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| Quick Notes
Congratulations to the following people for their years of service at Syracuse University:
Elwin Yerdon, IT Analyst - 35 years
Ray Brunner, IT Analyst - 25 years
Steve Leonard, IT Manager - 20 years
Marilyn Butler, IT Analyst - 20 years
Mark Schnell, Instructional Technology Sr. Engineer - 20 years
Bob Marturano, IT Analyst - 15 years
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IT Professional Development
Staff on the cutting edge
Training & Education
Liz Moore, ITS-LEMP Instructional Technology Consultant, attended the Apple Corporation's "Integrating your Macintosh Systems with Active Directory" seminar on December 16. Topics included Open Directory, Snow Leopard's directory services architecture, supporting AD users in OS X services, and how to create users and groups. Also covered were AD plug-ins necessary for integration, dual directory domains, and command line driven processes.
Matthew Schug, Computer Consultant I at the iSchool, completed IST 233, Introduction to Computer Networking.
Thomas Bunn, Computer Consultant I at the iSchool, completed IST 459, Introduction to Database Management Systems, and attended the Blackboard World conference. Information from this conference was immediately beneficial in developing administrative strategies for the iSchool's Blackboard production environment which included new System maintenance plan and Course Archiving solution. Tom also attended Apple's "Integrating your Macintosh Systems with Active Directory" seminar on 12/16.
Michael Clarke, Web Producer at the iSchool completed IST 553, Information Architecture for Internet Services, and IST 621, Introduction to Information Management. Mike also visited Fairport High School and Potsdam High School as part of Project Advance.
Also from the iSchool, Anthony Rotolo, Social Media Strategist/Instructional Technology Analyst, completed the semester teaching IST 444, Information Reporting and Presentation.
Michael Fudge, iSchool Systems Administrator, completed the semester teaching IST 459, Introduction to Database Management Systems, and IST 346, Operating Systems Administration.
Roger Merrill, Director of IT Services at the iSchool completed the semester teaching IST 445, Managing Information Systems Projects. Roger also attended MS Project 2007 Level 1 Training.
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Tech Updates Keeping current with software, systems, issues and devices
Check out this engaging article on "The Year Ahead in IT" by Lev S. Gonick, Vice President for Information Technology Services and Chief Information Officer at Case Western Reserve University from the recent pages of Inside Higher Ed.
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IT Out and About
Connecting with the campus and beyond
Steve Wowelko, ITS-EAS IT Analyst, was recently honored by The Post-Standard as a 2009 "Hero of Conservation." Steve was honored for "...[stepping] up and [leading] the charge of local outdoorsmen and women" when Onondaga County was considering closing the Carpenter's Brook Fish Hatchery during the latest round of county budget negotiations. The article went on to further say, regardless of the outdoor topic, Steve "tackles the issue in a respectful, common-sense way." Steve is currently the president of the Onondaga County Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs, vice president of Friends of the Carpenter's Brook Hatchery, and Chairman of the Region 7 Fish and Wildlife Management Board. Photo: Michelle Gabel/The Post-Standard.
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Academic Applications and Service Centers (AASC) is Reorganizing
ITS unit being reshaped to better meet SU's needs
Jenny Gluck, director of Academic Applications and Service Centers (AASC), announced a major reorganization of her unit. "In order to enable ITS to meet the evolving needs of Syracuse University," said Jenny, "we are realigning our organizational structure to improve the focus, quality and efficiency of AASC. This will benefit students, faculty and staff who utilize our services."
The new AASC organization consists of three major service groups:
- Web Infrastructure, a new group within AASC, whose manager will focus specifically on web infrastructure services in order to provide a solid, robust and responsive web environment and content management system for academic and administrative units.
- Service Centers, charged with providing online, walk-in, and telephone computing support. This includes issue triage and dispatch for any unit, as well as the development and provision of online support services and information.
- Learning Technologies, focused on development, support and cultivation of online learning resources and applications, including the Blackboard Learning Management system and related outreach, training and evaluation.
"Our new structure and its accompanying staff redeployment will provide the resources and framework needed to meet the challenges we face," said Gluck. "ITS will be able to take better advantage of information technology opportunities, and thus improve service to SU."
The reorganization is targeted for completion by May, 2010. Details are being finalized and will be available soon.
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ITidbits
Facts and figures about IT
During students' return to campus for the spring term (January 16-20, 2010) the ITS Service Center created 494 new requests, up slightly from last year's 476 new requests. During the academic year, the normal new request count averages around 300 per week.
The largest share of support requests
this year (25%) were for Blackboard. The second largest number (17%) were for Networking support.
85% of the requests for Blackboard support were resolved within 24 hours.
81% of the requests for support that came in to the ITS Service Center by phone were resolved in one hour or less.
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Introducing the Database and Integration Technologies Group
Essential Support for SU's Information Resources
SU's Oracle Database is the data repository for 40 applications, including PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal; PeopleSoft Campus Solutions; PeopleSoft Financials; BlackBoard; Ex Libris Endeavor; data warehouse; Adirondack Solutions for Housing; Sungard Alumni Development; ID Card; Identity Management; along with several departmental database applications. These are supported by the Database and Integration Technologies (DIT) group.
Part of ITS's Enterprise Technology Group (ETG), DIT is comprised of Managers Eric Patten and Wade Stringer with staff members Boyd Banks, Jeff Brinkerhoff, Mylrae Campbell, Dan Edwards, Doug Foley, Ed Lester, Peter Murray, Jim Oad, Ken Seelman, and David Snow.
One of DIT's responsibilities is to support the University's centralized Oracle Database technology. SU owns a site license for Oracle's Database Enterprise Edition. Support entails software installation, configuration and maintenance of versions 10g and 11g in both standalone database and Oracle Real Application Cluster configurations. This support also includes specific implementations of Oracle technologies such as Oracle Advanced Replication, Oracle Streams, Oracle Data Guard, APEX (Application Express), Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control and RMAN (Recovery Manager).
DIT supports over 160 separate instances (databases). Forty are production and 120 are a mix of test, development and quality assurance. DIT's daily tasks related to the databases include management, monitoring and issue resolution pertaining to database creation; database modification; disk utilization; database object space allocations, backup and recovery; database performance; database cloning; and database connectivity.
The 160 databases are supported on 17 IBM xSeries servers running the Enterprise Linux operating system connected to a centralized Storage Area Network and an Enterprise Tape Library. Over 22 Terabytes of disk storage are allocated to the databases with approximately 8 terabytes allocated to production.
The following table lists the top 10 production databases by disk allocations:
The table below shows selected database object counts by top 10 databases as determined above:
The third table shows the number of rows in the top 10 tables, determined by row counts and disk space in Megabytes used by those tables for the top 10 databases as determined above:
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Green Data Center Migration Project
Multi-unit team ramps up to move in ITS resources
In the December issue of IT Connections you may have read an article on the Grand Opening of the Green Data Center (GDC). If you attended the ITS Opening you heard Chris Sedore explain how the project was just beginning. This article is to provide an update on the progress of what is now the Green Data Center Migration (GDCM) Project.
The scope of the project is to review current Machinery Hall Data Center systems and applications and determine which should migrate to the GDC or remain in Machinery Hall. A plan to implement the necessary infrastructure to support the systems and applications earmarked for GDC operation is being finalized. The build is being organized in a 4-layer approach to provide structure for this complex project. 
A project team has been developed and includes staff from the following areas; ETG, Security, Networking, EAS, CIS and EPS. As the migration progress continues, more areas will become involved including application testing resources.
The project team's immediate focus has been to identify the tasks required and develop a timeline. In addition to schedule development, the Networking group has already begun to set up the physical framework of the data center. This includes permanently setting equipment racks, installing internal cabling and wiring, and the configuration and design of the routers and switches.
External contracted resources are in the process of completing electrical work and certifying the Tri-generation GDC system. Some academic and research systems have already been moved to the GDC. The IBM Z10 Mainframe and Storage, the IBM P575 mainframe and the IBM Blade centers are now housed in the GDC.
Look forward to progress reports in future IT Connection Issues. In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact Colleen Van Camp or Jim Pampinella. |
 Video Production Unit Joins the Fight
Late in 2009, when concern about the flu was peaking, Kevin Morrow, executive director of SU News Services, brought an idea and a script to Neal Coffey, manager of SU's Video Production Unit. Kevin's idea was to produce a short video to educate students about steps they can follow to help themselves if they start exhibiting flu-like symptoms. This would be the second component of SU's awareness effort launched in the fall, much of which dealt with flu prevention and vaccination. Neal worked with Kevin to develop a shooting script. With assistance from Syracuse Stage, Kevin recruited actors from VPA's Drama Department. Michael Veley, director of the Department of Sport Management in the College of Human Ecology and the "Voice of the Carrier Dome," came aboard as the narrator, and Tim Davis, assistant professor in the Drama Department, was the voice of "The Flu." Neal and the VPU crew shot the video over three days in late November/early December and finished it in time to post the "Otto vs. The Flu" video on YouTube early in January. "Nothing out of the ordinary for VPU," said Neal, "although it was tough tying a flu mask on Otto." Kevin used the finished video to support information SU News was pulling together for the launch of the spring term. The regular and the captioned versions of the video were uploaded to YouTube Friday, January 8, and by the following Wednesday they received almost 1,900 views. "Which is remarkable considering we hadn't begun our outreach efforts to the target audience, SU students," said Kevin. In the midst of preparing the promotional materials for a campus-wide campaign to draw attention to the video on YouTube, he was interviewed by Lila Carney of local NBC3/CBS5/CW6. She was doing an update story on H1N1 that would include information on flu activities at local colleges and universities in anticipation of classes resuming soon. On January 12, she emailed Kevin with the news: "The awesome video will be on our 6pm news!" The Syracuse Post-Standard also picked up the "Otto vs. The Flu" story, and linked to it from their Syracuse.com website. "It was a terrific and fun experience working with the Video Production Unit on the 'Otto vs. The Flu' video," Kevin said. "They are a very talented crew."
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IT Connections is published monthly by Information Technology and Services at Syracuse University. Please submit story ideas and news items to Chris Finkle. |
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