April 2, 2012

Today's topics:

Scientific Linux 6

As previously announced, LEPP is continuing the upgrade from SL5 to SL6 wherever possible. This week we will be aggressively upgrading any remaining SL5 farm nodes to SL6. For information on Scientific Linux 6, please see https://wiki.lepp.cornell.edu/lepp/bin/view/Computing/ScientificLinux6. For information on LEPP's GridEngine resource, please see https://wiki.lepp.cornell.edu/lepp/bin/view/Computing/GridEngine

Please submit a ServiceRequest (by email or web form) for any specific systems you would like upgraded to SL6

Please be mindful of what code you build where. The best way to ensure you are building on an appropriate system is to use any central servers that are dedicated as build nodes for your project.

Submitting Service Requests

Service Requests are handled by our ticketing system, RT: Request Tracker, which enables the computer group to intelligently and efficiently manage the tasks, issues, and requests submitted by the community of LEPP users. A major advantage of this system is the ability to keep a full history of each individual request in one individual ticket.

One can submit a Service Request in 2 ways:

1. Send email to service-lepp@cornell.edu
2. Use the web form: https://wiki.lepp.cornell.edu/lepp/bin/view/Computing/ServiceRequest

We strongly recommend adding any relevant non-Computer Group people to the ticket when submitting the initial request. They will see all subsequent communications related to that ticket, and they can also add any useful info.
Relevant People

1. your supervisor
2. the person (CAM) that can supply a WBS # we can charge for labor and/or equipment purchases
3. anyone the service request might affect or interest

If you are emailing your service request to service-lepp@cornell.edu. add the email addresses of relevant people in the "Cc:" field of the email message
If you are using the web form at https://wiki.lepp.cornell.edu/lepp/bin/view/Computing/ServiceRequest add the email addresses of relevant people in the "Related parties" field of the web form, located just below "Your contact information"

If you want to add someone to a ticket after it has been submitted, reply to any of the ticket emails and put the name and email address of that person in the body of the reply. A Computer Group member will add that person to the ticket.

Exchange Calendar: recurring meetings and task delegation

Two of the most used features of Exchange calendar are recurring meetings and task delegation. Find out more at the following CIT web pages:
Summary: http://www.it.cornell.edu/services/guides/facstaff_email/harmony/index-brief.cfm
Full guide: http://www.it.cornell.edu/services/guides/facstaff_email/harmony/

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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.

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Questions or problems? Submit a service request.

Other resources:

• CLASSE IT Home Page
• Previous newsletters

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