Minutes from the ITC-Research Computing Group
March 25, 1997 at 4:00 pm in Forestry 117

Present: Chris, Dawn, Dee, Ed, Hamp, Martha, Tim S., Tim T., Tom S.
Minutes by: TFT.

Note:lines with the ">" are the minutes underneath of their agenda item. Sometimes the discussion was _not_ this linear, but the remarks have been grouped under the appropriate agenda item {tft8g}

I. REVIEW Minutes from last meeting on February 25, 1997
> No corrections.

II. TO DOs & OLD BUSINESS:

A. (From 1/28 & 2/25) Switch on FTP, use both FTP & NFS, make NFS's FTP the default, so that have to type "ftp maggie.itc 1021" to get to maggie, "ftp maggie.itc" goes to /archive. TAS & Research Computing Group will work on educating users. Planned rollout March 4, 1997.
> EHC did switch on and will send e-mail to archive users.
> TAS will handle notice about it to LSPs, postnews, etc.

B. (From 1/28 & 2/25) TAS will investigate version and cost of getting newest UniTree software. Coordinate with Hamp. > Done. TAS found out that new Unitree version costs $0.10/MB, so a
> 1.4 Terabyte is approximately $14,000.00. Also it's not on AIX yet,
> so we'd have to help them port it to AIX. Too expensive.
> TMS said that HPSS is about $300,000. So best solution is ADSM.

C. (From 1/28 & 2/25) EHC & TAS: Clustering of faraday. E-Forms project needs J30 by May!
JAJ will write announcement with timelines.
TFT: SAS & LISREL costs.
> Done: Both costs are reasonable and can be handle within budget.

Problems with logging in, responsiveness of NFS, etc. (See separate sheet.) Do we need general announcement about this?
> EHC: He does need feedback about how faraday is working. Unix
> Systems tries to just change one thing and see if that helps
> performance. So feedback about whether things are better or worse,
> from the help desk is very helpful.
> EHC will e-mail usd-staff when they change something. TAS will
> e-mail usd-staff to tell them to log ALL faraday calls, with
> "FARADAY" in beginning of description box. Jason Daniel will be
> asked to set up extract method and TAS will get summary to EHC.
> MRS: when we send out notices about faraday.clas problems/fixes
> we should be sure to include a copy to the LSPs.
> TFT will check with Janet to see what LSPs get from "postnews".

D. (From 1/28 & 2/25) EHC: Installation of four SP nodes. Has IBM rep. done this yet?
> Four nodes here, not installed yet.

E. (From 1/28 & 2/25) MRS: Discussing information sharing with Terry Lockard's DSCO division, esp. around assessments. Can/should someone from ResComp sit in DSCO division meetings?
> MRS talked with Terry, they are happy to have us come to their DSCO
> division meetings, but then don't have regular meetings. One thing
> we ought to be hearing about is their departmental assessments.
> Martha suggested at Directors' meeting that DSCO have debriefing to
> ITC on their recommendations to each department as they are done.
> DSCO is reluctant to let ITC staff see the recommendations until the
> department sees it.

TAS: what did Nancy say on this topic?
> TAS talked with Nancy and she'll give us a list of what we can help with.
TAS: owns "Research News" to come out on semesterly basis.

F. (From 2/25) EHC: Joe Burch System Status webpage maintainer now. Remove current ""This page maintained by Pete Yadlowsky" and replace with "Questions? Consult@Virginia.EDU" Add links to ITCWeb and "hints" at top of page.
> DMA volunteered to take care of these, so now she "owns"
> maintenance. of it. Updates, etc. will continue to be posted by
> Unix Systems and others as appropriate.

III. STRATEGIC BUSINESS:

A. Strategic Plan: Any other changes, ideas, etc to Goal 3?
> MRS wonders about our Strategy D, #4. "Develop and implement a
> plan to provide additional support for information and data
> repositories for researchers."
> They'll be no new FTE's. Need to make sure we're discussing
> with John Alexander's group and TTI project. There's a joint
> project with the Computer Science Dept., ITC, and Alderman for Data
> Repositories (Raf, Judy, Worthy, Kirk Martini, etc). Should the
> goal include disks, hardware, software? Do we need to create pilot
> data repository? It is John's Goal? TFT has talked with Judy about
> their data repository group, so each is aware of the other.

> TAS reviewed the ESRI costs and possibility of a $100,000
> state-wide license, similar to what California doing. He's
> exploring feasibilty with Gary Nimax and Alderman Library (Denise
> Stevens). TMS questioned why ITC should be involved in this? MRS
> asked if Alderman's GIS center ought to be doing this? TAS is
> meeting with Denise Stevens to explore this area.
> MRS asked that "ITC" be taken out of the Goal 3, Strategy D,
> project 1, years 1-3., so it just says "assignments of staff"
> instead of "assignments of ITC staff".

> TMS: Critical that we try to get Goal 3, D2" Training on computer
> resources to incoming graduate students".
> MRS: Need to try a few departments and see how it works
> Also need to get specfic information about research computing
> support to incoming faculty.
> She's been getting positive feedback about Research Computing
> Webpage.

> Need to plan to review the ResComp brochure for the fall and update
> review the ResComp website.
> ** Should we have a "New Faculty" webpage? **

B. BUDGET: Spending this year's dollars for improving HSMS? Getting dollars for next year?

A. Change focus of these meetings to be more strategic, big picture.

Where should ITC Research Computing be going?

What's on or should be on the horizon for researchers?

What do we want to be accomplishing for researchers?

What is your group (SCD-SS, ATG, Unix System, etc) doing that affects or hopefully enhances research computing?

>ECI: reactions or feedback from others about this meeting? Now
> that we have a Research Computing group, don't need to track or
> handle the "to-do's" at this meeting. Focus more on issues and
> directions that Research Computing support ought to be headed.

B. Other issues, or updates? Report from TMS on ATG?
> TAS is now going to the ATG meetings.
> TMS Looks like San Diego & NCSA will get metacenter. Haggling
> about funding now.

> TFT will send mail about whether meeting April 29th or not. We
> will start meeting bi-monthly either April 29th or May 27th.
> Probably April 29th, because May 27th is the day after Memorial Day
> holiday.