Core Services Cumulative Monthly Report

Core Services Cumulative Monthly Report, February 2005

New and improved services

Dec: Marsh, in coordination with Blanco, installed Apache on sambuca to enable custom CGI development for the IR project.
Jan: Snavely installed the Java CoSign software on sambuca to prepare for integrating DSpace with CoSign for authentication to the institutional repository.

Infrastructure

Nov: Marsh and Snavely selected a high-performance switch to underlie the first storage network, and Snavely placed the order.
Feb: Marsh installed and configured the new storage server, whisky, and the storage network switch in the Central Campus server environment.

Jan: Snavely installed and configured COSIGN on bernie, the new Web Services development server. This will provide an environment for Web Services to migrate web applications that use Library Authentication to begin using COSIGN.

Dec: Snavely, working with Stephenson and Willett, reviewed options for persistent identifier schemes for the library and settled on a preference for CNRI handles. This preference will be reviewed with appropriate colleagues within the library.
Jan: Snavely installed and configured the Handle Server software on rum and registered the library with CNRI's global registry.

Nov: Marsh, in coordination with DSS, rolled out temporary DHCP service on sake after the library's primary DHCP server, stella, failed. Plans are still being developed to move to ITCS-managed DHCP.

Nov: Marsh installed and configured scotch, a new file server for the Michigan Digitization Project.
Dec: Marsh and Snavely decided on a storage upgrade configuration for gracie to allow for more free space for Oracle archive logs and disk-to-disk backups, and Marsh placed the order.
Jan: When load scripts began to warn of decreasing free space, Marsh ordered a storage upgrade for dlps10.
Jan: Storage purchased for ARC arrived and Marsh and Snavely devised a new storage upgrade plan, diverting the new storage to gracie to accommodate a new, urgent need to do parallel indexing. Marsh began the process of installing and configuring the storage and ordered a new SCSI adapter for ethel.
Feb: Marsh installed the storage upgrade for Oracle archive logs and disk-to-disk backups on gracie and Snavely migrated the storage into place on the system, thus freeing storage that will be used on ethel. Marsh continued work on the parallel indexing storage upgrade for gracie, eventually involving Sun technical support due to a suspicion of hardware problems.

Feb: Marsh arranged to acquire two large tape libraries from colleagues at ITCS for potential use in a centralized LIT backup service.

Jan: Marsh, working with Steinberg, completed the transition of Web Services to a new Linux-based development server, bernie.
Jan: Snavely installed Oracle and Library Authentication on bernie.
Jan: Snavely dumped the journal management system database so Sheppard could migrate the service, one of the last fizzie dependencies, to production servers.

Workflow, processes, and organizational work

Nov: Snavely recommended the use of FootPrints to LIT managers for handling work requests and scheduling, and suggested a brief refresher session for FootPrints use for the group, to focus on reporting.
Dec: Snavely made basic configuration tweaks to the LIT Core Services project in FootPrints, and Marsh and Snavely began entering current work in process into the tracking database.

Dec: Snavely prepared an overview of Core Services, to be integrated with overviews from other LIT units.

Dec: Marsh and Snavely moved several pockets of old documentation into the new structure on the LIT web site, and Snavely did some basic reorganization, simplification, and editing.

Miscellaneous/Unplanned

Nov: Marsh continued to migrate more users from the local mail server, rum, to ITCS mail.
Dec: Marsh migrated all but the final few users to ITCS mail.
Dec: Snavely configured Samba file sharing on the MDP file server and, in coordination with Gietzen and Potter, finalized the design of scripts that will automate the quality review process.
Jan: Marsh completed the migration of mail users from the local mail server, run, to ITCS mail.
Jan: To work around a Solaris system limitation, Snavely compiled and installed a new 64-bit version of Perl on dlps10. After testing, Marsh distributed the new version of Perl to dlps8 and dlps9.
Jan: Snavely compiled and installed throttling software on dlps8, dlps9, and dlps10 to prevent overuse of the systems by automated downloaders.
Feb: After limited success and several attempts at tuning, Snavely concluded that the throttling software added an unacceptable amount of overhead, removed it, and began seeking other options.
Feb: Upon learning that the backup service currently used by DLPS servers on north campus will be discontinued, Snavely pursued a preliminary agreement with ITCS for backup services and began preparations for migrating.
Feb: Marsh investigated a potential problem with memory on gracie, and was advised by Sun that the error was harmless.

System Performance

ethel.umdl (ARC server): No down time
gracie.umdl (Aleph server): Down on Tuesday, February 1 from 11:45am to 12:45pm to resolve a problem with a storage subsystem and on Sunday, February 13 from 9:00-10:15am and Sunday, February 20 from 9:00-10:00am for work related to storage subsystem upgrades.
hiram.umdl (Zebra server): No down time
tequila.umdl (Metalib and SFX server): No down time

North Campus server environment: All text and image services were down from Saturday, February 5 at 6:00pm to Sunday, February 6 at 11:30am due to a database problem.

dlps5.umdl (backup library proxy server): No down time
dlps6.umdl (Oracle server for access control and usage statistics): No down time
dlps7.umdl (Numeric Data server): No down time
dlps8.umdl (non-public collections): No additional down time
dlps9.umdl (Image Services): No additional down time
dlps10.umdl (primary web server for DLPS and public collections): No additional down time

Data Loading and Archival Statistics

CD/DVDs loaded or reloaded (bitonal page images)	113
CD/DVDs loaded or reloaded and processed (contone images)	249
CD/DVDs created and catalogued (contone images)	6
CD/DVDs duplicated and stored (library)	10
CD/DVDs duplicated (ITCS)	7
CD/DVDs duplicated (other)	0