ACO Meeting Minutes September 27, 2018

Minutes of the Arts Computing Department meeting held on September 27, 2018

Present:  R. Park, K. McGowan, H. Balagtas, S. Speers, N. Bromley, S. Paterson, J. Schildroth, G. Parks, W. Lewis, T. Marshall-Taylor, T. Pao

Co-ops:   A. Sanchez, O. Vakomies, S. Luckhurst

Regrets:  S. Hartung, B. Baer (on secondment), M. Byerley, C. Wallace

Attendees:

  • Keith 
    • Updated certs for adama and gosling.
      • Changed the contact information from my email address to aco-cert@uwaterloo.ca for all these cert renewals in anticipation of moving the cert renewal role to someone else.
    • Rollover purchases are pretty much complete
      • Waiting on the arrival for some system deliveries
    • Requested an ACO Microsoft Teams group.
    • Created a smaller AdobeCC installation package for Angelica with specific programs
    • CTSC report – meeting will occur next week.
    • Engineering received a phishing exploit recently and many students were locked out of their accounts.
      • Any phishing should be reported immediately.
  • Bob 
    • Goal: To provide space for PhD defense lab where students can write comprehensive exams
    • ACO website has a list of services from a support perspective
      • Bob would like to personally ask ACO staff to elaborate on the kind of day-to-day service they provide, that way those in Arts can utilize ACO services more efficiently and be aware that they can ask for help on issues that are not also listed on the website
  • Oliver 
    • Help Desk needs more DMS-59 splitters and there are no more replacement video cards
      • if any more Optiplex 790 workstations have display issues they may need to be completely replaced
  • Samuel 
    • Working on setting-up a healthy amount of hot spares with Oliver.
    • Deployed 6 loaner laptops to Arts Undergrad this morning.
    • Deployed temporary system to ML 333 while mflandry-sr16 is repaired.
  • Angelica 
    • Updated Scinage documentation and will create short tutorial videos
    • Working with Elizabeth, Kaitlyn and Wendy from Arts Undergrad with any issues they have with Scinage, and reporting those issues to Mirko and Troy Grandy
  • Herbert 
    • CALMS - automatic feedback for rollovers
    • Sharon’s office doesn’t have Wi-Fi inside her office
      • An RT ticket has been created to further investigate the issue
    • CALMS documentation and tutorial videos should be included as part of the ACO co-ops training
  • Sean 
    • Configured new ESXi server with 6.5.
      • Upgraded 2 older existing ESXi systems to 6.5 so our vsphere setup is now entirely at 6.5.
      • Created a EVC cluster at Sandy Bridge level to allow vMotion to new server.
    • artsadv (arts. advancement) account changed from mailservices to shared mailbox on connect.
    • Updated to Munki 3.4.1 and pushed out to production. Supports Mojave Apple software updates and dark mode.
      • Apply is making users to update to the latest software
    • Tested creating encrypted volume and installing macOS into it.
      • Worked well, much faster than turning on FileVault after the install.
      • Down side is there is no recovery key so if login passwords forgotten there is no way to recover unless backed up.
    • Built package and setup file for NoMADLogin-AD.
      • Considering using in labs/desktops as AD binding in macOS lacks polish.
      • It makes it easier for deployment and accessing the active directory won’t be required
  • Nevil 
    • New temporary HH280 Lab manager  is Jeremie Fortin
    • Reinstall SCCM client on a machine fixes stalled 1803 upgrade
    • Arts Security group reports now flag orphaned, expired, retired and alumni members and non-arts managed-by individuals     
      • If someone creates a security group, add a description of what the group is for and set a single manager to maintain who is in the security group
    • SWORDC slidret database install, R cleanup since some packages not allowed, win 10 testing, possible renovations / outage
  • Scott 
    • Coop job posting, interviews will happen next week
    • PAS-wing digital signage
      • Discussion: To place two smaller screens in Founders Hall
      • Robert Park: The metal tv box holding the monitor interferes with anything displayed
    • Looking for a way to start Chrome so it doesn't display popups if its task is killed
      • When Chrome is updated in the SCCM, it causes a glitch to the slides; trying to find a solution
  • Jameson 
    • BIOS updates: Discovered that the BIOS is too old for the Dell Command and Control utility to have the hooks to look after the BIOS update.
      • Investigating another workaround besides having to manually update the BIOS on all affected computer.
    • Re-imaged systems that had a HDD failure during imaging. Sent HDD to IST to be replaced under warranty.
    • Updated UEFI boot key with current version of WinPE.
  • Greg 
    • Assisted Renison with Xerox Standard Accounting issue
      • Don’t hesitate to call Retail Services to help with your Xerox issue
    • Continuing to work on Infrastructure assessment
    • Now have a copy of Microsoft Visio
  • Todd 
    • ML 117 Sound Issues
      • Last week the instructors couldn’t get sounds to come from the speakers; Called ITMS; it is now fixed
      • Another issue: the way the system you can project from a Nexus computer and another computer, but sound only comes from one of the computers; informing instructors that there is an icon to click in order to have sound come from both computers
    • Outlook Calendar for Lab Bookings
      • Working to create a more efficient way to book labs with Will.
      • Create a link to direct to a calendar webpage, instead of providing a table of classes and the schedule
  • Will 
    • Calendar issue for Classical Studies
      • If the issue persists, they should look into finding a new calendar program to schedule their meetings
    • WatIAM admins will need to use two-factor authentication soon
      • Sign-up for two-factor authentication course because it will be mandatory soon
      • Users can use their phone or USB to apply two-factor authentication to login
    • Office 2019 has been released
  • Thida 
    • WatIam update
      • ACO has to pre-create accounts but the sponsorship expires when the staff doesn’t accept the link HR send to them at the end of their employment, which the link allows them to extend their sponsorship;
        • Not clicking the “I have an account already” link will automatically make their sponsorship expire
        • It is a common problem across campus that will hopefully get resolved