Latest sys-admin news

Mail server replacement

15 October 2010

The last exim3 MTA ( whittlesey ) is about to be replaced by an exim4 one ( sutton ). This should not cause any disruption, but please email sys-admin if you suspect any problems.

If email is completely failing, do phone or come to see us. Shutting down the last exim 3 server allows...

slogin-serv* hosts IP addresses changing

11 October 2010

The IP addresses associated with the slogin-serv* servers is changing as they are moving to a subnet for machines using NFS sec=sys. This may cause ssh to warn that that the IP address differs, but that the host key matches. This is not a problem, so type " yes " to connect. e.g.

ra4:~: ssh slogin-...

WGB power outages

11 August 2010

The WGB lost power on Wed 11th Aug 2010 and three times on Sat 14th due to the main 240v breaker in GN17 tripping, probably caused by a problem with the temperature sensor, from reports of other sites. It is likely to require a six hour power down at some future time to fix it (unrelated to the per-corridor...

Caller ID presentation on Lab phones

6 August 2010

The new University phone system has the ability to present "caller id" on external phone calls as the actual DDI number of the phone, rather than the generic university switchboard number. This makes it easier for people to call you back. Whether the number actually reaches the called party is dependent on a...

Demise of Computing Service usenet server and email to it

29 July 2010

The Computing Service have announced that the University usenet news server will shut down at the beginning of next month (August 2010). Their announcement suggests alternative usenet sources.

The Computer Lab's mail server has long provided a means of sending messages to the server, via adresses of the...

Wireless network migration plans

19 July 2010

This is a status report on the planned upgrade to the wireless network, and a request for testing and feedback on the migration strategy.

The original plan was that the new wireless system would offer all of the networks that the old one did, with the addition of Eduroam. We also hope to provide a new...

Eduroam

14 June 2010

I have received a couple of samples of the new wireless access points that we intend to install over the summer. I have placed one of them so that it should provide some Eduroam coverage to the Street area.

The service offered is essentially that described in http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/wireless/ i.e....

New package signing key

8 June 2010

A new key has been generated to sign all Lab packages (RPMs and .debs). This has been installed on most Lab managed machines. Private machines which use the Lab repositories will need to register the new key.

On a debian based system use " apt-key add " and on an RPM based system use " rpm --import ",...

Filer problems May bank holiday weekend

1 June 2010

Between sometime in the evening of Sunday 30th May and early morning on Tuesday 1st June the performance of the NetApp filer "elmer" was so badly degraded as to be effectively unusable. The problems affected various services, including the main lab web server.

It is a little difficult to work out...

CentOS 5.5 upgrades

16 May 2010

Centos have released 5.5 . Machines are being rebooted to use the new kernel.

Mail server replacement

slogin-serv* hosts IP addresses changing

WGB power outages

Caller ID presentation on Lab phones

Demise of Computing Service usenet server and email to it

Wireless network migration plans

Eduroam

New package signing key

Filer problems May bank holiday weekend

CentOS 5.5 upgrades

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