[1001] in I/T Delivery
Windows 2000 Domains & Servers: November 2002 Delivery Report
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Kerem B Limon)
Fri Jan 10 15:11:17 2003
Message-Id: <5.1.1.6.2.20030110131358.08142858@po11.mit.edu>
Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2003 15:11:12 -0500
To: Delivery Process <delivery@mit.edu>
From: Kerem B Limon <kerem.limon@MIT.EDU>
Cc: Windows Delivery Team <windows-delivery-team@mit.edu>,
Windows Delivery advisory council <windows-delivery-advisory@mit.edu>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
Project Name: Windows 2000 Domains & Servers Delivery Project
Project Leader: Kerem B. Limon
Report Date: January 10, 2003 (for December 2002)
Project Web site URL: http://web.mit.edu/windows-delivery/
Accomplishments in December:
- Organized a core group of members with significant time commitments to
the Delivery project to meet regularly and frequently to spearhead the
development of some of the project components. Met regularly through
December to work on various phases of the work and to report to the team at
large.
- Continued core group and large team meetings, focusing largely on:
o DART process design
o negotiated agreements necessary to facilitate the DART work
o rising Windows security concerns on campus, particularly in a domain
controller (DC) and server context
o various documentation pieces
o community developed information gathering tools as part of a potential
DART toolkit
- Met and checked in with project sponsors and key stakeholders to discuss
project work as well as upcoming budget and time constraints and concerns
around Windows efforts, including this Delivery project.
- Re-prioritized the in-person community survey effort to the background
and as a complement to some initial DART entry-point processes; goal is to
allow us to focus on some more immediate deliverables as the budget and
timeline constraints continue to evolve. Finalized the format and content
of such survey and the mechanisms by which to store and compile this data.
- Updated and extended our extensive list of Windows NT and 2000 domains in
use across MITnet from last month, including DITR SLA information (for use
in this project and informational purposes only).
- Generated DART process flowchart and identified dependencies/links to
various other IS teams.
- (Project Leader) met with Network Security Team regarding recently risen
Windows security concerns. Discussed options, collaboration possibilities,
mutual interests and differences.
- (Project Leader) attended a Network Security Team outreach with Libraries
regarding recent break-ins to their Windows NT domain. Listened in and
obtained both Network Security Team and customer perspectives, as well as a
good description of the customer's installation configuration, policies,
processes, needs, wants, concerns, etc.
- (Project Leader & WinAthena liaison) continued participating in WinAthena
Team meetings (as schedule allowed) and WinAthena Container Administrators
meetings regularly.
- Continued to keep key project team members tuned into the ongoing
Microsoft Premier Support Services (PSS) loop.
- Began producing modular documentation that does not require a sequential
work for which all necessary information is available at this time; e.g.
backing up WinAthena machines using TSM.
- (Project Leader) continued to meet with the Software Release Team (SWRT)
and Support HQ representatives in an ongoing effort to enhance the
arrangement of and the tools available to the various *partners
(ITPartners, MacPartners, WinPartners) groups. Our focus here is
specifically to contribute to the design and development of these resources
early on such that some of them can become part of our support (and perhaps
training) strategy later on in our project to avoid duplication of effort
and save IS resources.
Goals for January:
- Generate (1) an accessible description of WinAthena and its components,
in collaboration with the WinAthena Team; and (2) a technical version
geared towards network/system administrators that help define the
boundaries of IS offerings in the Windows arena; our goal here is to assist
customers (and DART) in helping make the choice--by clearly annunciating
what's available and how it best works/serves them.
- Finalize *detailed* DART process and flowchart and secure outside
commitments necessary to make the process work.
- Continue, though in the background, our survey/inventory of academic &
administrative departments and research labs & centers to gauge upcoming
scalability/migration needs; collaborate with the Academic Computing
practice efforts in the same direction. Implement this information in a
secure, internal team database.
- Continue the redesign of the web site and associated team databases securely.
- Continue closer communication with ongoing pilot Windows efforts as well
as DLCs that have already moved/are interested in/constrained to urgently
moving to Windows 2000 Domain & Server platforms.
Next Community Milestone:
- Announcement of the finalized (initial) Design Assistance & Review Team
(DART), including complementary documentation to WinAthena to offer a
simple and accurate gateway to those interested in Windows server & domain
deployments at MIT. (targeted for January)
Issues:
- The issue of Windows security remains high on our radar. We have met with
the Network Security Team, and discussed some of these concerns with
WinAthena. There is a potential synergy between some parallel (and
potentially complementary) work being done on those two fronts, which could
be brought together across this Delivery project to supply some
preliminary, consensus-driven recommendations and guidelines for customers.
- The status of the parallel Windows pilot projects, such as a number of
WinAthena implementations, etc. are critical to our work as case studies
and more so as real world successes and working implementation to our
customers. While it is not within the scope of this project to "manage"
these individual efforts per se, the significance and need for their
outcomes requires an increased oversight on them on our part.
- (Note: This issue from last month's report remains) While we have draft
processes in place to deal (differently, by design) with academic and
administrative requests for DLC containers within the WinAthena win.mit.edu
domain environment, we need to move ahead in formalizing these better or
establishing stricter response criteria and times. This process needs
further (and immediate) development, as some customers have begun to
express disappointment stemming from disconnects. The team will continue to
work with WinAthena and the sponsors to deal with this issue.
- The holidays, as expected, have put an effective two-week pause in our
work across various resources, though we are working to quicken the pace
once again now that most everyone is back to the office. Wael Hishmeh is
also back and welcome as a crucial and needed participant in our core group.
Key Learnings:
- We have re-worked our work patterns to accommodate the schedule and large
number of tasks at hand--in addition to the larger team meetings, we find
it's more useful and productive to focus on the "meat and potatoes", so to
speak, with a core group composed of team resources committed largely or
fully to the Delivery project. This has proven effective already and will
be the main driver for our work to come. Checking in with the team at large
regularly through weekly meetings and e-mail ensures maximum opportunity
for input.
Team Dynamics:
- Excellent. Good rapport and interest continues.
Additional Comments:
- There was an effective two-week period during the holidays, during which
various combinations of team resources were unavailable, as planned, hence
a shorter month than usual.
