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ICC Meeting:

IFAS COMPUTER COORDINATORS
(ICC)

NOTES FROM May 8th 2015 REGULAR MEETING


A meeting of the ICC was held on Friday, May 8th, 2015 in the UF/IFAS Communications Building. The meeting was chaired and called to order by Dennis Brown at about 10:01 am.

PRESENT: At least 31 members participated.

Remote participants: Javier Rameriz, Angel Perez, Joel Parlin, Michael Morrow, Donna McCraw, John Macias, Taylor Jamrok, Alvaro Ibanez, Wayne Hyde, DeWayne Hyatt, Kevin Hill, Josh Gromoll, Francis Ferguson, Daniel Christophy, Wei Cao, David Bauldree.

On-site participants:
Jimmy Anuszewski, Karen Porter, Winnie Lante, Santos Soler, Tennille Herron, James Canter, Dennis Brown, Dan Cromer.

STREAMING AUDIO: Might be available here.

Recorded Video: Here. (It's a big file, so give it time ;) )


NOTES:

Dennis Brown and Winnie Lante should be commended for his food/drink accomodations. Thank you, Dennis.


Report from the chairman

Member news: Mike Ryabin, from FLREC is retiring TODAY! Congrats, Mike. His replacement is Javier Herrera.

Recap since last meeting:

As per his usual procedure, Jimmy pointed folks to the notes of the last meeting, without going into any details.

Details about this meeting:

I've deleted a lot of the old anchors that were in the minutes due to lack of updates. I suggest searching the ICC site for information that you may be looking for.


Security: (previous discussion)

The university’s licenses for McAfee anti-virus is expiring in four months. UF’s replacement for this expiring functionality is UF Endpoint Management (UFEM). If not started already, university IT staff should be planning their UFEM deployment strategy to replace McAfee. UF’s license with McAfee will expire in September, 2015.
All copies of McAfee software must be removed by September 20, 2015. IFAS IT Hard deadline is July 13th. SCCM will be pushed out. More information will be avaiable soon.

From UF IT:
"UF Endpoint Management (UFEM) is UF’s New Solution! UFIT provides endpoint management services for all UF endpoints via UFEM (it.ufl.edu/ufem). Since UFEM went live last fall, there has been strong, early adoption by numerous colleges and units of the university. UFEM replaces the functionality of McAfee for anti-malware. In the time period since the service has been in production, more than 14,000 endpoints (e.g., servers, desktop PCs, laptops and tablets) are already connected to UFEM. The ability to manage all aspects of Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux endpoints from a single console is a big plus for workstation managers and IT directors. UFEM is FREE to all colleges and units of the university, including DSOs. Training is mandatory before service access (via security roles) is granted. For more information please visit the UFEM site: http://www.it.ufl.edu/ufem"

 

Patching updates... (previous discussion)

Microsoft

The April's Microsoft patches included numerous bulletins of varying importance, covering several unique CVEs in the usual suspects. Current risk assessments can be found here.

Outlook for iOS and Android still has not met criteria (as of this day) to allow it to be used on UF Exchange system.

Native mail apps for Androids and iPhones are still ok to use.

Adobe

There were some Adobe Flash updates here (including Flash and Flash Player).

Java

Java updates were on April 14 and Java 7 reached end of life on April of 2015. Next critical patch update for Java 8 will be July 14, 2015.

Apple

There have been several Apple updates, including OS X updates (Security) and iOS 8.2 (for Apple Watch integration).

SAS

SAS University Edition recently had an update. Please visit this link.

Other

Updates as available...


Videoconferencing and WAN discussion

Videoconferencing topics (previous discussion)

Acano released update R1.6 in April.

Seems the common agreement in regards to which Video Conference interface to use is Lync. Acano should be used when a Legacy systerm is involved. This refers to Polycom, Cisco, etc. Lync provides those on campus and off campus to have access to a meeting. Content can be shared, white board can be provided and chat is provided. Please make sure you are updated to the latest Lync.

Updates as available...


End-user Scheduling (previous discussion)

Updates as available...

Lync updates (previous discussion)

Updates as available...

WAN (previous discussion)


Wireless printers (previous discussion)

Updates as available...

 


Policy


Cloud Services (previous discussion)

I've been running into some sync issues with OneDrive. It seems several people have been running into problems. Request ticket will be submitted later today. I will keep everyone posted.

UF Exchange updates (previous discussion)

Unless something has changed or I missed the notes, Exchange Server still hasn't reached 100% compatibility with OWA or Mac's version of Outlook.

Notes from last month's SIAC meeting

Notes from past meetings are available here. Last update was from February. Dan is going to send out notes from the last meeting.

Last month's IT Directors Meeting Notes

IBM Endpoint Management was discussed, ITSM, BigFix and Terminal 4 updates were discussed.

PrintSmart initiative (previous discussion)

Santos has created a step-by-step guide for the PrintSmart install. You can find it....on the WIKI! And he's added to it!
Please pay attention to the new models (8870 and 8880), do not move the printer while it is hot. They use an ink that is wax based and could cause problems when bumped or moved.

Content Management System (CMS) for UF: Entering preparation phase (previous discussion)

ICS is still offering free server space to those sites that are under 20mb in size. If you are interested in migrating to Terminal 4, please contact Tennille Herron.

New 'Trouble-Ticket' Entry Page for CNS (previous discussion)

If you haven't completed your training, please do so when you can. Dan explained that there will a shortcut created on user desktops that will allow users to submit trouble tickets. This will be routed using NMB. If the person doesn't have a set NMB, the help desk will then route it to the appropriate IT person.

KACE (previous discussion)

February's KACE report is available here. This was the last report made available.

 


Projects


Services Documentation: Is a Wiki the way? (previous discussion)

Would be really nice if more people could contribute to this.

Attention!Attention!Attention!Attention!Attention!

A wiki has been created at http://my.ifas.ufl.edu/wiki/icc/. Everyone in the ICC distribution group should be able to add/edit.

Attention!Attention!Attention!Attention!Attention!

Operations


IFAS IT Updates (previous discussion)

Dan mentioned that all machines will be moving to SCCM to push updates. SCEP (System Center Endpoint Protection) uninstalls McAfee. There is a hard deadline of July 15. After being reminded about the switchover, Jimmy remembered that Agronomy had indeed been converted over. (I blame everything I don't remember on my vacation to Ireland). Computers at off campus locations with McAfee will be dealt with on a case by case basis. Updates will not be affected.

There is a reorganization of the server drives. As UF/IFAS refreshes our server environment, we are reorganizing and standardizing the Windows shared drive mapping. Different departments had different mapped drive letters, which makes support more difficult. One department may have a “W:” mapped drive folder, where another may use “X:” for the same thing. We are standardizing on “T:” for a “Groups” folder, which can have sub-folders custom-configured to allow access control as requested by the owner. The formerly separate “Unit” folder, allowing access to anyone in the same unit, will be one sub-folder under “Groups”. The “U:” mapped drive is the “Users” folder, with access only for your user account. You may manually map other drive letters as you wish. Active Directory will be the only way to add users to the folders via group permissions.

Previous Versions (restoring backups) will still be available. There will be 32 days of backup available with 2 snaps a day.

I strongly encourage you to listen to the audio or watch the video in regards to understanding how folders and files should be handled, especially in regard to daily backups and the complications that could happen when you change a file name, delete files, etc. (in regards to large files).

Santos reminded everyone that he will be moving web sites to the new server. If you haven't responded to his emails, he will not wait anymore for a reply.

New DHCP reservation site created (previous discussion)

You are reminded that Santos Soler has created a new DHCP reservation site which you may use to request reservations.

Creating guest GatorLink accounts: singly or in bulk (previous discussion)

Steve had left this on the agenda in case further discussion was deemed warranted. So Jimmy will leave it here.

Wayne's Power Tools (previous discussion)

Powertools will be getting updated and fixed as time allows.

Public folder file deletion policies and procedures status (previous discussion)

Updates as available...

 


Other Topics


SAS depot updated

The SAS 9.4 installation depot (\\ad.ufl.edu\ifas\SOFTWARE\SAS\SAS9.4_32bit ) has been updated to permit installation on Windows 8.1 AND to allow installation on 32 bit Windows installs.

FAQs for new hires (should use http://my.ifas.ufl.edu/wiki/icc/)

Updates as available...

Adobe licensing (previous discussion)

Updates as available...

Misc.

GatorBox (leaving this here)
Research Computing has launched GatorBox, an enhanced storage option for research. GatorBox features a dropbox-like interface provided by ownCloud software. The new interface offers a convenient and familiar interface as well as desktop and mobile clients, with simple file sync and share functionality. Please contact Research Computing for more information about GatorBox: info@hpc.ufl.edu.

Peer2Peer:

Peer 2 Peer can be viewed online. I wasn't here for it, so maybe someone can give us a review?

 


That's All Folks!

The meeting was adjourned at 11:38 and the next meeting will take place June 12th.

Gator LAX starts their bid for a champtionship today with their first round against Stanford, Gator Baseball is playing at Vandy (lost 2-0 last night) and Gator Softball is playing Tennessee today, in the second round of the SEC Tourney today.