UMCE SYSTEMS & SERVICES
September 1998
Status Report
PRINTING SERVICES (includes SAMBA and netatalk)
Printing statistics for September 1-30, 1998 --
298,455 jobs
1,071,888 pages printed
8868 zero-page jobs
This is a 56% increase over the same time period last year.
CORE JOURNALS PROJECT - project number 10013/T0002
The Core Journals project is a partnership with UMI deploying around 1000 core journal titles in all disciplines in image format, linking them with Wilson Indexes in MIRLYN and putting in place the necessary structure for printing, accounting, and billing.
Core Journal Print statistics
are available
at http://www.lib.umich.edu/libhome/Systems/statistics/core/PRT9899.HTM
(CB)
ITD and MCIT reached an agreement on how to more effectively manage initial operations of the GroupWise migration currently in process at UMMC. This agreement improves communciation between MCIT and the Online Directory, IMAP, LAN/NOS and other UMCE infrastructure services.
Close to a 1000 double mail routing entries were deleted in the X.500 directory. We will continue to run through this process weekly and reassess progress. The process includes deleting the IMAP routing entry for users with 2 directory entries and NO IMAP mail box access/use in over 30 days. (If they're not reading their mail in their IMAP mailbox, we won't route it there anymore.) The email box will remain, but no new mail will be routed there via X.500.
An e-mail message was written by the Med Center committee and sent to all affected users. 4-help has the message and the list of those who received it. Questions are being referred to the MCIT help desk.
The agreement with MCIT allowed us to move forward with the expansion of
the IMAP boxes to 10M, as described in the Basic Computing Package. This
occurred on the morning of September 6 during the normal IMAP service
maintenance window.
(WC)
(no report)
Novell NetWare:
Microsoft Windows NT:
Microsoft Exchange:
Novell GroupWise:
The Lotus Notes server, Prod1, has been experiencing an http problem since September 21. After exhaustive testing/debugging with Tom Knox and Gonzalo Silverio, the http problem appears to lie with Notes itself. Version 4.6.2 was installed on the Development server on September 25, in hopes that the new version might contain fixes to correct the http problem. However, testing has thus far proved inconclusive. Information was gathered that indicates that the server error does not immediately cause a loss of service. Apparently, the error must recur several times before disrupting service to the users. Proactive action (careful monitoring, and rebooting before a loss of service occurs) has been taken to prevent the users from actually seeing that the problem exists. When the service fails, only the web users are affected; it does not interfere with the M-Pathways production service. In September, there was a total loss of service to the users of about 3 hrs, 13 minutes. We experienced 3 complaints from users during this period of downtime. The problem is being monitored regularly, 7x24, and is under investigation.
Tom Knox, from the Office of Instructional Technology, presented a demo at the September WWW-SIG of the course tools OIT has developed in Lotus Notes. The product was well received by representatives of units attending. Schools currently participating in the pilot of these course tools include Business, Law, Social Work, Pharmacy, and Nursing. During the Fall start of courses, 18 new course databases were created and populated with 1159 students accessing course information provided by their professors. Other schools interested for Winter 1999 include the Medical School, Public Health, and LS&A. On October 22, a second presentation will be given to other faculty who may be interested in seeing how this OIT-developed course tool may be used in their teaching environment.
Statistics for September -- 31.23GB of data was served up between Prod1, Mail1 and the Development server. Total messages routed equaled 6,458,705 (average 153,778 per day). Currently there are 3,141 Lotus Notes users in the ID file.
As of September 30, the two ITD Meeting Maker servers had been up and running for 58 days with no human intervention. The two servers have a combined total of almost 1200 user accounts -- 671 on one, 516 on the other.
ON Technology has released Meeting Maker version 5.5. We plan to upgrade
the two ITD-run servers, as well as the other four servers attached to the
ITD-run hub, over the weekend of November 5-8, beginning at 5pm on November
5. This version brings the long-awaited ability to publish calendars in
HTML.
(ML,MP)
Online Directory Services (project 10622)
The purpose of the Online Directory Services team is to further the mission of U-M's Information Technology Division by deploying a set of high performance, large-scale, standards-based online directories that integrate various technologies and University business processes into services that are relevant to campus computing users.
Delivering accurate directory information to its users on a timely basis is the fundamental mission of a good directory service.
General Information:
Members of the Online Directory Team, in conjunction with ITD Web Services, IAA, and the IMAP team, developed five options for providing an email redirection service for the Alumni Association's Online Alumni directory.
The prototype of a CGI-based LDAP client has had extensive review, and recommended changes and enhancements are being incorporated. A release candidate was expected to be available on September 20. The delay may impact the planned release date of November 1.
Usage:
As of September 30, the directory contained 207,933 entries. It sustains around a half-million query requests per day. Directory usage has experienced the expected Fall term traffic increase. A weekly directory usage report is available on job.itd.umich.edu (please contact the team at diradmin@umich.edu to arrange for access).
New Features:
Technical Achievements:
The current directory server software (ISODE R2.0v3)
Efforts are continuing to improve the availability and reliability and performance of the directory. The additional monitoring of disk usage, implemented to prevent directory failures due to full-file systems, has met with success.
The testing of the on-line batch update tool that will allow for updating directory entries with authoritative administrative data without placing the directory in read-only mode has been successful. Though further testing is required, deployment plans are being developed.
Efforts continue to deploy a test environment for the current directory under both Sun OS4 and Solaris 2.6.
Netscape Directory Server 3.0:
Work continues. Build time has been reduced to under 20 hours. In early tests the build took 48 hours. Additional memory will be added to the test server to determine the impact memory has on the build process.
Related Mail Services -- REQ, Listserv, targeted email (Project number 10592):
The REQ system and Lyris listserver are run on "fifth-element", a SPARC 20 running Solaris 2.5.1) each service has it's own IP address Lyris (listserver.itd.umich.edu) REQ system (req.itd.umich.edu) because Lyris maintains its own sendmail system and would otherwise be in contention with the sendmail daemon that REQ uses. Additional disks are being added to fifth element in order to meet campus demand for listserv service. Additional lists can not be created until the disks are installed.
A continuing request is for "shared mailboxes" where several users access the same mailbox, enabling a mailbox system that is separate from an IMAP box. REQ provides some of this facility, but each member of a REQ group receives each mailing to the group, and it remains the responsibility of each group member to "claim" ownership of a message via the ancillary REQ commands. We are working on a draft proposal to both investigate a "temporary" solution to this shared-mailbox problem using the Lyris listserver and its web interface. A longer-term solution is possible with the previously investigated shared mailbox facility offered by CMU's Cyrus IMAP service.
Planning continues with efforts to run an SSL-encrypted web server to secure the very fine Lyris web interface (http://listserver.itd.umich.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl). Lyris currently has some 5,100 subscribers in its database, including 2,500 subscribers to NewsfromITD@umich.edu. Work with the Law School, and the Alumni Association to solve various information delivery problems is progressing satisfactorily.
Continue to work with the Classlist/UMIE group toward the goal of moving University class groups, currently maintained in X.500, to the Listserver.
Owing to recent experience with administrative offices, procedural and policy issues surrounding Targeted Email are being reviewed.
Team members: Joe Gelinas, Zoe Gurevich, Steve McFarland, Lance Sloan,
Jim Sweeton, Howard Young, Ellen Vaughan
(EV)
Subscriber count, as of September 30: 3253
| Subscription type | # subscribers | increase from August |
| Maize or Blue package | 2290 | +23 |
| Custom or campus subscribers | 963 | -9 |
| Total | 3253 | +14 |
New accounts created - 84
Cancellations - 91
September Milestones: The new trimmed-down application brochure is available. Due to a clerical error, eligibility information listed in the brochure is inaccurate; various methods of correcting the document are being considered. In keeping with the goal of aligning UM Online with campus offerings -- the Basic Computing Package (BCP) -- UM Online will no longer promote package options. UM Online will be promoted as a service; component parts will no longer be sold separately. Plans to migrate existing custom subscribers to the package are being developed.
The UM Online user guide available as both hard copy and on the web is being updated. The information is being made more modular and, where possible, consolidated with existing ITD documentation. The goal is to avoid duplication of effort.
In September, we bid farewell to Brian Vaughan who has left the University to pursue other opportunities with Borders Books. Brian's friendly manner and positive enthusiasm will be missed.
Monthly statistics, including RealAudio, are available at
http://www.umonline.umich.edu/stats/
As of September, statistics for the secure area are again being recorded.
UM Online core team: Linda Green, Ellen Vaughan(project leader)
Web support: Scott Williams
Technical writing: Susan Topol
Customer triage: Karon Bernhard, Chris Meono
(EV)
(no report)
(RG)
General Purpose Computing Cycles
General Information: Collaboration efforts with the IFS team, Web Services, and the Online Directory Services team continue. These efforts are focused on the deployment of the Solaris 2.6 template. Service collaboration with ITD Contract Services for the PowerAdmin service was reviewed and will continue.
ITD Login Service (Project 10001)
Usage: The ITD Login service has 92085 subscribers, up 10% from June. On weekdays, our pool of 16 login machines supports an average of 1800 concurrent users between the hours of 10 AM and 5 PM, peaking at over 1900 users.
New Features: Significant changes in the works continue to include the move of the machine room to Arbor Lakes. We expect this move to take place during the mid- winter break. Development efforts have been focused on the deployment of Solaris 2.6. Task goals are ahead of schedule, deployment by end of the calendar year is a certainty.
ITD Statistics and Computation Service (Project 10006)
Usage: The ITD Statistics and Computation service has 1273 subscribers. During the day, as many as 25 concurrent users run everything from SAS and SPSS to Pine and home-grown Fortran programs on our Ultra 2300. Targeted e-mail customers also make use of the service to deliver bulk electronic mailings. The list of software available on the service is available at http://kiosk.itd.umich.edu/software
New Features: Work on the batch processing subsystem and alternate local home directory support on the main Statistics server, poleposition.rs.itd.umich.edu has been completed.
Workstations at NUBS and Angell Courtyard Computing Resource Sites: GPCC supports 10 high-powered UNIX workstations around campus for the subscribers of the ITD Statistics and Computation Service. These workstations have the same applications available on them locally as are available on the Statistics and Computation Service. The intended purpose of these workstations is to provide a graphical-capable interface to powerful UNIX computing resources. There are 6 Sun Ultras at NUBS and 3 at Angell Courtyard (specifically, they are Ultra 1-170s), and 1 Ultra at CSCAR (Ultra 1-140). We record an average of 55 users logging in to each machine per day.
ITD PowerAdmin Service (Project 10828)
Usage: This service now supports 94 machines (including the Login Service and Statistics and Computation Service machines).
Technical Achievements: Members of the IFS team continue to Beta test the Solaris 2.6 template in conjunction with their migration to Solaris.
As has been the case for many months, no outages or degradations in service were recorded or reported for the Login service during September. Specific usage and reliability information is available at http://kiosk.itd.umich.edu/status.html
Team members:
Aidan Dysart (student), Airyn Darling, Liam Hoekenga, Jeff Horwitz, Seth
Meyer (student), Lee Pearson, Gus Shaffer (student), Ellen Vaughan
(EV)
The UMCE Identification, Authentication, and Authorization (IAA) service is responsible for the UMCE uniqname service, UMICH.EDU Kerberos authentication service, and UMCE Protection Group (authorization) service. The Kerberos database contains ids and passwords for over 170,000 users. At peak periods, more than 4500 authentication requests per hour are sent to the Kerberos servers from just the GPCC login machines.
We had performance problems at the beginning of the Winter term (slow file access, slow logins to GPCC machines, etc.) during periods of peak usage. The problem was that the IAA Protection Group Servers needed more computing power. Two server machines were upgraded during August to improve performance. The new machines are more than twice as fast as the machines they replaced. During the beginning of the Fall 98 term, the performance and reliability of the IAA Protection Group Servers, running on the new machines, has been excellent.
Currently the UMICH.EDU Kerberos server only supports Kerberos
Version 4 applications. In order to support Kerberos Version 5
applications, such as Oracle, we have started a project to migrate
the Kerberos server to one that will support both Kerberos Version 4
and Version 5 applications. We are adding
code to the uniqname server to add uniqnames to the MIT Kerberos
Version 5 database when uniqnames are created.
We are exploring
using Kerberos Version 5 authentication with Oracle. Current
plans are to migrate to the new server during the Christmas break.
(MG)
The UMCE Institutional File Service (IFS) provides a distributed file system based on Transarc's Andrew File System (AFS). Students, faculty, and staff store files in IFS home directories. IFS files can be shared with others, may be accessed remotely from Windows, Macintosh, and unix machines, and can be used to create web pages. There are currently over 98,000 IFS home directories and the IFS stores over 432 billion bytes of data.
The Basic Computing Package, beginning Fall 1998, provides 10 MB IFS home directories to all eligible students, faculty, and staff. The previous Basic Computing Package provided 5 MB IFS home directories.
New hardware is being installed that will increase the IFS storage capacity by 150 billion characters. The new RAID disks are expected to be significantly more reliable than the disks being replaced.
New tape and server hardware and backup software are being investigated to improve the speed and reliability of IFS backups.
The IFS team is migrating the eighteen AFS file servers to the latest version (3.4a) of Transarc's AFS software and to the latest version (4.2) of the AIX operating system. During September, several AFS file servers were upgraded to the new software.
All of the IFS and IAA hardware will be moved from the North Campus Computing Center to Arbor Lakes during the first quarter of 1999. Planning for this move is progressing.
Outage information for the IFS and IAA services is being collected.
These reports are still "under construction", but these are the
current
reports.
(MG)
No downtime. Working on training new staff since the departure of Brian
Vaughan. New hardware expected any day now.
(AI)
Traffic/server statistics for September (see www.umich.edu/admin/ for details):
| Personal sites | 13,996,395 requests served | 327,140 Mbytes transferred |
| Departmental sites | 25,431,340 requests served | 120,390 Mbytes transferred |
In September, we had a total of two hours of downtime, when one machine was down out of five.
The following departments are using our eXtended CGI (XCGI) development space --
The following departments are using our RealAudio service --
Detailed information on production Web server configuration and statistics can be found at http://www.umich.edu/admin/.
| WEB Statistics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Month | #Requests | #bytes | #hosts |
| September '98 | 39,427,735 | 447,530,000,000 | 1,085,131 |
| August '98 | 29,964,922 | 397,407,000,000 | 991,323 |
| July '98 | 28,978,929 | 389,653,000,000 | 974,431 |
| June '98 | 26,185,232 | 363,300,000,000 | 842,194 |
| May '98 | 33,020,461 | 470,678,000,000 | 1,087,264 |
| April '98 | 39,244,969 | 482,842,000,000 | 1,186,519 |
| March '98 | 43,269,428 | 562,826,000,000 | 1,397,258 |
| February '98 | 39,306,839 | 500,152,000,000 | 1,369,004 |
| January '98 | 44,224,703 | 564,978,000,000 | 1,421,379 |
| December '97 | 35,845,639 | 412,084,000,000 | 1,083,893 |
| November '97 | 40,298,091 | 443,271,000,000 | 1,263,023 |
| October '97 | 38,728,218 | 453,687,000,000 | 1,214,015 |
| September '97 | 32,966,652 | 379,847,000,000 | 989,069 |
| August '97 | 26,041,042 | 402,853,000,000 | 879,697 |
| July '97 | 23,809,743 | 336,930,000,000 | 840,724 |
| June '97 | 24,719,653 | 371,159,000,000 | 885,560 |
| May '97 | 25,344,926 | 451,719,000,000 | 987,880 |
| April '97 | 29,127,665 | 503,439,000,000 | 1,037,846 |
| March '97 | 28,982,975 | 526,444,000,000 | 1,023,042 |
| February '97 | 25,235,434 | 505,740,000,000 | 963,613 |
| January '97 | 31,910,670 | 543,198,000,000 | 1,008,447 |
| December '96 | 27,231,105 | 539,371,000,000 | 936,470 |
| November '96 | 27,148,553 | 557,387,000,000 | 975,816 |
| October '96 | 26,524,215 | 545,485,000,000 | 948,786 |
| September '96 | 19,600,827 | 382,286,000,000 | 734,210 |
| August '96 | 17,509,927 | 350,465,000,000 | 691,707 |
| July '96 | 16,958,757 | 327,815,168,000 | 681,536 |
(CK,DW)
Availability: There was no Confer U downtime in September
| STATISTICS | |||||||||||||
| Jan'97 | Nov'97 | Dec'97 | Jan'98 | Feb'98 | Mar'98 | Apr'98 | May'98 | Jun'98 | Jul'98 | Aug'98 | Sep'98 | ||
| Total Conferences | 304 | 68 | 75 | 57 | 44 | 44 | 36 | 39 | 38 | 37 | 37 | 40 | |
| Total Participants | 11,310 | 6,660 | 6,733 | 6,837 | 2,300 | 2,300 | 1,316 | 1,350 | 1,360 | 1,377 | 1,384 | 913 | |
COW software was upgraded on Sep Sep 7, 1:29 am. (NO DOWNTIME).
The upgrade additions and changes include --
Availability: There was no COW downtime in September
Confer U & COW Team: Dave Winkel, Doug Heavrin-Brown, Linda
Green, Scott George, and Zoe Gurevich.
(ZG)
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