University of Minnesota

Institute of Technology

Minutes of ITICC Meeting

December 16, 1999

3:30 p.m., 133 Physics

Present: Bance (ADCS), Carlson (ADCS), Chase (ME), DeLaney (Astro), Flanders (BIN/BNA), Hudleston (IT Stud Aff), Kachelmyer (ADCS), LeMay (ADCS), Li (ECE), MacDonald (CSE&ITlabs), MacEwan (Chem), Miller (Chem), Runzel (CE),

Rusack (Phys), Shield (AEM), Winckelman (Math)

1) Report from CSci and ADCS

No technical problems were reported. Runzel, who is a lab consultant, raised the issue of changing passwords. Students are sometimes unaware why their account is closed. (If password is vulnerable, students are informed and given two weeks to change the password before the account is closed.) They ask consultants, who don't know the reason. Sometimes they will change both NT and UNIX passwords, when only UNIX need be changed. It would help if a list of those who must change their passwords is made available to the lab consultants, so they can answer students questions about this. MacDonald said that notice to students telling them that they must change their password is sent via the tc e-mail account.

LeMay noted that ME308 was kept open until 2 a.m. for the last part of the semester. He said that there were up to 25 people still in the lab at closing time.

LeMay also said that the card reader was not yet installed on the door of Lind 24. It was on order.

2) Lab use this fall - capacity issue

There have been many reports this fall of labs being full, with people waiting to get on UNIX and NT machines. One reason for this is that both EE and ChemE had large classes with assignments that required the use of the NT machines. One interim solution considered by lab management was to switch the 40 Linux machines in EE/Cs 4-204 to NT. A notice the previous week had been put on the door stating this intention; it produced a flood of angry e-mails from the Linux users. MacDonald told them that nothing would be done until the statistics of machine use had been analyzed, which will provide the basis for making rational decisions. MacDonald said he is currently working with the usage data - which is a huge automatically-collected data base tracking use of both NT and UNIX machines.

One thing that will help next semester is that Lind 24 will be open. It will be used during the day as a classroom by Math, but will be free for use as a lab in the evenings. These machines will run Linux.

Shield asked about how remote users affected the picture. MacDonald said that the capacity for such use is huge; there is no danger of this causing any problems. It is the seats in the labs that are the limiting factor.

MacEwan asked if there were plans to install Windows 2000 (planned for release next February). Yes, but we will wait until we are sure it is stable. Would it present problems with memory or performance on the present machines? No.

Runzel asked if CE 230 could be kept open at weekends. Hudleston said that longer hours in CE 230 were one way to increases capacity. There was the issue of whether the building would be open at weekends to allow access. There may be a problem with the layout of the building, but it should be considered.

It seems that all spaces in the labs are filled with computers, although a few more machines can be squeezed in EECS 3-170. All told 13 extra PCs can be added by filling in.

3) Other Business

None