Campus Technology Services

TechNews - August 2011

This is a summary of the activities supporting faculty, staff and student technology services at SUNY Oswego that occurred during July 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, August 14th, 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 Projects
Talk a look at more detail  for projects  taking place  the summer of 2011

New Staff Member
Campus Technology Services is pleased to welcome a new member to our technical staff. Daniel Vandermark has accepted a position as a Technology Support Professional for OBCR and CTS. Dan's office will be located in the OBCR area of Rich Hall.  His duties will include supporting the technology needs of OBCR, working at the Technology Support Center, teaching workshops and serving as a member of the EDSC committee and the Web Team.

CTS now has the capability of updating your campus owned computers for security fixes as well as functionality on a regularly scheduled basis. This may include software updates to programs such as Adobe Reader or Microsoft Word or to change Windows settings to better support your computers. In order to streamline this process we will only perform these updates on Wednesdays.  These changes will be implemented only after thorough internal CTS testing. You may possibly notice a slight slowdown in computer performance at that time however it will go away shortly. Updates will be added to a CTS calendar so you may see what changes have occurred to your computer on any given day. The calendar is still being revised at this time but will be up and running shortly.

CTO's Corner

Your Investment In CTAB Is Critical for 2011/12
Over the past couple of years, many folks throughout the college have made it a priority to help transform our Campus Technology Advisory Board (CTAB) into a new and different type of advisory body better equipped to help us meet our many challenges. We owe a great debt of gratitude to the CTAB leadership team. Chair Marcia Burrell has done an exceptional job of reformatting our meetings and leading important, sometimes controversial, discussions about numerous topics that affect us all. Natalie Sturr has led the Applications and Equipment Subcommittee through a number of substantial product evaluations - most notably the evaluation of what is now our LakerApps system. As chair of the Education Subcommittee John Kane has continued his commitment to outreach and professional development in providing programs and workshops that are closely aligned with the issues being tackled by CTAB. Dave Bozak is ever diligent in his efforts to assure we are following our bylaws and suggesting areas where the bylaws might be adjusted to better serve the board and the college. Mike Flaherty graciously agreed to lead the ad hoc subcommittee on Technology Planning last year. This fledgling group has made substantial progress toward the development of a new technology planning process and our inaugural technology master plan. I hope you will join me in recognizing these colleagues for their outstanding leadership and unwavering effort to chart a successful technological course for our students, faculty, and staff.
As important as it is to have a visionary leadership team guiding CTAB, it is just as important to have active participation from all the department representatives. CTAB is one of the most vital communication channels on our campus. It is a vehicle for all stakeholders to have their voices heard. Critical information about campus-wide plans, priorities, and decisions can make its way back to our stakeholders through their department representative. I truly believe 2011/12 will be one of the most important years in the technological history of the college and CTAB's active involvement will be essential. Over the next year we will be considering monumental issues such as support for the rapidly expanding mobile device environment, the reengineering of our infrastructure focused on the expansion of our wireless network capacity, and the development and execution of our first technology master plan. These are issues that will have far reaching impacts on every member of our campus community. I realize the demands on all our time is significant, and I hope you will find time in your already busy schedule to play an active role with CTAB this year. I look forward to an engaging dialogue with all our CTAB members. Also, keep in mind that all CTAB meetings are open to any member of the campus community.

Joseph Moreau
Chief Technology Officer

LANDesk remote control and inventory are being incorporated 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 in terms of not having to learn another system.

We are planning the training of eight new students that will be working for the TSC at the start of the fall semester.

ResNet Room service details are nearly completed.  We will be providing assistance to students again this year.  On the first two days of the semester, members of CTS will be positioned in one of the residential computer labs from 3-9pm.  Students may sign-up to have one of our staff visit their room and resolve any issues they have connecting to the network.  Door hangers will be hung on each residential room door with some basic troubleshooting info as well as information about ResNet Room service.

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

 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!

An ANGEL patch was recently installed that makes it now compatible with Firefox 4 and IE 9. 

Please check the ANGEL website for dates and times for upcoming workshops.

The Elluminate software used for synchronous online teaching and meetings is being piloted on campus this fall semester.  Approximately ten faculty and staff will be using it to teach courses, conduct workshops and hold online meetings.  Workshops have been offered for these users and we look forward to their feedback on their usage of it.  Elluminate is currently being hosted by SUNY ITEC with additional user support of the product through SLN.

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
Instructor-led workshops are being planned for the fall semester.  CTS Workshops are freely available to all SUNY Oswego faculty, staff and students. Look for online registration on the CTS Training site.

Self-paced, on-demand tutorials are also available from our iTunes U site.  Tutorials covering Microsoft Word 2010, Excel 2010, PowerPoint 2010 and LakerApps Sites are currently available.  ANGEL workshops are available from the main ANGEL website.

Updating your department web site with Ingeniux workshops are available at the Ingeniux Training site.

The Skillport e-learning software is available to all faculty, staff and students.  Skillport includes business and technology-related courses (including Office 2010) 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

Office 2010/2011 is now available for install on all campus-owned computers.  The programs are also available for install on faculty and staff personal machines for $9.95 each.  Please consult the CTS MS Office site for more details.

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 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.

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 was decommissioned on June 30.  The small number of people using the product migrated their site to LakerApps Sites or if their site is being used for class-related information, ANGEL.  

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

CTS participated in this year's new student orientations.  A video which provides an overview of our technology services. was shown  This video was recently revised to include our latest service offerings.  We also handed out a CTS bookmark, which lists 10 items to help get students prepared for technology services upon their arrival to campus.  We presented to both parents and students.  In addition, we hosted a table at the "Cruisin' the Campus" session for students and parents to ask specific questions.

Desktop Support

Campus Technology Services technicians have continued to aid faculty, staff and students in resolving hardware, software, and account related issues. Since the beginning of July Campus Technology Services technicians have assisted in the resolution of 43 hardware, 76 software, and 11 account related support requests. 

Equipment Deployments

Our desktop support technicians continue to prepare and deploy new equipment as it arrives. During the month of July, new equipment has been configured and installed within: Athletics Department, Earth Science Department, Facilities Department, Mathmatics Department, Physics Department, and Public Affairs Department. 

Departmental moves and equipment relocations

Desktop support technicians assisted with relocation's of equipment in the following departments and offices: Education Administration Department, Technology Education Department, and Vocational Teacher Preparation Department. 

Banner/myOswego

• Continued CashNet /Banner eCommerce integration; meetings, and continued the development of data extracts and exports for the ePayment of student bills; adapted several batch processes (billing, deposits, etc) to align with new CashNet business processes.
• Continued working with Institutional Research and the Financial Aid Office to complete the SUNY Financial Aid Data Submission (FADS) as required by System Administration; have submitted first aid year and are awaiting approval.
• began working with IR and Student Accounts to complete the SUNY Student Revenue Data Submission(SRDS)
• Began development of an Admissions Application Status link for myOswego, which may replace the request for information cards being sent by Admissions, presently; began preparations for loading SUNY and CommonApp applications using the SICAS ASC load
• Continued Intelliworks Graduate Student/Banner student integration project
• Adapted the Millennium process to work for summer residents, early arrivals and RAs
• Installed SGHE releases Position Control 8.5 and ARSYS 8.3S on production Banner; installed SICAS releases 8.4S1, Finance 8.5S1, Student 8.5S1 on production database
• Replaced the current Health Center data extract with data outlined by the new vendor, Medicat

Document Imaging

• Continuing support for ongoing implementation/production issues

 Other Administrative Support

• Asssited Registrar's with planning some new business processes, developed ARGOS solutions
• Completed Modifications to 20 local reporting/processing applications
• Assisted Orientation with New Student processes (menu changes, added session, change of fees)
• Set up WRVO pledge server VMand turned control over to Jeff Windsor
• Convert 7 computers from ACC_SERVER to CTS-DOMAIN
• Meet with OLS to set up share security
• Rack new iSCSI SAN
• Work on LDAP-AD password sync
• Work with Electricians on UPS outage 7/23/11
• Patched SJS to version 7.0.7 and upgraded Apache Tomcat files.
• Set up new ESXi host for DMZ VMs.
• Set up new ESXi host for Academic VMs.

• Set up the Fusion Middleware (FMW)
• Implementation of new TAP Tuition Credit and TAP awarding processes from SICAS
• Functional User Banner Job Submission Process

• Sheldon Institute
• Orientation
• New York Summer School for the Arts
• ESL Program
• Harborfest fireworks broadcast by WNYO

• Completed A/V upgrades converting six Mahar classrooms into ATCs.
• Completed A/V upgrade of Anthropology lab
• Provided support for cable television modernization in the residence halls and redesign of dist. system
• Supported School of Education surge moves and classroom construction
• Monitored and supported new Camtasia Relay lecture capture software and test installed overhead microphone to eliminate necessity for wireless microphone.
• Reviewed Tegrity and Panopto as possible lecture capture systems to evaluate
• Reviewed SoE grant for technology implications and planning purposes
• Reviewed new science building plans, coordinating designs in phases II and III
• Participated in initial Tyler Hall concept planning

• Provided equipment evaluation and recommendation - LifeStyles
• Provided video conference support - Biology, Sea Grant, and Office of Research and Supported Programs
• Evaluated equipment for transfer of video from tape to DVD - Penfield
• Recalibrated transmitter power and monitored transmitter output -- WNYO

• Performed preventive maintenance on Advanced Technology Classrooms
• Installed monitors in Campus Center meeting rooms 114,201,133
• Evaluated Sheldon 222 for possible computer upgrade.
• Physically installed Telepresence unit in Campus Center 137

• Res Hall floor phone installations
• SOE relocation
• Culkin 5th floor network closet
• Cayuga data wiring
• Mahar Hall VoIP installation

• 2 Adds
• 4 Swaps
• 4 Changes
• 20 Disconnects
• 8 Moves
• Generate Monthly Bills.
• VM Audit
• Updating VOIP phones in Pinnacle

• Updated wireless spreadsheets with replacement access point information
• Configured ResLife copier for secured network access
• VTP and EdAdmin moves
• Provided guest access for Summer Fame group
• Created temp wireless account for FLIP access
• Registered almost 100 access points for Cayuga.
• Looked into what the hulc running process that is taking up a large amount of CPU on a newly installed 3750v2 switch in Hewitt, upgraded to latest firmware to resolve issue.
• Installed new switches in Hewitt for more moves for IP phone installations from Park
• Provided guest network access for auditors in Sheldon
• Configured EdAdmin bizhub for secure network access
• Upgraded the Lanigan WLC 2106 controller to latest firmware for testing before upgrading campus production equipment
• Converted the village layouts from .dwg to .bmp to be used with AirMagnet.
• Had student start wireless survey in TownHouses as it was not even started before they opened to students last year.
• Student called with OSX Lion in the ResHalls, current version of Clean Access is not compatible with Lion.  Created temporary filters to let them work.  Opened TAC case with Cisco to see when support would be added.
• Worked with Andy Michaelis and Sue Fisk on network charge issues for students/employees in ResHalls.
• Created access point placement maps for Cayuga for the contractors.
• Discussed steps we need to take to implement dynamic VLAN assignments per affiliation for the wireless network.
• Installed 2 new access points in Snygg
• Researched DNS sinkholes and malware scraping scripts and created script to pull down MDL blocking list and insert check-names ignore; into zone file
• Consulted with WRVO for new pledge donation system and network connectivity issues
• Removed old firewall rules for SUNY Eluminate access
• Created firewall rules for new SUNY Eluminate access
• Created firewall rules for library for Illiad interlibrary loan system
• Created firewall rules for LDMS booting from LAB zone
• Created firewall rules for LDMS drive mapping from LAB zone
• Created firewall rules for new WRVO donor pledge system
• Worked with Matt Brooks on drive mapping issue with LDMS from LAB zone, added additional firewall rules after opening support case with LANDesk support
• Installed server 2008 in test lab for RADIUS testing
• Reconfigured Samba and Kerberos agents on test Linux server to talk to Server 2008 and added to the new domain
• Removed and added test client to new domain, validated authentications are successful from client through 2008 AD controller on a static switchport
• Early Saturday morning power outage in Culkin machine room to install generator power to our new data closet on the 5^th floor. 
• Looked at MusicOnHold issue for call manager.  Got it working the way we needed it to for the queues.
• Replaced all Cisco Clean Access manager and server SSL certificates
• Replaced faulty 10/100 module in Lee 6500
• Sent NEC SecureACS PAK question again and all PO's and email conversations about how we don't have the upgrade PAK for it
• Looked at CCX login timeout issue, opened TAC case and modified ReqTimeout value on specific clients that were affected only
• Tested Mahar XpressConnect installs that were pushed through LDMS.  This will help with our IP phone installation time.
• Created logic tree for ResNet charges and affiliation types and how we believe the system should be working.
• Looked at VPN issue for John that T2 was having, tried from home and via smartphone tethering and VPN worked fine
• XBOX/PS3/Wii/other registrations:  1
• DMCA take down notifications:  1
• Abuse Notifications: 3

• Elluminate Workshop - McQuin
• SAP Webinar - Hageny, McQuin
• Cisco product updates from NEC Unified Solutions – Greg/Matt/Dave/Ty/Harry/Jason
• CiscoLive 2011 conference Las Vegas, NV – Greg July 9^th – 15^th
• Cisco CCNA Security Certification - Greg

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