RITC Data and Support Center Updates

Unexpected RITC Data Center Services Outage

The RITC Data Center experienced a prolonged power outage this Saturday and Sunday April 26th and 27th. Some services we not available during that time. Power has been restored and affected services are now running.

If you have any questions about this issue, please contact the RITC Help Desk by emailing ritc-help@umich.edu or calling 7-6567

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Updates

Below you will find notes and plans for the next Mac OS X upgrade a.k.a Leopard. If you do not use Apples or have no interest in upgrading your OS right now, feel free to dismiss this email entirely.

New Copyright Policy:
Due to increasing attention and pressure to ensure all software maintained by myself and the RITC staff is copyright-legal, all operating system software must be purchased through the department if it is intended to be installed on a University of Michigan computer. This includes but is not limited to any computer purchased on a grant that is now administrated by your home department. Personally owned laptops can of course be upgraded as well as long as your P.I. agrees to the costs involved ( see details below) or if you can provide the license agreement or proof-of-purchase for your own software.

How Much and How?:
If you are currently operating at Mac OS X vers. 10.4.x the cost is $59.00 per computer for a 3 year agreement to get all Mac OS updates Until Sept 30th 2010. If you are currently operating below 10.4.x you will need to spend an additional $53.00 per computer. Due to the nature of service agreements such as this; we recommend allowing the department or the RITC office to purchase and organize this upgrade. We will schedule with each lab how and when they would like their computers updated to ease the transition.

Should I upgrade?:
Right now there is no rush to upgrade. The most recent version of Mac OS X 10.4.10 is stable and operates well within the UMMS environment. 10.5 has not been fully field tested with UMMS, UMICH, or RITC services. This is also an upgrade that will change some of the user-interfaces fundamentally so there will be a learning curve to adopting 10.5. It is suggested you wait until you have time in your schedule to adjust to it. Naturally after the RITC Support Center gets over the hump with the initial rush to install for our early adopters, we will chat with each P.I. to discuss the transitions and what is involved. It should be noted that any new Apple Macintosh purchased from this point on will have 10.5 installed and "downgrading" it to a previous version is not a recommended course of action.

Can I upgrade?
Some machines in service will not be able to get the upgrade. Machines are recommended to match or exceed the following specifications:
•Mac computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5, or PowerPC G4 (867MHz or faster) processor
• 512MB of memory
• DVD drive for installation
• 9GB of available disk space

Info on features here: http://www.apple.com/macosx/

Please feel free to email with any questions or clarification,
jak

Emergency Reboot of RITC FIle Service

The RITC File Service had to be rebooted Today at 10:32AM to account for a hanged process that could not otherwise be dismissed.

Wireless Network Outage

MCIT will be upgrading the Medical School Wireless Firewall on Wednesday, October 24 at 10:00 PM. This will cause about a 30 minute downtime for the wireless network.

Research File Service Maintenance

The research file services will be offline from 10:00AM to about 2:00PM EST Sunday October 21st 2007 for updates and regular maintenance. Access to this service will be suspended for that duration.

Interesting Project

Philip Bourne, professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of California San Diego, wonders how science got left behind. In his view, the academic science community pioneered the development of the Internet, but innovation has since shifted to the commercial sphere. But he's hoping that his new project, SciVee, brings science back a bit closer to the cutting edge by combining user-generated video content with tagging and communities. Ars talked with Dr. Bourne about his efforts.

http://www.scivee.tv/

RITC File Service Transitioning from POSIX Permissions to ACL's

We have been experiencing some permissions errors with our previous POSIX permissions settings. ULAM, MIP, and BioChem have decided to actively switch all RITC file service permissions from POSIX to ACL's ( access control lists) to help out. We will not be shutting down service for these changes so some users will notice small permissions changes happening in the background. If you suspect you have a permissions error please contact us right away and we will give your tech issue a higher priority.

To read more about what the heck ACL's are, we invite you to read what we read: ACL Tips

BioChem Ordering Suspension July 19-24th

Ordering for the Biological Chemistry Department will be suspended from July 19th 2007 8:00AM to July 25th 2007 8:00AM. Please order essential items prior to this time. User accounts for your lab will be disabled; if you attempt to login you will generate an "incorrect username/password" error.

RITC File Service Maintenance

The RITC FIle Service will be offline this Sunday July 1st from 1-4pm for hardware changes.

BioChem Grants File Sharing Changes

Due to recent security updates the department will slightly change the way faculty log onto their grants folders to share information with the administration office. Please follow the instructions below to regain access to your grants folder.

TO CONNECT WITH MAC OS X :
1. In the "Finder" select "Connect to Server" under the "Go" Menu
2. Type in the server name research.ritc.med.umich.edu under the field for "Server Address"
3. Press the plus symbol directly to the right of that field to add this server to your "Favorite Servers" list below. (this way you wont have to type it in every time you want to connect)
4. Enter your username and password
5. A dialog box will appear with the directories you can access. Among those is "biochem-grants"
6. Select the directory you wish to access and it will mount the server in your finder
7. When you are finished with the server remember to disconnect.

TO CONNECT WITH WINDOWS 2000 or WINDOWS XP

1. Open "My Computer"
2. Under the "Tools" Menu select "Map Network Drive"
3. This will spawn a smaller window. Under the menu " Drive:" select any unused drive letter. I would not use "A","B","C","D", "F", or "G"
4. Under the menu "Folder" type in the following verbatim "\\research.ritc.med.umich.edu\biochem-grants" do not include the quotation marks
5. Ensure that the 'Reconnect at Logon" is selected
6. Click the link towards the bottom of the window "connect using a different user name"
7. Enter the username and password you provided me and click finish
8. Now return to "My computer" and you will see your server space mounted as a drive.
9. I suggest you do not "disconnect" the drive when you are finished with accessing the server but rather log out of windows and log back in. This will wipe out the previous user password and when you double click on the drive again it will prompt you to enter your username and password again.

Call for Faculty Profile Web Updates in BioChem

A Note for Prof Nichols in the Dept. Of Biological Chemistry:

Colleagues,
Please update your online research interests and publications, and
whether you're currently taking students for research rotations. An updated website will better represent your work and our department, and help incoming students identify research opportunities. Please contact Jonathan (submit a request through RITC or contact jkufahl@umich.edu) if you'd like help with your updates.
Thanks! -Ruthann

tombaker.ritc.med.umich.edu is alive

A new file repository for RITC staff and associates is now available. Email Jonathan jkufahl@umich.edu for connection details.

RITC Ordering Service Documentation UPDATED

The RITC Ordering Service Client Tutorial has been updated to reflect recent updates and corrections. It can be found at the main RITC Ordering Service web page.
RITC Ordering Service

ZFS To Become Default File System In Leopard

ZFS in Leopard Rumor

Semi-interesting news.

ULAM File Access

ULAM file services are moving from MCIT Novell Server to the RITC Research server.

]]> Due to the malfunction of the Novell Client I am forced to move all of the ULAM files over at once. This will take me some time as I still have a lot of files to move and reorganize. My original plan was to move everyone over on groups. However MCIT made changes to LDAP server and this forced us off of Med-Core-24, this is why the client won't login. The changes did not effect everyone but enough of us to warrant moving the entire file structure. I still do not know the complete fix for the Novell issue and MCIT is not helping. It has gotten to the point where they don't want to bother with any department that isn't directly maintained by MCIT or the Hospital.

With that said the good news is that we are moving to a new server maintained by RITC. We have more space and a more reliable and secure file server than before. The data is backed up but only for disaster recovery. We will not be able to restore data lost/deleted due to human error.(At least not at present) Ideally if you have files onthe server it is always a good idea to keep someone kind of personal backup. Whether you have aportable hard drive or back them up to a CD. If you need a backup solution please contact me. ULAM IT Support I will find you a workable solution.

I know this file move has been inconvenient and I apologize. But it has been harder on me as well. When it is complete we will be off of Novell completely and the only service we will have with MCIT is GroupWise. I believe we will be happier with the new service. More room and the annoying Novell "Out of disk space" pop ups will be gone for good!!