Campus Technology Services

TechNews - April 2011

This is a summary of the activities supporting faculty, staff and student technology services at SUNY Oswego that occurred during March 2011.

Reminders

1. Routine Service Outage
   As part of Campus Technology Services' efforts to keep servers running at optimum levels, a regular maintenance period has been designated. From 6AM to 10AM on the second Sunday of each month, several services such as E-mail, editing of both departmental and personal web pageswill not be available.
   The next scheduled outage is Sunday, April 10th, 2011.
2. NYALERT
   For information on NYAlert: http://www.oswego.edu/administration/public_affairs/emergency/nyalert.html or
   visit http://www.suny.edu/SUNYALERTsec to sign up.
3. RAVE Guardian
   For information on Rave Guardian http://oswego.edu/student/blogs/?cat=11 or to sign up: https://www.getrave.com/login/oswego


Summer Project Planning
Campus Technology Services has changed its detail planning focus from projects that will occur during the Spring of 2011 to planning for projects to take place over the summer of 2011.

Technology Support Center
TSC continues to assist students with potential virus/malware issues on their machines.

A survey was sent to ResNet students asking them questions about the effectiveness of ResNet room service offered at the beginning of the semester to assist students in getting their computers connected to the residential network.  Responses are coming in and we will be looking at ways in which we can improve this service.

We have started investigating incorporating LANDesk remote control and inventory into our HEAT ticketing system.  This will give us easy access to understanding the user's computer and requesting remote control of the user's computer all from within the ticketing system.  This will also be easier for our student workers.

We finished student recruitment.  Applications were due on April 1 and we will now start reviewing them.

Customer satisfaction surveys have been implemented.  Occasionally you may receive a request to fill out a survey to give us feedback on how your ticket was handled.  This will allow us to improve our services.

Are you on Facebook? Want to receive updates from CTS on new services, updates, system outages, and more? We recently created a “SUNY Oswego – Campus Technology Services” Facebook group. Become a fan and start receiving updates!

You can reach us by phone at 312.3456 or at 26 Lanigan Hall.

Learning Management System
Please check the ANGEL website for dates and times for spring workshops.

If you are interested in setting up a community group, please visit the ANGEL web site at www.oswego.edu/academics/angel. Community groups are limited to academic and/or university related activities only.

Professional Development
CTS is offering workshops for the spring semester. Workshops on LakerApps Advanced Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Sites, using your iPhone/Droid with LakerApps, Mailman and ANGEL Community Groups are available.   Please check the CTS training site for dates and times and online registration.  Note the online registration requires a login this semester so that an automated confirmation can be sent to those who register.

The Skillport e-learning software was recently upgraded. Skillport includes business and technology-related courses as well as courses and test preps needed to prepare you for many business and technical certifications. Get started at the Skillport home page

Software News
An official project to upgrade the campus to Microsoft Office 2010 (PC) and 2011 (Mac) has launched. A pilot project is currently in progress with volunteer departments and offices.   CELT, CLAS/CMA Dean's Office, SA/The Point, VTP and C&I Advisement have been upgraded.  Approximately seven workshops have been conducted to assist pilot users in learning the new interface and new features in Word, Excel and PowerPoint.  We have collected feedback on both the upgrade process and the workshops to make improvements for a full campus rollout this summer.  For more information, visit the CTS Office Upgrade site.

We are advising people to refrain from upgrading to Windows 7 as, currently, not all campus applications are compatible with it.

Microsoft is offering students a significantly reduced price on its Microsoft Office Ultimate 2010 software. The "Office Ultimate Steal" entitles eligible students to the Microsoft Office Ultimate 2010 software at a price of only $79.95. Microsoft's store price for the same software is $679.95! The Ultimate edition is packaged with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Groove, Publisher, Access, InfoPath, and Accounting Express. To determine if students qualify for the special price and to buy online visit www.theultimatesteal.com.

UBMicro has a great new site for purchasing various software products for your home machine. They include Microsoft Office and some of the Adobe products. Visit their site at http://www.ubmicrosuny.com/

Web Update
We are working on testing our many applications with the newly released Firefox 3 browser as well as Internet Explorer 8.

With the recent releases of Windows Internet Explorer 9 and Mozilla Firefox 4, Campus Technology Services (CTS) would like to inform everyone that these browsers are not yet fully compatible with some of the campus services that you need to access.

Specifically, the SUNY Learning Network has indicated that both of these browser updates are NOT compatible with ANGEL at this time. Sungard(myOswego)has also indicated that these browsers are not supported and users will has some inconsistent behavior. CTS will continue to evaluate other services on campus.

The use of an unsupported browser can result in inconsistent or unpredictable behavior when working in applications. You should refrain from updating at this time.

As soon as vendors update these applications for compatibility with these services, we will post
notices.

The OU Educate product for creating and maintaining personal websites will be decommissioned on June 30.  The small number of people using the product may migrate their site to LakerApps Sites or if their site is being used for class-related information, ANGEL.  Migration workshops are being offered every two weeks through the beginning of July.  The workshop will review LakerApps Sites and ANGEL and assist users in getting started migrating their content.  More information is available from the OU Educate web site.

Ingeniux trainings continue to be held.  Please check the Ingeniux training site for dates and times and online registration.

Desktop Support
Campus Technology Services technicians have continued to aid faculty, staff and students in resolving hardware, software, and account related issues. Technicians have assisted in the resolution of 64 hardware, 137 software, and 24 account related support requests during the past month.

Enterprise Desktop Services Committee
EDSC has continued  ongoing work with LANDesk, the evaluation of hardware and software compatibility with Window 7, the Microsoft Office 2010/2011 pilot project, and has been preparing for the next round of deployments of the campus voice over IP solution. Further testing of Avecto Privilege Management software including CTS rollout of policies. Further removal of McAfee installations and replacement with Sophos.

 Equipment Deployments
This past month new equipment has been configured and installed within: Chemistry, Human Computer Interaction labs, and Mathematics Departments. Installed new imacs in Penfield lab. Re-image and deploy 10 HMD computers where needed, also swapped out 5 CRT displays for flat panels.

Virtual Lab Pilot Program
Currently 2 classes are piloting the utilization of virtualized applications to augment teaching. These classes include an Art class utilizing Adobe Creative Suite 5, and an online based class utilizing SPSS. Work is continuing to address issues with authentication and authorization, and utilization statistics/reporting that have been identified so far by the pilot group. Installed Citrix EdgeSight for usage statistics

Provided AV support for the following events

•  Science Café on "Sustainability"
• Planning for Quest, Honors, Alumni Weekend, Admissions Open Houses, Media Summit, Torchlight
• Ruth Gruber video and Skype conference.
• Test and planning for Institute for Applied Geospatial Technology grant
• NCAA Men's Hockey playoff games.
• Bio 120 event
• Athletics Career Planning

Campus Projects

• Planning for and work on
  • SoE Surge
  •  Hewitt Union Ballroom
  •  Culkin 211 conference room
  •  Honors conference room
  •  theater displays and cameras
  •  campus video storage and editing project
  •  outdoor emergency notification system
  •  Laker classroom upgrades.

• Updated pictures of classrooms for R25
• Upgraded camera cables and repaired amplifier in Campus Center Arena and Planning for unexpected power outages during events
• Foundation Board remote interview planning

Department Support

• Provided training sessions: Math, Modern Languages and Literature, Communication Studies
• WNYO and WTOP equipment maintenance
• Provided technical support for BRC235, 429, 129, 235 and MKT 467
• Corrected video cabling in Waterman Theater for "Grease" production
• Constructed replacement audio cables for Communication Studies
• Replaced digital signage display in Hart Hall
• Presented to C&I faculty on present and future classroom technology and layouts
• Library Futures Teleconference "Free Content for Library Collections"

CTS Projects or Support

• Camtasia Relay: Provided support to faculty' contacted Camtasia support regarding problems
• Tested dual projector and SmartBoard compatibility designs

Banner 8/myOswego

• Continued development of the dynamic New Student (myOswego) menu for Orientation
• Modified/developed INB forms to replace some current file maker pro functionality
•  INAS as SaaS option for Financial Aid FM Needs Analysis implementation completed
• Adapted myOswego registration to educate students regarding the new policy for accepting charges as defined by Student Accounts/Registrar's

Document Imaging

• Continued to meet with pilot departments regarding BDMS implementation
• Completed coding necessary for the Admissions Credit Evaluation/update process

Other Administrative Support

• Gathered BUG feedback reqarding LakerNetId login  for myOswego; prototype currently on test site
• Assisted Housing in identifying students that do not have matched room mate data
• Continued to work with Admissions Office by developing ARGOS applications to support their paperless application process; completed eleven program modifications
• Alumni/Development - developed solutions to report senior gift tracking
• Student Accounts - continued development of ARGOS cube reporting solutions
• Worked with Institutional Research to submit SIRIS SDS data;began planning for FADS submission; assisted with TSDS submission
• Financial Aid - demonstrated ARGOS to office personnel, developed a few simple ARGOS solutions and assisted in 1112 packaging and summer budget development
• Provided end user office support of R25 , SUNY HRMS system and Parking T2 system as required
• Installed Stu 8.5, Gen 8.4, Web Tailor 8.4, Alumni 8.4, Alumni 8.5 and on test system; applied patches
• Work on Handwritten ticket report for UP
• Assist Rick Buck in updating Parking website to look like Oswego website.
• Move AS files shares to AT-FS2 server
• Added trust relationship with OSUDPS to begin moving UP to CTS-DOMAIN.
• Tested access to UP shares from CTS-DOMAIN login.
• Setup configured 3 new Symbol MC55 ticket writers for UP.
• Updated licenses on R25 interfaces with Banner.

Future Development

• Integration of Graduate student application data from Intelliworks to Banner Student
• Banner Upgrades for General 8.4, Student 8.5, Alumni 8.4, WebTailor 8.4, Finance 8.5 (planning March installation on test database)

•  Wilber Hall Basement Rack replacement
•  Sheldon VoIP cutover
•  Admissions Contact Center
•  Networking Electrical Meters
• Redundant fiber patching

 Telecommunications Administration

• 18 Adds
• 1 Changes
• 39 Disconnects
•  8 Moves
•  0 Swaps
•  Generate Monthly Bills.
•  VoiceMail Audit
•  Contact list audit
•  Updating VOIP phones in Pinnacle

Networking Updates

• Replaced faulty battery in  Swetman BDF and Hewitt basement
• Built Sheldon backend configuration for voice VLAN and prelogon VLAN
• Configured and installed new switches Sheldon West wing closet for IP Phone conversion.  New UPSs
• Reconnected all redundant uplinks to east campus buildings that had been disconnected over the summer.
• Completed wireless site surveys of Riggs & Johnson since this was not completed after equipment was installed.
• Matt met with John Moore to see if he could edit the Town House AutoCAD drawings to be useful for our purposes
• Uploaded modified Town House AutoCAD files to WCS and added coverage areas and AP's to the maps. 
• Scoped out a location in Culkin and Mahar for additional wireless coverage
• Worked on a new XpressConnect installer that combines wired and wireless 802.1x configuration for pushing via LDMS/AD
• Updated the Sheldon VOIP spreadsheet with switch names and interfaces locations for the computers/printers.
• Worked with Jason on configuration  for the VOIP phone installations in Admissions/Development/International Ed
• Wireless outage - Looked into the controller issue a bit more and everything looked ok but the clients were not receiving an address from DHCP even though DHCP was providing an address.  Rebooted the funky controller and the AP's failed over and everything worked after the reboot. 
• Installed access points in Mahar & Sheldon to replace EOL units, updated configurations, maps and coverage areas
• Campus Center Box Office Phones out - they were plugged into wrong data jacks
• Replaced 2 faulty switches in Culkin 5^th floor closet
• Configured all the new electrical meter interfaces on each BDF and patched
• Updated 23A power spreadsheet with max Watts output for the devices.
• Phoenix connectivity issues.  All of our equipment was up and running, Time Warner had a truck outside the building working on a junction box causing temporary connectivity drops without notifying anyone.
• Packed up all remaining switches for Cisco RMA order, returned 2 pallets full of old equipment via freight
• Put together WRVO topology diagram and BOM and sent to Jeff Windsor for equipment upgrades
• Worked on Apple BSDP booting from DHCP and PXE boot server
• Processed 2 wireless guest request for Psychology
• Processed wireless guest request for Comm Studies
• Processed wireless guest request for Art for Walker apartment
• Installed ATA-187 product QED into all call manager cluster members
• Installed Windows Server and updates for CUEAC and installed CUEAC software, registered it, and setup basic CUCM syncing and communication
• Modified production RADIUS servers to allow test 6911 phones to come up and authenticate properly.
• Looked at Pathfinder cash register issue again.  Still high frame errors on the port.  Asked Aux Services to turn the device on for spring break and not to use it so I can baseline what it does with no active usage
• Fixed LS1 in test environment for FlexLM licensing.
• Created FW rule for banner-apps to banner-web requests
• Looked at streaming video testing for a potential library service
• Worked on LDMS and WinPE 802.1x hot fix integration and PXE booting options
• XBOX/PS3/Wii/other registrations:  9
• DMCA take down notifications:  4
• Abuse Notifications:  24

Staff News

• Transforming Higher Education Labs with Virtualization(webinar) - Aaron Reece
• Client Virtualization 2011: Project Success Strategies(webinar) - Aaron Reece
• Cutting IT Costs With PC Power Management(webinar) - Aaron Reece
• Virtual Desktops: From Wow To How(webinar) - Aaron Reece
• Citrix: Supporting mobile devices(webinar) - Aaron Reece
•  XenServer Masterclass(webinar) - Aaron Reece
• Active Directory training at New Horizons in Rochester -Tim Yager
• Organized and attended Power Management webinar by Faronics -Tim Yager
•  Sophos configuration webinar. -Tim Yager, Aaron Reece
•  Passed CompTIA Strata Green It Certification. -Tim Yager
•  2011 SungardHE Summit - Sue Fisk
•  Administrative Tech. staff attended selected Summit sessions via the web
•  "Project Fundamentals" course -Matt Perez
•  "Addressing Illegal File Sharing on Campus Networks The Next Phase" webinar- Matt Perez
•  "iPad. Galaxy. Cius. Prepare your network now" webinar - Matt Perez
• 2011 SOL Summit, Syracuse, NY Annual gathering of the SUNY Online/Distance Learning campus members to discuss best practices in the use of LMSD to enhance student learning.-Nicole Decker and Kathi Dutton
• NERCOMP Educause, Providence Rhode Island - Joe Moreau
• "Crestron DigitalMedia Hardware Configuration and Installation Course"- Bob Hageny, Dave McQuin
• Video Furnace demonstration - Instructional Support staff
•  "Enco Systems" webinar: - Bob Hageny
•  Ithaca College Ed Tech Day - Justin Norman, Dave McQuin
•  Provided digital classroom consultation with Buffalo State on classroom control design - Dave McQuin

Call Logging Statistics - 3/1- 3/31/2011