Chrome is back…

News Flash!!!

Google Chrome is now able to access all WOU systems as of 1pm on October 2nd, 2015.

You’re computer may not immediately pick up the changes.

Please follow the technical instructions below to “strenuously encourage” your machine to manually make the switchover:

 

 

PC (Dell computers):

  1. Click on the Windows Start button (the round button in the bottom left-hand corner of your screen).
  2. Simply type cmd and the search results will appear above.
  3. Right click on Command Prompt (or "cmd") and click Run as administrator.
  4. Type in the command ipconfig /flushdns
  5. There is a space between ipconfig and /flushdns.

 

 

Apple computers:

Yosemite

If you are running Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite), you need to do the following:

  1. Open up the command terminal (click the Search icon in the top right-hand corner, then type “Terminal”).
  2. Run the command sudo discoveryutil udnsflushcaches

Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks

If you are running Mac OS X 10.7, 10.8 or 10.9, you need to do the following:

  1. Open up the command terminal (click the Search icon in the top right-hand corner, then type “Terminal”).
  2. Run the command sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

 

Happy Computing!

Michael

Desktop Support

I’m nearly complete with my current stint of streamlining our Desktop Support operations.

High Points:

  • Munki auto-updates
  • PDR flow & communication
  • Lab Re-imaging
  • Reorganization (starting soon)
  • Purging Windows XP
  • Team building

What I really want to talk about is the lab re-imaging process.

First, my rock stars:

  • Lori Burgeson (builds & uploads images, licensing)
  • Megan Eichler (imaging, QA, efficiency)
  • John Rushing (imaging, QA)

Lori has been building images since at least August.  She has to coordinate with faculty, Tricia (for new hardware, software, etc…), John, Megan, the techs and me.  And I can be a pill 😉  She’s been burning it at both ends, and going the extra mile to make sure we get things done by tomorrow.

Megan has been balancing 3-4 priorities while driving the techs hard.  She pushes harder than anyone and leads by example.  She really tests each piece, so she finds the most details that need attention.

John is the new-comer.  He barely knew the imaging a little while ago.  Now he’s leading teams of students and working to get the labs imaged and then processed.

We have 2 labs left and we are still hopeful to close it all up tomorrow.  Once that’s done on our end, we have to contact Faculty and have them sign off on their labs that everything works for them. I’ve been acting as a QA tester for each image before it goes out.

It’s a grueling 2-month process that we’ve tweaked along the way.  We’ve adding tracking where we needed more accountability.  Megan has been instrumental in finding areas to improve in the process.

We’ve all been working hard, trying to make things run smoothly, accurately and efficiently.  I am looking forward to school starting and not having the stress of the imaging process.  With everyone’s help we will make the process much better next year.  Munki will be more mature.  We ordered a new Mac imaging server with lots more space.  I’m very hopeful about the future.  This team has really come together to complete the mission.  Just a few more day and we’ll be there.

Munki

As the WOU infrastructure has grown and matured, we have come to understand certain complications and inefficiencies in some areas.

Specifically, and as we all know, the Apple technology was never designed for Enterprise use (not Star Trek).  Large organizations (and a few small ones) continue to be challenged with managing their fleets of Apple technology.  For WOU, our largest challenge recently was the increasing number of Macs that had an outdated OS or browser (not to mention other software).

Enter Munki.index

Oh, he looks like a party animal, but down deep this primate is a solid machine.

Munki is super flexible.  It can pretty much run on any webserver.  No stupid services to keep running.  You can even set it up on OS X.  The tools are pretty straight forward (as long as you don’t scream when you see command line).  It’s pretty clean, NOT chatty, and easy to fix (like when you type the wrong stupid command…like me…more than once).

Munki uses a UI like the old Software Update:

munki2

Awesome features:

  • Can be installed with one package and a file copy … ~60 sec.
  • Runs on 10.5-10.9     Can you think of ANYthing that still does that?!?!?
  • Clean.  Quiet.  Configurable.
  • Can install software.  Patches.  App store apps (w/o the appstore login….hello!).  OS updates.
  • I can remove software.  Seriously.
  • I can copy files and scripts and … the fun just doesn’t stop.
  • Um, it’s called Munki?

Some folks are even using it to do full box configs.  Think of it.  Pull a mac out-the-box.  Install Munki.  Reboot.  Walk away.  It figures out who it is.  Where it is.  What to install.  It installs is, patches it and the OS.  Then reboots.  And waits for more.

Power.

Control.

And it’s still kinda stickin’ it to Steve Jobs.

WOU EDW – Demo v1

Today was the day.

We officially gave our users the first taste of Cognos and the new WOU EDW.  Western Oregon University’s Enterprise Data Warehouse will utilize an Oracle database, ODI (for ETL/ EL-T) and a Cognos Framework Manager-designed front-end.  The web-accessible application was demo-ed today by some Power Users.

Overall I thought the presentation was good.  It took just over 90 minutes, and we had a lot of feedback and interaction with our group.  They gave us some notes that will immediately help shape the direction of development.

We can now focus on next steps.

What parts of the Banner data should we include next?  Admissions, AR, Grades, etc…

With some basic feedback, we are well on track and can begin to divvy up responsibilities.

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Graduating students…

Normally Graudation is a happy time.

But it sucks.  Seriously?  Our best and brightest students, with skills and experience that WE GAVE THEM …. leaving.  Gone.  Bye-bye.  Sheesh.  I’ll celebrate after I stop crying.  Maybe.

Really though, think about it.  We put all our time/effort/experience into our students.  Why?  To make them ready for the “real world” (am I ready?) … to make them people of excellence … to get a job, yo.

And we pay them poorly.  And they put up with our mood swings 🙂  And they still have to smile to help pay like 10% of their tuition.  But that experience is killer.  And IF you didn’t screw up, then you might actually get a reference – once again proving it’s all about who you know.

My best to you grads.  I want you back, and I’m cranky.  But I want you to live and do … almost as well as me 🙂

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EDW challenges

This week we have been struggling with an OWB versioning issue.

We’re not to the point of all the king’s horse or men, but we are redirecting our efforts looking at Oracle/OWB 11.2.0.1 instead of 11.2.0.3

A delay in the ETL process comes at a critical time with our June 30 deadline.  Ross and Nathan and I are doing everything we can do resolve this quickly and get to our next ETL milestone.

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EDW timeline

Our EDW deadline is down to around a month.

During the next 4-5 weeks, we’ll need to finish loading FIS data, FIS fixed assets, finish SIS (degrees, transfer) and start into HR.

We’ve completed our first final report, with 2 more on the way.  The team is experiencing a higher stress level than average (partly because I’m over there every day now), but also knowing that June is in 2 days.

The WOU EDW will be a successful project.  We had hoped to complete it earlier and have users in the warehouse to get feedback.  That will still occur, but probably in late June/early July.

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Meetings & Vendors

Our various teams have invested some regular time these last 2 weeks meeting with Cisco, Sophos, VMWare, NetApp, Aruba, among others — to discuss the future roadmap of technology at WOU.  Some vendors we’ve worked with in the past – others are new to us, but have excellent reputations and technologies that we are interested in learning more about.

In particular, we are looking at MDM (mobile device management) both for University-owned devices (iPads, etc…) and personal devices (my Android phone – for example).

Various security measures (remote wipe, remote install, app restrictions, …) are able to be applied to groups of devices accessing the WOU systems.  This is a new area of access/security/management, so we are learning all we can 🙂

BuddyPress

Currently we are researching and working through setting up an instance of WordPress with the BuddyPress plug-in.

The ultimate goal will be to enable DEP to have a uniquely configured system for the interpreting program.  With a specialized set of users, and a truly unique teaching schedule, this system has to be separate from the standard infrastructure so that maintenance windows do not impact these students.

Next week we plan to meet with DEP, to show them how the technology will fit their list of needs.