[11] in winnt
wnnt: results of issues survey to IS folks and IT Partners
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Rob Smyser)
Tue Jun 3 08:16:28 1997
Date: Mon, 2 Jun 1997 18:34:54 -0400
To: winnt@MIT.EDU
From: Rob Smyser <smyser@MIT.EDU>
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Folks,
many of you will remember a survey that went out from Brenda Gillingham
and myself, addressed to members of IS and of the IT Partners group. The
idea was to have an open opportunity for people to mention what issues they
cared about around the prospect of Windows NT on Desktops at MIT.
We received some good responses, which we have munged together (thanks
Brenda!) so that all the responses are grouped under each question heading.
The tabulation is in an html attachment to this email. I will also post
the survey to the winnt project directory as
http://web.mit.edu/winnt/project/ntquest.html
Issues that were identified in the survey wil be on the checklist of Issues
around NT that is one of the project's deliverables and tools towards
achieving rollout status.
I send the survey around now to keep everyone posted on what the IS and
user communities are thinking about. If the questions and answers prompt
thoughts in you that you'd like to share with Brenda and myself or with the
WinNT task force, by all means send them.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Rob
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<H1>NT Questionnaire from May 1997</H1>
<P>
<A HREF="mailto:smyser@mit.edu" ><I>Rob Smyser</I></A><CITE>,
<A HREF="mailto:brendakg@mit.edu" ><I>Brenda Gillingham</I></A>,
project leaders, <A HREF="http://web.mit.edu/winnt/project/" ><I>WinNT on
the Desktop at MIT</I></A>.</CITE>
<P>
<CITE>Last modified, 05/30/1997 17:20</CITE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
This questionnaire circulated at two different times to key respondents
within IS and IT Partners. The responses have been aggregated
beneath each question. The intention was to solicit input from
a wide section of the MIT community, some of whom have been anticipating
issues around Windows NT for a few months now and some of whom
already have it deployed in various ways. Responses will provide
part of the basis for a list of issues that the rollout process
has to address.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Here are the questions that were asked:<BR>
The answers given for each appear in the sections below.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<OL>
<LI><B><FONT SIZE=2><A HREF="#q1">What are your remaining concerns about the
impact of NT on desktops across the Institute?</A></FONT></B>
<LI><B><FONT SIZE=2><A HREF="#q2">What would be on your list of specific
"Do
<this>" and "Don't Do <that>" about
installing or using NT?</A></FONT></B>
<LI><B><FONT SIZE=2><A HREF="#q3">What needs to be delivered along with NT to
really integrate it into effective desktop computing in the
office?</A></FONT></B>
<LI><B><FONT SIZE=2><A HREF="#q4">Are there critical applications you know of
that would prevent you from using NT on the Desktop at this
time?</A></FONT></B>
<LI><B><FONT SIZE=2><A HREF="#q5">What is on your list of Really Useful Tricks
to set up NT well? How would you deal with the issue of accounts
and privileges?</A></FONT></B>
<LI><B><FONT SIZE=2><A HREF="#q6">What publications does I/S need to produce
to meet your Support requirements?</A></FONT></B>
<LI><B><FONT SIZE=2><A HREF="#q7">What kind of Training, if any, do you need
on NT?</A></FONT></B>
<LI><B><FONT SIZE=2><A HREF="#q8">How would you set up or change the rollout
process for supporting this and other commercial software packages
at MIT?</A></FONT></B>
<LI><B><FONT SIZE=2><A HREF="#q9">What should we know about your specific NT
implementation needs that we didn't ask here? (such as: Mission
critical applications you expect will run on NT? or other unique
requirements?)</A></FONT></B>
<LI><B><FONT SIZE=2><A HREF="#q10">Would you be willing to meet individually
with members of the team to address your concerns in more detail?
</A></FONT></B><FONT SIZE=2>This give us a list of community members
with an <I>active</I> interest in the issue.</FONT>
</OL>
<HR>
<P>
<A NAME="q1"><B>1. What are your remaining concerns about the
impact of NT on desktops across the Institute?<BR>
</B></A>
<P>
* MS Domain system support. There are a lot of "unofficial"
domains out there, and I only see it increasing. I think we must
act soon or else this can turn into another ZONE-DEFAULT-1.<BR>
<P>
* NT requires more memory, disk space, and CPU than Win95. There
will be a cost to the institute. There will be push back from
some departments.<BR>
<P>
* In some ways NT is more difficult to support because it has
more options than Win95. Other other hand, it is designed to be
administered, and it is Microsoft's long term strategic operating system.
MIT has a choice,
deal now or deal later. By dealing now we have a chance to focus
on fewer operating systems.<BR>
<P>
* Can we get a license for NT at a low enough cost that IS can
eat the fee and provide a "no cost" migration path for
our end users? (paheff, azary,awillis, pbh, hersey)<BR>
<P>
* Obviously security has a big impact on how we want to configure
machines. We need to understand how this issue will affect departments.
Remember most Mac and PC users are not used to having to log into
their machines.<BR>
<P>
* How do we deal with administrator accounts and the associated
password?<BR>
<P>
* If we protect the admin password what are the implications for
users that may need to install software?<BR>
<P>
* The default NT audit tools are not sufficient. The security
logs do not show the IP address of remote connections. MIT may
need to develop this capability.<BR>
<P>
* I support faculty and researchers, not administrators. Hence,
I am most concerned with making the NT platform as similar as
possible to the athena workstation. <I>Most important on that list is the
ability to <B>attach lockers</B>.<BR>
</I>
<P>
* Software acquisition is a big concern. MIT students and faculty
are losing out on volume discounts because there is no coordinated
way of purchasing software.
<P>
Example: STATA is widely used in Economics, Political Science,
and Sloan. We do not get discounted prices because STATA would
like to ship to a common receiver who will then distribute the software.
None of the individual
departments have the staff support to provide such a service.
<BR>
<P>
* I need to learn about it, without using it myself.<BR>
<P>
* Will MAC users be asked to change? Will Internet Explorer be
the browser of choice since it is installed with NT?<BR>
<P>
* None. I can't wait for NT to push that sorry Windows 95 into
the trash can.<BR>
<P>
* That sharing permissions and node, disk, folder, and file access
and permissions be appropriately configured. This is an issue
that our VMS systems managers have handled well in the past, but which may
be mostly unfamiliar to
most individual NT users - having access to 'experts' will be
nearly a necessity for many.<BR>
<BR>
<P>
<A NAME="q2"><B>2. What would be on your list of specific "Do
<this>" and "Don't Do <that>" about
installing or using NT? <BR>
</B></A>
<P>
* Have an MIT sactioned NT build on a server somewhere on campus,
so that anyone with a DOS boot disk could install a "clean"
version. Like they do with athena, where they have boot disks and network
install points to rebuild
a trashed workstation, we need the same thing for NT.<BR>
<P>
* A document to explain the hows and whys of each of these points:
<BR>
<P>
1. Use NTFS partitions whenever practical. MIT needs to document
the steps to take to insure that the machine can be recovered
in the event of a problem. E.g. someone tries to install new hardware
and the machine will no longer boot, what do you do?<BR>
<BR>
<P>
2. A document explaining the risks of turning shares on, including
administrative shares which are turned on by default.<BR>
<P>
3. A policy concerning sharing<BR>
<P>
4. A document about setting up the MS ftp server and the security
implications<BR>
<P>
5. Rename to default administrator account and reduce its rights.
<BR>
<P>
6. Create a new administrator account that has the rights of the
original administrator account<BR>
<P>
7. Shut down remote administration of the registry<BR>
<P>
* Establish ONE, standard, net-dist, with lots of READMEs.<BR>
<P>
* I'd rather not use it at all, but some people in my department
will.<BR>
<BR>
<P>
* Provide some kind of basic NT training with the install. Microsoft
sells something called Windows NT Workstation 4.0-Starts Here,
which is really a nice product.
<P>
The user can do it at their own leisure.<BR>
<P>
* Second on my list of specifics - after the issues of security
and access permissions - is that every workstation should definitely
have an up-to-date Emergency Repair
<P>
Diskette handy. Many times I've got myself into irreversable trouble,
and the Repair Disk has allowed me to recover gracefully. <BR>
<BR>
<P>
<A NAME="q3"><B>3. What needs to be delivered along with NT to
really integrate it into effective desktop computing in the office?
<BR>
</B></A>
<P>
* MS-Office site license<BR>
<P>
* Properly configured Kerberos<BR>
<P>
* Supply GINA to perform Kerberos authentication during the NT
log in process.<BR>
<P>
* Administrative users want a ubiquitious file system, good or
bad, do we try to support CIFS / SAMBA despite the known security
problems or do we
<P>
license AFS for NT? <I><B>Note: AFS may have a huge server impact
<BR>
</B></I>
<P>
* Kerberized telnet, Host Explorer, eudora, and PPP.<BR>
<P>
* Office 97 works well.<BR>
<P>
* MIT applications (Eudora, SumMIT, Athena printing, etc.) should
all be NT-specfic. You shouldn't have to use any Windows 3.1 or
Windows 95 software.<BR>
<P>
* Do you mean what applications? If so, I'd say MS Office Pro,
or equivalent, a good mouse-driven ftp application, and X-windows
application, email capability (Eudora,
<P>
Netscape, Explorer, etc), web browser, and some sort of DFS or
NSF<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<P>
<A NAME="q4"><B>4. Are there critical applications you know of
that would prevent you from using NT on the Desktop at this time?
<BR>
</B></A>
<P>
* ksign<BR>
<P>
* CAO's applications?
<P>
* Yes, I do not know of apps, especially editors, allowing Japanese
input on an English OS, but this is a very picky requirement.
<BR>
<P>
* Someone in our office uses TN3270 but I see that is being taken
care of with Host Explorer.<BR>
<P>
* My department uses DB2/2; we can't make the big move to NT until
we convert our database over to Oracle.<BR>
<BR>
<P>
<A NAME="q5"><B>5. What is on your list of Really Useful Tricks
to set up NT well? How would you deal with the issue of accounts
and privileges?<BR>
</B></A>
<P>
* RTFM
<P>
* Accounts on local machine; users preference [including Administrator]
<P>
* Accounts on network domain machine; LOE or AO<BR>
<P>
* ERD disk<BR>
<P>
* Use RDISK on a regular basis<BR>
<P>
* Use ADSM<BR>
<P>
* Look into NDS / NAL ( for accounts & priviledges )<BR>
<P>
* Start with a clean hard drive. Definitely need someone to administer
the accounts and priveleges so determining this will be tricky
for each department.<BR>
<P>
* I set end-users up with a User account with their Kerberos name.
I discourage them from using the Administrator account.<BR>
<P>
* (useful tricks ) a) make Wordpad the default text file editor
b) put Wordpad in the 'Send To...' menu c) for users who like
the old 'File Manager' interface, put NT
<P>
Explorer in their startup folder, and/or in the 'Start' menu.
<BR>
<P>
* (accounts & priviledges) First and foremost, it is an issue
that must be addressed and not just left to default, especially
within a multiple-node and multiple domain
<P>
invironment. Decisions about the details of 'who and what' could
perhaps be left to one (or a few) designated users or supervisors
- who would put some thought into it,
<P>
taking into account the work style and responsibilities of their
colleagues. The implementation of their decisions could be carried
out by the 'experts'.<BR>
<BR>
<P>
<A NAME="q6"><B>6. What publications does I/S need to produce
to meet your Support requirements? <BR>
</B></A>
<P>
* Installing NT<BR>
<P>
* Installing kerberos on NT<BR>
<P>
* Installing SAP on NT<BR>
<P>
* Setting Up TCP/IP and Tether on NT<BR>
<P>
* Ktelnet on NT (coming soon)<BR>
<P>
* Eudora on NT<BR>
<P>
* Your friends the Control Panels<BR>
<P>
* Desktop Themes I have known<BR>
<P>
* NT and TCP/IP networks<BR>
<P>
* NT is great and the more information / documentation I can get
about how to use it effectively the better.<BR>
<P>
* How to generate and use DOS boot disk to setup workstation with
"clean" MIT NT configuration.<BR>
<P>
* Online files are sufficient.<BR>
<P>
* I would like to see something like a Technical Bulletin or an
MIT web site where various problems are discussed and information
is available.<BR>
<P>
* Documents on going from Win 3.1 to NT, and a system administrator's
guide to NT for Unix sysadmins.<BR>
<P>
* Troubleshooting NT error messages - What is most Common?<BR>
<P>
* Cheat-sheet types of documents that the end-users can refer
to.<BR>
<BR>
<P>
<A NAME="q7"><B>7. What kind of Training, if any, do you need
on NT? <BR>
</B></A>
<HR>
<P>
<B>NOTE:</B><I> Presently we have 4 NT-related classes in place.
(You can see full descriptions off our home page (web.mit.edu/is/training/
under the Hands-on</I>
<HR>
<HR>
<P>
<I>classes:</I>
<HR>
<P>
<B>* Intro to Windows 95/NT (6 hours)</B>
<P>
<B>* Upgrading to Windows 95/NT (3 hours)</B>
<P>
<B>* Migrating from Macintosh to Windows 95/NT.</B>
<P>
<I>and under Quick Starts:</I>
<P>
<B>* Windows 95/NT (1 hour demo</B>
<HR>
<P>
<I>In addition, IS has brought on campus 3 separate sections of
a two-day NT workshop for support folks and developers. </I>
<HR>
<HR>
<HR>
<P>
<B>Note</B><I>: The Upgrading to Windows 95/NT is more fully entitled
Upgrading from Windows 3.x to Windows 95/NT.</I>
<HR>
<P>
* Basically, all of the MITnet documentation will have to be changed,
rewritten, or written to reflect and support NT.<BR>
<P>
* I recently took the NT admin class in w89. The instructor was
very good. Is MIT planning to be able to offer this type of course
to people in the
<P>
future? E.g. did we train the trainers?<BR>
<P>
* Lots, especially concerning sharing and privileges.<BR>
<P>
* Introductory, and introductory administration.<BR>
<P>
* I feel comfortable using the Microsoft CBT-STARTS HERE<BR>
<P>
* Technical training on the 'under-the-hood' stuff.<BR>
<P>
* I'd like to learn a little more about the applications listed
in the 'Administrative Tools' menu. Also, I'd like to learn how
to incorporate Macintoshes into an NT network.<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<P>
<A NAME="q8"><B>8. How would you set up or change the rollout
process for supporting this and other commercial software packages
at MIT? <BR>
</B></A>
<P>
* Do we still do See it, Try it, Get it rollouts?<BR>
<P>
* We need a process that is repeatable and reliable for making
decisions about software. It is too ad hoc right now.<BR>
<P>
* Reasonable project plans with good project managers, don't try
to get it perfect the first time, get it out with some support
and then apply
<P>
concepts from TQM to improve the support.<BR>
<P>
* Don't announce support before we're ready to deploy or support
the product or worse before we have even signed a license.
<P>
* Email announcements, in addition to paper publications.<BR>
<P>
* MIT needs a central purchaser for software. We're missing the
boat on discounts and way behind what is available at Stanford
and even Harvard, which is really bad.<BR>
<P>
* Is there a roll-out process? I'd like a page listing announced
projects, their status, and the following:
<P>
1. disrecommended
<P>
2. recommended
<P>
3. undergoing evaluation with positive impression
<P>
4. undergoing evaluation with negative impression
<P>
5. links to any known problems.<BR>
<P>
* Is it possible for people to sign up with the organizers of
rollout to set up a time for installation? ( So it is convenient
for them?)<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<P>
<A NAME="q9"><B>9. What should we know about your specific NT
implementation needs that we didn't ask here? (such as: Mission
critical applications you expect will run on NT? or other unique
requirements?)</B> <BR>
</A>
<P>
* For the MS site license I have identified some LAR's for distribution
of a Select license program.....Ingram Micro, Inacom, Dell.<BR>
<P>
* I would be concerned about the laptop users knowing that NT
is not for them yet.
<P>
* I'm planning a departmental intranet with to access to an Oracle
database via Web browser.<BR>
<P>
* I am running a mission-critical application on two of our nodes
- an experimental systems control and data acquisition system.
We hired the vendor of the software to
<P>
assist in the setup and configuration of the whole system. He
was knowledgable about both his product and NT. This approach
may be more effective in the long run
<P>
than having I/S staff - who are NT experts - try to become experts
on highly specialized mission-critical-type applications as well.
<BR>
<BR>
<P>
<A NAME="q10"><B>10. Would you be willing to meet individually
with members of the team to address your concerns in more detail?
<BR>
</B></A>
<P>
John Saylor
<P>
Paul Hill
<P>
Thomas Thornton
<P>
Dr. Craig Counte
<P>
Michele DesAutels
<P>
Richard Hale
<P>
Peter Maloof<BR>
<BR>
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Rob Smyser
I/S Computing Help Desk, MIT, 11-226, 617.253.1358
smyser@mit.edu
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