DRAFT

Present: Amber Boehnlein, Arno Candel, Ashley Deacon, Richard Dubois, Thomas Eriksson, Imre Kabai, Stuart Marshall, Randy Melen, Brian Moritz, Amedeo Perazzo, Vineet Rawat.

Meeting agenda page

Minutes:

  • Amber was introduced to members of the committee
  • Richard briefly described the differences between the SCSC's and IT SubCouncil's mandates
  • IT SubCouncil update
    • Imre discussed the Methodology for making IT Roadmaps
      • Roadmaps:
        • provide high-level project plans including all dependencies, costs, incurred losses if the project were not completed, and resources;
        • have an outlook of 0-5 years;
        • are sliced according to 30 IT technology domains; and
        • are presented to the CIO and IT SubCouncil
      • Database roadmap provides an example
    • Stuart summarized the state of desktop and Apple support SLAs
      • input is still required to identify user needs (to be discussed with, perhaps, Rafael, Tony)
      • desktop support document needs further development (lack of structure/organization, some content missing)
      • committee members requested access to the desktop and Apple support documents
    • Stuart discussed the review of IT's eleven service portfolios; future SubCouncil meetings will cover the items in detail
  • Imre updated the status of the forum tool search
    • handout provided with relevant details
    • FUDForum is the recommended tool
      • test instance available here
      • Crowd was explained (consolidates identities from multiple sources, e.g., JIRA, UNIX, Windows, and its own credentialling); Confluence will soon switch over
  • Richard and Randy updated search for new storage vendor(s)
    • some possibilities included NexSAN, Dell (mid-range), other suggestions provided by Amedeo
    • Randy described problems getting no-cost P.O.s and getting vendors for test rackings due to required safety training
    • Amedeo, Stuart and Tom will meet with Lance to discuss how they can help
  • Arno updated the Sci. Comp. seminar series planning (reviewed minutes of previous meeting)
    • Richard reported that we'd get no help from above in funding coffee and snacks (lab policy that only the colloquium series gets this type of support)
    • Amedeo has someone in mind to represent LCLS; Brian will look for a Photon Science rep., if unsuccessful, he'll take the job
    • expressed need for SLAC Sci. Comp. mailing list (or equivalent), Henry had some ideas about mailing lists for campus
    • Stuart mentioned only audio recording available in Kavli (though much of the infrastructure is there)
    • no objections to the proposed timeline, Ashley suggests coordinating timing with other seminar series (alternating weeks, months, etc.)
    • Randy believes the IT&T seminar series failed due to a lack of a broad set of interesting talks, stressing the need for a strong lineup at the outset
    • possible venues discussed, Kavli 3rd floor seems best, seats about 40 to promote interactivity, but is in high demand and may be tough to book
  • Richard discussed shifting the timeline by a couple of months to allow Amber (who starts April 25, tentatively) to settle in and participate in the organization of the Sci. Comp. Jamboree
    • Sci. Comp. Jamboree at end of May (~6 weeks to organize with Amber)
    • major goal will be a Tech. Roadmap around four months after the Jamboree
    • SCSC to serve as organizing committee for Jamboree
  • Richard discussed other business
    • Amedeo has been asked to serve as the SCSC's deputy chair and is considering the offer
    • Skype usage (and the 56kbps penalty box) continues to be a problem
      • visitors in particular get no information about what they've done wrong
      • CERN has instructions on disabling Skype's supernode here
      • Randy proposed meeting with Bob, Les and Norm to figure out how to best resolve the issue
        • those who would like to be included should contact Randy
    • Recharge probably needs revisiting, it may not be workable in its current form
      • How can the 5.5 FTEs deal with the fluctuation in support requirements?
        • Is there other lab work they can shift to and from?
        • Should the ALDs absorb the fluctuations via fixed costs?
  • Next meeting: Monday, February 14, 2011

Actions:

  • Stuart to provide desktop and Apple support documents
  • Imre to upload his handout re. forum tool search
  • All are welcome to test FUDForum and provide feedback
  • Amedeo, Stuart and Tom to meet with Lance to discuss possible roles in storage vendor search
  • Amedeo and Brian to look for Sci. Comp. seminar working group members from LCLS and Photon Science, respectively
  • Arno to investigate timing and venue for seminars, funding for coffee and cookies, SLAC-wide promotion
  • Sci. Comp. seminar working group to line up possible speakers from their directorates
  • Richard to update the timeline with a delay of about two months
  • Think about theme/direction for Jamboree to tie together the lab's Sci. Comp. efforts
  • Amedeo to respond to SCSC's deputy-chair offer
  • Randy to organize meeting regarding Skype usage at SLAC (all those interested in attending should contact Randy)
  • No labels

1 Comment

  1. Amedeo has graciously accepted to be deputy chair of the SCSC. In addition, he has asked Igor Gaponenko to represent LCLS' interests for the scientific computing seminar series.