[18282] in Hotline Meeting
System volume release-o-rama Fri and Sat mornings
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (salemme@MIT.EDU)
Thu Sep 16 15:47:08 1993
From: salemme@MIT.EDU
Date: Thu, 16 Sep 93 15:45:33 -0400
To: athena-outage@MIT.EDU, dcns-status@MIT.EDU
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Tomorrow morning (Friday Sept 17), the AFS volume that contains the system
pack used by the Athena RS6000s will be released.
Reason: To update the pack from 7.6F to 7.6H
Changes:
o new DASH to fix a bug
o new console to fix a long standing bug
o new cleanup
o root's dotfiles no longer call stty dec
o updated /etc/athena/config_afs for a
fix of an old bug
o updated /usr/lib/lpd for breakage
introduced in 7.6
Affected workstations: Athena RS6000s
User-visibility: Some Athena RS6000s may freeze during
the release.
Expected outage time: Fri Sept 17 7am - 8am
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Tomorrow morning (Friday Sept 17), the AFS volume that contains the system
pack used by the Athena DECstations will be released.
Reason: To update the pack from 7.6F to 7.6G, and to add a fourth
readonly site.
7.6G contains a critical update of the program
/etc/athena/cleanup, which has been found to be
broken in prior 7.6 releases. It also contains:
o an updated /etc/disktab for operations
o an updated /etc/athena/config_afs for a
fix of an old bug
o an updated /usr/lib/lpd for breakage
introduced in 7.6
Affected workstations: Athena DECstations
User-visibility: Some Athena DECstations may freeze during
the release.
Expected outage time: Fri Sept 17 8am - 9:30am
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Saturday morning (Sept 18), the AFS volume that contains the system
pack used by the Athena Sun workstations will be released.
Reason: To update the pack from 7.6J to 7.6L, and to add a third
readonly site.
Changes:
o new TWM that does not unmap windows
o inetd.conf now allows talk connections
o reactivate now calls a proper config_afs
o updated /etc/athena/config_afs for a
fix of an old bug
o zwgc app-defaults now defines a huge font
o x3270 a 3270 emulator is now available
o top is now available
Affected workstations: Athena Sun workstations
User-visibility: Some Athena Sun workstations may freeze during
the release.
Expected outage time: Sat Sept 18 7am - 9am
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Saturday morning, Sept 18, the AFS volume that contains the system
pack used by the Athena VAXes will be released.
Reason: To add a third readonly site
Affected workstations: Athena VAXes
User-visibility: Some Athena VAXes may freeze during
the release.
Expected outage time: Sat Sept 18 9am-10am
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Notes about 'vos release' operations of system pack volumes in the
Athena Computing Environment:
As usual when system pack volumes are released, not all Athena workstations
will be affected, and the ones that are affected may not all be affected in
the same way or to the same extent. In other words, some people will not
notice this operation, but some people will _really_ notice, and we can't
predict exactly who will notice what. Furthermore, we can't predict exactly
how long the 'vos release' will take. In the best case, a user will see
normal performance during the entire operation; in the worst case, a user's
workstation will be completely useless during the entire operation.
Here's what we know from past experience:
- 'vos release's of system pack volumes usually take about an hour.
The length of time depends on the size of the volume, the number of
replicated sites, how busy the AFS servers are, and how busy the
network is.
- There are no "residual" effects of the release operation, so after
it completes, affected workstations return to normal immediately.
- The best time to release system pack volumes is in the mornings,
since that is when we have the smallest number of users. Except in
cases of emergency, we try to release system pack volumes in the
mornings to minimize user-visible outages.
As always, let us know about any questions or problems related to this by
sending mail to 'op'. Thanks.
Athena Systems Support
