ACO Meeting Minutes October 8, 2015

Minutes of the Arts Computing Department meeting held on October 8, 2015

Present:  Dawn, Sherry, Keith, Sean, Todd, Scott, Nevil, Herbert

Co-ops:   Lydia, Madeline, Mercedez

Regrets:   Jennifer, Lisa

Dawn

  • CTSC update:
    • uPrint is working well in the faculties using it and is widely adopted for student printing, largely in labs.  The Library is experiencing some difficulties due to their diverse client base and large number of printers to select among.
    • Lync Lite will be available for general use by staff in Academic Support departments. All ACO staff should have a Lync account.
    • IST is taking over support and management Asset Bank for digital media storage.
  • 60 to 70 course sections will be doing online course evaluations this term.

Sherry

  • Large whiteboards and tack boards have been installed.  Door whiteboards are a special order being negotiated with Staples.
  • If anyone needs supplies, please email Sherry with your request.

Lydia

  • 2/3 of RT tickets are for rollover work to be done today or tomorrow.  A few additional ones are awaiting further instruction before deploying.
  • Coding training continues and is expected to be completed next week.

Mercedez

  • Majority of rollover work is completed.  Only one laptop waiting for response with regard to deployment.
  • Project update: looking at code, doing testing and will be talking to Herbert and Keith about plans.

Madeline

  • Meetings with Lisa to discuss upcoming lunch session, new Instructors ACO page (landing page with links to teaching resources, modelled after MFCF pages) and process documentation. 
  • Let Madeline and Lisa know if you have any ideas for lunch session topics.
  • The AFM course using Taxprep has its exam this Friday.  Once the exam is over, we expect support for Taxprep will no longer be required.

Keith

  • Bob Kerton's PPOCIR WordPress site has been updated.
  • Acrobat Pro removal from Mac labs to be done in November due to the software being at end of life.  Looking into licensing of the new version.
  • MPS Director system was delivered to Allen St.
  • Webstore access for administrative staff in departments to be discussed with Will Lewis.

Herbert

  • CrashPlan install failed to start for Lamees Al Ethari (English) due to a known problem with Mac accounts that use Nexus credentials.  Workaround should be documented.
  • Chris Eliasmith (CTN) decided to forward his email to Gmail to avoid difficulties he had been experiencing in his mail client. His Postbox configuration was checking for new message more frequently than the servers permitted.
  • Reimaging iMac for Barbara Schmenk (GSS).
  • Keith set up physical port connection to the campus network for Fiona Rahman (ECON) in HH162.
  • Testing recently updated OFAS features with Heidi Jansen (SAF).

Sean

  • Critical patch for CrashPlan implemented, now at 4.3.4. Also updated the storage server. Client software will update automatically.
  • Moved the artsinte Mailservices account to a shared Connect mailbox due to issues with Thunderbird.
  • Skype, Chrome, Firefox, Thunderbird updated for Macs. Legacy Java pushed to PAS labs for Illustrator to work as it does in the ECH lab.
  • Updated Munki tools for El Capitan. Eleven of our managed Macs have been updated by their owners so far. Two laptops need to have their Munki client software manually updated because of the user-initiated upgrades.
  • El Capitan DeployStudio image has been created (not yet tested) for use with take homes or reimages.
  • Deleted old personal web pages for accounts we do not want to migrate from Watarts or Artsweb to other servers: inactive, retired, non-arts users, alumni.  Approximately 100 Watarts and 50 Artsweb accounts have been removed.  Cleanup continues.
  • Started Fall evaluations. Sent Colleges red sheets and labels. Printed labels for Arts. Dawn provided a list of courses to be evaluated by students online, which have been set up in Evaluate.
  • Processed the special SPCOM 100/223 evaluations and sent back the results.
  • Updated Vcenter Server to latest update due to a published vulnerability. Host updates needed as a result will require scheduled downtime.
  • Cygnus full backup was restarted after VSS error. Doubled the size allocated to snapshots to 2 TB.

Nevil

  • Artscp share cleanup (SAF, Phil, UGrad) is underway.
  • Renison and St. Paul’s filed shares have been created.
  • Screen capture software to be installed in PAS 1237 on Friday.
  • DFS replication of Cygnus -> Cygnus2 : all shares have DFS replication set up except Renison profiles.
  • Work on improving automated processes and reports around SCCM is in progress.

Scott

  • Converted 12 SCCM packages to 'applications' and deployed to production systems after testing.
  • Rewrote unattended installers for Brainvoyager Brain Tutor, Movie Maker, TexMaker.
  • Re-imaged two laptops for St. Paul's.  Older machine requiring manual install.
  • Updating Skype to 7.12.101 .
  • Coop interviews last Tuesday, and another day coming up.

Lisa

  • Working on ACO web page for instructors with Madeline.
  • Provided Dreamweaver set up and web site management assistance for Bessma Momani.
  • Lisa can now create and administer sites in Wordpress as a backup for Sean.
  • Beginning meetings with Madeline to document ACO processes.
  • Stephen Markan will be giving a Sharepoint course for Arts staff on November 12.
  • Need Lunch session topic ideas. Please send to Lisa/Madeline.

Todd

  • Now have five Lab Supervisors to cover all shifts.
  • Request for paid undergrad TAs for GSS.  To include undergrads paid by Language Lab and possibly people from the community at large who speak German.
  • Lab AV equipment loans have not always seen equipment returned in a timely fashion.  A standard agreement will be put in place for future equipment loans.
  • Recent UW payroll changes require a student number to make sure the correct person is being paid for work.
  • Had PCard training on Centresuite.