College of Forest Resources Users Guide

College of Forest Resources Computer Committee (CFRCC)

Minutes for 5th meeting, April 17, 2002

Attendees: Dave Briggs (Co-Chair)

Marc Morrison (Co-Chair)

Karen Russell

Marianne Elliott

Brad Coston

Rob Harrison

Phil Hurvitz

Kendall Carson

Not Present: Bert Loosmore

These minutes were recorded by Kendall Carson and reviewed by Dave Briggs and Marc Morrisson.

Marc Morrisson began meeting by:

1) Acknowledging that minutes for the last meeting could not be posted until personnel issues had been actioned.

2) The committee still needs an undergraduate student representative. Marc will talk to Michelle Trudeau.

Shane Krause - 3^rd Full Time Technician, Bloedel Lab

1) Shane Krause has been hired as the new Senior Computer Technician; he replaces David Haasz as Manager of the Bloedel 311 Lab. He will be located in the same office as Brad Coston.

Additionally, 5 students have been hired to monitor the lab. Lab hours have been changed from 8 – 5 pm (M-F).

2) The Lab will be closed for the summer. Marc Morrisson (per Dean Bare) will be using proceeds from the STF grant to upgrade the lab in addition to providing new computers. The lab will also be cleaned.

Marc informed the committee that all known students who would need the lab during the summer have been accommodated through other means.

The STF Grant

Marc reported that the grant allows the CFRIT group to update the lab with new computers (w/ flat screen monitors). Setting up the machines would take 2-3 days in order get “images” of the old computers while the new computers are being set up.

The Grant allows for new software and printers.

A color printer will also be assigned to student services.

The committee discussed how to charge users of the lab particularly for printing Suggestions included charging students, adding to course charges, and purchasing “material tickets. The committee reached no consensus at this time.

The committee also recognized that new policy issues for the lab would need to be instituted. The following guidelines are now in place but could change with a “official” policy

Only CFR students, faculty and staff will have access to the lab
A CFR account will need to be established. Equipment will only be accessed through a CFR account.
Each quarter accounts will be renewed/updated. Equipment will be re-imaged.

CFR Computer Lottery

A result of the STF grant is that the computers now in the Bloedel Lab will be freed up for other uses. Marc Morrisson designed a “lottery” for these computers. In all, there were 15 available computers. Notice of this lottery was sent to faculty via e-mail on March 14, 2002. At the time of the meeting, there were 15 requests made by 12 faculty members. (3 of the faculty asked for two computers.)

The committee assigned computers according to the following criteria.

The committee allowed one computer for each request (the first 12 computers were then assigned.
Allow there were exactly enough computers left over to fill the remaining requests, the committee reviewed the “need” of these computers over other uses for the computers at CFR. The committee decided it was best to fill the remaining request. (The final 3 computers were then assigned.)

CFR Inventory

Because Inventory is most often associated with inventory by the IT Group, Dean Bare has assigned Marc Morrison to oversee ALL equipment inventory for CFR. Marc reported that the University inventory will begin May 6, and has to be fully completed by August 30, 2002.

It was noted that although inventory is not the domain of the committee, the committee is best prepared to come up with a policy.

Marc noted the following problems:

All equipment needs to be physically located and condition verified. He just cannot assume that this equipment exists and is in a usable condition. ALL equipment must be tagged with a university barcode sticker. Marc will keep the file of all equipment. This is going to be a tedious task .
In the future, inventorying of equipment will begin at the PO level. Budget PI’s need to understand this when they authorize PO’s. When equipment over $2000 is requisitioned, Marc will be notified at this time. Kendall may redesign the CFR PO to assure that equipment gets inventoried. Joyce Johnson in the CFR business office will likely be apart of this process.

Security “Manifesto”

New rules at the University Computing and Communications department have now affected security and policy issues for CFR.

A preliminary “CFR Computer Policy” was put out for review by the committee. The committee reached no consensus on agreement with the guidelines and will review it before the next meeting.

Next Meeting

The committee decided the next meeting would be May 15, 2002 at 3:00 pm in Anderson 107a.

College of Forest Resources Computer Committee (CFRCC)

Minutes for 4th meeting, December 20, 2001

Attendees: Dave Briggs (Co-Chair)

Marc Morrison (Co-Chair)

Karen Russell

Marianne Elliott

Brad Coston

Bert Loosmore

Phil Hurvitz

Kendall Carson

Not Present: Rob Harrison

These minutes were recorded by Kendall Carson and reviewed by Dave Briggs

Marc Morrisson began meeting by:

1) Acknowledging the business since last meeting (March 2001)

2) Acknowledging new members including:

Dave Briggs replaces Bruce Bare as Co-Chair

Bert Loosmore replaces Kevin Gehringer as Grad Student Representative

Karen Russell replaces Gordon Hammond

3) The committee still needs an undergraduate student representative. Marc will talk to Michelle Trudeau

Need for 3^rd Full-Time Technician

The committee discussed issues related to the need for a 3^rd full time appointed technician, including:

Shane Krause, the present technician, is now working with 750 hours of 1050 left before he cannot work. He is now being funding by John Marzluff, CUH, and RTI (Bruce Lippke).
The need is also involved with the use of the Bloedel 311 lab and if the monies used to support the lab can be used to pay for the 3^rd tech. This included a discussion of whether applying for an STF grant was necessary.

The committee reviewed extensively what is needed as for a 3^rd tech and came to one decision and one recommendation.

Decision: Marc, with help from others present a proposal that includes:

· Tasks that can’t done w/o Shane

· Improving desktop and laptop support

· Meeting undergraduate and graduate needs for PC, software, and printing access

· Security issues

Recommendation: Bloedel Lab will be closed and funds redirected toward hiring of a 3^rd full-time tech.

Using Dean’s Equipment budget

As part of Agenda, it was brought to the committee a need to come to a decision to how to use the Dean’s equipment budget.

Two alternatives were brought to the table:

· Upgrade the bandwidth: the benefit would allow for large files (1 GB or more ) to be transferred easily, especially between research groups and centers.

· Upgrade the CFR “Backbone”, i.e. the file servers and back-up storage: the benefit would allow for timelier and far-more reliable backup to all CFR.

At this point the committee reviewed both of these needs extensively, outside the decision to use the deans funds.

The committee reviewed the bandwidth needs and recognizes that the college will soon require the capability to move large files between groups, but this requires more money than is provided in the dean’s budget to meet the needs of the college. Presently, upgrading would only benefit specific groups.

The committee reviewed the “CFR Backbone” needs and found that there will be some immediate requirement since CFR Continuing Education is purchasing an Exchange Server that includes Conferencing hardware and software. Also, there is a very real need to upgrade back-up systems and mass storage media to the whole college.

DECISION: The committee has decided that it will make a hardcopy proposal of both alternatives for review in the next meeting. This proposal will be detailed and include purchasing and equipment requirements.

Policy

The committee discussed policy issues as a corollary to server and backup issues discussed previously. Phil Hurvitz noted that presently there is no “official” usage or web policy. Marc Morrisson further added that there also needs to be a policy for purchasing computer equipment.

Also, it was further noted present rules can’t be policed: no one is assigned as an authority to back up a policy, hence, present policy is only customary, not an true enforceable rule.

DECISION: The committee has decided that (at least) Marc, David, and Karen will review present policy in a separate meeting to be later presented to the Computer committee and the Dean.

Attendees: Bruce Bare (Co-Chair), Kevin Gehringer, Robert Harrison, Phil Hurvitz, Marc Morrison (Co-Chair), Brad Coston and Gordon Hammond.

The topic of discussion revolved around a request to purchase an additional server to be devoted to ESC 110. Professor Harrison presented the case for the new server and the Committee concurred. Funds for the purchase of the new machine will be borne entirely by student fees collected for ESC 110. Mr. Coston will facilitate network needs related to the new machine. After Spring term, Professor Harrison agreed to investigate ways to utilize the CFR WWW server to meet his needs. Mr. Coston will help him move his material to this server.

Attendees: B. Bruce Bare (Co-Chair), Marc Morrison (Co-Chair), Marianne Elliott, Brad Coston, Kevin Gehringer, Rob Harrison, Phil Hurvitz, Justin Knobel, Kendall Carson, Chadwick Oliver

Bruce Bare gave general questions (listed below) for discussion during this meeting:

These questions came from a review of responses to the CFR Computer Support Survey. This survey was e-mailed to all CFR staff and faculty in the December. There were ten responses by staff/faculty, other than members of the CFR Computer Committee.

Marc Morrison then outlined some issues regarding responding to service calls including:

Marc and Brad also noted that there is no published standard for handling priorities. They both noted that while faculty "expect" teaching issues to be responded to first (in general they are), that in an emergency, everybody is considered equal.

They also brought up that the present (three) members of the staff decide as a group how to respond.

The discussion of service call responses then became a discussion of security issues within the College.

Marc stated that Support Personnel (Marc Morrisson, Brad Coston, Mike Long) should be notified all maintenance issues, even those with University C&C. He noted that some faculty and staff want nothing to do with the support personnel, but that puts the college at risk.

This is important, because Support Personnel have to deal with different policies concerning the operation system, software patches, maintenance, and purchasing.

Bruce Bare noted that Laptops are also a security issue. Brads responded that the Laptop security is an issue depending on the laptop's access to the network domain. Marc noted the best response is that laptop access should be through a CFR user account. Kevin noted that this will help block the "big holes" so Support Personnel can deal with the "small" holes.

Brad and Marc also noted some of the serious security breaches at the University and the CFR (e.g. Linux Box "denial of service", hacking incidents at the hospital). Marc then noted that to respond to these issues, Support Personnel have to find the machine and "shut it down" or "unplug the college from the system", and that this may mean that faculty and staff may not be able to operate independently of the college.

Brad noted that some solutions might be network server upgrades and using TCP/IP Protocols.

Brad and Marc also noted that Support Personnel could not provide equal support for Mac's. Right now, most Mac users/centers are getting by. If problems become more common, should they hire a person to deal with Mac (Apple) issues?

Brand and Marc also noted that there are bandwidth and line cable issues. The University only runs fiber optic up the building(s). It may cost from $4000 to $7000 per floor to upgrade to the needed level.

The discussion of security issues closed with Bruce Bare forming a subcommittee that will answer:

Staffing issues centered on teaching support. The CFRCC did not actually discuss if there was a shortage of personnel. Instead the discussion centered on support of computer labs at CFR. Marc noted that computer labs seemed to be govern well, but the committee discussed the following were issues.

Bruce Bare delegated a subcommittee for dealing with CFR website issues. These members include: Brad Coston, Marianne Elliot, Justin Knobel, Chadwick Oliver, and Kendall Carson.

Marianne Elliott briefly discussed the result of the website and web usage survey.

The CFR Computer Committee met from 2:30-4:00 pm on 1/3/01 in the Health Sciences Rotunda. The principal topic of discussion was what type of web authoring software to install in the BLD 311 student laboratory. Our deliberations lead us to the following conclusions: