- Review of previous meeting's minutes
- State of ACCIS Projects/Action List
- Active Directory - Wendy D.
- Calendaring - Heather H.
- Central Authentication - Aaron A., Lynda M.
- Computer Rooms Project - Pat W.
- Electronic Mail - Mark U., Markus S.
- FTP - Aaron A., Mark U.
- Software Management - Pat W.
- Standardized Documentation - Jim V.
- Software Licensing - Pat W.
- SLAs Required, Formatting, and Definitions - Jim
V., Pat W.
- Web Conferencing Project - Mic S.
- ACCIS Web Site
- ACCIS Member list
- Open Discussion
- Future Agenda Items
- Action List
(Return to top)
Attendance
- Mesa Lab
- Jim VanDyke - NETS / Chair
- Markus Stobbs - CISL
- Nick Wehrheim - CGD
- Joan Fisher - Recorder
- Terry Murray - DIR/ISS
- Center Green
- Wendy Derman - FA
- Heather Harris - FA
- Alex Eschembaum - FA
- Tim Fredrick - ACD
- Foothills Lab
- Pat Waukau - MMM
- Karl Hudnut-UOP
- Tor Mohling - RAL
- Mic Stremel - DLESE
- Teresa Harris-UOP/VSP
Previous Meeting's Minutes - Approved
Project / Action Item List
- Active Directory - Wendy D.
- Back to the November meeting, there was an email about a temporary password being used, it turned into permanent in some places. Open email was received about the password. Ran a password crack and found over 80 accounts using this password. The system administrators in the affected divisions were notified. Offended accounts have been put in a FA OU file.
- What authority does Wendy have, did she do the right thing, what is the process?
- Is this a CSAC action or ACCIS? Turns out to be a bit of both. Security is included in the business continuity plan, so emergency response at a corporate level was appropriate.
- Even though this had been going on for a while, security is an issue and it had to be dealt with.
- This should be more of a policy thing. Known passwords get checked often and the system administrators are notified and they have 1 day to do something about the account, if it is not done in the time allowed, it is put in jail. This makes a lot of work for Wendy. There is no way to allow the active directory deny passwords.
- SA can override the 6 month password change policy.
- In order to make a policy about cracking passwords doesn't CSAC have to be involved, it should be considered a best practice. Policy is more likely to be read.
- If this were to happen again, Wendy would go to Katy to let her know what is going on, then go to the offenders, inform them what will happen if not changed, security will be notified. She will check with security to find out if it is indeed an emergency.
- Currently testing IE7 and Firefox 2. For the most part it looks good. Doesn't see any showstoppers for upgrading to either.
- The biggest problem with IE7 is with the Ivantage program. The browser can crash if you push buttons in the right order while printing. Most divisions are using it through Citrix. As far as F&A applications are concerned it is ok to upgrade.
- Markus has done some testing and CISL is ready to upgrade.
- Markus's main concern is IE7 throws up an intense warning about certification. A red stop sign, set as the default, comes up. Users assume the red stop sign means don't trust this site and will close. Users need to press the green light even though you want to hit the default. This is going to be a user problem. WEG has been looking into the price of a certificate that is not so ominous.
- Wendy is reluctant to send a message saying IE7 is ready to install. It was recommended that divisional system administrators should install IE7 and not the users.
- Central WSUS Server: F&A is encouraging divisions to set up their own WSUS server. With a group service like this, all divisions must be ready to go when an upgrade happens. If some of the divisions are not ready to upgrade a showstopper is then created for those divisions that are ready. If you run your own WSUS server you can run your own reports to see who is not getting upgrades etc.
- What are the resource requirements? Pretty minimal per Wendy. If a server can run 2003, your server should be able to handle it.
- RAL and CGD currently run their own U.C. WSUS server. Karl H does upgrades manually.
- Media player 11 can be approved on U.C. WSUS if we want. When Media Player 11 is installed for the first time there are several questions to answer. There are group policies to turn this off, although we don't want to set domain policy for these options. Wendy would like to approve at the patch approval time on Tuesday. Group approves.
- Wendy will send out group policies F&A will be using.
- Vista is up on the U. drive.
- MAK and KMS are two types of Vista licenses. KMS will be preferred once in production.
- An interesting problem has arisen, we can't test KMS because we only have 10 licenses, and KMS requires 25 machines before it will function.
- KMS only runs on a vista client, it will not run on a server. This feature has been promised by the first half of 2007. Wendy will be talking to MS and Softchoice tomorrow to see what can be done.
- Another issue is there are no good training materials at this time, there may be some by March.
- VPN and Symantec don't work on Vista.
- Wendy would like to hold off on a corporate wide production approval of Vista until June. Approved by group.
- Lynda McGinley may be able to get the beta version for testing. VPN?
- Calendaring - Heather H.
- Version 8.6 of Meeting Maker has been released. 8.6 does not have palm conduits, mobile handheld will not upgrade.
- Meeting Maker Mobile not included.
- Meeting Maker has formed a partnership with Notify.
- Testing of Notify has not taken place.
- With the 8.6 and Notify upgrade the Room Reservation system project would have to be rewritten. The current Room Reservation project uses 8.5.
- If we don't upgrade the new Room Reservation system would be deployed in April.
- The fix in the Meeting Maker upgrade adjusts for new DST hours and some web client stuff.
- There is too much testing that needs to be done before deployment. If you don't need it don't upgrade.
- What is the cost of handheld licenses? Depends on number of users and if they are wired or wireless. Each device that is hosted costs $300 for 1-9 device licenses.
- Heather has been looking at other calendaring products. Oracle and Communigate will be looked at again.
- Alex recommends we use Meeting Maker for another year while testing other products.
- Why can't we stay with 8.5? Need to find a work around for daylight savings fix. There would be 3 weeks in the fall and spring that would be affected if they are not using daylight savings time.
- FA will determine if 8.5 is acceptable or if we need to upgrade to 8.6. How many resources will it take and how much user headache will be incurred?
- Central Authentication -Markus S .
- Computer Room - Pat W.
- The presentation to the Presidents Council was made, they like the Strategic Plan and approve the path forward, although there is no funding until 09. A team will be created to see how the plan will be implemented.
- The CG2 computer rooms U.C. will be upgraded. Don't have a schedule as to when the upgrade will take place.
- Next week the ISG Help Desk will be deployed. The ISG Help Desk is a request system for items related to the Mesa Lab Computer Room. If you have an item you want to install, move, replace, or remove this request ticket needs to be completed. CISL will be the first to use the system, then once the bugs are fixed it will be made available for other collocation facilities.
- Electronic Mail -Markus S.
- Aaron believes the testing is going well, more hardware has been ordered.
- About 30 people in MMM have been moved, transfers are happening on an individual basis.
- A glitch was encountered when moving the inbox to the mailserver. It would timestamp the date of the transfer and not the original date the mail was sent. A workaround was developed.
- The plan is to have all users moved to the new system by the end of the month.
- So far everyone is happy with the new mail server and web client. All users have 1 gig for inbox.
- Once all people have been moved, a post project meeting will be scheduled, and the feasibility of extending the service to other groups determined.
- FTP - Jim V .
- Software Management - Pat W.
- The presentation was given to the UMC.
- Currently moving forward, the contract was signed last week.
- Divisional contact information should be coming out soon. Training will take place in the future.
- Recommend holding off with Vista until the new vendor is in order and ready to go.
- Standardized Documentation - Jim V.
- Software Licensing - Pat W.
- Ed and Pat have to do testing.
- 6.2 pgi compiler has a fix to get around the license problem.
- SLA's Required, Formatting, and Definitions - Jim V., Pat W.
- Web Conferencing - Mic S.
- A small group met in December with contracts to discuss the RFI responses.
- RFP's will be sent to Readytalk and Intercall (WebX).
- Hope to have the RFP's out by the end of the month.
- ACCIS Web Site- Markus S.
- ACCIS Member List-
Jim V.
- Future Agenda Items-
- Discuss divisional handheld use.
- Review divisional wsus.
- Additional Discussion-
- Nick- At the last meeting it was mentioned that CISL is increasing the user pool to 5 digits. Is there a way to set a range for divisions? CGD is using id's in the 12000 area. If CISL had CGD's numbers they could note so that there is no collision of id numbers. Markus will talk to DBST about user id's that are not UCAS accounts for CGD. Any required field would have to be created. Nick and Markus will talk.
- The 5 digit umf will be rolled on January 23rd. Operational accounts will not be handed out until April 1st.
- Current 4 digit uids are not being changed, they are padded on the front end.
- Kris Conrad in the NCAR Directorate is getting ready to start talking about a new NCAR web presence that we will be building. This is NCAR specific.
- Action Item List-
- Tim will bring the password issue to CSAC. Should it be best practices or policy?
- Markus will write a blurb about the default buttons associated with IE7.
- Representatives are to check with their division(s) and get opinions on divisional U.C. WSUS servers.
- Wendy will send out the set up recommendations FA will be using to install with Media Player.
- Representatives are to go back to their divisions and find out how big of an impact it would be if the day light savings time fix is not used, and how many hand helds there are per division.
- Pat will post the Computer Room Strategic Plan on the ACCIS site.
- CISL and MMM will meet to discuss the Electronic Mail setup.
- Upgrade to 6.2 pgi compiler.
- Mic will notify everyone who participated in the survey to let them know where the project stands. The wiki site will be updated.
- Jim will update the ACCIS web site.
(Return to top)
(Return to top)
(Return to top) |
