2 nd Oct 2003Desktop Forum Report Alan Silverman Desktop Forum Report for 2003 Alan Silverman 2 Oct 2003

2 nd Oct 2003Desktop Forum Report Alan Silverman Agenda Why, who, when What, month by month, as taken from the Executive Summary of each meeting Web site is Only accessible from inside CERN, a decision to enable more “flexibility” in the minutes

2 nd Oct 2003Desktop Forum Report Alan Silverman Why a Desktop Forum? to understand the technical and financial issues of desktop computing to establish and maintain coherence in the introduction of new hardware and/or software to suggest to the management means to keep under control the time and frequency of necessary changes to establish strong bidirectional links with users in the Divisions through Divisional Representatives and with external users through a representative of ACCU

2 nd Oct 2003Desktop Forum Report Alan Silverman Who are we and when do we meet? One representative from each CERN Division plus –IT desktop support managers –IT management –User Office Manager (Chris Onions) –ACCU representative (Anna di Ciaccio) –FOCUS representative (Jacques Boucrot) –Security Officer (Denise Heagerty) –SPL buyer (Fatima Najeh) Chairman – Technical Director (Juergen May) Secretary – Alan Silverman Meets (more or less) monthly (apart from a summer break)

2 nd Oct 2003Desktop Forum Report Alan Silverman January 2003 Desktop Support Contract –Presentation of plans to re-tender this contract during 2003 –Must make more effort to get away from pseudo-manpower services –Implies less support for non-standard configurations – accepted by the members –Otherwise structure as now –Risks of disruption or degraded service during hand-over phase; can we afford overlap? EUCLID Migration to Windows –The plan is to move EUCLID clients from DEC/Alphas to standard PCs running standard NICE –Target date for completion was June 2003 –Sometime later we will migrate the servers also to Windows PCs. NICE virus scan policy –It was announced that this will move from a daily to a weekly scan, compensated by more real-time scanning during use. –When a new version is available, it may be possible to let the user choose when to scan –Future plans include virus checking of incoming mails and a scheme for home PCs Filemaker Pro –Request by AB, supported by others, to update the Filemaker Pro licence.

2 nd Oct 2003Desktop Forum Report Alan Silverman February 2003 CERN Campus Network –Everything you ever wanted to know about our network –New version of LANDB, why and what has changed –The major problem continues to be keeping track of people responsible for individual systems –Implementation of the new Technical Network for LHC and for Controls to replace various dedicated networks (PS, SPS, etc) X Terminal Service –Status and history of the service –No plans to stop it but users must realise that hardware repairs are all but impossible –Start thinking about moving to PCs Pre-registration of computing devices –Security forces us to require users to pre-register computers before connecting to the CERN network –Mainly concerns portables –Will be able to do from off-site before coming to CERN –Plans will be presented widely, feedback sought before implementation Filemaker Pro –Which version, who supports, who pays?

2 nd Oct 2003Desktop Forum Report Alan Silverman April 2003 Mail Migration to Exchange –Controlled by an inter-divisional Exchange Migration Task Force –Upgrade of users across the site is on target –All new mail users start with Exchange as their mail server –Problems (usually related to use of a single password for login and mail) are being resolved as they are met –Anti-SPAM mail status report; agreed to set anti-spam filtering on by default Dual-boot PCs –In answer to user requests, IT agrees to run a pilot for supporting certain dual-boot configurations –A standard procedure will be prepared to enable it and users must follow this to get any support NICE 2000 migration –Final report on this migration; only a few systems not migrated, often for good reason –Statement made about use of Windows XP – broadly compatible with W2000, no need to upgrade unless there is a good reason, for example … –XP is recommended for portables (new features especially for them) –But not worth upgrading existing desktops. –New desktops will be delivered with XP Filemaker Pro –AB evaluating the latest release; asked to investigate possible support models

2 nd Oct 2003Desktop Forum Report Alan Silverman May 2003 MAC support. –An agreed support statement was made on behalf of IT, EP and AS Divisions –Concentrate on MacOS 10 –Encourage more use of successful self-help among the MAC community –Purchasing to be handled by SPL, repairs by an external firm –IT support groups will ensure interoperability of browsers, mail clients, web authoring, etc and availability of licensed software on central servers –An implementation plan will be drawn up by an inter-divisional committee Computer Security –Plans to enable AFS password expiry but no date yet –PC hardware address pre-registration plans – coming after the summer –Replace ftp by a more secure tool Connecting a visitor PC –A user talk on the perceived problems when a visitor brings a PC to CERN –Obvious need for better documentation –Only CERN-registered users have the right to connect to the CERN network –CERN staff visiting other labs must take some precautions also (don’t join another Windows domain!) PC Rental Service –Slow take-up so far –Mis-understanding of the cost structure but anyway needs to be kept under review

2 nd Oct 2003Desktop Forum Report Alan Silverman June 2003 Filemaker Pro –Version selected (V6), funding agreed, IT/SLO will purchase and IT will install –Support via a mail list Java Study Group –Java is used across CERN, in many large and small projects –With no central coordination, different tools have been chosen –Users agree that one recommendation would be welcome and people may converge on this over time –Request for an on-going forum to coordinate Java matters and some form of central support for the installation of the JDK and the run-time environment –IT will study the request Desktop Support Contract –Update on the re-tendering – it is late –All users of the service contacted agree to the principle of less support for non- standard systems –All pseudo-manpower sub-contracts will be discontinued Windows Terminal Service –First proposal for a pilot –The main attraction is access to MS-Office from UNIX –Pilot should examine the costs and scalability

2 nd Oct 2003Desktop Forum Report Alan Silverman Agenda for October 2003 File Quota management on the mail servers - Alberto Pace Mail migration to Exchange - progress report - Alberto Pace Computer Account lifetimes - Ludwig Pregernig Registering PC portables, proposal and timing - Jean- Michel Jouanigot Computer Security - latest news - Denise Heagerty