[ edinburgh bits [ bulletin of C&IT services

JUNE 2005 VOLUME 15 ISSUE 10 Continuity testing – averting disasters [ While most of us were easing gently into the New Year, the EUCS Network CONTENTS Team was carrying out a radical test of the procedures which keep the [ University’s data network running. On 3rd January, the King’s Buildings router – a critical component of EdLAN Continuity testing 1 – was switched off to simulate a major malfunction, and crucial services were restored on (cheaper) backup equipment. This was to simulate a catastrophic Upgrade for MIS desktop 1 failure in the network backbone. Within its limited scope, the test was a success, in that critical services Records management award 2 were restored in the allotted time. Several important lessons were learned. First, significant differences in configuration commands on the backup Secure Electronic Delivery 2 equipment were found to be a major slowing factor. Second, the network has changed considerably since the backup equipment was installed, in the Get to grips with the GRID 3 number of Gigabit connections and the extensive use of Virtual Networks, which the backup equipment was not designed to cope with. This led to an Workshop on high-speed networks 3 investigation into a different way of routing, and a realisation that backup equipment will have to be replaced more frequently than originally planned. EUCLID Project: Phase 1 3 Finally, some interesting logistical issues emerged, from overcoming the security system to gain access on a holiday to the fire alarms going off in Storage consolidation 4 the middle for what was a real fire in another part of the building. Had the fire spread we would have lost not only the main router, but the backup Extra Library opening 4 equipment as well (but that would have been the least of our worries). Information about this test – part of a continuous programme of testing eJournals in Library Online 4 and development – is given at http://www.ucs.ed.ac.uk/nsd/continuity.htm Scott Currie (EUCS) SPSS and Sample Power 4

Upgrade for MIS desktop community VideoActive Workshops 4 The promised PC upgrades for admin via the supported desktop. staff users supported by MIS are now Previously unavailable client- New frontiers at ALT-C 2005 4 under way. server systems such as Student All office PCs in Corporate Record, Postgraduate and Salary E-breaks 4 Services Group, Administration, forecasting will be available to any Communications & Student Services authorised user from June. Group and the three College offices There are numerous advantages will be upgraded to the University’s in this change. Crucially, it will supported Windows XP service by provide the best possible virus August. File and print services will protection, which is essential in move from the old Novell setup to the modern online world. Software a new Windows 2003 server base, can be updated automatically, providing users with reduced sign-on so everyone stays in step with to most office applications. the best version. MIS has run a The MIS desktop user community supported desktop for many years, will retain its current email and so appreciates the benefits in ediary services and the IIS5 web speeding up support and problem- publishing service. Users will be able solving that this brings. Other to take advantage of any College/ improvements will be explored School/IS-hosted systems available once the migration is complete. e u c s Bryan MacGregor (MIS) edinburgh bits BULLETIN OF C&IT SERVICES

University wins records management award Secure Electronic Delivery The has received the Records Management Society Documents delivered direct to you Award 2005, for its work in preparing for the implementation of the Scottish The Library’s Interlibrary Loan Freedom of Information Act. The University Records Manager, Susan service exists to borrow – from other Graham, received the Award on behalf of the University at the Society’s libraries in the UK and overseas annual conference at Bournemouth. Dr Paul Duller, the Chair of the Records – materials which are not held within Management Society, said that the University had received this award for its Edinburgh University Library. “outstanding contribution made to the entire Scottish HE Sector in the lead up About 90% of requests handled by to the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act”. the Science and Medical sites are for The Award recognises excellence in the field of records management and copies of journal articles; in other related disciplines. Many people throughout the University contributed to this disciplines, this figure is about 60%. achievement, which Principal Timothy O’Shea described as a recognition of The traditional solution has been the foresight of the University, and of the quality work that was carried out in photocopies sent by post. This preparation for the Freedom of Information legislation. has become rather outdated in the The University intends to use the sound base it has laid in this area to paperless world of Amazon, Expedia ensure that it reaps the maximum benefits from effective records management and Internet banking. British Library practice. Document Supply Centre (BLDSC) Freedom of Information and Data Protection legislation means it is more has risen to the challenge, and has important than ever that our records are accurate, and that we manage them introduced Secure Electronic Delivery appropriately and effectively. Records management helps everyone in their (SED), whereby journal articles can be day-to-day work, by: transmitted electronically directly to • helping you to do your job better, by supporting ease desktop computers. and efficiency of working; Specifically, SED provides a link • protecting you and the University, by showing what to the article on the BLDSC server. the University did and why; The link is active for 14 days or one • saving time, by ensuring that information can be found viewing, whichever comes first. For easily; more information, visit the BLDSC • reducing costs, particularly space costs, by ensuring website at http://www.bl.uk/sed/ you keep only the records you have to; You pay the same price for SED • ensuring records can be relied on and have a high documents as for paper copies, but value as evidence if necessary. the advantage is that articles should Susan Graham (Records Management) reach you at least 24 hours quicker. To use the service you must have access to a personal or departmental computer: SED will not work in the open-access labs. You will also need Acrobat Reader version 6.0 or later; SED does not work with version 5. Digital Rights Management must also be installed on the computer. It is important that you register with the Library before attempting to use SED. We can then establish whether SED is technically possible on your computer. Please therefore contact your ‘home’ Library site or the Interlibrary Loans Department (email [email protected]) in the Main Library for further instructions. The records management team Marjory Lobban (EUL) page 2 The University of Edinburgh JUNE 2005 VOLUME 15 ISSUE 10

Get to grips with the GRID EUCLID Project: Phase 1 During recent years momentum has built in The EUCLID Project is making excellent the development and use of ‘grid computing’, progress, and recently started an exciting whereby resources of computers, data storage stage of analysis with the support of and data held in many organisations and colleagues from across the University. connected by the Internet can be perceived ‘EUCLID’ stands for Edinburgh by collaborations as forming one big virtual University Complete Lifecycle Integrated computer. The academic drive for this is Development. The project has been in seeking to allow researchers from many established to transform student institutes or universities to cooperate in new administration at the University. The ways by pooling their resources. vision is to implement a single corporate There are now major national and student record system to support student international initiatives to establish production- Veena O’Halloran interaction with the University from first Director of Registry quality grid infrastructures that comprise enquiry to alumnus. operations and training, as well as the necessary A crucial part of Phase 1 of the Project, now well under way, is enabling software services. These grids are to understand and document current student administration, welcoming diverse research communities, in the because it is an essential element in analysing how we all want arts and humanities as well as in the sciences. student administration to be carried out in the future. They are interconnecting ‘Campus Grids’, where From February to April a local systems audit was carried out to middleware such as Condor allows computers on document the IT systems in use at a local level to support student a local area network to be a resource for batch- administration. The project team accomplished this by visiting oriented computation. (There is a CampusGrid Schools and Colleges, and held over 60 interviews. The audit meeting in Edinburgh on 16–17 June; see findings confirm anecdotal feedback about the diversity of local http://www.nesc.ac.uk/esi/events/556/) IT systems, and the levels of duplication involved in transferring The National e-Science Centre has a training information between local and corporate systems. Detailed team which is dedicated to accelerating the findings and a copy of the team’s report are available at uptake of these technologies. The schedule http://www.projects.ed.ac.uk/euclid/PROJECT_Docs/BAindex.htm includes courses on the emerging European- The team is now running business process workshops to take funded EGEE grid, and on the UK’s production this activity further, finding out about the processes and people grid the National Grid Service. There are full involved in student administration. details at http://www.nesc.ac.uk/training/ The workshops are proving to be highly successful, with If you would like to request additional training participation from a wide range of colleagues. The team sends events, or would like more information, please sincere thanks to colleagues for all their input and enthusiasm. contact Mike Mineter (email [email protected]). Many workshop participants have commented that the sessions Alison McCall (NeSC) provide a fantastic opportunity to learn about other units and services, while helping to support the EUCLID Project. Workshop on high-speed networks The EUCLID team is producing two outputs from each workshop: NFNN2 is a free workshop for people working at a set of process maps, which give a high-level picture of the the technical level in high-bandwidth dependent process that is easier to analyse than a paragraph of text; and a science, who wish to gain an introduction to narrative account which provides the detail of the actions taken computer networks and their performance issues and their purpose. (TCP, LAN, end-user systems etc.). Both of these outputs will be used to inform the development Although NFNN2 is a general workshop, it will of a vision for student administration. You can review the be of particular interest to those working with documentation as it is completed by visiting the EUCLID website high-bandwidth Grid projects. It takes place from at http://www.projects.ed.ac.uk/euclid/MAPPING/ 12pm on 20th June to 4pm on 21st June at the mapping_index.htm National e-Science Institute, Edinburgh. For regular updates about the EUCLID Project, please register to For more information, email [email protected] or receive copies of the newsletter, by sending your name and email visit http://www.nesc.ac.uk/esi/events/533/ address to [email protected]. Sue Fells (UCISA) Veena O’Halloran (Registry)

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Storage consolidation Software news: E-breaks Computing Services is pleased to SPSS and Sample Power Notes and presentations from the announce that an agreement has We have had a request to add informal seminar series of ‘e-breaks’ been signed with Access Computing ‘Sample Power’ to our SPSS Chest held in 2004–2005 are available on for the delivery of a Storage Area site licence. Please let us know if the elearning@ed website at http:// Network (SAN) to address the data you are interested in this: the more www.elearn.malts.ed.ac.uk/issues/ storage requirements which affect people involved, the lower the cost. news/ebreaks.phtml the whole University. The new Several products can be added The series will continue in SAN will complement the existing to our SPSS Chest site licence, the next Academic Year, running research Storage Area Network. including SPSS Maps and Clementine fortnightly in the same venue, the The immediate focus of the project for data mining. A full list of the Wolfson Suite in the Main Library has been to address the storage additional products can be found on building on Mondays at 12.30. requirements of College servers and the Chest website at http://www. We already have a range of the services provided by IS and MIS. eduserv.org.uk/chest/software/ suggestions for topics that people Much care was taken to ensure that spss2004/overview.html#Heading22 would like to see covered in the the solution was open enough to be Frances Provan (EUCS) series, but would be delighted of use for the more general storage to hear from you if you have requirements of Schools. Storage VideoActive Workshops suggestions for topics or an offer of space on the SAN can be purchased The VideoActive team, based at a presentation. and there is a large backup Glasgow Caledonian University and Contact Wilma Alexander at MALTS infrastructure. It is possible to add , is running (email [email protected], tel cheaper storage later. a workshop at the JISC Regional 516543). More details will be published Support Centre in Glasgow on 15th Wilma Alexander (MALTS) in next month’s BITs, and more and 16th June. The workshop costs information is available at http:// £100, all inclusive. Full information www.ucs.ed.ac.uk/projects/storage/ is at http://www.videoactive.ac.uk/ EDINBURGH BITS If you would like to discuss your Ross Little (Glasgow Caledonian) Editor: own School’s requirements please Nick Stroud, Computing Services. contact [email protected]. New frontiers at ALT-C 2005 Published by: Computing Services Scott Currie (EUCS) The 12th International Conference The University of Edinburgh of the Association for Learning for the Edinburgh IT community. Technology, the UK’s largest Contributions: Extra Library opening Email: [email protected] The Main Library will resume late academic conference on learning Telephone: 0131 650 3345 opening (till midnight) from 6th June technology, takes place at the Distribution queries: BITs is distributed through School offices; until Tuesday evening, 21st June. on 6–8 secretaries please notify changes in This is to allow for extra study time September. This year’s theme is requirements to Carla Zaccardelli: Email: [email protected] for medical students, whose exams ‘Exploring the frontiers of e-learning: Telephone: 0131 650 4999 finish on 22nd June. borders, outposts and migration’. Printed by: University of Edinburgh Printing Services Arrangements will be the same The programme is online, along http://www.pps.ed.ac.uk/about/printing/ as on previous occasions, with an with details of accompanying BITs on the Web: outside security company providing workshops, at http://www.alt.ac.uk/ http://www.ucs.ed.ac.uk/bits/ BITs RSS feed: the staffed presence. altc2005/programme.html http://www.ucs.ed.ac.uk/bits/bits.rss Pam Clouston (EUL) Sue Fells (UCISA) Some acronyms explained: http://www.ucs.ed.ac.uk/ucsinfo/ acronyms.html eJournals easier to find in Library Online NB: if you fail to access a URL shown in BITs, The Library’s technical staff have restored an online service that has been please email [email protected]. particularly missed of late: the A–Z lists of eJournals. This is based on data Contributions to BITs are welcomed. from the Catalogue, so should always be consistent and up-to-date. The list, Copy deadline for July BITs: and a search facility, are at http://tweed.lib.ed.ac.uk/ejournals/ej2.asp Friday 17th June Liz G. Stevenson (EUL) page 4