacOS X is based on Free BSD ( unix ) which could be why I was somewhat intrigued by it. But now that I've been using it for a couple of weeks, I've found it to be quite user friendly and I can navigate through it quickly. ( which is important )
So I'm eating my words... go mac!!
Posted by knabet at 02:55 PM | Comments (0)
June 13, 2005
Computer Jargon
As I post more and more information to my blog I'm sure at times ( probably lots of times ) I'll be using Computer Jargon ( whatever that is ) Let me just say I'm not going to try very hard to prevent that from happening. I'm a computer guy, and that's how I talk. This blog is intended to give information on what I'm doing in UCS. Not just how it affects campus, but everything I'm doing. If there is something very important for everyone to understand, then I will be sure to explain, define, or otherwise bore you to tears with definitions. Blogs are intended to be used as an online journal, not just work related information. I don't like sharing that type of stuff with the campus, or the world for that matter. ( just search Travis Knabe Blog at Google to see what I mean ) While most people in the world wouldn't use that search string... hey its out there. Anyway if there is something specific you'd like explained, please don't hesitate to ask via email, phone, or whatever other means of communication you are comfortable with. I'll respond in whatever means I'm most comfortable with.
Posted by knabet at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)
June 09, 2005
Full Understanding
One of the items you'll see in Bill's blog is a guideline to blogging. Here is an excerpt of Bill's suggested guidelines (mainly copy and pasted from SunMicrosystems, changing Sun specifics to more close to home examples):
"Write What You Know The best way to be interesting, stay out of trouble, and have fun is to write about what you know. If you have a deep understanding of some chunk of Enrollment strategies, a hot new method of presenting Biology lectures or smart-classroom design, it’s hard to get into too much trouble, or be boring, talking about the issues and challenges around that."
I've tried to take this to heart as I've written in my blogs. I've tried to be sure the only things I put down are things I have an understanding about. In addition I've tried to use these guidelines in more than just the world of blogging.
Posted by knabet at 04:42 PM | Comments (0)
Portal
UCS is moving full steam ahead in developing a portal for campus use. We plan on having a very functional portal available for fall term. However we will be allowing users to login and kick the tires on the portal throughout the summer months. Here is a link to a thread I started to hopefully spark some discussion on what users would like to see on the portal.
Posted by knabet at 12:47 PM | Comments (1)
Email/Network account expiration
Thanks to all who commented on this subject. As I stated in the Forum we have chosen to use a naming scheme which includes the year a student first starts WOU; allowing each graduate to keep their email account for life. We agree this is a good perk to make available to any and all WOU graduates.
Posted by knabet at 12:40 PM | Comments (0)
June 06, 2005
Response to questions
I had an interesting response to my email the other day, which I'd like to share.
"This message is so full of jargon and undefined phrases as to be nearly unintelligible to the average recipient.email migration?
Open sourcing?
threads?, blogs?
If you really want us to understand, try English, and describe things we have not had reference to the source."
First off let me apoligize to anyone else who felt this way. I made the assumption enough information was given by Ron's FAQ's and Bill's most recent emails and blog entries to make this message readable. ( for those interested )
However since I was obviously incorrect with my assumption here are the definitions. ( for those interested )
Email Migration: The process of moving from one email system to another. Go here to find out more about an email system. I *think* its pretty clear.
Open Sourcing: Here is a definition to Open Source My purpose for using the term was to show that UCS is being open about how we operate as well as trying to make decisions which effect the campus community a collabrative effort of the campus community.
Thread: train of thought: the connections that link the various parts of an event or argument together
In the context of the Forum, a thread would be a group of comments/questions/answers on a particular subject.
Blog: So as not to re-type a bunch of info here's Google's Definition
Please feel free to call me direct 8-8507, or email knabet@wou.edu at anytime with any questions. I am always at the ready to serve.
Posted by knabet at 05:23 PM | Comments (0)
Storage Utilization
This is in response to a comment by Steve Taylor on Bill's blog.
bill - as we promote and use digital technology, we will see exponential growth in the need for speed, processing power, and memory/storage. We somehow need to project need, and try to allocate funds to expand capacity. we (students, staff, faculty) ultimately need to be able to use the tools to their fullest extent.
I have paid close attention to the amount of growth we're seeing on the campus SAN. Last year at this time we were seeing about 1 gig of growth per day, on both the student and faculty/staff drives. It was very rare to see more than a 4-5gig jump.
Today we're still seeing the same type of daily growth, but on top of that for both faculty and staff we're seeing major jumps. In the range of 40gigs. On those days it has resulted in the drive being filled. So the actual size of growth could have been greater than the drive limitation allowed for.
With the knowledge of the system we were able to make educated decisions on the amount of storage we needed. However with the "exponential growth" or the massive jumps we've seen; it would require a massive amount of storage to be made available at all times. ( $$$$$ )
UCS DOES NOT and has never been asked to police the data in user home directories. We have had to use scripts to find large files, and large changes to each of the drives to help figure out how the storage is being used, and how to catch up with the growth. So while I will agree "we (students, staff, faculty) ultimately need to be able to use the tools to their fullest extent" It is also our (students, staff, faculty) responsibility to be sure we are not mis-using the provided tools. By storing non-work related files which take up large amounts of our storage.
Posted by knabet at 03:58 PM | Comments (2)
More Email Info ( non-WOU specific )
Thank to Joan Guralnick for passing this along to me.
A less technical approach to technical information.
If you have any questions to WOU's specifics please feel free to:
1. Email Me - knabet@wou.edu
2. Respond to the blog
3. Add a reply to my forum thread so all users can benefit.
Posted by knabet at 01:22 PM | Comments (0)
Expiring Users
We're trying to develop a plan/policy for expiring network/email accounts, and how to deal with both email as well as data files for facutly/staff who leave, and students, both graduating and those who just don't return to school.
During the migration we are creating new accounts in the new email system, as well as on the new domain. Of course we are only creating accounts for currently employed faculty/staff and the accounts created for students will be for those registered for classes this fall.
Part of the migration process is to move data from the old SAN to the new one. All data for non-registered students will be archived and can be accessed at any time. The current plan is to expire accounts, and all associated data after a student as not attended WOU for a time period of ???? 1 year, 2 years, 3 years??
For WOU graduates we'd like to offer lifetime email forwarding. This would mean if a student would like to have a WOU email address we would forward all messages to wherever the student would like. For example if John Doe graduated and his userid was jdoe then we'd setup and alias for him to have all of his email sent. Which we could then modify where all it fowards to. His alias would be jdoe-alumni@wou.edu or something to that effect. This would allow us to reclaim the jdoe userid for new students.
As for staff and non-emeritus faculty we would remove data/email and user accounts once a supervisor has okayed this to happen. The timeline on this could and would be much faster.
All of this is up in the air, and no decisions have been made. Any input would be greatly appreciated. I have created a thread on the forum server for open discussion.
Posted by knabet at 10:21 AM | Comments (2)
June 02, 2005
Summer Migrations
Migration to the new domain and email system is progressing right along. All lab machines will be in the new domain for Fall Term. This means faculty who use the "Class" folders will need to be migrated to the new domain as well. We would like to use the summer months to get as many users migrated as we can.
Posted by knabet at 12:57 PM | Comments (0)
June 01, 2005
Email Upgrade
A little bit of technical talk with regard to Bill's post about email, and the comments it brought with it.
First to define a couple of items.
Email SystemThe email system is the service running on the server that sends, receives, filters, stores, and maintains the emails.
In WOU's case we've been using iPlanet Mail Server. We have gone through a couple of upgrades to this system, one about 2 years ago where we actually moved mail to a faster more reliable server. The migration planned and in progress is quite similar. We're upgrading to the latest version of the same "Email System" we are currently using. Its now called Sun Java System Mail Server. Over the past 3 years and multiple versions, this "Email System" has proven to be very reliable with little management requirements. ( oh yeah and the hardware is fast and reliable too )
Email ClientAn email client is the tool, or application you use to access email stored on the "Email System" Or send messages through the "Email System". There are many email clients available for use, each with their pros and cons. UCS has standardized on Messenger Express for many reasons. We can upgrade the campus wide client on the server, there are no known security holes, or possible virus attacks that can be directed to it. Those are a couple of the positives, I could ramble on and on, as well as name some negatives, but I won't.
A new email client called Communications Express shipped with the lastest version of the "Email System" As we have been migrating users we have introduced this new Email Client. This "Email Client" also includes a tab giving the users access to the Calendar application as well. Both the email and calendar pieces of this unified email/calendar client are much more feature rich than Messenger Express and Calendar Express.
However we have been listening to departments as we have migrated them, and while all of them have been quite pleased with the new "Email Client" we have still heard the need for another option.
So that brings us to the choice of Microsoft Outlook. Sun released a tool that sets up Microsoft Outlook to use our "Email and Calendar Systems" Outlook will read and write data to the "Email and Calendar Systems" fairly seamlessly. You will still have the option to use Communications Express from home or your office. The same data will be there regardless of the "Email Client" you choose to use. ( I'm using Communications Express ) Including address books, calendar events, email and folders will all be in both places. This has never been an option in the past.
There are still some bugs we're working out. ( for example viewing and subscribing to shared calendars via Microsoft Outlook ) So if you make the choice to use Microsoft Outlook, please be patient, its new to us too.
To address a couple of questions presented as comments on Bill's Blog.
1. The migration to the new "Email System" includes moving ALL existing mail,folders,address books, address groups to the new system. The only thing not migrated are basic settings to the "Email Client" and Mail Filters. Unlike Messenger Express, mail filters are managed with Communications Express. ( no more delegated administrator )
2. Don't have any idea what OSU is using for a client. Communications Express is the new client we've been showing people, which is basically Messenger Express and Calendar Express built into one application.... plus a ton of cool features. And again, on the "Email System" side this is just an update to the current solid version.
3. imap will still be available
Please feel free to post comments or questions. I have also started a thread in the UCS forum for open discussion.
Posted by knabet at 10:34 PM | Comments (0)