November 15, 2006
October 18, 2006 (Special
TSP Forum on the Thunderbird e-mail client)
September 20, 2006
June 21, 2006
April 19, 2006
February 15, 2006
October 19, 2005
August 3, 2005 (Special
TSP forum hosted by IT Security Office/S&O Systems Engineering)
May 18, 2005
March 16, 2005
February 16, 2005
January 19, 2005
current year archived minutes
Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Topic/Speaker:
Organization changes surrounding E-mail
Don MacLeod; Assistant Director, CIT-Systems
Services
- Effective last week, the Package & Delivery group (Dan
Bartholomew & Lee Brink) moved from Information Services
to Systems Services. The new group name is "Client Servcies".
- Client Services will provide support for existing and emerging
technologies (wireless, palm, etc.).
- Issue that previously would have been addressed by Jon Atherton
should now
be routed to Don MacLeod.
VISTA task force update
Sunny Donenfeld; Director of Distributed Support,
OIT
- Microsoft Vista will likely have a serious, but small, impact
on Cornell...
- Concerns/recommendations for publicizing the potential impact
included:
- prominent banners on CIT web sites stating what won't
work with Vista
- Dan Bartholomew mentioned that people should *not* use
the Symantec anti-virus that comes with Bear Access with
Vista, but that Symantec states that they will have a
new version avail. in Feb., and a firewall in the spring.
Vista has an internal firewall.
- Vista will not immediately be part of the Dell bundles.
- Big Vista presentation will be on January 9, 2007.
- For more information, please see Sunny's PPT
presentation.
Recent IT Policy Additions/Changes and what they mean
for TSPs...
Tracy Mitrano; Director of IT Policy, OIT
- Tracy sent an e-mail prior to the forum inviting attendees
to review the IT Policy Framework at http://www.cit.cornell.edu/oit/policy/framework-chart.html,
with special attention to the non-green areas.
- Tracy compared the "Information Security of Institutional
Data" policy, currently being drafted, to the existing
"Security of Information Technology Resources" policy.
- The Security of IT Resources policy applies primarily
to the security of student data stored electronically.
The Information Security of Institutional Data policy
is broader, covering a wide range of data and impacts
everyone except students.
- Polley McClure, as the IT Data Steward, is committed
to this new policy -- once a scheme for the policy is
in place, other univerity data stewards will be brought
into the discussion.
- Contact Steve Schuster if you are interested in the
development of the security constraints, or Tracy regarding
interest in the policy in general.
- The Web Accessibility policy is also currently "in
the works", but probably won't be promulgated for at
least another 18 months.
- The impact statement includes standards and has a timeline
at the end, starting with 6 months of promulgation, when
all new pages should meet the accessibility requirements,
through 5 years of promulgation, when all official Cornell
web pages should be compliant.
- These requirements do not include personal or student
pages, or research/development pages.
- Also, web page developers can file for appeal due to
"undue difficulty".
- Tracy will be hiring a "train-the trainer"
position, and Diane Kubarek (Dept. of Web Communications)
will also be training staff on these requirements. However,
there is no explicit funding to cover the cost of complying
with this policy, so departments will have to work with
the university to figure out funds.
- The question of enforcement was raised, and Tracy stated
that it will not be done in a "policing" way...
the policy will push people to move in the right direction,
and to help people to comply. She pointed to the example
of the Network Registry policy, which currently has only
17% compliance, but is moving people in the right direction.
- Tracy also mentioned the "Authentication of IT Resources"
interim policy, which deals with network identifiers and password
complexity (strength & rules). This policy is probably
about 6-8 months from promulgation of the final version.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Topic/Speaker:
Update on the Thunderbird E-mail Client Migration
Jon Atherton; Director of IT Security, OIT-CIT
IT Security
- Jon gave an update on the status of Thunderbird, an overview
of the Thunderbird training program, and led a discussion
regarding key issues and concerns with migration activities.
- For more information, please see the PPT
presentation used at the forum.
- As a result of the feedback received at the forum, a few
new Thunderbird web pages were developed:
- Many other small changes were made to existing Thunderbird
web pages, so feel free to "explore", and don't
forget that our desk reference document is available as a
PDF at www.cit.cornell.edu/tbird/.
- Responses to many of the questions and issues that came
up during the forum were compiled into an FAQ:
Q - Have people tried migrating users from
Thunderbird for the Mac to Thunderbird for PC?
A - There have been no reported problems
with this process.
- - - - -
Q - Is there a filter import tool that
is universal?
A - CIT has researched this and hasn't
yet found a tool that is universal. The Eudora Filters do
offer more flexibility than Thunderbird, which adds to the
difficulty in importing them properly.
- - - - -
Q - Can we add tour documentation that
people should download Thunderbird from Bear Access and
not from Mozilla? Downloading from Mozilla has caused problems
because all attributes need to be properly mapped.
A - CIT Training & Documentation will
add a notice to the Thunderbird documentation web site as
well as any other information relative to mapping the attributes.
(This information is already on the web site.)
- - - - -
Q - What is CIT's position on the new Qualcomm
announcement of Penelope?
A - CIT will evaluate the new client. It
may provide some of the features that Thunderbird either
doesn't have or are different from current Thunderbird features;
however, it is still too early to make any predictions regarding
it's implementation. Also, according to the time table,
until version .5 we most likely we will see GUI changes
and maybe a few improvements under the covers.
- - - - -
Q - What is CIT's position on extensions
for Thunderbird?
A - The Email working group will evaluate
options and make a recommendation for review at the ITMC.
- - - - -
Q - Is there a list of extensions that
are useful?
A - Yes, you can locate them on the Thunderbird
web site at www.cit.cornell.edu/computer/email/thunderbird/extensions.html
- - - - -
Q - How does searching work in Thunderbird?
A - If you select Tools->Address Book,
you will be able to look up people (including special mailboxes)
using either their e-mail address or their name. The search
is done a little differently than in Eudora, so you are
only able to enter a single value. In our case, you could
enter the string Doe for a name, but not John Doe. If you
wanted to search for John Doe, you could embed the wild
card character * in the search string (example: John*Doe).
The lookup is done using the following search string:
(|(mail=*string*) (cn=*string*) (givenname=*string*) (sn=*string*))
where: mail->Mail Address; cn->Complete Name; givenname->First
Name; sn->Surname;
Eudora would have used the following search when looking
up John Doe
(&(|(mail=*john*) (cn=*john*) (cn=*john *)(edupersonnickname=*john*))
(|(mail=*doe*) (cn=*doe*) (cn=*doe*) (edupersonnickname=*doe*)))
Theoretically, the following changes should make Thunderbird
results more closely resemble Eudora's, but it has not proven
reliable in my testing.
Select [Windows] Tools->Options or [Macintosh] Thunderbird->Preferences
Click the Advanced icon
Select the General tab, and click the Config Editor... button.
In the Filter: entry box type: quicksearchquery.format
replace the existing value:
?(or(PrimaryEmail,c,@V)(DisplayName,c,@V)(FirstName,c,@V)(LastName,c,@V))
with:?(or(NickName,c,@V)(PrimaryEmail,c,@V)(DisplayName,c,@V))
- - - - -
Q - How will security updates be managed
in Thunderbird?
A - CIT will link security updates along
with version updates. We have turned off automatic updates
from Thunderbird itself, and we try really hard to make
sure that we build a new installer if the updates reflect
security issues or fixes problems that users have reported.
- - - - -
Q -Can you install the Bear Access version
of Thunderbird over the Mozilla version?
A - If they use the installer from Bear
Access, the answer is yes. If a department has used the
MSI to push Thunderbird, then they should un-install the
MSI-based version first and then install from the Mozilla
site. Otherwise, Windows will think the MSI version is still
installed along with the version from the Mozilla site and
will show up in Add/Remove Programs. This is the same warning
I have about installing from the MSI and then later trying
to update from Bear Access.
Note: Installing a new version from either
place will not change the current configuration. When Thunderbird
is first launched and a 'Profile' or series of user accounts
are defined, the default behavior and configuration information
is defined. For example, upgrading to the CIT distributed
version of Thunderbird will NOT fix the LDAP searching attribute
mappings.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Topic/Speaker:
COEA (Cornell Optional Email Address)
Jim Howell; CIT Messaging Systems Manager,
CIT Systems & Operations
- Implementation currently scheduled for late fall or early
2007.
- Questions, concerns and feedback should be directed to Jim
at jwh2@cornell.edu.
For more information, please see the PPT
presentation used at the forum.
IT Security at Cornell (special videotaped
presentation)
Steve Schuster; Director of IT Security, OIT-CIT
IT Security
- From Steve: "I've had on my plate for a while to
create a more standard security awareness presentation for
campus. The hopes is that this presentation could be used
by local units to more effectively communicate to the local
user base. The plan was to create a presentation that seemed
to work for a fairly broad audience, video tape it and then
make the video and presentation material available on the
web."
- The video from Steve's presentation is available at
rtsp://specevents.video.cornell.edu/CITSecurity092006/Schuster092006a.rm
- Questions, concerns and feedback should be directed to Steve
at sjs74@cornell.edu.
For more information, please see the PPT
presentation used at the forum.
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Topic/Speaker:
Special forum on Thunderbird e-mail client
Dan Bartholomew; Sr Technical Consultant,
CIT Information Systems
Agenda:
- Discovery process
- Comparison of Eudora to Thunderbird -- major differences
- Migration Tools -- what's available?
- Case studies
- Q&A
For more information, please see the PPT
presentation used at the forum.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Topics/Speakers:
Changes Scheduled for the Fall Bear Access Release
(12:00pm)
Dan Bartholomew; Sr Technical Consultant,
CIT Information Systems
- Dan's discussion regarding the changes to Bear Access was
summarized with a PPT presentation.
Cornell University SSL Certificate Service
(12:10pm)
Andrea Beesing; Asst. Director - Identity
Management, OIT-CIT IT Security
- Andrea's discussion regarding the Cornell University SSL
Certificate Service was summarized with a PPT
presentation.
"Brief" Technical Presentation on CUWebAuth
(12:20pm)
Pete Bosanko; Software Engineer, OIT-CIT IT
Security
- Pete's discussion regarding the Cornell University SSL Certificate
Service was summarized with a PPT presentation.
- Additional notes:
- To clear up some confusion... CUWebLogin is simply the "webauth";
CUWebAuth is the entire authorization software package.
Kerberos4 to Kerberos5 Migration (1:00pm)
Tom Parker; Identity Management Project Coordinator,
OIT-CIT IT Security
- Tom's discussion regarding the Kerberos4 to Kerberos5 migration was summarized with a PPT presentation.
- Additional notes:
- MIT is targeting the end of 2006 for completing the
migration, so we will try to stay on track with their
schedule.
What's Going On with Disaster Recovery Planning... (1:10pm)
Sunny Donenfeld; Director of Distributed Support,
OIT
- At this point, Cornell's IT community is not very prepared
to handle a major (or possibly even a minor) disaster...
- CIT only maintains a portion of critical IT data at Cornell.
- A task force has been set up to delve into planning for potential IT disaster recovery issues.
- The task force includes 14 individuals throughout the Cornell IT community -- six from CIT and eight from CALS, ILR, JGSM, the Hotel School, and other colleges/units.
- Planning is in the context of a large disaster, but can also be applied to smaller issues.
- One step is already in progress -- requiring all critical data to be backed up offsite. This site has not yet been determined or designed, but the task force is currently looking at options and plans to have a recommendation by September.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Topics/Speakers:
Update on Salsa
Jon Atherton; Prog/Analyst Lead, CIT Information
Systems
- Continued progress on the update; not much new, except:
- The update will have a SALSA web service interface. Jon
provided a PPT slide showing
the basic process for how it will work.
- Thunderbird will most likely replace Eudora as the provided e-mail client. (forum attendees expressed overwhelming support for the Thunderbird application)
- Thunderbird supports Kerberos.
- Thunderbird will be able to import mailboxes, nicknames, etc. from Eudora (but not filters).
- Extensive testing has started.
- Please send all questions and comments to ba-feedback@cornell.edu.
TSP support of CUTV phase 2 (demo, troubleshooting,
Q&A)
Kevin Feeney; Senior Information Technology
Engineer, CIT Academic Tech & Media Svcs
- Kevin provided PPT slides that summarized his presentation,
describing TSP support and troubleshooting expectations, escalation
process, and common errors.
- Kevin also performed demonstrations of installation and
use of the CUtv application.
- Additional notes:
- If the set top box or dongle are lost or stolen, they
can be disabled and located if attempted to be used elsewhere.
- Only department paid subscriptions are available for
staff at this time.
- CUtv currently only allows for streaming video, but
may offer video-on-demand in the future.
- They hope to have CU content by summer, and are currently
soliciting content.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Topics/Speakers:
Dell bundles for Cornell
Keith Boncek; Associate Director IT Services,
AFF Computing Resources
- Keith distributed an outline
of information on the Dell Bundle design.
- Keith explained that the different divisions within Dell
(Home & Home Office, Small Business, Government &
Education, etc.) do not necessarily communicate with each
other or know what the other divisions are "doing",
so specials and promotions are not coordinated throughout.
This would explain why occasional promotions in, for example,
Home & Home Office might be a "better deal"
than our special pricing -- often because of the inclusion
of desired peripherals.The "Dell Bundle Configuration
Committee" is working with Dell on a plan to remedy this
situation, with "Featured Products" to roll out
soon.
- The login for the Dell Premier page is https://signin.dell.com/premier/portal/login.aspx.
- Requests for accounts for those who do not have one yet
should go to Jeff Cannon.
Results of the Extension-to-Cellular Service (EC500)
pilot
Paul Viscuso; IT Engineer Specialist, CIT Network
& Comm Services
- Paul explained how the service works: when a caller dials
your desk phone, your cell phone rings as well; you can pick
up on your cell phone, then simply pick up your desk phone
when you return to your desk; calls made to campus from your
cell phone identify you as if you were at your desk.
- Survey results from the pilot were extremely positive, with
NONE of the respondents dissatisfied or planning to discontinue
the service; all users but one found the service as easy or
easier than expected. Paul has provided an MSWord
document with more details regarding the survey results,
in addition to a summary of the service.
- The service should be available by early November, and an
announcement is expected to go out soon. Interested customers
should call 4-NCS1 to get signed up. The expected cost will
be ~ $2-3/month.
Current plans for the future of Project Salsa
Jon Atherton; Prog/ Analyst Lead, CIT Information
Systems
- Jon used a PPT presentation
to outline the future of SALSA and some associated applications.
- One big change is that the local administrator will be able
to control when and how updates occur for each application.
For example, Eudora could be set to "never update",
and COLTS could be set to "update at launch".
- All areas of the new SALSA system with be developed in
parallel to expedite delivery -- plan to be ready for release
by summer 2006.
- Jon mentioned that more input is needed from Mac users at
this stage, so please contact him if you are interested in
assisting.
- The updated COLTS is just about ready, and updates can be
pushed through "at your leisure".
- Alternatives to the Eudora e-mail client are being explored
due to consistent problems with IMAP. Recommendations or comments
regarding a possible replacement are welcome at ba-feedback-L.
Overview of Oct 6 online HPC (High-Performance Computing)
Expo
Stephanie Specchio; Communication Specialist
III, Theory Center
- Stephanie started her presentation with an interesting and
amusing "film short" that introduced and provided
context for the expo, and featured the penguins from the CGI-produced
kids' movie Madagascar -- very entertaining!
- Stephanie then provided a brief overview of the speakers
and topics presented at the online HPC Expo (oops -- due
to the fact that I neglected to test my browser plug-ins in
advance, she was unable to show clips as she intended).
However, all these presentations are available to "view-on-demand"
at www.HPCExpo.com through
January 2006.
Wednesday, August 3, 2005
Presentations from the special TSP Forum hosted by the IT
Security Office and S&O Systems Engineering groups
on:
Wednesday, August 3, 2005
Network Registry Update
(Laurie Collinsworth)
Approaches
to Incident Response: Standard Practices, Network Quarantine
(Tom Young)
[NOTE: This presentation is only available
to staff on the it-security list.]
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Topics/Speakers:
Enforcing tougher password rules for NetIDs
Tom Parker; Identity Mgmt Project Coordinator,
OIT-CIT IT Security
- Tom presented PPT
slides on "Password Complexity Enforcement"
to provide an overview of how CIT is working to encourage
the use of better, tougher-to-crack passwords within the Cornell
community.
RedRover "guest": what it is, where it is,
& why it matters... and other changes to RedRover due to
the adoption of Chantry
Dave Barr; Wireless Program Mgr for RedRover,
CIT Network & Comm Services
- Dave presented PPT
slides on "RedRover Wireless Program" to provide
an update on recent changes to and the current status of RedRover
on campus.
- Dave mentioned that security would be better if users needed
to sign in via Kerberos upon access, and is looking for input
and "grassroots" support for this idea.
Improvements to the e-list service; SMTP requirement
for Cornell PO servers
Jim Howell; Prog/ Analyst Lead, CIT Systems
& Operations
E-list service
- Listproc is being replaced, with the migration starting
in mid-June.
- The order of migration depends upon feedback received from
the list owners when renewing their lists -- this feedback
will be used to set up the migration schedule.
- Changes as a result of the new list service will include
web-based list administration, and basic support through the
CIT Contact Center (HelpDesk).
- A notice will be sent to all subscribers prior to, the day
of, and after completion of list migration. Subscriber ability
will be locked during migration, but the list will otherwise
function as usual.
- Creating new lists now?... Send an e-mail
to listmgr@cornell.edu
to "pilot" the new system (the system is actually
considered production at this time) and avoid the system migration
issue.
- A request was made to send a note to the net-admin-l list
when migration begins, as well as send monthly status reports
stating lists that are expected to be migrated in the upcoming
month. This request will be met.
- Lists with archives will be migrated near the end of the
process due to special needs.
- Documentation will be out shortly, and most likely, training
opportunities as well.
SMTP requirement
- The Cornell e-mail service now supports authenticated SMTP
for sending mail (requiring the same authorization to read
or send). On October 1, 2005 the service will be changed to
make SMTP Authentication mandatory. We recommend
that you change your settings now.
- This change is needed to continue to reduce the prevelance
of SPAM.
- The SMTP authentication will no longer require e-mail sent
by off-campus CU users to be SPAM-checked.
- For more information on these changes, see www.cit.cornell.edu/computer/email/smtp/.
"Surprise" topic: vacation/time-away mail response
service
- Time Away Responder (TAR)... is now available!
- Go to "Who I Am" to set date and time.
- Once set, mail essentially goes to two places during the
specified time period -- the postoffice, and the time away
system for processing. Mail is still available at all times
as usual on the postoffice server.
- Time away messages only go to a specific sender once every
seven days, so... no mail loops.
- For more information on the time away responder, see www.cit.cornell.edu/computer/email/timeaway/.
Changes scheduled to Bear Access for Fall 2005; Eudora
updates/changes
Dan Bartholomew; Sr Technical Consultant, CIT
Information Systems
- Dan presented PPT
slides on "Bear Access Fall 2005" to provide
an update on upcoming changes to Bear Access and Eudora in
the fall.
- In the new version, we will be dropping support of Windows
2000 (following lead of Microsoft), as well as OS 9.x on the
Mac. What this means: we are not "breaking"
any current programs for the unsupported operating systems,
but future versions of certain applications may not work with
these OSs.
- The new version of Symantec AntiVirus (SAV) includes Spyware
support which detects spyware in real time.
- Symantec Client Security (Firewall) will be included, and
have full support through the CIT Contact Center.
- COLTS for Mac OS 10 is still in the works -- hopefully it
will be available for fall release...
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Topics/Speakers:
Web Content Management Systems (CMS)/CommonSpot
Paul Davis; Prog/Analyst Sr, Engineering
Dean's office
Nathan Reimer; Project Manager, CIT Academic Technology
& Media Svcs (formerly Distributed Learning Svcs)
David DeMello; Director of Web Development, ILR Technology
Services
Diane Kubarek; Director, Office of Web Communications,
VP Communications Media Rels office
Paul, Nathan, David, and Diane presented PowerPoint
slides on the following agenda:
- Background and history of CommonSpot purchase (Paul Davis
15 min)
- CIT's service offerings for CommonSpot (Nathan Reimer 20
min)
- Development
- Hosting
- Instruction and Training
- CommonSpot's features, benefits, and known issues (David
DeMello 20 min)
- CommonSpot SIG (David DeMello 10 min)
- Role of Office of Web Communications and its relation to
CMS strategy, department efforts, cornell.edu, and the WPG
(Diane Kubarek 20 mins)
Paul thought the collaborative stakeholder process used to
make the decision on the CMS was terrific, and would like to
see the model used for other stakeholder issues.
Nathan pointed out that there are basically 3 ways to get a
CommonSpot web site:
- Instructional & Web Services (IWS -- formerly the WPG)
in CIT's ATMS division builds and hosts site for department
or group
- Department or group builds site and IWS hosts site
- Department or group builds and hosts site
The funding model for building and hosting CommonSpot web sites
is still under development.
Nathan also provided a gif to visually show the CommonSpot
relationships at the university.
David elaborated that the granular security available through
CommonSpot is down to the element, not just the individual page.
Diane mentioned that the Office of Web Communications is interested
in consulting with departments on web projects. An example of
a current campus web initiative is an Events Calendar Solutions
group.She encourages the CU Web Forum to be used to bring up
campus wide web issues.
Diane explained that www.cornell.edu
is the front door to get users to "you". Templates
in the cornell.edu style are in development and will be available
by the end of spring. Shortly thereafter, they will be made
available for the CMS.
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Topics/Speakers:
Paul Schuh; Network Engineer, Electrical and Computer Engineering
The "unofficial" CU NetAdmin wiki (12:00-12:20)
netadminwiki.ece.cornell.edu/wiki/
Paul presented on why this particular wiki was created (and
why a wiki), and what the wiki is trying to accomplish (and
what it has already accomplished), followed by a brief show-and-tell
presentation. (NetAdmin wiki
Powerpoint presentation)
Sunny Donenfeld; Director of Distributed Support, OIT
Keith Boncek; Assoc. Director Adm/IT Services, AFF Computing
Resources
Debi Benson; Purchasing Agent, Office for Purchasing Services
Vince Patriarco; Director of Purchasing, Office for Purchasing
Services
Background, specifications, and approval for the Dell
bundles (12:20-1:30)
Sunny and Keith will discussed the Dell bundles
from the perspective of the ITMC. Keith provided a handout to
assist with the process of purchasing of Dell bundles ("Dell
Hardware Purchasing 101" MS Word doc). Vince and Debi
were available to provide additional information and answer
any Purchasing-related questions.
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Topics/Speakers:
Spyware (12-12:30)
Steve Schuster; Director IT Security, OIT
Steve will discuss the MarketScore issue and spyware in general.
Active Directory (12:30-1:30)
Moe Arif; Programmer/Analyst Specialist, CIT Systems & Operations
Moe will give a brief overview of Active Directory and its features,
and then talk about how AD integrates with Cornell's computing
environment and how we can take advantage of some of these features.
Spyware:
- Steve's PPT presentation
covered his topic well.
- Steve noted that the recent problems with blocking MarketScore
seem to be resolved.
Active Directory:
Technical Support Provider
Forum