Latest sys-admin news

Changes to the www-dyn{,1,2,3} service

30 August 2019

The facility used by the dynamic user web page service to securely access the filer relies on a feature of the old filer which is not available on the new ones .

This requires all users of the dynamic user web page service to move their files to a separate volume on the filer. This should not affect most users,...

Old autofs maps to be removed

29 August 2019

At the beginning of August we introduced a new set of autofs maps. We intend to remove the old maps from the LDAP server on Tuesday 3rd September.

New NetApp filer

22 August 2019

The department has been running a NetApp filer called elmer as its primary filestore since 2002. Since the original installation, there have been two major hardware replacements, and on each of those occasions the transition was relatively seamless. It is now time for a third upgrade, but this one will be a bit different. The purpose of this article is to explain what we are planning.

New autofs maps

1 August 2019

In preparation for migrating to new filer hardware, we need to make changes to the automounter mappings used on managed Linux machines to access NFS file servers. These mappings are used to implement paths mostly beginning with /auto, and most frequently accessed through symbolic links such as /homes. /anfs and /usr/...

Chiller failure

16 May 2019

The temporary chiller failed 0300-08:15

New Active Directory domain DC.CL.CAM.AC.UK

4 February 2019

The department is migrating from an old Active Directory domain to a new one. If you are still using somewhere the domain/realm/NetBIOS names of the old one, please check the current documentation and change to the new one accordingly:

Old Kerberos realm name: AD.CL.CAM.AC.UK Old NetBIOS domain name: CL.CAM.AC.UK...

slogin-new and slogin-old DNS names removed

16 January 2019

The transitional DNS names slogin-new and slogin-old have been removed now that the slogin-serv system is believed stable, to ensure that nobody is still relying on them.

Old print server being retired

7 November 2018

The old print server (version 1-6-2) will be retired in stages over the next week or so. Most users will not be affected, as they are already using our new server. The only people who need to take action are those who used Bonjour to load printers via the old server, which will be mostly Mac users. These printers will...

Network outage on June 2nd

4 June 2018

At 09:12 on Saturday morning, a new switch in our data centre failed. In doing so it bridged together all of its connections to the rest of the network. Since switches have multiple uplinks for resilience, this created a loop in the network.

This loop meant that network traffic was duplicated indefinitely,...

PAT 2018

1 June 2018

Portable Appliance Testsing (PAT) is not a legal requirement, but is required by our insurers. Estate Management have hired contractors to fulfill the insurers' requirement at very short notice. Some information which might be of interest:

Computers will not be turned off without permission. No machine rooms or...

Changes to the www-dyn{,1,2,3} service

Old autofs maps to be removed

New NetApp filer

New autofs maps

Chiller failure

New Active Directory domain DC.CL.CAM.AC.UK

slogin-new and slogin-old DNS names removed

Old print server being retired

Network outage on June 2nd

PAT 2018

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