[450] in I/T Delivery
Spatial Data Services monthly update for March 2001
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Daniel Sheehan)
Tue Mar 6 16:12:38 2001
Message-Id: <200103062112.QAA07767@gadus.mit.edu>
To: delivery@MIT.EDU
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Date: Tue, 06 Mar 2001 16:12:34 -0500
From: Daniel Sheehan <dsheehan@MIT.EDU>
General
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Starting to ramp up delivery effort, defining roles. Continue to deliver
training and consulting. Sheehan is participating in the hiring process for
the GIS Specialist in the Libraries. Significant work on the project plan and
first pass budget.
Accomplishments during January and February
------------------------------------------------------------
- Long and Sheehan met with Steel and Gass of the Libraries to determine
complementary roles of IS and Libraries on delivering spatial data services to
the Institute
- Sheehan and Fitzgerald met with Gass to determine timing of Libraries and IS
planning implementation. Outstanding issues include space renovations in
Rotch Library for new SDS Center, hiring of SDS specialist, and open funding
model questions, including acquiring the data. This may be minimal as much of
the data is free.
- Sheehan and Fitzgerald met with Athena Server Ops team, Anne Salemme and
Miki Lusztig to finalize the server move, and to decide issues around HW, OS
and SW maintenance, disaster recover, backups, etc.; recognize since this is a
new kind of server and services, some issues are uncertain and yet to be
decided.
- Sheehan and Fitzgerald moved the server from Building 9 to W92.
- Received quote for new raid array disks from Garry Zacheiss of Athena Server
Ops, purchase awaits completion of testing, which will qualify running them
with Solaris 7, which is what arrowsmith is running.
- SDS contractor identified, Steven Engle, for early work on data
loading and network testing; lost contractor to other work;
- Began discussions with Tom Grayson of DUSP, who expressed a desire to work
on the project, essentially replacing the lost contractor.
- continued to deliver training through IAP workshops and CEE short course.
- start to spec out delivery plan.
Goals for March
---------------------
- bring Tom Grayson of DUSP on the team on a part time basis
- determine/finalize roles on the delivery team
- draft SLA for Server Ops team care of arrowsmith; the big question here will
be determining who will be maintaining Oracle.
- load Oracle 8.1.7 on arrowsmith
- test Apache web server on arrowsmith
- test ArcIMS (Internet Map Server) on arrowsmith
- work toward completing delivery plan
Issues
--------
Didn't set up rules for server after move, causing issues in machine room.
Everyone lived, after the lesson was learned.
Additional Comments
----------------------------
Like any project, it seems bigger than it appears.
For those not in the know, arrowsmith is named after Aaron Arrowsmith, a
British cartographer who worked in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and
was known for his detailed and accurate maps. There is no hidden reference to
Aerosmith, the band.
