======================== SSC News, November, 1994 ======================== This is the SSC News. This monthly electronic newsletter will keep you informed about recent changes on the SSC computer networks. We hope this information will help improve communication between the SSC computing staff and all of you computer users out there. Inside this issue... Cluster Consolidation Update Status of Application Software for EAGLE Printing Changes Dialing into the SSC New Consulting Schedule and Location Office Inventory of Computer Equipment to Take Place ---------------------------- Cluster Consolidation Update ---------------------------- Recent instability in certain cluster nodes, especially ROBIN, have been the effect, we feel, of new demands placed on the VMS machines by DECwindows Motif. Within the last several days, many VMS machines have had some of their system parameters modified in ways that ought to improve their reliability. System tuning is an iterative (i.e., trial and error) process, so we can promise no more than to make progress, learning something new from each problem incident. However, no systems have crashed in the last four days (as of this writing, 10/31) so we feel that progress is indeed being made. ROBIN was the hardest-hit of VMS machines probably because it is being asked to do more fundamental system administration jobs than any other machine in the cluster. For the time being we have decided to reduce ROBIN's load by blocking interactive user logins, thereby reducing processing demands and also eliminating the need actually to load up DECwindows Motif on ROBIN at all. ROBIN remains available as before for batch processing. Pathworks --------- As part of the effort to lighten ROBIN's workload, we are in the process of providing an alternative Pathworks server. This will involve installing a new version of the Pathworks server software on both ROBIN and EAGLE. Once this is done and we have verified that Pathworks clients can be served successfully from either ROBIN or EAGLE we will announce the steps that Pathworks users will need to take either to switch over to the Pathworks server on EAGLE permanently or to use it temporarily while ROBIN may be unavailable. SPSS ---- SPSS continues to be an important topic of concern. SPSS, Inc. said it would begin shipping the AXP VMS version (i.e., the one that will run on EAGLE) this week. When the tape arrives here, our highest priority will be to install SPSS on EAGLE. That will lead within a week or two to the retirement of CDE, SOC and probably SSCC. The retirement of AGE also depends on receiving a license for SPSS Data Entry to run on SSCB. That is a separate administrative task, but one that might well be completed before the AXP version of SPSS is available. VMS 6.1 ------- The installation of VMS 6.1 on the VAX nodes (all nodes except EAGLE, which already runs VMS 6.1) has been tentatively scheduled for the first week of January, 1995. There are a few technical prerequisites that we should be able to satisfy before then. In particular, the cluster must have achieved a high degree of routine performance stability before we challenge it yet again with a new version of the operating system. ---------------------------------------- Status of Application Software for EAGLE ---------------------------------------- Listed below are application software for EAGLE and their status: SAS 6.09 Available now. Glim 4.0 Available now. LISREL/PRELIS Available now. Minitab 9.1 Available now. LIMDEP 6.0 Available now. GOPHER GOPHER, SSCGOPHER, BULLetin, and OLDBULL available now. SPSS SPSS Inc. began shipping this week. See above note. LOOKUP Have VMS source code. Need to try to compile it. ODH Have VMS source code. Need to try to compile it. HOTZTRAN Have VMS source code. Need to try to compile it. WordPerfect An Alpha version should be available by Christmas. EQS Waiting to hear whether an Alpha version is available. HLM We are in the processing of buying the AXP/VMS version. CTM Checking whether we have suitable source code. BOUNDS Have asked for source code. Haven't heard back. EMACS Don't have it yet. Would any of you VMS programmers be interested in helping us with the porting of some of these programs like ODH, CTM, RATE, or BOUNDS? If so, please contact Tom Flory. ---------------- Printing Changes ---------------- Public printing in the Co-op is now set up in the following way. There are two laser printers in the computer room. One of them does double-sided and single-sided printing (Curly) and the other does only single-sided printing (Moe). Curly and Moe take both Unix and VMS print jobs. VMS jobs that direct output to the SINGLE, DOUBLE, SINGLE_PS, or DOUBLE_PS queues will go to one of these printers. Operators will shelve the output. There is also a laser printer in the IO Room (LN08_1) that is available only for VMS double-sided and single-sided print jobs. The VMS queues IOSINGLE, IODOUBLE, IOSINGLE_PS and IODOUBLE_PS direct output to that printer. Users pick up their own output from LN08_1. Operators do not shelve it. The impact printer (a.k.a. line printer or serial printer) is also available for both Unix and VMS print jobs. This is the default printer for both VMS and Unix if no print queue is specified. In the future, an additional laser printer (Larry) will be added to the two in the computer room and all three (Curly, Moe, and Larry) will be capable of both double-sided and single-sided printing. In addition, another LN08 printer will be put online in the user room, 2470. This printer, like LN08_1 in the IO Room, will be have dedicated queues and be user-operated. ------------------- Dialing into the SSC -------------------- Many SSC users continue to dial 263-1655 to call into the SSC's old and slow dialin modem pool. Even if you do not have a high-speed modem, but especially if you do, you should get into the habit of calling in through the new modem pool established by DoIT for the benefit of the entire campus. These are relatively new modems that are capable of a raw transfer rate of 14,400 bps compared to only 2,400 bps for our modems. They have proven to be highly available and reliable. The DoIT dialin number is 265-4321. However, one first has to activate an account on DoIT's dialin server. To do this, telnet to dialin.nic.wisc.edu. At the login name prompt, enter "activate" (lower case). Then respond to a few questions which will include your faculty/staff or student i.d. and your date of birth. A username will be assigned to you. You may choose your own (case-sensitive) password. Once your account is activated, dial 265-4321 and enter your new DoIT username in lowercase letters. At the next prompt you can telnet to any machine with an Internet address, including all VMS and Unix machines in our network. Keep in mind that you must use the entire Internet address (e.g., eagle.ssc.wisc.edu) rather than just our node name (e.g., eagle). Use only lowercase letters; the DoIT server is a Unix machine. ------------------------------------ New Consulting Schedule and Location ------------------------------------ Now that our new Help Desk Coordinator, Sandra Wald, has arrived, we have a new consulting schedule in effect which includes two additional hours of consulting each day. Below is the complete schedule. Please note that morning consulting has been moved to Social Science 4403. Day Time Loc. Staff Member Questions --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday 9-12 4403 Sandra Wald New Users, General 1-3 2470 Stephanie Fassnacht General 1-3 4406 Nancy McDermott Stat Packages 3-4 2470 Anne Cooper General, Tape Usage --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday 9-12 4403 Sandra Wald New Users, General 1-3 2470 Bonnie Brandreth General, Stat Packages 3-4 2470 Anne Cooper General, Tape Usage --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday 9-12 4403 Sandra Wald New Users, General 1-3 2470 Bonnie Brandreth General, Stat Packages 3-4 2470 Anne Cooper General, Tape Usage --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday 9-12 4403 Sandra Wald New Users, General 1-3 2470 Bonnie Brandreth General, Stat Packages 3-4 2470 Cindy Lew General, Tape Usage --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday 9-12 4403 Sandra Wald New Users, General 1-3 2470 J. Dixon General 1-3 4406 Nancy McDermott Stat Packages 3-4 2470 Cindy Lew General, Tape Usage --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- Office Inventory of Computer Equipment to Take Place ---------------------------------------------------- Beginning next week, the SSC will be conducting an inventory of computing equipment and network/terminal server connections in offices of SSC members. We are doing this inventory for two reasons. One reason is in preparation for the 2-year-long network upgrade project funded by NSF. We need to have accurate baseline data on network connectivity. Second, we've been asked by the Sociology Department to make an inventory of office computing equipment. The department is responsible to other units of the University for this information. We expect this inventory to take about one month. At the time of the inventory, a quick survey of what computers and peripherals is in the office will be made and possibly a quick check of the wall port. The whole process should take less than five minutes. If you have questions about your office connectivity, this would be a good time to ask them. Send your questions to RISBERG. We have arranged to get a master key for office access to used in the event that the office is locked at the time of the inventory. If you would rather not have the inventory done when you are not present, you are welcome to schedule a time for the inventory by sending mail to RISBERG. TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS NEWSLETTER, just reply to this mail message indicating you want to unsubscribe. We will remove you from the distribution list for future electronic mailings. If you ever change your mind, just notify the SSC Consultant or send mail to SSCNEWS asking to get back on the list.