Transcript Glasgow status

Glasgow status
A.Flavell
For HEPSYSMAN July 2004
Overview
• This does not cover SCOTGRID, although
this is now a major part of our effort
• Group/Department/Faculty/Campus...
• Windows
• Linux
• Network
• Mail
• Web
Group/Dept/Faculty/Campus
• There's a long history behind this, in which, wayback, Particle Physics was basically the supplier of
computing, email, local networking, and nobody
trusted anyone else to provide...
• Much of what we do now is just ordinary, and we
know we ought to stop micro-managing, and get
the benefits of scale
• But it's easier said than done!
• This thread runs and runs...
Group/Dept/Faculty/Campus
• Some activities migrated up to Department level
• Some activities migrated from the centre down to
us... (but not very much, TBH)
• Recently we've been steered towards joint efforts
within the Physical Sciences Faculty
• This is in effect an extra layer, that previously
didn't get involved in computing matters. We find
some useful common interests, but also some
substantive differences.
Windows
•
•
•
•
Campus is traditionally Novell-based
Group and dept use MS Networking
Faculty is partly the one, partly the other
Campus standardised on Windows/2000
desktops, with XP deferred until later.
Campus suppliers must deliver Win/2000
• Research groups spend their money
differently: some now buy machines with
XP installed and no /2000 support
Windows (2)
• Campus offers support for a "Standard Staff
Desktop", but the dept has its own ideas...
• Lack of specific training means we have to
support Windows systems with multiple
fractions of an FTE, but don't know how to
use Windows management effectively, so
we seem to get all the disadvantages of a
complex Windows setup, but few of the
benefits of scale.
Windows in practice
• Existing "NT4" domains being dismantled
• Couldn't wait for campus to do Active
Directory, so the dept "went it alone"
• Research groups migrated from their flat
NT4 domains to OrgUnits of AD domain
• The move being completed right now
• Alongside that, NT4 machines being
upgraded to Win2K or given a decent burial
Linux
•
•
•
•
Most particle physics desktops are RH9
Some CDF are Fermi Linux (7.3)
Servers use various
Strong interest in Scientific Linux, but only
trial installations so far, no "real" users
• Campus said no to a RedHat campus license
• Worrying about complexities of license
management
Linux - various points
• CUPS printing does some odd things
• Hoping to get GnomeMeeting organised on
more than just experimental basis
• Is there a neat way to install ALSA?
Dual-booting?
• We tried dual-boot desktops in the past
• Not a success. A given system tends to stay
in one OS, and the other one decays
• But laptop users insist on both
• Department is treating laptops as hostile
• PPE hasn't gone that far yet
• Most PPE desktops are managed Linux
• Minority are Windows (2K, still few NT4)
• Some people have one of each
Cross-access
• Windows systems have eXceed, or more recently
trying Cygwin/X. Well-used.
• We didn't mess with Linux access to Windows till
recently
• Some users want rdesktop to access remote
Windows systems
• We still don't offer Windows service locally in that
way
• Windows users access Linux filesystems via
Samba
Network
• Network: no major problems to report!
• Excellent network on campus, good connectivity
to Internet
• Equipment being upgraded to meet Scotgrid and
eScience needs
• Campus web cache can be a problem...
• Future: campus thinking of "default deny" policy;
for now it's ad-hoc deny, including deny port 25 in
and out except registered mail servers
Email
• The dept set up email (exim) with spamassassin
etc. some years back
• Various research groups joined: now covers
essentially the whole dept. Excellent results, but
quite a lot of ongoing effort
• Campus central mailer then introduced
spamassassin etc, with lots of useful discussions
both ways
• Central service is now pretty good in that sense,
but mailbox limit is far too low for some of our
users
Email
• One proposal was to join the central service
while funding our own mailbox storage...
• ...but no! We've been told to provide a
Faculty-wide mail service instead. With of
course the usual multiples of fractional
FTEs to support it.
• Details are still to be worked out.
Web
• Central policy is to consolidate web servers
centrally for security, and also to impose their idea
of accessibility to meet DDA etc.
• But many detailed reasons why people justifiably
need to run their own web servers as a tool rather
than as a publicity vehicle
• Some academics insist on providing their own
web materials while refusing to meet DDA
requirements ("too busy")
• Some content is frankly impossible to meet DDA
requirements anyway
Web (2)
• So the web is in tension, pulled in several
directions. Hard to predict how this will
develop.