June 6, 2011

Today's topics:

LEPP Solaris and Linux Compute Farms: Cooling Problems

As usually happens in the spring and fall, the air conditioners in the computer room in the LEPP trailer are having problems coping with the change in the weather. One of them has failed and is waiting for parts. Another of them trips off frequently.

In order to reduce the heat load in that room, the entire Solaris compute farm and the slower computers in the Linux compute farm have been turned off. We hope to be able to turn them on again when repairs have been made.

An announcement will be posted to the mailing list CLASSE-IT-NEWS-L and to the Network Status Web page when the farms are once more fully functional.

The LEPP Network Status Web page is available at https://wiki.lepp.cornell.edu/lepp/bin/view/Computing/NetworkStatus

Information about subscribing to CLASSE-IT-NEWS-L is available at https://wiki.lepp.cornell.edu/lepp/bin/view/Computing/ClasseNews

Requesting new deployments (This includes re-used computers that are going to a new location)

Please notify the LEPP computer group well in advance of needing a computer. We regularly have 4 or more computers in the deployment queue. Each can take several days to several weeks to prepare.

The wiki page https://wiki.lepp.cornell.edu/lepp/bin/view/Computing/RequestingNewComputers shows estimated preparation times for various new deployments, including re-imaging previously used computers. There is a link to this Wiki page on our New Computer Request form, which is at https://wiki.lepp.cornell.edu/lepp/bin/view/Computing/NewComputerForm It also can be found by way of the main LEPP Web page: http://www.lepp.cornell.edu/ --> User Resources --> Computing --> Request New Computer

Please use this Request form for any computer deployment, including requesting re-used computers.

Requesting a New Computer Purchase

Brand new computers have to be signed out of stock by computer group members. When you request a new computer, we need a WBS to charge it to. We strongly prefer to have a SINGLE WBS per stock item. Monitors, mice and keyboards as well as RAM upgrades are stocked separately, so you could use WBS A for the tower, WBS B for the monitor, WBS C for the RAM upgrade (if necessary), etc...

If required, we can split a large purchase among several WBSs, but it saves a significant amount of labor (and thus time and cost) to sign out to a single WBS.

---

General network and server maintenance will occur every Tuesday from 12:00 noon to 2:00 PM. The CLASSE-IT group will always announce any expected disruptions in our NewsLetter and via CLASSE-IT-NEWS-L, but with the size and complexity of our network there is always the potential for something to go wrong. We will do our best to contain all network maintenance and planned outages to Tuesdays from 12:00 noon to 2:00 PM.

Unless other arrangements have been made, CLASSE-managed Windows systems may be updated and rebooted on Tuesday morning at 2:00 AM, so please avoid critical or lengthy operations at that time. For more details, please see SystemExpectations.

---

Questions or problems? Submit a service request.

Other resources:

• CLASSE IT Home Page
• Previous newsletters

---