Survey

Have you taken your summer vacation yet?

Yes
No

Results from last issue's survey question: Have you upgraded to Stanford Desktop Tools yet?

There were 27 responses. 17 said "Yes," and 10 said "No."

Tips From Your Admin

Did you know it takes two weeks for your Admin to prepare for a new employee?

Please submit a HelpSU ticket as soon as you have any information about a new hire.

Staff Profile

Jay Larson


Jay Larson started working at Stanford in 1986.

 

 

How would you describe your current job responsibilities?

I work in Installation and Maintenance within Operations. I supervise a great group of technical staff who deliver the variety of IT Services to our clients on campus, off campus, and in the hospitals.

Which aspects of your job do you enjoy the most?

I really enjoy the people I work with and finishing a job that results in a satisfied client. I also get a lot of satisfaction learning new equipment, connecting it to our systems, and configuring it to provide services.

What did you do before you came to Stanford?

I was a Communications contractor at Pepperdine University, San Jose Hospital, and National Semiconductor before starting at Stanford. I joined Stanford when I was 22.

What do you like to do when you're not at work?

I like to be outdoors lying on the beach, water skiing on the lake, or enjoying the summer festivals and concerts. In the winter, I enjoy snow skiing and vacationing in the mountains. My daughter is a year-round swimmer and her meets and practices keep me very active in the early mornings.

What is your favorite movie, book, song?

Movie : Blazing Saddles by Mel Brooks

Book : It by Stephen King

Song : 100 Years by Five for Fighting

Staff Happenings

Comings and Goings

The following people recently joined Information Technology Services. Welcome!

  • Ernest Lau (Dave Macia)

its in bits welcomes more detailed employee news submissions from all staff. Please submit to itsinbits-submissions@lists.stanford.edu

Tech Briefings

Tech Briefings

Fridays
2–3:30 p.m.

Turing Auditorium

August 3: Webbishness

Tim Torgenrud demonstrates how to use the various web tools in the Stanford Web Services environment, including Movable Type, WordPress, Wikis, and guestbooks. He will also provide a brief overview of issues to look for with scripting tools used in the Stanford Web environment.

August 10: Open Source Software and Other Freebies

Mark Branom demonstrates open source and other free alternatives to the expensive commercial office products. Topics will include OpenOffice.org, Audacity, Picasa, GIMP, Google Docs and Spreadsheets, and Google Page Creator.

Check the Tech Briefings home page for future sessions and to subscribe to the mailing list.

Technology Training Courses

Upcoming Tech Training classes of interest to IT Services staff.

Thu, Aug 2, FileMaker Pro Level 2, 9–4, $275

Thu & Fri, Aug 2 & 3, PHP Workshop, 9–4 both days, $500

Mon, Aug 6, Using Technology To Manage Your Workload, 1:30–4:30, $150

Tue, Aug 7, Excel Level 2, 9–4, $275 Class has wait list. Extra session may be added.*

Tue, Aug 7, FileMaker Pro Lite, 1:30–4:30, $150

Wed, Aug 8, Access Level 3, 9–4, $275

Thu & Fri, Aug 9 & 10, Project Levels 1 and 2, 9–4 both days, $500

Fri, Aug 10, Access Reports and Forms, 9–4, $275

Mon, Aug 13, Web Design Level 3: Cascading Style Sheets, 1–4:30, $150

Wed, Aug 15, OrderIT Site Training (formerly IT Services Site Training), 8:30–12, Free

Mon, Aug 27 & 28, InDesign, 9–4 both days, $500

* If a class has a wait list, please sign up anyway. We add extra sections when the wait list gets to six or seven people.

Sign up at http://axess.stanford.edu.

Classes with low enrollment may be cancelled one week in advance. More information on courses, registration, and training is available at the Technology Training Services site.

- Nancy Baumann
Technology Training Services

IT Employment Opportunities

There were four new job postings for IT Services this week.

Req # 26310: System Software Developer, posted 7/20/07, 100% FTE, Range 4P3, Jon Pilat, hiring manager.

We currently seek a strong candidate to provide primary technical and systems support for Linux (Debian and Red Hat) systems, for campus infrastructure services, and for external clients. We'll rely on you to develop and implement software deployment and management techniques for infrastructure UNIX systems.

Req #26311 & 26313: Systems Programmer, posted 7/20/07, 100%FTE, Range 4P4, Jon Pilat, hiring manager.

To qualify, you should have expert knowledge of Linux systems (Debian and Red Hat Enterprise preferred), including support, software packaging, and industry-best practices, as well as significant programming experience with Perl, C, or Ruby. Some understanding of LDAP and SAN/NAS configuration is required. Experience managing server virtualization a plus.

Req # 26314: Director Production Control, posted 7/20/07, 100% FTE, Range 1M5, Jay Kohn, hiring manager.

Responsible for the strategic direction and day-to-day management for the Production Control group and Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity. Production Control mission-critical functions provide 24x7 monitoring and escalation for administrative voice, video, paging, and other support services to the Stanford community of faculty, staff, students, hospital, student residences, Stanford West residences, and on-campus businesses.

The IT Service Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity function provides the IT Services disaster/continuity interface to other University departments as well as providing leadership for the IT Services Satellite Operations Center and disaster/continuity functions for internally-supported IT Services applications.

To view the complete listings or to apply for a position, visit the StanfordJobs web site at: jobs.stanford.edu.

There are other open Information Technology positions at Stanford. To see what other opportunities exist on campus, link to the full list of all open IT positions at Stanford

Quote of the Week

"If the wind will not serve, take to the oars."

- Latin Proverb

News

SUNet Backbone: Now at 10Gbit/s

The upgrade of the Stanford University network (SUNet) backbone to use higher speed links, with a data rate of ten gigabits per second, will be completed before the beginning of Fall Quarter, 2007. During the past year, the equipment in the backbone has been replaced or upgraded to support the goal of having all major backbone links running at this new standard speed. The number of routers was also increased not only to spread the load, but also to provide a second router for every network to increase the reliability and availability of network service. So while the standard speed of the connection for an individual local network remains at one-gigabit per second, the total capacity of the SUNet backbone system has been increased ten fold.

Most local networks are now connected to one of the new "operational zones." The initial topology has eight zones; six for the main campus and two for student residences. The design provides for dual routers for each local network to provide for increased reliability along with the increased capacity. Each zone has two switch/routers, which are located in physically separate facilities to limit the impact of a failure in any single facility. Each switch also has a connected firewall to support local network migration by the departmental Firewall project.

The firewalls are being operated in their "high availability" mode, meaning only one is active at a time. The firewalls get their network connections through their local zone (as a switch, at the new standard ten gigabits per second data rate), but they are otherwise operated as independent routers for those networks which are connected to them. The backbone is still composed of two switch/routers located in diverse facilities. Each operational zone has connections at ten gigabits per second to each of the backbone routers.

Now that the backbone capacity upgrade is nearing completion, work is underway to upgrade the link to the national research networks by getting a ten gigabit per second link to the high-performance research (HPR) network, part of the CalREN networks run by the Corporation for Educational Networks in California (CENIC). Stanford currently has two one gigabit per second links to the CENIC HPR network. Several researchers have been asking for bandwidth in excess of one gigabit per second, so one of these will be upgraded to run at ten gigabits per second, like the SUNet backbone. Networking plans to have the additional capacity available by the end of the 2007 calendar year.

- Mark Miyasaki
Shared Communication Services; Networking Systems

Research Computing Update

The term "research computing" spans many topics. These range from using computers to simulate experiments that might otherwise have been done in a wind tunnel to computing with complex, process-dependent applications. It also includes aggregating large data sets from simulations and then visualizing the results. The common factor is the need for a massive amount of computational cycles.

Research computing has been taking place on the Stanford campus for years. What makes this an IT Services issue is that the scale of many of these early uses is increasing dramatically. There is a growth in the number of faculty and researchers using, or planning to use, large-scale research computing.

Traditional research labs such as wet labs, social science survey labs, and mechanical engineering air flow analysis are becoming astronomically expensive to construct and require floor space that just doesn't exist on campus. Small clusters of computers have been used over the last few years to validate the computer simulations. Many faculty are now ready to make the jump to simulating large-scale problems.

To handle the large-scale simulations, the 10–15 node clusters currently used need to grow to 200–500 nodes per cluster. Current campus buildings are designed to handle people, not systems. The 10–15 node systems have worked so far, but have often put the building at risk of blowing a breaker and taking entire floors off-line. There are also very demanding cooling issues for these systems.

IT Services has traditionally provided data center space to handle the larger computing needs of the campus. With the size of systems growing, and the number of expected systems also growing, our late 1970's era Forsythe Data Center isn't up to the task. The remediation underway in Forsythe will help some, but is merely the finger plugging the hole in the dike for the pent-up demand.

This is why Bill Clebsch has been focused on developing a new Data Center strategy. If we have a strategy and a plan available, we'll be ready to implement it when the faculty clamor for more computer space reaches the Provost.

IT Services is working with the Dean of Research to insure we stay in sync with their needs and directions. We are also working with SLAC. The Committee on Academic Computing and Information Systems (C-ACIS) will be undertaking a review of research computing issues in the fall, and IT Services will be in the middle of those discussions.

IT Services is also working to assess the viability of deploying an application named Condor which would utilize the unused cycles of the Linux cluster systems. These unused cycles would be made available to campus faculty/researchers as a start for large-scale research computing. A "go-nogo" decision on this project is expected in early August.

Two upcoming events will have IT Services support behind them. The first is the third annual High Performance Computing Day on campus. The event will be held in conjunction with Mechanical Engineering at Wallenberg Hall all day on Thursday, August 21.

Stanford and SLAC are involved in the Supercomputing 2007 conference in Reno, Nevada the week of November 12. This is an international event with many universities and vendors participating.

- Phil Reese
Client Support; Account Management

Production Control Group Consolidation

As you may have seen in the last issue of its in bits, Rick Lowe has resigned his position as manager of the Production Control Group (PCG). The current scope of the position includes management of the Production Control staff and oversight of the Satellite Operations Center (SOC). The position has now been posted on StanfordJobs and it will include the Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery responsibilities as well.

With the expanded role, the new position will be at the Director level. In the interim, I have hired a consultant, Gordon Spencer, to fill the role of managing the PCG staff until the position is filled.

This change will bring the 24-hour monitoring and support of the PCG, the intra-group planning and coordination of the SOC, and the preparation and drill processes of the Disaster Preparedness team under a single umbrella. We believe it makes strong organizational sense to consolidate all of our emergency response functions.

With the planned retirement of our current SOC leader in the next few years, this is an opportune time to consolidate incident management, disaster planning, and emergency response under the auspices of the PCG.

The consolidated functions will continue to be called the Production Control Group. Please feel free to direct any questions to me or to Gordon.

- Jay Kohn
Shared Communications Services

Students Say Goodbye to PBN

On Thursday, July 26, IT Services reconfigured the phone switch to no longer require a PBN (Personal Billing Number) for domestic long-distance calls made by students. In our efforts to simplify our customers' experience faculty, staff, and students are no longer required to enter a PBN when dialing domestic long-distance calls. International calls still require the PBN, including calls to Canada and Mexico.

Not long after the change, we received our first HelpSU request from a student inquiring if something was wrong (because they weren't prompted for their PBN when making a long-distance call).

- Christine Moe
Shared Communication Services; Communications Systems

Pathworks Upgrade

Our installation of Pathworks was upgraded to version 2.5 on Saturday, July 21. Pathworks is the tool that IT Services uses to hold procedural guides and instructions, and it is used by the staff in the Production Control Group, Service Desk, and Order Processing to accurately execute daily tasks.

The most notable benefit provided by this upgrade is the ability to store any type of file within Pathworks. Thus, it no longer requires that you convert your Word or other files to PML (Pathworks-specific) files. This release also supports Internet Explorer 7.

In the past six to eight months, we have received several reports of Pathworks procedures being cut off when printed. That bug has been resolved in this upgrade. There are also new import, export, and conversion functions, export procedures to PDF and RTF/Word, and easier conversion of Word documents to procedures. There are now scheduled document reviews, a "subscription" feature that automatically notifies users when a new version of a document is published, a web editor, and automated review, approval, and publication features.

Thanks to the team that prepared for and executed this update: Kevin Hall from UNIX Systems and Jose Rocha from Application Support.

- Anne Pinkowski
Shared Communication Services; Application Support

The Stanford Sheriff...

...will be awarding a trophy at the upcoming Cart Parade.

Details in the next its in bits.

- The Cart Parade Committee

About its in bits

A regular summary of IT business, news about personnel, and pointers to other information of interest to IT Services staff. Coordinated, compiled, and published by the Communication Strategy and Standards Team. its in bits is published on the first and third Wednesday of the month.

Submissions are due by Noon on the Friday before the scheduled issue, to itsinbits-submissions@lists.stanford.edu for consideration. its in bits is distributed via email to its-all-staff@lists.stanford.edu and the subscription list itsinbits-subscribers@lists.stanford.edu People outside of IT Services can self-subscribe via mailman.

The next its in bits will be published on Wednesday, August 15, 2007.