ACO Meeting Minutes January 12, 2017

Minutes of the Arts Computing Department meeting held on January 12, 2017

Present:  D. Keenan, R. Park, S. Hartung, K. McGowan, S. Speers, N. Bromley, S. Paterson, J. Schildroth, T. Marshall-Taylor

Co-ops:   M. DiGiacomantonio, L. Glofcheskie, J. Hillo

Regrets: H. Balagtas, W. Lewis, M. Byerley, C. Wallace

Attendees:

  • Dawn
    • CTSC update:
      • IST encourage groups at the Faculty, School, or Institute level to create DNS subzones (e.g. arts.uwaterloo.ca). The historic practice creating names on multiple levels for a single entity is discouraged. Support for non-IST-managed DNS names at the uwaterloo.ca domain level will continue.
      • IST is looking at options to migrate employee Mailservices to Connect accounts. Some other non-undergraduate accounts will also be moved, most likely to Connect. ACO needs to identify affected accounts by end of April so we can determine how to proceed.
      • The Library has moved from staff workstations to virtual desktops. There was a problem with Horizon software needing to be downgraded as a result. A solution is being determined.
    • Eight of the fourteen thin clients in the AL lobby will be replaced with Intel NUCs. A request has gone in to Plant Ops to make changes to power to make the other six seats more usable based on recent student use of the facility. We would like to monitor how power outlets are being utilized if possible.
    • A start of term reminder to provide timely feedback to colleagues (regular staff and co-ops) of what is being done well and what can be improved upon, so adjustments can be made to work habits. It is better to provide feedback immediately in response to exceptional events and performance than wait for an opportunity for formal performance management.
    • See the Use of Problem Tracking Software guidelines.
  • Bob
    • A pitch was made in General Group this week to default to online evaluations instead of paper going forward. Two concerns brought forward were the averages and response rates. Overall the idea of going online was well received and is being supported by the Dean as paper supplies and processing are costly. Hoping for a decision at the next general group meeting later this month.
    • There is concern that there may not be enough computer lab space in Arts to meet changing instructional needs. A usage report is being compiled.
  • Sherry
    • Starting to gather data for staff 2017 rollovers. It appears to affect approximately nine computers.
    • Will also be looking at computers not in the staff or faculty rollover that have been identified as needing replacement.
  • Lindsay
    • Finished initial training and have read the Survival Guide.
    • Imaged two Macs (one for Janine and one for a hot spare).
    • Set up a take home computer.
    • Have talked to Nevil about possible coding projects.
  • Marco
    • Completed standard new employee courses and read the Survival Guide.
    • Most Help Desk phone calls and emails have been about email, with a few SPSS issues.
    • Have determined three goals for the term and some newsletter ideas.
    • Imaged iMac for the Help Desk.
  • Janine
    • Did a refresher on WCMS content and Survival Guide documentation to familiarize from previous co-op term.
    • Using the testing CALMS site to create process documentation. Need to meet with Sherry and Herbert to go over details and answer some process questions.
    • Have determined goals for the term.
    • Created fillable PDF file for Prof. Jill Goodwin.
    • Making small updates to ACO site and SharePoint.
    • Testing SPSS instructions on both Mac and PC for accuracy.
  • Keith
    • DeployStudio has been upgraded on Adama, and USB key has upgraded to match.
    • iMacs manufactured earlier than mid 2009 may not support Sierra.
    • Adobe Creative Cloud 2017 bundle created and will be pushed out to Munki today.
    • Elizabeth Ford had wireless issues in her office. Account was okay last week, but this week there was a problem: her WatIAM account had been deactivated. Set her up with a wired network connection and installed her second monitor.
    • A recent Microsoft patch breaks printer driver downloads for older and less popular device,s such as the plotter in Drama and a printer in Psychology, requiring admin credentials. If other queues exhibit the same problem, there is a fix involving registry settings.
    • Cleaning up old accounts on Watarts for retirees and former students.
  • Sean
    • Processed French and Spanish TA online evaluations, and Renison evaluations.
    • Updated Skype for Business, Acrobat 2015, Acrobat 11, Reader 11 for Macs. An Office update went out after these updates pushed out; will push out those updates today.
    • Artsonline used for ASU aliases was blacklisted by mailserivices due a high amount of delivery failures. Configured the aliases as mailman lists and turned on some protection. Root cause was an edu.uwaterloo.ca user that didn't change their email address in WatIAM.
    • Fixed some web site configuration problems (that had been using deprecated features no longer supported under Ubuntu 14) on Watarts after the server upgrade by looking for 500 errors in the logs.
    • Built Artsonline2 and will switch Artsonline to it next week after more testing. This is the last Unix server with end of life at end of April. Changeover should be transparent.
    • Completed evaluation percentile calculations for GBDA and DEI as requested annually by Christine McWebb. This is the same Course Evaluation Statistics Summary that Bob does, but specifically for Stratford.
    • Reimer Faber bad PS on a computer he purchased in 2009. Will build a take-home computer to replace it for him.
    • Arts-grad-database has been updated with Fall 2016 data.
  • Nevil
    • Had issues with SPSS, Windows 10 and LearnLock in PAS 1237. Addressing issue with Erick Engelke in Engineering, who is waiting for a new certificate for updated code.
    • Issue with LearnLock in HH 280 after a make-up exam on Sunday where two machines did not unlock as expected.
    • Updating class list security groups on Nexus.
    • ArtsCleanC in Psychology was collecting event logs to a wrong location. This has been corrected.
    • Reboot tool deployed with Thursday reboot for all Windows Nexus machines in Arts.
    • Langlab scheduled copy from nxsartsapp file copy langlab problem fixed.
    • Working on co-op project ideas for scripting and programs. Looking for suggestions from others. Please update the document in Sharepoint with suggestions for small projects.
    • Working with Bill on Psychology Windows 10 issues with Chrome, Edge, permissions and task sequence deployment.
  • Scott
    • Software update (Chrome, Firefox, Flash, iTunes, K-Lite, Notepad++, RStudio, WinSCP). Found an issue with the iTunes package and reported it to Mike Cocker and Peter Schepers in IST. Once fixed, iTunes will be redeployed.
    • Flash was to be deployed, but a new version was received today. Will update and deploy tonight. Vanguard users please test this afternoon.
    • Helped Rick Helmes-Hayes to free up space on his laptop by using BleachBit. Also had problems with USB devices not being recognized. The driver was corrupt, but also the USB stick was bad. Re-installed USB device drivers.
    • Updated the Hayes Macro Process package plug in for SPSS for Psychology.
    • Fixed the Win 10 deployment Task Sequence for Psychology for systems that are being re-imaged, so it doesn't wipe out data stored on a D: drive. Prath and Nevil have successfully tested it.
    • License for IDEA in HH 280 had expired. This has been updated and is now good until the end of 2017.
    • Picked up remaining Independent Studies computers from ECH. Ticket is closed as all machines have been collected.
    • Completed co-op on-boarding for Fall 2017.
    • Sent Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme, Owen Gallupe and Vivan Yang an updated SPSS 24 RDP file for their LEARN courses. Janine has updated ACO documentation to use the file maintained by IST.
    • Helped Amy Butchart (new lecturer from U of Guelph) get a Connect account setup with Keith.
    • Currently 140 Windows systems in Arts in Nexus of 878 systems in our Master Collection have been upgraded to Windows 10 build 1607. At the beginning stages of Windows 10 deployment scheduling. All newly re-imaged and rollover systems will be Windows 10; need to determine how to schedule upgrades for systems not scheduled to be replaced or reimaged this year.
    • NUCs to be worked on and tested for installation during Reading Week.
  • Jameson
    • Fixed Antidote 9.4.1 update on mflandry-sr16, ammirgl-fr14 and tcolling-fr14. Updates work normally from Software Center but fail when automatically deployed.
    • Looked into issues with a Surface tablet not displaying correctly and appearing out of focus on a projector in HH 373. High DPI mode set on Google Chrome with Waterloo Works, which the projector couldn't handle well.
    • Investigating what information can be gathered through PowerShell for security group members. Working on finishing the Security Groups monitoring script.
    • Modified Event Log Monitoring script to separate Arts and Psychology machines for reporting. Created two scripts to handle the split.
    • [GI-IT] Investigated audio issues with one of the desktops. Audio device on motherboard not functional. Will need to scrap computer.
    • [GI-IT] Purchased and updated SPSS on two analysis machines to version 24.0.
    • Started work on another pass on Nexus domain cleanup to remove old computers.
  • Todd
    • TAs have now been selected for lab sessions. One TA doing both Russian labs.
    • Audio Visual will likely need to do a system reprogram of the Creston system in ML 101 and ML 117. Prefer to wait until end of term instead of making changes mid-term, despite functionality request for end of January.
    • The new hire for the Language Lab is also a TA for Spanish.
    • Have hired a student through the International Work Study program.
    • The wireless keyboard and mouse in ML 117 have been adversely affected by Windows 10. What looks like a driver issue appears when the system is restarted.
    • The key fob system for ML 101 and ML 117 is approaching end of life. Requested a quote from Pat Kadwell. Debbie Stanley-Pallas is involved in the request.

General Items:

The Arts Computing Professional Development meeting on January 19th will be about DevOps, what it is and how it is used.