|
|
Issue 13 |
March 2003 |
The
Windows
2000 Server gives the
Windows desktop clients that will be supported in the updated environment include Windows NT Workstation 4.0, Windows 2000 Pro, and Windows XP Pro. Note that support for “personal” or “home” operating systems (like Windows 95/98 and ME) on site will finally be dropped. Additionally those users who dial-in using Windows 95/98/ME systems will no longer be able to connect to the JLAB domain. Dial-up connections from these systems at home will still allow TCP/IP based traffic like mail and internet browsing, but access to JLAB Domain resources (JLAB Fileservers, Printing or connect to other systems) from the network neighborhood or through UNC names will no longer function. The only way to transfer files after March 29th from these home systems will be by using SafeTP. For more information, please see http://cc.jlab.org/docs/security/secure-communications/safetp/index.html .
It
should also be noted that support for Windows NT 4.0 is waning. Microsoft has
announced discontinuation of support at the end of this year. NT 4.0 users are
advised to plan to upgrade soon to a more recent OS (Windows XP Pro is the
Overall,
the upgrade should be nearly invisible to most users, with the following
exceptions:
So,
even though it will go largely unnoticed by users, the introduction of Windows
2000 Server and Active Directory within CUE heralds the start of a new CUE
environment, with many immediate underlying improvements, and many new features
on the horizon including:
·
centrally
Managed Level I/II windows systems (similar in implementation to that currently
used for Linux systems)
·
remote
installation services for windows systems
·
automated
windows workstation and servers builds
UNIX
users are strongly encouraged to migrate from PRTSRV to JLABPRT for UNIX print services by using the pdq/xpdq
printing applications (Computer Center
recommended UNIX printing solution), and by using jlabprt
as a replacement for prtsrv
when specifying a UNIX print server. Full migration,
including the shutdown of print services currently running on PRTSRV, to
JLABPRT for all UNIX printing is planned for
UNIX
Printing Using pdq/xpdq:
pdq/xpdq are the new print
commands provided to implement enhanced printing. pdq is a command line substitute for the lp/lpr/rlp/rlpr commands that makes use of printer postscript
definition files (ppd)s to access extended printer features such as duplex and
transparency. They are both available in the /apps/bin area for all
supported CUE UNIX platforms.
The
general format for pdq command line
is:
pdq -Pprinter_name [-o option] file1
file2 ...
An
easier to use graphical version is also available in /apps/bin as xpdq.
This provides all of the functionality of pdq
but in an intuitive graphical interface. A table showing the commonly
used options for most printers follows. When using xpdq, passing the cursor over a menu option will also display the
equivalent command line option for the desired feature. An example of the xpdq interface follows:
A
general overview of the architecture of the new printing system can be found
at:
http://cc/docs/services/printing/unix-printing.html
Additionally
there will be a
As
of
bbftp (http://ccweb.in2p3.fr/bbftp/) provides
an alternative to ftp for wide-area
file transfers, that:
This
service is to be preferred over traditional ftp, since it is both more secure and tries to optimize network
bandwidth usage. The facility can be used to transfer files already present on
disk (/work or /cache). Since it is more secure than traditional ftp the filesystems are mounted
read-write and the service can accept incoming file transfers. Users' home
directories and group areas are also available for this service.
The
server for bbftp is bbftp.jlab.org.The standard bbftp command takes an input command
file containing a list of instructions (cd, put, get etc). Options are
available to enable compression, specify the number of parallel transfer
streams etc. This command is suitable for command line use - the user name and
password are supplied when the command is invoked.
scp is an application
that replaces rcp for remote file
coping. Users can use the machine ftp.jlab.org for scp access to /home, /group, /work, and /site
filesystems.
It
can also be used from login1 and login2 directly for transfers to and from /home, /group, /scratch and /site.
The
machine ftp.jlab.org provides a SafeTP
server which has access to /home, /group, /work, and the /site
filesystems. SafeTP is a package
developed at the
The
machine ftp.jlab.org provides a sftp server which has access to /home, /group, /work, and the /site filesystems. sftp is ftp tunneled over ssh.
sftp clients are readily available
from the Unix command line, or with applications like PUTTY. See the sftp man pages for usage details.
NOTE:
Because sftp requires an ssh server
to be run on the machine, we have implemented a restricted shell which will
prevent the machine from being used as another interactive login server. You
will see an error message if you ssh
to the machine ftp.jlab.org. Remember this machine is for file transfers only.
Use login1 or login2 for interactive login sessions.
The
machine ftp.jlab.org supports anonymous ftp service for file retrieval only. It
does not support write access. The file system served is available at /site/ftp. Users sharing files using
anonymous ftp should ensure that the information is suitable for general public
distribution as those files are readily available to anyone in world.
The migration of data
from Redwood tapes to 9940A tapes has been a huge undertaking. Support for the
Redwood tape drives ended on
Another
tape migration is planned for later this year.
In order to increase the availability of tape slots and the capacity of
the two silos, data on 9840 tapes will be migrated to 9940B tapes. The 9840 tapes have a capacity of 20GB while
the 9940B tapes have a capacity of 200GB. The migration will free up
approximately 3,000 tape slots in the silo.
Five new 9940B tape
drives have been installed in the silo. The required upgrades to the silo were
completed in February. These drives now require configuration testing and code
changes to JASMine before they will be ready for production use. The 9940B tape
drives are only available with fibre channel interfaces. Since JASMine makes
use of Linux PCs for data movers, testing will have to be done with different
fibre channel controllers and drivers. JASMine will also require some code
changes to deal with the backwards compatibility of the 9940B tape drive with
9940A tapes.
It
is anticipated that the 9940B tape drives will be put into production in the
summer of 2003. It is also anticipated that a second purchase of five 9940B
tape drives will occur in the spring of 2003.
This will bring the total number of 9940B tape drives to ten and help
ensure that their introduction into the production environment does not create
a tape drive bottleneck. The 9940B tape
drives have a capacity of 200GB per tape and a transfer rate of 30MB/sec.
The original server
for the batch farm was replaced in February. The old server was a Sun E3000;
the new server is a dual Intel P4 Xeon 1.8GHz system. As a result of the upgrade, the batch farm
status web pages are now located on FARML1 (not FARMS0-OLD). The
IFARML1
will be replaced during the summer. It was our first quad processor Linux
server, a 4-year-old Intel 500MHz Xeon
system. Its replacement will be a quad Intel P4 Xeon 1.4GHz system similar to
IFARML3.
Two
purchases of farm nodes are being made this year in an effort to replace the
older farm systems which have started to show their age with hardware
failures. The oldest 25 farm nodes, dual
Intel Pentium III 450MHz systems, will be decommissioned in the spring. They
will be replaced by 20 dual Intel P4 Xeon 2.4GHz systems with 1GB of RAM and
120GB of disk space for user jobs. The Hyper-Threading feature of the P4 Xeon
processor will make the systems appear as quad processor systems. These systems
will also run 5 jobs instead of the traditional 3. A second order of 20 farm
systems will be made later in the year to replace the 25 Pentium III 500MHz
systems in the farm.
Five
additional file servers will soon become available. Each server has 2TB of
usable disk space. Each Hall will decide if their share of these systems should
be cache or work file server. Additional
servers will be purchased during the summer.
The
hardware used for a file server no longer dictates its use as a cache or work
file server. Groups have requested that workspace be converted to cache space
and vice versa. To better organize the file servers, plans are being made to
change the host names from CACHEXX and FSXX to SFSXX. Here, sfs will stand for
“scientific computing file server”. The disk names will stay the same and state
if the area is a cache or work disk. The mount points, however, will be moved
into the /export directory on the servers. The work file servers already use
this convention. The mount points on the
clients will remain the same. These changes will require system managers of
non-CUE systems to update any work or cache disks on their systems.
Want
to run Linux, but don't want the hassle of making it work correctly with the
CUE environment? Or maybe you want to do
real work rather than having to apply the latest rounds of security patches
every morning? Never fear! The
Option
#1 is to build your Linux machine as a "Level 1" CUE system. Level 1
systems are managed entirely by the 
If
you're the type who still likes to have some amount of administrative control
over your own workstation, we can accommodate you. Option #2, a "Level 2" CUE system,
allows you to keep root access to your machine while still delegating many of
the day-to-day tasks to the
Both
Level 1 and Level 2 configurations can be automatically installed by using our
custom boot disks. Be sure to back up
your important data before using these, though.
Installing a new Linux system will erase all data already on your
machine's local hard drive. Full
instructions for building a Level 1 or Level 2 system are available online at http://cc/services/linux.
If
you don’t want to build a Linux system yourself, but do desire a Linux
workstation, the recommendation from the
The
Creating
E-mail FiltersE-mail
filters can be used to automatically file messages to a folder, and they can be
used to automatically delete unwanted messages. For example if you are on a
conference mailing list and wish all related email messages to be stored in a
single folder, you can create an email folder, say PAC03, and then
create a filter which will auto-file all messages from a particular address or
with a particular subject line into your PAC03 folder. Likewise, if you receive
email advertisements from a particular address or with a particular word or
phrase in the subject line and you do not wish to open these messages before
deleting them, an email filter can be created to auto-file to Trash or
auto-delete spam.
Please note: Filters you create
for your email on your PC at work do not apply when you read your mail from
home or from a different PC unless you consistently use webmail.jlab.org or run
Netscape from one of the central systems (JLABS1, JLABS2 or JLABH1). If you
routinely read your mail from more than one location, you will need to create
filters local to each workstation. Additionally if you commonly read mail from
more than one workstation during the course of your work week (e.g., desk &
home or desk & alternate desk or desk & laptop), be certain that you
have exited your email application on each workstation when you leave it. There
are potential problems which could occur if multiple mail clients access the
same IMAP email account; such as deleted messages mysteriously returning or,
more seriously, corruption of mail folders.
Open
Netscape mail. From the menu bar, select Tools, then Message Filters. Click on
the New button, and name your first
filter, e.g., PAC03. Specifiy settings appropriate to your filter; e.g.,
Sender contains tesla@jlab.org or Subject contains PAC03.
Then select the action you prefer; e.g., Move to folder, and specify the
folder (PAC03).You can apply several filters simultaneously.
In
the Messenger (mail) window, choose Edit,
then Message Filters. In the Message Filters dialog box, click New
and give your filter a title, e.g., PAC03. Specify settings appropriate
to your filter, e.g., Sender contains tesla@jlab.org or Subject
contains PAC03. Then select the action you prefer; e.g., Move to
folder, and specify the folder (PAC03). You can apply several filters
simultaneously.
Open
your browser to the page https://webmail.jlab.org
and login with your JLab CUE username and password. At the top of the page
you'll see a linear menu reading Compose Addresses Folders Options Search
Help. Select Options, then
select Message Filters. You'll see
three dialog boxes labeled: Match, Contains, and Move To.
Create your filter using the most common item; if the Subjects are the most
consistent, match your filter to Subject, then in the Contains box, then
type the word or phrase. Finally, select the folder in which you want the email
to wait for you; be it Pac03 or Trash. Close and restart webmail.
Outlook
also has mail filters, but uses different nomenclature. Open your Outlook Inbox
and look for the Organize icon on the toolbar. In the Ways to
Organize Inbox window, you'll see Using Folders, Using Colors, Using
Views and Junk E-mail.
For
messages you prefer to file into separate folders, e.g., PAC03, open Using Folders. The built-in wizard will
step you through the process of auto-filing messages into specific folders with
the parameters you specify.
Outlook
has some pre-defined Junk Mail filters; you can add members to the Junk Senders
List by right-clicking the message and selecting Junk E-mail from the
pop-up menu. You can also edit this list from within the Ways to Organize Inbox window on the Junk E-mail tab.
Networks
The
Computer Center has made several changes to JLab’s wireless networking
resources. These changes are aimed at extending the ability to use wireless in
more areas as well as securing wireless connections. This article will point
out all areas where wireless can be utilized, offer other options for extending
the wireless signal to areas currently not covered, and update users on changes
implemented in wireless security.
Currently
JLab wireless networking is available with a useable signal in the following
areas:
Cebaf Center -Complete
coverage
ARC -1st,
2nd, 6th, 7th Floors
Varc -Training
Room 47
Trailer City -Conference
Rooms, Computer Center Help Desk Area
Test Lab -Open
Bay areas and Injector Test area
FEL -Conference
Room and Control Room Areas
Counting House - 1st and 2nd Floor areas
Hall B -
Hall B complete experimental hall coverage
Residence Facility -Complete coverage
Twenty-five
wireless access points have been deployed to support the network for these
areas. The Residence Facility and Injector Test Area of the Test Lab were
recently brought on-line. Users who wish
to extend wireless to their areas may do so by submitting a request by email to
helpdesk@jlab.org or via
CCPR
with the Subject “Network Service Request”. Once submitted you will be
contacted by the Computer Center with an explanation of how to purchase, what
type of wireless access point is supported and how to go about getting the
access point configured to work in Jefferson Lab’s environment.
In
addition to extending the wireless network coverage the
In an effort to
improve network performance and reliability, the
During
the past several months the Document Control Group (DCG), with support from the
Electronic
Job Ticket
allows users to search the document vault for a desired drawing, select and
view the drawing in Adobe Acrobat, setup and submit a print job for any number
of drawings, and save the drawing PDF file to any accessible file system. Print
jobs can be sent to any local printer or to Document Control for package
distribution. PDF is a convenient format for sharing drawing files via email attachments
or web posting.
JLAB
has many years worth of vellum print and microfilmed drawings on file. DCG’s
initial effort toward establishing a comprehensive electronic archive of
drawings has been to convert frequently used drawings into digital files. DCG
staff spent time during the last several months feeding over 10,000 vellum
documents into the system, using their Océ 9800 scanner. Future plans for the
new system include scanning another 20,000 vellum documents and JLab’s vast
catalog of microfilmed documents into the electronic vault.
Access
to the EJT and document vault is controlled via user accounts on the document
server. Electronic job ticket print jobs are tracked via these user accounts.
DCG personnel maintain these user accounts. Anyone with a JLab CUE account who
wishes to have access to EJT can simply send an email to haysg@jlab.org requesting to be added to the
system. You will receive a reply indicating the initial access procedure.
Two
separate versions of the EJT client program are used, depending on the user’s
computer platform. The MS Windows EJT client can be installed over the network
as directed in the instructions found at http://www.jlab.org/accel/doc_controls/INSTALL.pdf.
Anyone with an EJT system account can access the EJT web client from their web
browser at http://dcg4/ejtweb .
The
Document Control Center is located in the Applied Research Center building, in
room 225. As part of the Mechanical Engineering Group, the Document Control
Group manages and maintains large format printing and copying services for the
Lab. The DCG contact information is:
Debra Stitts, x7351,
stittsd@jlab.org
Gary Hays, x7256,
haysg@jlab.org
DCG web page:
http://www.jlab.org/accel/doc_controls/ahomedcg.html
Questions
regarding the information provided in this article can be directed to Todd
Coates, x5537, tcoates@jlab.org
Note:
You must dial 9 to access an outside line for each and every call you
conference in.
If you are calling
from an electronic telephone set you will see a Conference button.
Step 1. Lift the hand-set, dial the first party for
your conference. Once you have established that call, press your conference
button. (This will put that caller on hold while giving you another dial tone).
Step 2. Dial your second party, and when you have
established your connection with your second person press the Conference button
again and the 3 of you will be able to speak and listen to each other.
Step 3. Press Conference again to dial your third
party. Press Conference again and all 4 of you will be able to converse.
To
add more people repeat step 3. You may add up to 6 people if you are dialing
from an electronic telephone.
From
a Single line telephone you will not have a Conference Button.
When calling from an analog (single line) telephone you
can only conference 2 other phone numbers for your Conference Call
Step 1. After you have dialed your first number and
have your party on the line, simply press the switch hook button down for about
2 or 3 seconds, and you will hear a stuttering dial tone. If you are using one
of the newer model analog phones (Model number 8110) you would press your
“Flash” button.
Step 2. Press 9 and dial your second party and after
establishing that call again press your “Flash” button or the switch hook for 2
or 3 seconds and all three of you will be able to speak.
The Computer Center (Trailer City, x7456)
provides computing support for the scientific program, as well as general
computing services and support to the laboratory, including desktop computing,
administration computing (Business Services, Human Resources), and network
infrastructure. The group also provides Telecommunications support (phones,
pagers, etc.), coordination of CAD computing activities, and is responsible for
all cyber security functions. Other computing activities within the laboratory
include the Accelerator Controls, Data Acquisition, High Performance, and MIS computing groups.
Requests for support can be submitted via email (helpdesk@jlab.org), or from the Computer
Center Problem Reporting (CCPR) system available onsite via the web for
support. Additionally a Computer Center staff member is available at the Helpdesk cubicle (Trailer City rm
172, x7155) from 1:30 - 4:30 PM Monday - Friday.
Jefferson Lab staff and users can call or visit the Helpdesk during these hours
for immediate assistance, or leave a voicemail at any time.
For
critical emergency assistance during after hours (i.e. major systems or
networks down, problems affecting the production experimental program), please
contact one of the Jefferson Lab Security Guards (Main Guard, Gatehouse,
757-269-5822) who will contact the Computer Center on-call staff.
Other sources of
information in CUE are the news messages available on login, and the Computer
Center’s web status and announcement pages. For news, simply type “news” to get
the latest unread messages, “news a b” for a brief listing of all messages, or
“news 100” to read message #100. The web page information can be found at http://cc.jlab.org/announce/status.html.
For
users who have purchased Dell, or Micron PCs under JLab’s ordering agreement,
your machine includes 3-year onsite hardware support. You can directly contact
Dell at 1-888-560-8324; you will need your 5-digit service code (a label on the
back or bottom of your machine). To contact Micron, call 1-800-249-1179: extension 59684 for Tech Support, extension
59028 for Customer Service, and extension 31205 for Sales Service.
The Computer Center
Computing Weekly News mail archive can be found at:
http://www.jlab.org/ccc/mail_archives/ALERTS/cc-weekly/CURRENT/.
The
Computer Center Scientific Computing Briefs mail archive can be found at:
http://www.jlab.org/ccc/mail_archives/ALERTS/jl-scicomp/CURRENT/.
Scheduled
Computer Center seminars and previous seminar presentations can be found online
at http://cc.jlab.org/docs/services/training/seminar_sched.html.
The current schedule for upcoming seminars is tentatively scheduled is as
follows:
March 2003 – JLab UNIX Printing Services
April 2003 – Email Overview
May 2003 – Linux Services
June 2003 –