[190] in Tooltime
comments on netinstall
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (John Saylor)
Mon Aug 12 17:49:06 1996
Date: Mon, 12 Aug 1996 17:49:25 -0400
To: tooltime@MIT.EDU
From: John Saylor <jsaylor@MIT.EDU>
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Hi
The attached has my comments for the netinstall part. Let's talk about them
at the meeting tomorrow [nothing personal- right?].
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NetInstall notes for scopus project
08/12/96 16:53, jsaylor
There are a number of shortcomings in the present set up. I will try and group them according to severity. The log I'm working with is 60021.
CATASTROPHE
* The split between DCS and Netinstall seems arbitrary at best. Sometimes jobs are handed off between the groups, how does this affect the split? And since the screens are the same [DCS/HelpNet] I'm not sure what is gained.
* The Queue field has nothing that matches complex installs, maybe there should be a DCS category.
* Why is there a new comments field in the netinstall page [should copy the main one].
TROUBLE
* Hardware is also not applicable for complex installs, since it can cover everything from a 486 to a Xerox DocuTech back end network. This field needs to be able to accommodate more data
* Ip address field for a single address is not adequate
* The network type, machine type, and drop location fields are all inadequate, an installation with more than one drop just doesn't fit here. Can there be a pop up field or some kind of expanding multi-line thing to hold this data. If not, we'll need a free text field.
* The Deployment box [Purchased by:, &c.] is only used for deploying Athena workstations. There's a lot of netinstall work that is outside of Athena deployment, and then this information is superflous. Unfortunately, the required Status field is here.
QUIBBLES
* Hesiod is rarely used, and only for Athena Workstations- kill it!
* Designs are done only for the really weird jobs. I think I've needed 2 design reviews for the 100s of installs I've done. So this is a mostly superfluous field
It seems the netinstall child is a copy of the FileMaker network help page without having been checked to see if it is still accurate or helpful.
A better data arrangement would be billing [F.O., requisition, account], topology [number nodes to be added, machine types, (protocol), hostnames], project [dates for site survey, estimate, F.O. cut], and logistics [MITnet subnet, room numbers, jacks needed, jack numbers]. Of course, you shouldn't just take my word for it.
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John Saylor MIT E40-335 617.253.0172
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