On Wednesday, June 4th, SSCC staff will install a new network storage device and replace our current Windows file server (print) with two new servers in a high-availability cluster arrangement. The storage device will also be used by Linux, and we will replace our Linux file server with another high-availability cluster later this summer. We expect that the new device will give us enough disk space to meet the needs of our members for the next three years.

Installing the new storage device and servers will require downtime on June 4th from 2:00AM to 9:00AM. Winstat, Windows network drives (U:, X:, Y:) and network printers will be unavailable, however you will be able to log into your PC and use email, web pages, Linux servers and Linux network drives (V:, Z:).

Network drives that are set up for you will be switched to the new file servers automatically, and Linux drives will be unaffected. However, anyone who has manually mapped drives to print or who has scripts or programs that refer to print (other than for printing) will need to change them. This includes those who access Windows network drives from a Mac or over VPN.

The new cluster will be called SSCWIN. It will use a Distributed File System to balance the load between the two servers, and if one fails the other can take over completely. This Distributed File System will be available at \\sscwin\dfsroot, and this location replaces \\print in drive mappings and such. Thus \\print\project (the X: drive) will become \\sscwin\dfsroot\project. However, keep in mind that we'll take care of changing the X: drive that is set up automatically when you log in to PRIMO. You'll only need to change drives you set up yourself. Also, drives mapped to \\sscunix are completely unaffected by this change. Thus we anticipate that very few people will have to make any changes other than Mac and VPN users.

For instructions on mapping network drives, see http://ssc.wisc.edu/sscc/pubs/5-26.htm. We'd also be happy to visit your office and make the necessary changes for you--just email the consultant (consult@ssc.wisc.edu) and let us know that you'd like assistance.

print will continue to be our primary print server, and network printing will be unchanged.

The main purpose of this upgrade is to meet the ever-expanding storage needs of our members. However, the combination of new storage and new file servers also gives a substantial increase in performance. In testing the new storage device we found that Stata load and save times for large data sets were cut approximately in half, and run times for disk-intensive SAS programs were cut by about a third. If you have any questions or concerns about this change, please contact the consultant (consult@ssc.wisc.edu).