[303] in Release_7.7_team
SGI Points
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mike Barker)
Tue May 9 17:20:39 1995
From: Mike Barker <mbarker@MIT.EDU>
To: acmg@MIT.EDU, dcns-dev@MIT.EDU, release-team@MIT.EDU, skunks@MIT.EDU,
ops@MIT.EDU
Cc: tjm@MIT.EDU, gjackson@MIT.EDU, nschmidt@MIT.EDU, carla@MIT.EDU,
bmurphy@MIT.EDU, bwmelans@MIT.EDU, kim@MIT.EDU, vrt@MIT.EDU,
cfields@MIT.EDU, dot@MIT.EDU, alexp@MIT.EDU
Date: Tue, 09 May 1995 17:20:01 EDT
We are currently in the transition from the skunks' testbed experiments
to having SGI systems as a part of the Athena environment. As part of
that transition, quite a bit of information exchange needs to occur.
I propose that we hold a meeting of interested parties soon to plan
for deployment and handling of the SGI systems. I think
representatives of ACS, DCNS-dev, cluster, ops, consulting, and
perhaps others should be present.
The goals of this meeting will be
a. make explicit the role of SGI systems in Athena
b. lay out a plan for the summer upgrade, installations, and
potential problems
I think the following is an accurate statement of the upcoming SGI work.
By the end of the summer, we expect the following set of conditions to
be met:
1. The current SGI AFS failure that blocks building emacs or ez will
be resolved.
2. The XL SGI's already in the field will be upgraded to XZ graphics.
3. Additional XZ SGI's will be installed.
4. The XZ SGI systems will be upgraded to IRIX 5.3
5. The XZ SGI running IRIX 5.3 will have AFS 3.4 client software installed
6. The AFS 3.4 client software will operate correctly with AFS 3.3a
server software.
It seems to me that there are several questionable assumptions in this
set of conditions. Perhaps the most critical ones involve the
availability of AFS 3.4, since Transarc has yet to release a version
of this software.
I believe we need to collect information about the following:
a. What AFS versions work under IRIX 5.3? What fixes the current problem?
(Transarc?)
b. Can XZ equipped SGI's run IRIX 5.2/AFS 3.3a? Why not? What problems?
(SGI?)
c. What is the schedule, deadline, and resource contentions for the
SGI upgrades and installations? (DCNS cluster)
d. Are there combinations or subsets of functionality which can be
made to work, even for interim periods? What do these require? (DCNS-dev)
5. What are the key/critical applications? (ACS?)
I have also heard questions about:
- SGIs have known security holes
(what exactly are the types of threat and the risks?)
- there may be rc files and cleanup issues that are not yet
resolved?
- how will we inform people that some applications are NOT
available?
- how will we inform people that the SGI is NOT like other Athena
workstations?
The SGIs are going to be in a quasi-private cluster (one that can
be signed up for) and in other public clusters. (4-035 has been
mentioned as one place where SGIs will end up).
