By the end of 1997, more than 100 computer servers and systems in the basement of the Computing and Communications Center (CCC) will have been disconnected, boxed up, loaded into moving vans, driven to Rhodes Hall, unpacked and reconnected in their new home on the seventh floor.
Consolidating Cornell's computing resources at Rhodes Hall makes sense for both the university's budget and the computer systems, said Provost Don M. Randel. Unlike CCC, Rhodes Hall is designed to house high-performance computing equipment. The consolidation also will enable computer specialists from Cornell Information Technologies (CIT) and the Theory Center to work more collaboratively to support all of Cornell's technology users.
The first two parts of the move -- consolidating the Theory Center's high-performance computers and transferring the CornellC mainframe computer from CCC to Rhodes Hall -- were completed in November.
"The libraries were prepared for a lot of inconvenience during the CornellC move over Thanksgiving. But because CIT got everything done early, before the libraries even reopened, we didn't experience any. Library patrons and staff were pleased," said Ross Atkinson, deputy university librarian.
"Our successes so far have been largely due to excellent planning by the talented staff at CIT and IBM, with strong support from the Theory Center. Other vendors, including Xerox and Sun, are also contributing to our consolidation efforts," said Peter M. Siegel, director of Network and Computing Systems at CIT.
The third and final part of the move begins Dec. 25. The most extensive and complex part, it has been scheduled for a period when usage of Cornell's computing services is traditionally low. Dozens of services will be disrupted, ranging from email and World Wide Web sites to library services and research computing. See the "Estimated Schedule of Service Disruptions" on Page 3 for a complete list. All services should be running again by Jan. 2, at the latest.
Services that should remain available (excluding brief interruptions) during the December move are EZRemote, EZBackup, Employee Essentials, Just the Facts and the Kerberos/Permit servers (part of Bear Access), as well as the Theory Center's research computers. As usual during the winter holidays, CornellC will be available but will be running unattended at various times from Dec. 24 through Jan. 2.
The Internet will remain accessible if all three DNS (domain name system) servers are configured in the user's computer network software. The DNS servers enable personal computers to connect to Internet services such as the World Wide Web and e-mail. The three DNS addresses are <132.236.56.250>, <128.253.180.2> and <192.35.82.50>. On a Windows computer, the DNS settings are in Microsoft TCP/IP or Trumpet Winsock. On a Macintosh computer, they are in MacTCP or TCP/IP. Instructions for configuring the settings are on the Web at http://www.cit.cornell.edu/citpubs/misc/dns.html.
Throughout the move, the Network Operations Center (NOC) will provide up-to-the-minute details on system availability through a status telephone line (255-6424) and Web site http://move.cit.cornell.edu/ . The NOC operators can be reached by calling 255-9900. The NOC is open 24 hours a day, year-round.
Those who have questions before the December move can send email to computer_move@cornell.edu.
The times and dates listed below are estimates only. If serious problems occur during the move, services may not be available until as late as Friday, Jan. 2, at 6 a.m.
Thursday, Dec. 25, at 6 p.m., to Friday, Dec. 26, at 8 p.m.
Note: Any priority mail should be sent several hours before the outage. Once mail services are restored, sending and receiving mail may take longer than usual until the backlog of messages is cleared.
·Mail (Eudora)
·Traveler's Mail
·Electronic Directory
·ListProc
·CU People Web server
·Network News
Thursday, Dec. 25, at 3 p.m., to Monday, Dec. 29, morning
·Cornell University Library Web site (www.library.cornell.edu)
·Mann Library Gateway (www.mannlib.cornell.edu)
·Libraries' electronic circulation and reserve systems
·EZ-Print/Local
·Net-Print
Thursday, Dec. 25, at 3 p.m., to Tuesday, Dec. 30, morning
Note: Services are listed in alphabetical order, not in order of priority.
·CISER servers (Gaea and Hera)
·CIT FTP Server (ftp.cit.cornell.edu)
·CIT Public AppleShare Server
·CIT Web site (www.cit.cornell.edu)
·COLTS
·Cornell Career Services Web site (www.career.cornell.edu/ccs/)
·CUinfo Web site (www.cornell.edu/CUinfo.html)
·Faculty Advisor Web site (faculty-advisor.sis.cornell.edu/FacAdv/)
·INSTRUCT servers (instruct1, instruct2, instruct3)
·RSRCH1 server
·SafetyNet
·SP2 server (provides new Bear Access software and software updates)
·Student Jobs/Internships Web site (student-jobs.ses.cornell.edu/jobs/)
·Other departmental services and Web sites that rely on servers housed in the
CCC machine room
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