Executive Summary
UCS Sevices
Staff Organisation
Accountability Report
MITS Accountability Report
[Extracts from the1998/99 Planning Statement for the University Computing Service]
University of Newcastle
1999/2000 Planning Statement for the University Computing Service
Executive Summary
3rd December 1998
• The most serious challenge facing the UCS is mismatch between University expectations and UCS staffing resource levels. While we are attempting to manage users’ expectations of our services, it is apparent that we are not meeting these in several areas because of underprovision of staff effort. The problem has been exacerbated by loss of experienced staff, diversion of staff to MAIS-related activities, increasing demands for services in MAIS and other areas.
• UCS is actively discussing organisational aspects of the UCS/MITS merger, and we indicate staffing requirements.
• We expect to complete the migration of PC clusters to Windows NT in summer 1999. A question that then arises is the level of UCS resource that should be devoted to supporting the remaining small number of Windows 3.1 clusters in departments that cannor be upgraded.
• UCS will continue to develop the network to provide the high-speed resilient structure needed to handle increasing user demand, including that for MAIS SAP-related services. We shall cable those buildings that the level of University funding permits.
• We shall continue to investigate and implement ways of minimising the charge to the University for incoming transatlantic network traffic.
• In the PC area we intend to replace old equipment, and propose a small increase in the number of PCs to be made available to students to replace the recently withdrawn HP Unix clusters. • While Unix is being withdrawn from the student desktop, we expect to noed it for some years for the provision of reliable scalable enterprise-wide infrastructure services, such as email, and for certain types of application needed by some postgraduates and staff. • We look to more widespread use on campus of the Common Desktop as a way of alleviating some of the support pressures on UCS staff. However, the University needs to address the issue of how, and to what extent, it should provide IT support in departments. • The introduction of new applications software requested by users has been subject to lengthy delay in some cases, as system staff effort has not been available, because of work on infrastructure and MAIS-related activities. • New equipment and new versions of systems can generate new demands on both staff and on infrastructure services such as network capacity and filestore: we specify requirements for these.
• We expect to complete the first phase of the NorMAN network shortly, with the connection of Teesside, Durham and University College Stockton. Newcastle, Northumbria and Sunderland Universities, together with Henderson and Castle Leazes Halls, and Newcastle General Hospital are all now using NorMAN, and fibre to Freeman Hospital is in place.
Appendix A
University Computing Service
1999/2000 Planning Statement
UCS Services
Introduction
In summary, UCS provides and maintains the campus network and offers thereon a range of distributed computing facilities to all staff, postgraduates and undergraduates. These are underpinned by a range of support services many of which are also provided for departmental computing resources.
The following is a brief list of all current service areas and is the list used in assigning costs and income to activities later in the document and in spreadsheets.
1. Network
UCS provides, manages and supports the campus-wide network which enables communications across campus and provides access to national and international network services including electronic mail. The main service functions are:
1.1 Network enhancement
1.2 Network operation and maintenance
2. Core computing facilities
UCS makes publicly available, manages and operates, a wide range of computing services over a variety of computing platforms in order to meet the differing needs of University members. These services can be summarised as follows:
2.1 Unix workstations for general use
2.2 PCs and Macs for general use
2.3 Multi-access computing resources
2.4.1 Computation intensive facilities
2.4.2 Printing and plotting
2.4.3 NUInfo
2.4.4 Networked information access (Intranet and Web)
2.4.5 User initiated archiving
2.4.6 Infrastructure support services
2.4.7 Email
2.4.8 Dial-up
2.4.9 Cluster room assistants
3. Education and training
UCS is committed to the IT training and education of its many customers. In view of the large numbers involved and in order to make best use of our resources, the current policy is to deliver as much training as possible by ‘open learning’ methods. The following summarise the main areas of activity:
3.1 Self-teaching materials and documentation
3.2 Show and Tell talks for departments
3.3 Advisory assistance and Helpline
4. Applications software support
A wide range of applications software is installed on all supported computing platforms, UCS provides in-depth support for a limited core range of standard widely used packages, mainly to academic staff and postgraduate students. It also installs and implements a wider range of minority interest software which necessarily receives a lower level of UCS support although it may be heavily used in teaching or research by particular disciplines – CAD software in Engineering is a good example of this.
4.1 UCS-supported software
4.2 Minority interest software
5. Direct support for departments
UCS evaluates hardware and software and offers advice to departments on how best to meet their own needs. It also provides a range of directly charged IT services to departments.
5.1 Hardware consultancy
5.2 Software consultancy
5.3 Departmental Unix workstations
5.4 Departmental PCs and Macs
5.5 Facilities management of departmental equipment
5.6 UCS shop
5.7 Micro-maintenance scheme
5.8 Data preparation service
5.9 Print room (external service)
6. Exploration and development
UCS has a role in assisting the University to keep abreast of the implications of changes in hardware, networking and software technology. The field of IT changes rapidly and UCS aims to provide the University with timely information which will enable the deployment of IT in a cost-effective way.
7. Mailbase, Netskills
UCS continues to provide the national Mailbase service and during 94/95 was successful in a bid for Electronic Librarics Programme funds to develop and deliver mass network skills training across the HE sector. This project, Netskills, has brought in excess of £1m into the University over 3 years.
8. Management IT Services
The former MITS department is now a division of UCS managed by a Deputy Director. This group provides support for all administrative IT, including MAIS, across the University.
[Extracted from Organisation Chart in Appendix D]
STAFF ORGANISATION
Director
P S Salotti
. . . . . . National Services Director
. . . . . . G Foster
. . . . . . . . . . . . Mailbase
. . . . . . . . . . . . Vacant Post – Manager
. . . . . . . . . . . . P Baggott
. . . . . . . . . . . . A H Bush
. . . . . . . . . . . . D Harris
. . . . . . . . . . . . G B Taylor
. . . . . . . . . . . . Netskills
. . . . . . . . . . . . D W Hartland – Manager
. . . . . . . . . . . . R S Allen
. . . . . . . . . . . . G Grenfell
. . . . . . . . . . . . S Hume
. . . . . . . . . . . . S I Stuart
. . . . . . . . . . . . P B Murray
. . . . . . . . . . . . C A Vincent
. . . . . . . . . . . . E F Wright
. . . . . . . . . . . . vacant post
. . . . . . . . . . . . vacant post
. . . . . . DESIRE
. . . . . . . . . . . . A M McDonald
. . . . . . Assistant Director (Hardware & Unix)
. . . . . . T J Ratcliffe
. . . . . . . . . . . . Operations Superv.
. . . . . . . . . . . . R E Broughton
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Shift Leaders
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . J M Gaffney
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . G Lynch
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M R Paul
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Operators
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vacant post
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P Baggott
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A H Bush
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D Harris
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . G B Taylor
. . . . . . . . . . . . Print Room
. . . . . . . . . . . . W D Foggo – Manager
. . . . . . . . . . . . H E Fleming
. . . . . . . . . . . . Unix Systems
. . . . . . . . . . . . FT Greenwood
. . . . . . . . . . . . Q G Campbell
. . . . . . . . . . . . B C Hamshere
. . . . . . . . . . . . R Kerr
. . . . . . . . . . . . P Lomas
. . . . . . . . . . . . P Whillance
. . . . . . . . . . . . Microcomputer Support
. . . . . . . . . . . . C Gerrard
. . . . . . . . . . . . M Agar
. . . . . . . . . . . . R J S T R Allan
. . . . . . . . . . . . T Betteridge
. . . . . . . . . . . . D J Clark
. . . . . . . . . . . . A M Lamont
. . . . . . . . . . . . I Nicholson
. . . . . . . . . . . . D J Sedgwick
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Micro Maintenance & Computer Technicians
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . J S Snowball – Dept Superintendent
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Technicians
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I Gibson
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M S Halpin
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A Murphy
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I Rutherford
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Trainee Technician(s)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F Gilbert
. . . . . . Assistant Director (Networking)
. . . . . . I D Doak
. . . . . . . . . . . . Network & Development Staff
. . . . . . . . . . . . V J Bilton
. . . . . . . . . . . . P A Coates
. . . . . . . . . . . . J D Coleman
. . . . . . . . . . . . K Heron
. . . . . . . . . . . . N Montecchiari
. . . . . . . . . . . . E Watson
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Technical Network Staff
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . G A Brown
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . J Craig
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S Hay
. . . . . . Assistant Director (User Services. MAN & Security)
. . . . . . D M Russell
. . . . . . . . . . . . Applications, Information & Education
. . . . . . . . . . . . R Clout
. . . . . . . . . . . . J M Hunter
. . . . . . . . . . . . S T Kometa
. . . . . . . . . . . . J A Law
. . . . . . . . . . . . R G C Pringle
. . . . . . . . . . . . L M Scammell
. . . . . . . . . . . . G Shearing
. . . . . . . . . . . . J A Wheeler
. . . . . . . . . . . . C H Woodford
. . . . . . . . . . . . WWW Infrastructure Support
. . . . . . . . . . . . D P Surtees
. . . . . . . . . . . . D Querry (50%)
. . . . . . . . . . . . Data Preparation Service
. . . . . . . . . . . . C L Hellier – Manager
. . . . . . . . . . . . E Brown
. . . . . . . . . . . . S E Carrick
. . . . . . . . . . . . Vacant Post
. . . . . . . . . . . . N Foster
. . . . . . . . . . . . J Powell
. . . . . . . . . . . . M Young
. . . . . . . . . . . . approx 30 “outworkers” – casual
. . . . . . . . . . . . General Assistants (Cluster Rooms) Ancilliary
. . . . . . . . . . . . H E Fleming
. . . . . . . . . . . . S K Minto
. . . . . . Y2000 Project Officer
. . . . . . P J Williams
. . . . . . Departmental Administration
. . . . . . M L Coleman
. . . . . . . . . . . . Clerical Staff
. . . . . . . . . . . . J A Hall – Director’s Secretary
. . . . . . . . . . . . J H Coulson
. . . . . . . . . . . . General Office
. . . . . . . . . . . . P A Boyle
. . . . . . . . . . . . K Malcolm
. . . . . . . . . . . . C D Moffat
. . . . . . . . . . . . A Taylor
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Clerical Staff – Reception & User Registration
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R Dickinson
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . L Jamieson
MITS Staffing
Director
. . . . . . Assistant Director, Technical Infrastructure
. . . . . . . . . . . . Operations/Helpdesk
. . . . . . . . . . . . C Craig
. . . . . . . . . . . . C Brown
. . . . . . . . . . . . J Butterworth
. . . . . . . . . . . . F Hood
. . . . . . . . . . . . Networking Unix Support
. . . . . . . . . . . . Vacant
. . . . . . . . . . . . LANS/Novell
. . . . . . . . . . . . R L Stutchbury
. . . . . . . . . . . . PCs
. . . . . . . . . . . . S Donoghue
. . . . . . . . . . . . J Donaldson
. . . . . . . . . . . . S Lisle
. . . . . . Assistant Director, Current Systems, P R Phillips
. . . . . . . . . . . . Current Applications
. . . . . . . . . . . . M E Burnley
. . . . . . . . . . . . K Fletcher
. . . . . . . . . . . . C Pickard
. . . . . . . . . . . . J Watson
. . . . . . . . . . . . R S Cave
. . . . . . . . . . . . F Reynolds
. . . . . . . . . . . . S Tucker
. . . . . . . . . . . . R Booth
. . . . . . . . . . . . R Phillips
. . . . . . . . . . . . J Ramel
. . . . . . Team Leader, SAP Technical Support, T W Lawrence
. . . . . . . . . . . . SAP Systems
. . . . . . . . . . . . M S Rennie
. . . . . . . . . . . . H Wilson
. . . . . . Departmental Administrator, E Horton
Appendix E
University of Newcastle
University Computing Service
Accountability Report 1997/98
15th October 1998
UCS is pleased to provide this report on the highlights of our 1997/98 activities. Only major achievements, changes and developments are covered in this document. Items which represent targets from the 97/98 Planning Statement are indicated by ‘*’.
ASSA’s attention is drawn in several sections to what has not been achieved. Demands on UCS have been such that whilst equipment funding has been available, the staff resource required for some activities has been unavailable or severely affected because of a number of major simultaneous demands on time. Stress levels among key staff have been very high during the last year and we have been without one senior post (Assistant Director, Brian Jones) since January 1998.
1. MAIS related UCS activities
• From January 1998, four senior and key UCS staff have bocn heavily committed to the MAIS project, firstly during the MAIS Technical Review and subsequently in the procurement and commissioning of server hardware and software and in designing, building and distributing client workstations, initially for 25 key MAIS users. This latter phase has been as part of the Technical Implementation Task Force, chaired by the UCS Director. The extent and duration of this involvement was greater than anticipated and has, inevitably, diverted effort from other UCS work. For example, for a period of at least three months, Dr Ratcliffe was devoting at least 75% time to the work associated with specifying. purchasing and installing server hardware.
• In addition, from April 1998, significant planning effort has gone into the UCS/MITS merger process.
2. Network
• During 97/98, UP&RC funded (one ycar carlier than expected) the first year of a six ycar building recabling project. UCS was able to purchase building switches which will enable both short- and long-term network capacity improvements. In addition, Kensington Terrace which was suffering from network congestion was completely recabled. Installation of the switches has not progressed as fast as we would ideally like because of the sheer volume of work needed from the network section during the year. (*)
• Core network performance was improved by continuing replacement of network routing equipment. This has enabled Fast Ethernet to be deployed in certain key cluster areas. (*)
• The dial-up service was further enhanced to handle increasing off-campus demand. (*) • In March 1998 we moved from Super JANET to SuperJANET III, requiring significant changes to our gateway equipment. (*)
• As planned, the part HEFCE-funded NorMAN project has been in the process of rollout and by 31″ July 1998, Newcastle, Northumbria and Sunderland were all receiving SJ III servicc via NorMAN. The remainder of the equipment to link Durham and Tecsside will be installed during November. Fibre connections to General and Freeman Hospitals as well as Castic Lcazes and Henderson Halls will be of direct benefit to this University (General and Castic Leazes are already in use). (*)
• During the ycar, JSC confirmed their intention to begin institutional charging for incoming trans. Atlantic network traffic from 1* August 1998. In preparation for this, UCS began work intended to minimise unnecessary Newcastle charges (for example, a second WWW cache machine) and to enable more accurate monitoring and itemisation of bandwidth usage. (*)
It is particularly apparent in the networking area that demand for manpower has severely taxed UCS staffing levels. A number of major projects had to be undertaken simultaneously during 97/98 (for example, Kensington Terrace recabling, fibre links to General Hospital/Castle Leazes, Norman fibre and microwave installations, networking associated with MAIS servers, planning response to network charging). As a resuit, progress in other, more basic areas such as alternative fibre routes on campus and installation of new switches in buildings has been slower than hoped.
3. PC Services
• Five-year old UCS student PCs retired from main user areas and recycled wherever possible. This is part of the ongoing UCS replacement cycle. (*)
• The 60 CAD cluster machines based in Architecture and MMME were replaced early with newer, more powerful machines capable of running current software versions more satisfactorily. The displaced machines were redeployed into less demanding gencral-purpose cluster areas.
• An additional 60 new PC seats were provided in Gilchrist Library (40) and Claremont Tower (20). (*)
• UCS successfully completed the first phase of upgrading cluster PC stations from Windows 3.1 to NT during Summer 97 and began second phase during Summer 98. By end of 97/98, >75% of UCS managed machines were running NT. (*)
• The University PC/Mac framework agreement required by BC public purchasing directives was completed on schedule, in time for the beginning of the 97/98 academic ycar. (*)
• UP&RC funding for departmental cluster replacement was received for the first time during 97/98. A consultation and planning exercise was carried out by CSC/UCS and, as a result, the first tranche of funding was spent on clusters in Agriculture (42 seats) and Mathematics (40). The basis for a five-ycar cycle of replacement was also planned.
• During 97/98, ASSA funded a Stuff Common Desktop project intended to explore delivery of commonly required software to staff desktops. This was partially implemented with equipment purchase and efforts put into delivering the MAIS key user PC desktops. Recruitment of a member of staff to take this arca forward is currently underway. (*)
It should be noted here that the scale of the above work has held up work on a number of other important areas including: installation of new applications software (both UCS and departmental): improvements to station build and maintenance efficiency: identification or development of NT management tools.
4. Unix Services
• The first phase of HIP workstation withdrawal and replacement took place, with 25 Sun machines acquired for the Bedson and OLUA clusters. (*)
• Timesharing services remained stable following the 96/97 upgrade. (*)
• Background servers for WWW cache and CGI, mail, and printing were upgraded as planned. (*)
Progress with deployment of replacement workstations was slower than planned because of a Spring 1998 outbreak of hacking among UCS and departmental Unix machines. This took considerable UCS manpower to contain and required contact with police and network authorities. ASSA is reminded that the 98/99 Planning statement identified the need for an additional FTE to improve on computer security.
5. Printing
• Additional printers (27 & all located in clusters) were added to the charged printing service. All UCS managed cluster areas now offer local printing. The total number of pages printed in the year doubled from 759,000 to 1.824 million. (*)
• ‘Free’ draft printing was successfully phased out. (*)
6. Intranet
• UCS resource was put into the University’s NUlafo intranet pages under the auspices of the NUInfo Policy Committce and Technical Group. ASSA part funds a WWW Trained/Enabler and UCS has provided and enhanced server infrastructure and software support. (*)
7. Year 2000
• UCS Director continued to chair the University’s Ycar 2000 Steering Group. Presentations were given to Heads of Department and Audit Committce on the work of that group. (*) | • A Year 2000 Officer was appointed during carly summer and has since been co-ordinating campus Y2k activities, building information resources on a local WWW page, acting as a focus for departmental campus Y2k preparation.
8. Mailbase
• The national Mailbase Service continues to grow. In July 1998 there were 144,000 individual users of the service and over 2,100 lists.
• Noteworthy technical developments include the provision of a digest version of list messages and improved control of mail loops and junk email. (*)
• Ongoing discussions between the University and JISC and the preparation of a business plan for Mailbase to cope with a possible reduction in the level of funding from ISC.
• Upgrade of the local Newcastle local Mailbase Service.
9. Netskills
• A very successful year. Netskills is nearing the end of its eLib funded phase and is on target to chieve all of the final Stage 4 milestones. It has been one of the most successful of the eLit projects.
• Over 3,000 people were trained at over 130 workshops and events around the UK. Five new workshops have been developed contributing to the range of 12 workshops in the Netskills portfolio.
• The Netskills training modules were undated and a number of new modules were created
Appendix E
MITS ACCOUNTABILITY REPORT
August 97 – July 98
(NB NO PLANNING STATEMENT FOR THIS PERIOD)
Support for MAIS Project:
Five senior members of MITS (MB, KF, CP, JW, RC) were seconded for 80% of their time to the SAP Configuration teams.
From January 1998 six members of MITS (PP, SD, LS, HW, TL, MR) teamed up with people from UCS to form the Tochnical Review Group under the leadership of Ross Milbourne (RM). Apart from the production of the TRG Report, the group questioned the decision that the Digital Alpha/NT platform for SAP was the optimal way forward and proposed that the University should go out to tender under European Rules. A further development of the TRG was that RM, PP and Paul Saloti, Director of UCS were asked to consider the future provision of IT to meet the needs of a devolved administrative system based upon SAP R/3. This group produced a report proposing a merger between UCS and MITS and in July these proposals were accepted by ASSA. The head of MITS would be Deputy Director UCS. This post was advertised in July and it was agreed that the merger would take place following that appointment.
In July Terry Lawrence (TL) was appointed to the post of Manager of the Administrative Systems Technical Support Unit and Harry Wilson (HW) transferred from TIU Networks/UNIX to become ASTSU UNIX Administrator. Together with Mark Rennie (MR), Oracie Database Administrator, this completed the team responsible for maintaining the SAP systems and hardware.
The tendering process for the hardware, through which we were excellently lead by Terry Ratcliffe of UCS, took place during April – June. In July the decision was made to buy the hardware from Sun Microsystems and run the SAP R/3 systems in a UNIX environment. Paul Salotti assumed responsibility for the SAP hardware impiementation and the Technical Implementation Team was born. To assist with the technical implementation two consultants with considerable SAP implementation experience, J Bronjewski and B Chera, were hired from Avalon. In August 98 this team successfully ported the Development and QA databases from the Alpha/NT to Sun/Unix environment. During this period a new machine room was identified and planned in Claremont Tower for the production hardware and an upgrade of the machine room in Kensington Terrace was planned to enable it to house the high-availability back-up systems.
Support for Current Systems:
MAC
With the secondment of the senior staff to the SAP configuration teams, support for the MAC systems has been very thin on the ground and little developments have taken place. The module database was implemented within MAC and an interface was written to provide data for the Syllabus+ software used for exam scheduling. Stephen Tucker (ST) was appointed as Systems Analys/Programmer in March 98 to head up the MAC applications group. Following the resignation of Andrew Wallace in March ST was joined by Fiona Reynolds (FR) in May and together with support from the former application managers (MB,KF.CP. JW.RC) they saw the MAC systems through a major upgrade from D14 to Di6 together with all the associated testing in carly June.
NON-MAC
The year saw many staff changes, with Justin Ramel leaving in March and returning in August, just in time to look after the Registration systems in 1998 as he had ably done in 1997. A version of the on-line Registration software was developed and used for Module Re-selection at the beginning of Semester 2 in February 1998.
Two new members of staff, Robin Booth (RB) and Russell Phillips (RP) joined the non-MAC applications group in June and have been busy re-writing a number of the Access database Applications (an particular RSU, Alumni, Schools’ Liaison and Central Stores) supported by the Department. In August this group also assumed the responsibility for providing the software support for the Accommodation Office. As RP had previous VAX/WMS system experience he took on the roll of looking after the MAC hardware platform, so lightening the load on TL
TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE UNIT (TIU)
Steven Donoghue (SD) was Acting head of TIU throughout the year, which saw this small group consisting of himself, Lindsay Stutchbury (LS), John Donaldson (JD), who is on a one ycar contract from July 98, and Samantha Liste provide the support for some 600 Administrative workstations. Support for Users at Close House and Halls of Residence became part of our formal remit.
During the year some £300K of new equipment was installed. A new training room with facilities for eight trainees was established in Windsor Terrace.
In July, in collaboration with Clive Gerrard of UCS, work began on building the Administrative Desktop for SAP Users and workstations were purchased and supplied to some 40 Key Users distributed throughout the Campus during July/August 98.
In tandem with Estate’s refurbishment of the Medical School Administrative arca MITS was responsible for the provision of the new CATS network. Network problems in Kensington and Park Terraces, caused by severe overloading were eased by the introduction, in March, of ‘Switch’ permitting sub-division of the network and, although this eased the problems considerably, it was agreed that the long-term solution was to re-wire. During June through August the Terraces were re-wired (by Conex) with CATS networking, using some of the first year funds to be released by P&:RC over a seven year period for Campus re-wiring
The MITS Help Desk continued to function and since the current software call logging was installed in February ’94 it has handled over 17000 enquires. Currently the Help desk staff (Christine Brown, Jackie Butterworth and Fiona Hood), who also double up as MITS operations staff, answer around 60% of User enquiries, with only 40% being referred on.
In January 1998 PP took over as Acting Director MITS and Elaine Horton continued to provide him with invaluable support.
Dr P R Philips
14 October 1998
Key to staff initials not mentioned in full in text:
MB Molly Burnley; KF Kate Fletcher; CP Chris Pickard; JW Janet Watson; | RC Richard Cave; PP Peter Philips;