Network Services Team (NST)

Meeting Minutes 6/9/95

• Old Business
• New Business
• What's Important to accomplish by next week?
• Discussion on our roles for network problems
• AGENDA for next meeting

Present:  Garnet Barrigar, Brenda Bennett, David Brouwer, Carmen Casolara, 
           Bob Jewett, Justin Sipher



1. Next meeting:  Wednesday, 6/14 @ 8am


2. Old Business:

   - Reviewed power outage on Sun 6/4.  Found that despite our notices
     and contacts, many printers were not turned off.  However, most of those
     printers had Etherprint boxes attached to them and they were the source
     of problems when the power was restored.

     Discovered that the Seed Router (Kellas Classroom Server) is too slow
     coming up because it must wait until the server has come back up.  Bob
     and Justin had to come in to restore the network settings (zones) because
     of this.  (They also discovered they did not have a key to the Kellas
     server room.)  It was proposed that we move the Seed Router to a 
     stand-alone FastPath box (which may need repairing) that would be located
     in Kellas along with other campus networking technology.

     The phone system survived without problems (until 6/6--see below).  The
     Public Safety telephone line that was installed to the Raymond node worked
     fine.


   - Reviewed T1 power supply problem on Tues 6/6.  A power supply for 
     the outgoing long-distance phone lines "blew" on Tuesday.  Carm did not
     think it was related to the power outage on Sunday.  He and Garnet were
     able to provide NYNEX with a power supply to replace the damaged one since
     they did not have one to install.  (Brenda, can you follow through on
     checking w/ NYNEX to see that they will have a spare ready to install
     in the event this happens again?)

     We learned that our response to network failures such as this still
     needs "tuning".  First, Dave, Carm and Garnet need a Calling Card so that
     they can place LD calls from a non-campus phone.  Second, we need to
     develop an email list of individuals to contact about technology problems.
     We are currently using Bob's "brown-bag" list, but it is not sufficient
     for this type of notification (and wasn't available to be used during
     this outage).  This list should be housed on our campus mail server.

     We discussed how to make our response to technology problems more
     effective (essentially an extension of our on-going discussion of
     dealing with campus network problems).  We agreed to the following:

     * Brenda will develop a separate sheet of instructions for using
       x4000 (data entry), x2884 (recording messages for this HOTLINE),
       x2888 (for reporting problems to the Brenda/Karen).

     * To develop a list of numbers to be called for dealing with problems
       (SUNYNet, HOTLINE, etc.) "suitable for posting" for quick reference.

     * There will only be *2* KEY people to work through and contact during 
       any technology failures:

          Coordinator for technical intervention  (usually Justin).
             This individual is responsible for contacting the technical 
             people needed to solve the problem and to work with, and provide
             information to, the Coordinator for information clearinghouse.

          Coordinator for information clearinghouse  (usually Brenda).
             This individual is responsible for answering x2888 calls and for
             contacting appropriate individuals to be notified about technology
             problems.

        During this past outage (6/6), Dave was the coordinator for technical 
        intervention and Tammy was the coordinator for our information
        "clearinghouse".  Our problem was that we did not use our coordinators
        effectively and so there was a great deal of duplication in work
        being done.  However, everyone agreed that we're "doing better" and
        that this problem was minimized because of Carm and Garnet's involve-
        ment.


   - Erik/Unix Servers.  Erik has indicated that he will be leaving
     SUNY Potsdam as a student.  He will probably continue working for us
     part-time during the evenings to bring up our new Sun station.

     Dave, Bob and Justin will get together to discuss our Unix strategy
     and support needs for DNS, bootp, email server, NetNews.


   - Status Report - Juliana Degone/Mark Stoddard, Mental Health/Van Housen.
     (See proposal 5/26/95).  Carm 
     reported that Juliana has a meeting on 6/19 to determine whether she
     will need campus network access.


   - x4000.  Brenda will provide a report on what we have to 
     date at our next NST meeting.  22 messages have been recorded to date,
     most of which are related to the LanRovers.


   - Checking phones in the residence halls.  Status report. Carm
     reports that Lehman, Knowles, Bowman, Draime and Van Housen are all done.
     They are working on Sisson Hall now.


   - Shiva LANRover problems/update.  Nothing to report.


   - Status check on Space Committee projects:

     MacVicar/Merritt 2nd floor - Forms sent to Bill Fisher.

     Schuette - Form sent; nothing returned yet.

     Flagg 163 - Phone line installed.



3. New Business:

   - SUNYNet weekend coverage.  Did not get to address this.


   - Vacations.  

     Carm - last week of July
     Dave - July 3 and July 7
     Bob  - Friday, 6/23 and Mon 6/26 - Fri 6/30


   - Courtesy accounts (Francis Hare, Toronto/Star Lake)   Bob will
     address this with the ISD Directors (next meeting is 6/15)


   - STC Feedback (SUNYNet changes, etc.)    (Bob/Justin)
   
     NYSERNet gateway - SUNYNet is negotiating w/ NYSERNet to provide
     access to the Internet to campuses w/o going over the SUNYNet backbone.  
     More information expected by Wednesday, 6/14.

     DECNET/OSI update - This is moving along and we should have a campus
     strategy for dealing with it.  Bob gave Dave the paper outlining the
     concerns and campus responsiblities.

     Univ. Conn. Integrate Info. Systems - An excellent presentation
     on how to integrate voice, video and data services.  Bob gave Carm the
     materials from this presentation and asked him to review it for 
     ideas that might prove useful for us.


   - Feedback card ("How are we doing?")    (Brenda) - Did not address


   -  Cabletron visit report.   (Carm/Garnet) - Did not address


   - Wiring the "dorms" project.   Status report.  (Bob) - Did not address

   - 2Gb drive for News server.  status report  (Dave) - Did not address


   - Flagg Classroom update.  (Dave) - Did not address


   - "Intuity" proposal.     (Brenda) - Did not address

       

 
   - Important goals for 95-96:  (Bob)  - Did not address
       *  IMAP email server before 9/1/95 
       *  Moving VMS email users to our Unix mail server.
       *  28.8 modems for LanRovers.



4.  What's Important to accomplish by next week?







5.  Continuation of discussion on our roles for network problems and how/when
     to alert campus of problems with network services:    [tabled]

     - backup role for Justin's role and David's role.


     - Brenda's role as information clearinghouse and her backup.


     - how to program (record messages) for the HOTLINE (x2884)




6.  AGENDA for next meeting: