11/17/2005 ACCIS Meeting

• Location/Time
• Agenda
• Minutes
• Presentations
• Action Items

Location/Time

Multi-site Video Conference at 9:00-10:30am

Center Green - Building CG1, Room 2655
Foothills Lab - Building FL3, Room 2072
Mesa Lab - Director's Conference Room

Agenda

1. Review of previous meeting's minutes
2. State of ACCIS Projects/Action List
   • Active Directory - Wendy D.
   • Calendaring - Heather H.
     • New Version role out
       
   • Central Authentication - Aaron A., Linda M.
     
   • Computer Rooms Project - Jim V.
   • Directory Services - Aaron A., Lana S.
   • Electronic Mail - Aaron A., Mark U.
   • FTP - Aaron A., Mark U.
     
   • Software Management - Pat W.
   • Standardized Documentation - Jim V.
   • Updates
     
   • Software Licensing - Pat W.
   • Remote Services Evaluation - Anne-Marie
   • SLAs Required, Formatting, and Definitions - Jim V., Pat W.
     • Services List
   • Web Conferencing Project
     
3. ACCIS Web Site
4. ACCIS Member list
   
5. Future Agenda Items
6. Action List

Minutes

Attendance

• Mesa Lab
  • Terry Murray - DIR/ISS
  • Lana Stillwell - SCD
  • Kathy Fischer - CGD
  • Lynda McGinley - SCD
  • Joan Fisher - Recorder
• Center Green
  • Wendy Derman - F&A
  • Bunny Pfau - HAO
• Foothills Lab
• Jim VanDyke - NETS / Chair
• Pat Waukau - MMM
• Anne-Marie Tarrant - RAP
• Teresa Harris - UOP/VSP
• Brandon Slaten - ATD
• Karl Hanzel - COMET
• Mike S. - UNIDATA  -
  

Previous Meeting's Minutes - Approved.

Project / Action Item List

• Active Directory - Wendy D.
• COMET has a share on the Udrive.
• Within the next couple of weeks, F&A will be moving U:\Collaboration,
  U:\FA, and U:\Sysadmin files to a new file server.
• Windows users will not notice a difference. Those connecting to these shares directly using Mac or Linux clients will need to change their paths. 
• An announcement will be made on active_directory@ucar.edu with the new path nformation.
• Calendaring - Wendy D.
• No update.
• Central Authentication - Lynda M.
• The hardware problems on the Gatekeeps has been fixed, they are all up and running.Cisco vpn concentrator talks are happening.
• Looking at a solution for vpn radius.
• Looking into other options for display challenge.
• CSAC is targeting March as the completion date, hopefully one month notice will be given.
• Port 22 will close except for exposed hosts at that time.
• Any Sony CD that says protected on the back is at risk of allowing access to the root kit. Symantec won't detect the Sony root kit.
• Pat is going to check and see if UCAR has any license agreements for other Antivirus packages.
• Lynda McGinley recommends using a firewall and not an additional product. 
• Computer Room - Pat W.
• The transistion from the CRMC to the Computing Facilities Planning Committee has begun.  
• The CFPC and the Computer Operations and Procedures (COP) team met to review the charters and goals. 
• Beginning after the new year the group will meet the 2nd Thursday of every month.
• Not much happening on the project at this time. 
• Directory Services - Lana S.
• The charter is finished and has been sent to ACCIS for review.
• The road map is also complete and will be sent to ACCIS for review.
• Both of these documents may be found at: https://secureweb.scd.ucar.edu/twiki/bin/view/ACCIS/DirectoryServices
• The requirements document is underway. Shared data has been outlined. Currently looking at two main sources of data, HR database and the SCD accounting database. External databases are not being included at this time.  
• If an external database matches the API we are looking at then they would be able to use the system. 
• Jim asked if the group was going to address the issue of private contact information for groups so we can merge facility contact and computer room operators information with the NETS info into one database. Additional information like this will be handled in another phase of the project.
• Lynda McGinley would like to bring in host names and account information for computer use and access. These will also be considered at a later date.
• The scope needs to be limited at this time or it will be too overwhelming and no progress will be made, which happened to the UTIS group.
• Electronic Mail - Pat W.
• A division meeting took place and the project was announced.
• Currently in the process of transitioning to supported clients that are going to be supported before moving to the new server. 
• Allowing MUT, Mozilla, and apple mail.
• Looking at the 1st of December for completion of the transisition to the supported clients. 
• Testing is taking place on a different architecture. Configuration of the subdomain has happened. 
• Pat is in the process of writing documentation for the entire process.
• FTP - Pat W.
• This was to be removed from the agenda and a final close out completed.
• This project will be used as a close out sample. 
• Software Management - Pat W.
• The tracking software task force have met with Softchoice and Software International. They provide basically the same information and saving
• They both provide live snap shot detail which the auditing task force will look at.  
• If the selected vendor does not carry the software you may purchase it elsewhere. 
• Both vendors we are looking at will add additional fields to the database for us. 
• Pat will follow up with the vendors and see if they offer or provide maintenance renewal notification. 
• Standardized Documentation - Jim V.
• The ITC approved the changes that were make to the approval process document for setting up new projects. 
• A service provider approval process needs to be included. Contact with potential service providers needs to happen up front-SCD, NETS, Facilities, etc when a new project is going to be started. 
• Currently working on the project close out document. Hope to have it completed some time in December.
• ITC would like to see better communtication amongst other groups, CSAC, NCAB, WAG, etc. 
• Jim will send email about new services and standards document. 
• Software Licensing - Pat W.
• Ed Arnold and Pat are working with PGI.
• Hope to do testing this weekend.
• Users who do large compiles occasionally get a license denied message.
• Remote Services Evaluation - Ann-Marie T.
• The project survey was reviewed.
• Roughly 1/3 of the 1400 employees have either a desktop or laptop system at home. The bulk being laptops.
• There was some confusion about laptops going from work to home. It is believed that is was not surveyed correctly.
• Anyone who has the ability to work from home should have been counted as "telecommuting".
• The survey was also intended to find out if finances need to be laid out for computer use.
• One group has an actual telecommuting policy, others go on a case by case basis.
• There is no agreement in place across the organization.
• TAP is going before the UMC to promote telecommuting using energy savings as their motivation. TAP will complete guidelines for what NCAR is responsible for, what the supervisors are responsible for and what employees are responsible for. They would like some help from ACCIS but plan to proceed without ACCIS's help.
• More than just computing needs to be looked at, ergonomics, telephone systems, etc. 
• The guidelines that TAP comes up with will have to meet the HR guidelines. 
• The goal is not to create policy, it is to establish guidelines for divisions to follow. 
• It was voted that ACCIS would like to see TAP's guidelines before going to the UMC.
• An adendum survey will be sent out, asked that it be completed within two weeks. 
• Since the survey was incomplete regarding laptops two categories for laptops will be created: Laptops only at home, laptops that go back and forth between work and home. 
• SLA's Required, Formatting, and Definitions - Jim V., Pat W.
• The NETS SLA has been formatted and should be used as a template. 
• The template is on the standard documentation site and links to the standard definition file, just insert the text.
• Identifying services and the missing SLA's will be the next step.  Jim will notify providers of existing services.
• Web Conferencing - Mic S.
• No update. 
• ACCIS Web Site
• Jim and Pat are modifying the user ACCIS page to make it more user friendly when looking for services. 
• ACCIS Member List
• no change
• Future Agenda Items- None given
• Additional Discussion
• The foothills location will be having food at the December meeting if you would like to participate.
• Visitor Information-
• Information was collected from divisions on best practices and arranged on one site.
• Some divisions allow visitor laptops on the internal network, while others give them ucar systems and accounts. Some give restriced access and some do not, some have dedicated logins or shared logins.
• Not sure where to go from here. The ITC asked for the list based on the computer access policy and banner policy that is being created.
• Security does not like shared logins. Maybe the wording should be changed to say shared logins are ok but discouraged unless necessary, be sure they are locked down and have reduced privileges.
• The collected information will be moved to standardized documentation by Pat then sent to the group.
• This is a side task, not going to become a project.




(Return to top)

Presentations

(Return to top)

Action Items

(Return to top)