© University of Reading 2008 www.reading.ac.uk

IT Services

Key developmentsStephen GoughAssistant Director of IT Services

9 April 2008

Review of developments for 2007-8

• technical changes– migration of staff email to Exchange Service– exploitation of Data Vault– identity management– virtualisation

• service changes– ITS Help and the Student Services Centre– ITS Support for IT Supporters

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Migration of staff email to Microsoft Exchange

• goals - reminder– separation from student email– enhanced functionality

• global and shareable address books• rapid message distribution/delivery• calendar, to-do lists and meeting-making tools• shareable folders for messages or other documents• a global proprietary standard

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Migration to Exchange - update

• all new staff registered on Exchange

• most of phase 1 now complete

• more complex cases next

• Anton Lawrence giving update later today

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File store

• exploitation of Vault for Data

• potential to raise file store allocations to multi-GB levels

• more available

• may be chargeable

• Update:– file store Vault not implemented– NetApp upgrade 2008 – more later in this talk

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Identity management• UK Access Management Federation formed 2007

• sets national standard for – authentication - who is this?– authorisation - what are they allowed to do?

• the standard is known as Shibboleth

• replaces Athens as A&A method for UK HE e-resources

• native Athens unfunded from 31/7/08

• attributes beyond those embedded in University Username may need to be passed

• work needed to integrate Shibboleth and Globus A&A

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Identity management - update

• live from May/June 2008

• new format usernames for new personal accounts– 2 random letters followed by 4 random digits

• ADAM (Active Directory Application Mode) to replace NIS– available soon for testing– parallel running for a while

• replacement for ‘person’– test version end of April

• Shibboleth– during next session– OpenAthens for 3 years from 1/8/08

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Virtualisation

• multiple physical servers become multiple virtual servers within one large physical server (cf mainframe)

• faster provisioning

• easier DR

• easier management

• lower power consumption

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Virtualisation – update

• audit of ITS servers completed

• prioritised list of servers being drawn up

• some servers already migrated

• would like to be able to offer chargeable service later

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ITS Help and Student Services Centre

• counter service at Bulmershe to cease September 2007 – done

• counter service at Whiteknights Library to move to S@il from Summer 2007– done

• counter service at Whiteknights to move to new Student Services Centre from January 2008– decided not appropriate

• SSC will offer interactive advice and enquiry logging system. The latter will include IT FAQs– done

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ITS Support for IT Supporters

• ITS will discover from HR who is employed in an IT support role

• ITS will work with HR and others to develop standardised job descriptions (HERA/SFIA)

• ITS will publish a Service Catalogue to replace the SLA

• ITS will explore the opportunities for managing CPD records in the IT context (Trent/BCS)

• ITS will expand the Remedy workflow system and induct IT supporters into its use

• ITS will explore the possibilities of a ‘hotline’11

ITS Support for IT Supporters – update

• Service Catalogue available– more information needed

• self-service available in Trent

• Remedy available to IT support staff– had 2 lunchtime sessions– more later today

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Review of directorates

• IT Services will be in Academic Services Directorate from 1 Aug 2008

• alongside:– Library– CDOTL– CSTD– Timetabling and Room Bookings– Faculty Offices– and others

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Research Data

• Mike Proven, Quality Assurance in Research Officer

• looking at:– requirements of funders, e.g. research councils– quantify amount of data to be preserved

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Research requirements

• University Board for Research workshop on what information services the University requires over next 5-10 years

• SCRI– Sub-Committee on Research Infrastructure

• requests for space for deptl/school racks– http://www.reading.ac.uk/internal/its/help/its-help-for

ms/requestlylespace.asp

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Net App • upgrade summer 2008• new filer head units• move from max 28TB to:

– max 100TB with fast disks– max 336TB with SATA disks– between 100TB & 336TB with a mix– need to buy disks to increase current capacity

• capability for research data to be centrally stored– mirrored across 2 sites & backed up– schools can buy in

• won’t be cheap but compare to buying/hosting/maintaining alternatives

• expect some major research centres to buy-in

• use Enterprise Vault for files & Exchange– moves items to slower disk

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JANETtalk trial• http://www.ja.net/development/voip/janettalktrial.ht

ml• collaborative tool

– video conferencing– messaging– file transfer– shared whiteboard

• UoR to join the trial in May 2008• will be testing with

– e-learning• CDOTL

– e-science• David Spence

– e-admin

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e-science

• www.reading.ac.uk/e-science

• David Spence doing session later

• survey of activities

• Reading grid

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Pharos

• print queue, no accounting, no statistics– cf prthost– free

• print queue, standard charging, print release station, re-charge to school– £100 one off set up– £100 pa for admin of doing quarterly credits to school– £60 for image maintenance for print release station

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Curriculum application delivery

• looking at options for badly behaved apps– ones that can’t easily be converted to MSI format and

delivered with SMS

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Migration to Vista on communal PCs

• not for 2008 in PC classrooms

• very few other HE insts migrating– UCISA survey, 50 responses

• 6 moving to Vista for staff PCs• 4 moving to Vista for classroom PCs

• Dell cannot supply XP after 1/7/08– MS restriction– can get XP via Reading Image

• support for staff using Vista

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Office 2007

• planning to move to Office 2007 for:– classroom PCs for 2008/9 session– Reading Image for summer purchases

• more from Mark Stephens later

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VDI trial

• thin clients

• thick clients– full PCs

• “diet” clients– older, lower spec PCs

• servers & SAN needed

• cheaper clients but need to spend on servers & SAN

• possible cost savings?

• easier to maintain

• during 2008/923

INUK freewire trial

• IPTV

• freewire channels– c.f. FreeView– some radio stations

• can subscribe to some other channels

• can subscribe to telephone service

• trial on readingConnect– summer term

• roll-out for new session

• requires multicast to Internet

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Site-licensed software

• renewed:– ESRI ArcGIS

• 3 and a bit years (1/3/08 – 31/7/11)– Uniras (includes Gsharp)

• 3 years (1/4/08 – 31/3/11)

• expire 31/7/08 – will renew for 3 years:– NAG– SAS– Microsoft Campus

• expire 31/7/09 – will determine usage– Erdas Imagine– Exceed & Maestro

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Sophos

• Sophos 6 support ends 31/5/08– need to move to Sophos 7– email gone to IT Supporters– need to advertise more widely

• Current licence expires 10/7/10– need to decide what to do during a/y 2008-9

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