Infrastructure Support | Information Technology

Category: Infrastructure Support

Planned Network Downtime (Dec. 17): OSUL Network Migration

November 27, 2018 / Terry Reese / Comments Off

Dear Colleagues,

We are planning a network outage for Dec. 17. We are asking the Library community to plan for the Libraries services be disrupted all day (6 am – 11:59 pm) on Dec. 17th. While services are down, we will have links to alternative search resources for our users on the library landing page. Our hope is that services will be restored throughout the day as the new network configuration comes online — but the process is complicated with many moving parts, so we are asking for 1 day to allow for any necessary troubleshooting.

Why is this happening? The Ohio State University Libraries and the OCIO have entered into a 5 year agreement related to the management of our network services. This agreement will result in marked improvements in networking infrastructure and access points within our physical buildings, as well as access to greater bandwidth on our network. To complete this work, OCIO and the Libraries IT teams have been developing a network migration plan. This plan will require a significant reconfiguration of our network, as the Libraries will partner with OCIO to manage the core infrastructure that connect us to the University’s network. This transition will enable the Libraries to focus our work on our internal infrastructure and enable OCIO to continue to standardize how the larger university interfaces with the network. To complete the hardware upgrades and core technical hand-offs, the Libraries’ network will need to be disabled for a period of time.

So what will be down and what will be available? Essentially, anything that is accessed via a library.osu.edu domain will be unavailable. This will include:

The website and blogs
The catalog
Digital Collections
Knowledge Bank
Shared Network Drives (J, K, H)
Hub and Jira
Printing

What will be available:

Email
Wireless/internet
Box
Skype
Phones
Desktop Logins
Services not managed by the Libraries or under a library.osu.edu or lib.ohio-state.edu domain

OCIO and the Libraries are working hard to plan this migration to minimize down time and reduce the impact to our university community. As the process progresses, I will keep the Library Community informed. While services are down, the Libraries will be offering some programming that day for staff: details to come.

If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know.

Best,

–tr

ADOBE CREATIVE CLOUD SERVICE

October 17, 2018 / Library IT / Comments Off

The current licensing for Adobe products will expire November 30th. The University Site License team has negotiated a deal with Adobe for the Adobe Creative Cloud Service. It is available now and Library IT will be pushing it to your PC within the next week. To gain full functionality you will want to login to the Adobe Creative Cloud using the desktop icon that will soon be added to your desktop, there are instructions below.

Adobe Creative Cloud Service is a suite of integrated applications. The Ohio State University site license agreement with Adobe only allows Faculty and Staff to have access to the Adobe Creative Cloud Service. Students will continue to receive access to Adobe applications based on Library IT pushing them to the machine they are using, please continue to use HUB to request the applications for Student PC’s. To get full functionality Faculty and Staff should login using the Adobe Creative Cloud desktop application.

After logging into Adobe Creative Cloud, you can update or install the applications that may be useful for your work. It is not recommended to download applications that you are not planning to use, as this can slow the PC down and waste space, which could eventually fill your local hard drive to the point of failure. The Adobe Creative Cloud App also allows you to uninstall Adobe Creative Cloud applications you no longer need.

The University’s current Adobe license provides every Faculty and Staff member 100 GB of Adobe Creative Cloud space on the Adobe Creative Cloud servers. To utilize this space, you must be Signed In to Adobe Creative Cloud using your name.#@osu.edu. It is important to note; this Cloud space should be treated as temporary storage. Neither Library IT nor OCIO manage the Adobe Cloud space, so if something happens to your file on the Adobe Cloud there is not a recovery method available through Library IT or OCIO. As always, Library IT suggests using your H and J drives for long-term storage and both Lib IT and OCIO recommend Box for cloud storage sharing.

With your OSU credentials (name.#@osu.edu), you can Sign In with Adobe Creative Cloud on two machines concurrently. Therefore, you can Sigh In and install the software on you work PC and Home PC. If you chose to Sign In to a third machine you will be required to Sign Out of one of the other machines. Library IT will install the Adobe Creative Cloud application to all Library Faculty, Staff and Student Staff PC’s and Laptops. To download the Adobe Creative Cloud installer at home:

A. SOFTWARE REQUEST INSTRUCTIONS

a. On step 4 of the instructions Select Adobe Creative Cloud

i. Either Windows or Macintosh: version Desktop Apps – All Architectures

*OCIO had a blog post concerning Adobe Creative Cloud that has useful information and links:

COMING SOON: ADOBE CREATIVE CLOUD SERVICE

ADOBE CREATIVE CLOUD SIGN IN INSTRUCTIONS

Double Click the desktop icon

2. In the Adobe Creative Cloud Sign In screen, input your name#@osu.edu then hit your Tab key

*If you Do Not see this screen, Adobe Creative Cloud is likely already Signed In. It may be Signed In to the default Libraries Sign In, if so you Will Not have full access to the benefits of Adobe Creative Cloud Service. If this is the case, move to Note: A below to see how to identify who is Signed In and how to sign them out.

3. This will bring up a new screen, select Enterprise ID

*For most users it will default to Enterprise ID and you will not see this screen and proceed to the Step 4. For authentication

4. This is the typical OCIO Web Authentication Screen; input your OSU single sign on credentials

5. You will be prompted for a DUO login; input your preferred DUO login method.

* It may default to, and send, push if you it set DUO to do so.

6. After you approve the DUO authentication, Adobe Creative Cloud will open to a default screen; select Apps from the toolbar near the top to see all the applications available.

7. With ALL APPS selected, you will see all of the Applications available through the OSU license agreement with Adobe and their current state. Here you can update, install or uninstall applications.

*It is recommended to only install applications that you are planning to use. Otherwise, you may cause your PC to run slower or fill your local hard drive space.

8. Click INSTALLED APPS you will see all of the Applications already installed on the PC. Again, here you can update or uninstall applications.

NOTES:

A. To identify who is Signed In to Adobe Creative Cloud, click in the top right on the silhouette

B. This will show whose credentials are Signed In and give the option to Sign Out

*If LIB IT Infrastructure is Signed In, Click Sign Out and it will return you to Step 2

These instructions are also located in the Library IT Help WIKI Located: Adobe Creative Cloud Service

A View From the Support Desk

August 25, 2018 / Terry Reese / Comments Off

Over the past two weeks, I’ve gotten to reacquaint myself with the incredible individuals that we have working in IT Support. And taking a cue from AD&S, I’m going to try to lift the veil and provide a bi-weekly look at some of the issues and projects being undertaken by the team. This is by no means an exhaustive list (the technology gremlins are always causing mischief), but I would like to highlight some of the ongoing work of the unit.

LTC Computer Shuffle

Karla Strieb and Morag Boyd have been leading Content and Access through a really thoughtful redesign of how their group thinks about their work. And as these changes have started to come to fruition, it has required a large number of staff to move to different locations in the building. This process has been a team effort between LTC staff, facilities, and IT Support, and as of today, the moves have nearly been completed. I’ve appreciated everyone in IT Support and their all hands-on deck attitude as most everyone has contributed to the move; though Gary deserves some special recognition for coordinating most of the work on the IT side.

Chasing the Printer daemons (there’s a joke in there)

Printing has been a little bit of a bug-a-boo lately, and Gaymon has been spending a good deal of his time working out why this is happening. Problems like these can be complicated as they hardly ever are just one thing…and this has been the case here. As someone that has just come back into the team, it’s gratifying to see our infrastructure team working together and sharing information as we try and sort out the problems. More importantly, I feel like we are getting close to resolving the underlying issues that have been causing the problems.

Adobe Scanner issues

Earlier this week, we started to see a number of reports related to an inability to use adobe to scan content. It was a bit of a vexing issue and a disruptive one. To help customers who’s work was disrupted, Rico created a very nice “workaround”, but the underlying cause was elusive. It wasn’t until this week, and after some impressive detective work, that we identified the culprit – the malware software (Malwarebytes) – was incorrectly identifying the method Adobe uses to communicate with the scanners as a security risk. Gaymon has been in contact with the vendor and will work with them to test any patches that they make available till a permanent solution is found. This kind of partnering with vendors is indicative of the kind of work that goes on in IT Support and helps not only OSUL, but all users of a particular piece of software or hardware.

Skype and Office 365 issues

As you might guess, with the University migrating services, IT Support has received a number of tickets related to these services. We’ve been working closely with OCIO to resolve reported issues.

Proxy Updates

The start of a term always brings an increase in the number of questions related to accessing content and this year is no different. However, one kink has been some proxy changes aimed at improving the user experience while on campus and to bring resource access for content on our regional campuses into better compliance. These two changes have surfaced some unexpected problems – and I’ve appreciated the time Eric spends with each user to sort these problems out.

In my first two weeks working as the co-Interim Head of IT Support, it’s been gratifying seeing how hard this group works for the Libraries. It’s something that we “the big WE”, don’t get to see very often unless you have an occasion to ask for help — but it’s certainly there.

–tr

Planned Sierra Downtime

March 9, 2015 / Michelle Gerry / Comments Off

The Library IT department is replacing the Sierra application server on Monday, March 16 beginning at 6:00 pm. That date falls at the beginning of Spring Break when the number of people affected by the downtime will be diminished.

While the server is being replaced, searching the local library catalog and accessing your library patron record will not be available. We don’t expect the system to be down for more than three hours while we replace the server, but we will send out an update should that time be extended for any reason.

Anyone experiencing an issue with Sierra should report it immediately to Hub.

IT Service Request E-mail Notifications

June 27, 2013 / / Comments Off

We’ve received some feedback from staff that they aren’t always sure when their IT requests have been completed. So, beginning Thursday evening, June 27, 2013, we will begin sending e-mail notifications to you when: 1) we add a comment to your ticket/request; 2) we resolve your ticket/request (meaning we believe we’ve completed the task.)

What if I don’t want these e-mails?

We are currently not able to turn e-mails off on a per-individual basis. However, it is possible to set up a rule in Outlook to divert emails from a particular recipient. If you’d like help setting up a rule, please contact us using go.osu.edu/hub.

What if my request is not really completed?

When we complete a request, we mark your issue as “resolved” in our system. If your issue isn’t completed to your satisfaction, you can always click the link in the e-mail and “un-resolve” the ticket to let us know that the problem persists.

How do I reply to the e-mails?

When you receive an e-mail from our system, you can reply in two ways: 1) you can either reply directly to the e-mail, and anything you type into the body of the e-mail will be added as a comment on your ticket; or 2) you can click the link in the e-mail and add a comment from within Hub itself. Please make sure not to edit the subject line of the email, because our system uses the subject to link up to the correct ticket number.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns about this change, please feel free to let us know at go.osu.edu/hub.

Library Catalog Server Maintenance on Monday, April 15

April 12, 2013 / Michelle Gerry / Comments Off

The Library IT department needs to perform server maintenance to the library catalog server on Monday, April 15 from midnight to 2 am. As a result, the library catalog, and staff access to the catalog via Millennium or telnet will be unavailable during that time.

Please log off and close any applications connecting to the catalog before April 15 at midnight.

If you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Running Ruby on Rails on a production server – The evolution of our solution.

April 2, 2013 / / Comments Off

A bit over a year ago, OSU Libraries web development team first started toying with Ruby on Rails. Since that time we have established it as our language of choice for any new project. For me, the switch to Ruby has been absolutely outstanding. For the most part Ruby makes things so much easier. It tends to get out of my way and let me focus on the application I’m trying to write and not the syntax of the language. Heck, even running a local development copy of a web application is easy! In PHP you need to have MAMP (or some other apache installation) set up and configured, point it to the directory, set up a new virtual host….guh! I just want to run my application real quick to check something. In rails it’s as simple as “rails s” on the command line.

But what happens when you want to take that rails application that you wrote on your laptop and push it to a production web server? It turns out that this is an incredibly complex thing. So many options can lead to confusion and complexity. For us, it took a progression from one method to another. I’m by no means saying that our solution is the best or even that it’s finished yet, but maybe our progression will provide some insight for someone else out there.

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