Final Meeting minutes 2/24/04

[Willie Northway <willn@xxxxxxxxx>]

Only a minor revision was made.

- Willie

UMCE linux meeting: Feb. 24, 2004
======================================

Agenda
    Agenda Review
    Active facilitation - Willie
    Norms/Intros - Wes
    Rack Update - Andrew
    RAID init script - Jane
    CVS Update - Andrew
    RC Scripts - Sean
    Validation Process - Sean
    Evaluation of our process - Willie

Attendance
Jeff, Albert, Kevin, Dan, Rodger, Jane, Patrick, Liam, Sean, Willie,
Andrew, Wes, Gab, Bill, Tony, Marcus, Martin, Ray


Active Facilitation - Willie
---------------------
Willie would like to see active faciliation with time limits, fewer 
interruptions, more structure. We're trying something new with this 
meeting, where the facilitator actively calls on people who want to 
speak. Otherwise, if the floor is open, then feel free to speak up.

Willie did not receive any agenda items via email. In the future, 
please send the items that you'd like to discuss to the facilitator, 
indicating how much time you'd like to spend (add some padding, as we 
generally go over).

Norms - Wes
---------------------
If we don't have agenda items via email, what do we want to do?
Agenda items prior to meeting can be helpful for people to determine 
whether they should attend
Meeting agenda reminders and meeting notes from prior meeting
Do we have the meeting anyways? Or not?
Many carryover items from previous meeting can be discussed
Outside discussions happen around the meeting
Progress reports- a possible standing agenda item
Identify action items at the end
Delegate a person to track action items
Next meeting facilitator can pull action items from last meeting

Racks and separation of radmind and linux development were not 
addressed at the last meeting

Mail archive - searchable
Meeting minutes on ~umce web site
Introductions at the beginning of meetings

matters arising:
kevin thinks the umce.linux mail group should be archived, searchable, 
available as html, etc.
jane thinks there should be a umce linux web site.

question: does silence = assent? response: no, it doesn't
consensus: after items are discussed and opinions are raised, then the 
question "Are there any objections?" Or "Does any want to block?" gets 
asked. Otherwise, we've reached consensus.

Compromise, everyone agrees to work together, and generally benefits 
the group better.
When consensus is reached, needs to be clarified so that we're all 
aware of what just happened.

We should summarize agreements at the end of the meeting, as part of 
the meeting evaluation.

CVS status
---------------
Jane reports that accounts are being created on orcrist
Machine is up, accounts need to be added
Groups will establish their own deadlines for moving over
UMCE will have a consolidated server before attempting to bring others 
in ITCS or the U into the repository
Web server CGI with CVS access, outside discussion (webteam mirror 
archive on machine w/ apache?)
Jane will schedule a meeting to discuss web stuff and give
others an opportunity to raise outstanding issues.

Marcus, Kevin, Liam, Willie, Wes, Sean, Jane would
like to be involved in this meeting

Racks
---------------
21 inch rack are being replaced with sq hole 19 inch racks
Part of the IFS row freed up by summer for Web
No place to stage racks so ordering them in 2 stages
will order rails to retro-fit machines to fit in square-hole racks
Request for information on racks to be posted - Andrew
Rack questions and concerns should be addressed to
Andrew or Steve Kolasa?

RAID monitoring init script- raidm-lfs.T
---------------
tabled for another meeting

RC Scripts
---------------
Sean said a while back he would like to put init scripts into CVS on 
equillibrium
CVS
    - copied lfs-base-1.2.1.T copied into
    lfs/init.d/ <- /etc/rc.d/init.d
    cvs co -d init.d lfs/init.d

    Okay, if you are root, but:
        - won't overwrite what is there
        - a timestamp problem
        - CVS dir gets created
    Sean wants to be able to figure how to use this effectively

    lfs-rc.T created
    lfs-rc-1.0.0.T created

    Then tried to check this out onto sixthday instead
    But still doesn't get scripts on machine
    Sean would like feedback on how to make this work

    What about symbolic links

    Transcripts include rcx.d
    make file for CVS rc area
    make install and make safeinstall
    is cvs double tracking? but this will track intermediary changes
    tracking by file versus set of files in version

    RC group: Sean, Marcus, Gabi, Jane, Wes, Kasturi
    Sean will schedule the rc meeting

Validation Process
-------------------
    Last meeting agreed to naming, go through transcripts, and rename 
transcripts
    Sean was going to write up format for transcript
    Are we documenting transcripts or software packages?
    Would be changes to readme files
    Sean: "lfs-" prefix would notate that it has build notes and has 
version control and follows naming conventions
    Transcripts need to be retroactively named
    Check can be self-policed by the fact that if someone else uses it, 
they can verify it
    Perhaps we need additonal requirements
    Group will go through and sort through "lfs-" prefixed transcripts
    Transcripts that are left can be addressed by the group later on
    Renaming only for items that don't meet format
    Jane reverse names, Sean uses lower case .t
    Documentation is important for "lfs-" prefixed transcripts
    Kernel is called "lfs-kernel-server" and "lfs-kernel-generic" 
naming allows for granularity and subset
    Patrick is working on hierarchy and is almost done
    Sean is working on the format and will be discussed via email, and 
proposed at the next meeting
    Wes feels that documentation is important but not sufficient for 
vetting transcripts

Production Space
-------------------
    Rich Boys has some racks in SI, if people need off-site space
    no conditioned power or UPS
    Possibly an addition to SEB space
    old CC
    does not have security
    does not have updated HVAC
    half network infrastructure taken out after fire

Evaluation of process - Willie
-------------------
    Went well
    quick one liners okay - lighter mood
    facilitate communication, not to shut people down, so everyone can 
contribute
    notepad to remember what your thoughts were
    person who has the floor should not abuse the floor

Missed Meetings
-------------------
    People who are interested in particular topics where we have
    offline meetings need to make known their desire to be
    involved.  Feedback via email, etc is also fine.  Missing
    several meetings and then raising issues later at the
    main meeting is counterproductive and frustrating to
    coworkers.  Progress on these issues is key and constantly
    revisiting topics is not always possible.

    Side conversations, nice balance for meetings are a concern

    Process works for Kevin and others
    Request that Willie will facilitate next meeting

Tabled for future meetings
-----------
- Versioning does not make it apparent what version kernel is.
- RAID monitoring init script- raidm-lfs.T


Next Meeting: Tuesday, March 9th, 3:00-4:30pm Building 3-2525


--
Willie Northway                  University of Michigan Webmaster Team
http://willienorthway.com/       http://www.umich.edu/~umweb/