Carol Lu
Secretary to the Committee
August 20, 2020
Present: Andrew McAlorum, Erick Engelke, Paul Miskovsky, Don Duff-McCracken, Bill Baer, Greg Parks, Jason Testart, Adam Savage, Pratik Patel, Robyn Landers, Lori Paniak
Guest: Matt Harford
Regrets: Andrea Chappell, Daryl Dore, Greg Smith, Steven Bourque, Dave Kibble, Trevor Bain
Agenda
- Presentation: Jira Service Desk (Andrew McAlorum, Matt Harford) [20 min.]
- Chair’s remarks (Andrew McAlorum) [5 min.]
- Approval of the minutes of the meetings of Thursday July 23, 2020 [5 min.]
- ZoomInfo mailings (Jason Testart) [10 min.]
- Update on the upgrade/replacement of info.uwaterloo.ca (Lori Paniak) [5 min.]
- Windows Virtual Desktop (Andrew McAlorum) [5 min.]
- Other Business [10 min.]
- Roundtable discussion – all [20 min.]
- Next CTSC Meeting [Will be held Thursday September 3 at 1:30 p.m.]
Presentation: Jira Service Desk (Matt Harford)
- Matt Harford gave a presentation on Jira Service Desk
Comments and discussion
- Approximately 5800 tickets were submitted to Jira Service Desk during the pilot
- There are no formal plans in place to replace RT at this time
- The focus is currently on moving client-facing ticket queues to Jira Service Desk
- Arts Computing Office is currently piloting Jira Service Desk
- Was previously using a help desk system that did not integrate with any other tools
- ACO had co-op students with Jira and Confluence experience this term to help pilot Jira Service Desk
- ACO pilot has been successful so far; ACO has requested more licenses from IST
- How customizable is Jira Service Desk?
- Some departments have created custom queries in RT for queues and custom fields for tickets
- Atlassian Marketplace has a large repository of apps and plug-ins for Jira and Confluence
- Jira Service Desk streamlines the ticket triaging process
- Queue permissions can be customized according to each Jira Service Desk project (e.g. Arts Computing Office has their own Jira Service Desk project; only ACO staff are able to view the ACO queues
Windows Virtual Desktop (Andrew McAlorum)
- Andrew shared a brief demo of Windows Virtual Desktop
Comments and discussion
- TIS has been working with Microsoft Fast Track; a consultant is helping with ensuring Windows Virtual Desktop is ready to launch for September
- Windows Virtual Desktop will be available to pilot in the Fall term
- When the VDI license is up for expiry, Windows Virtual Desktop may be considered as a possible replacement
- There are some developer-related use cases that currently use VDI; VDI will continue to be available for these use cases for the time being
- Is there a way to control how much usage is being allocated to an individual user session?
- A users' total usage will depend on the software; workstation sizes will vary depending on the software/use case
- IST has a Windows Virtual Desktop license but the cost is pay per usage
- Allows for leveraging of Windows licenses as part of the University's Microsoft agreement
- Allows for connectivity to the domain
- Allows for usage optimization (e.g. you can turn VMs on/off depending on usage needs)
- Windows Virtual Desktop is more cost effective than Azure Lab Services; services are similar but cannot be directly compared
Chair's remarks (Andrew McAlorum)
- Welcome Greg Parks, our new CTSC member representing Affiliated and Federated Institutions of Waterloo (AFIW)
Approval of the minutes of the previous meeting
- The previous meeting’s minutes were accepted as distributed.
ZoomInfo mailings (Jason Testart)
- IST's Security Operations Centre (SOC) has received inquiries about ZoomInfo emails
- Emails are informing users about their privacy and provides users the option to opt-out of ZoomInfo
- Users are asking if these emails are considered spam or phishing
- IST is advising users that these emails are not spam; IST is not looking to prevent ZoomInfo from conducting their legal obligations
- IST may connect with the University's lawyers in the future if this becomes a larger issue
- Users who receive ZoomInfo emails can 'Mark as Junk' to notify the ISP who generated the email
Update on the upgrade/replacement of info.uwaterloo.ca (Lori Paniak)
- Users who have upgraded their Chrome/Firefox browsers are not able to access info.uwaterloo.ca since TLS is out of date
- Computer Science has a proxy system that references the info.uwaterloo.ca site
- Https does not work on this site and using the unecrypted site is also a challenging process
- Is there a timeline on when info.uwaterloo.ca will be updated?
Comments and discussion
- info.uwaterloo.ca is expected to be decommissioned by the end of August
- There are currently three applications stalling the update; these applications are expected to be migrated soon
Other Business/Roundtable
Library (Adam)
- The Library will be opening bookable study spaces for students in the Davis Centre
- Printers, scanners, and computers will not be available for use
- Are any other departments offering printing services to students?
- Engineering has moved printers into the hallways
- SLC has printers available
- Math has printers in the hallways available
- Please contact Adam if there are requests for printing in the Library
Client Services, IST (Andrew)
- The IST Service Desk will not be opening physical locations in the Fall term
- Library not offering printing services in the fall term
Arts (Bill)
- Waiting for updated pricing from Adobe for individual Adobe CC licenses
- Bill to share with CTSC once an update is available
AFIW (Greg)
- Will reach out to colleges to see if there are any updates for CTSC
Information Security Services, IST (Jason)
- There are now 2FA champions from all academic areas
- Support for moving users to 2FA is most needed for faculty and staff; student enrolment is satisfactory
- Users that do not have a smartphone will be issued a Yubikey
- Process for distributing Yubikeys is still being developed; distribution is not expected to start until September
- There has been some feedback from users regarding the Duo 2FA app user interface
- IST does not have control over the interface; feedback has been relayed to the vendor
- Contact Jason if you have any questions regarding 2FA
WUSA (Pratik)
- Looking to install cameras in the SLC, is IST's Networking team back on campus?
- Some Networking and ITMS staff are back on campus in some capacity
- WUSA is mailing out ~12,000 swag backs to students
Science (Paul)
- Interested in piloting Jira
- RT is currently not heavily used
- Also interested in Windows Virtual Desktop
- Contact Paul for access to the Physics machine room
Math (Robyn)
- Ticket currently open regarding fob access; some issues with regaining access to resources
- Received some requests from instructors for an application that creates exams from a repository
- Science uses Exam Bank
- Allows users to create tests and upload directly to Learn
- Science uses Exam Bank
Environment (Don)
- What services are other department help desks offering?
- IST is offering support via phone, live chat, RT, Jira Service Desk
- Also interested in learning more about Jira Service Desk