Attendees:
Hon Tam Engineering Computing
Bruce Campbell Engineering Computing
Erick Engelke Engineering Computing
Stephen Sempson Science
Nevil Bromley Arts (Chair)
Daniel Delattre Applied Health Science (AHS) (Secretary)
Ray White Information System and Technology (IST)
Regrets:
Dan Hergott Math
Tim Farell IST
Jim Johnston MFCF
Bernie Roehl ESAG Representative
Trevor Bain Environmental Studies
Agenda
1) Power Shutdown
Although some buildings are not affected by the actual power shutdown, the campus network and therefore also the Nexus Student labs will be down on Saturday April 27..
2) Nexus Scratch
AD is being populated automatically from UWDir information. Scratch will still exist and will actually push the user-password to Nexus.
Come September 2002 there will also be a feature that will force the users to pick and/or verify their UWDir email field.
3) Implications of an Arts Web mail
None. However Endymion mail will continue to run on the login screen since this browser does not support Javascripts.
The Faculties are however implementing Internet Message Program (IMP). Instructions are at the IMP page.
4) Nexus Desktop
Eng. Comp. is building a couple of new web tools to change a user's .forward and .vacation.msg.
It was decided that we will provide desktop icons that will start up the Nexus browser and show the tools.
As for a web mail client, we might force IE to open up IMP.
5) NetApps and Nexus
Engineering moved their NetApp into the Nexus Domain and are using Samba to provide Polaris users access to their N-drive.
A couple of issues came up: a) First create the NetApp computer name in AD before conversion; b) standalone machines cannot access the NetApp unless they are part of a workgroup called Nexus; c) Start-menus of existing Polaris Accounts disappear (there is a work-around that copies the start-menu manually to the samba box); d) In the NetApp you have to change the cifs.homedir to point to the user space so users can connect to \\cifs.homedir\home.
6) The NetApp Future
In June 2003 the software support for the current NetApp F720 will run out. This coincides with the approximate lifespan of 4 years for computer equipment. One of the possibilities would be to share a big NetApp amongst multiple faculties and thus share the cost. Before any purchases are done, Eng. Comp. will test the new machine within the new XP environment. The cheapest option for a new NetApp is approx. $30,000 for the entry level with 500GB of space.
7) h/w Upgrades for Nexus
See Bruce's site for background information.
Arts: All student labs will be Nexus ready come Sep 2002, Faculty and Staff offices might become standalone machines if they are not ready. Arts will also develop their own arts-domain.
Science: All student labs will be Nexus ready come Sep. 2002. Faculty and Staff is still an open question.
Math: All student labs will be Nexus ready come Sep. 2002.
Engineering: All student labs will be Nexus ready come Sep. 2002.
AHS: All student labs are Nexus ready.
ES: ?
Result: Come Sep. 2002 we will have a full Nexus Student Computing Environment
8) End-of-Term Updates
SP2 for Windows 2000
SP1 for Office XP
SP2 for WordPerfect Office 2002
9) Rename WPAG
Nevil will send out a memo requesting a name change from Waterloo Polaris Advisory Group (WPAG) to Waterloo Nexus Advisory Group (WNAG) to UCIST.
