-- KevinDunford - 2014-06-20

PPD IT forum Proposed Actions PPD IT

Contributor initial comment	The new package distribution system which is buggy (old versions, regular failures in removing old packages / installing new packages).
Current status and date	Uploaded onto twiki from general department email 20/6/14
PPD IT forum open discussion	STFC policy and best practice is that all 3rd party software must be at the latest manufactures supported versions. The PPD computer group uses Windows Server Update Service (WSUS), to update the Windows operating system and Microsoft applications such as Office. We use SCCM to manage the deployment of 3rd party software such as; Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash, Adobe Shockwave, FireFox, and Java.

	I test the deployment of 3rd party applications on 3 different images of Windows 7 64bit and the tests I do are.
	* Install on system without any old versions of the tested software (new build)
	* Install on system with the version of software that it’s upgrading \ replacing
	* Install on system with 2 or 3 versions of the old software

	Thing that are out of my control
	* Users who have or have had administrative privileges on their Windows desktops and laptop
	* I have put comments in the software distributions to say close all open applications, before installing\updating, as just the presence of running application may interfere with plug-ins from being installed
	* If there are uninstall or upgrade loss ends (registry keys, MSI entries or files) from an installations that is still on the system this may interfere with an installation

	More effort is required either at the testing phase or to see if there is an underlining problem with the users Windows device

	The clean way of getting applications installed is by forcing application deployments, forcing the uninstalls and installs of 3rd party applications, along the same line as Windows updates, however there are issues with this like Windows updates! Client computer not online or switched off and on the next boot all these application get uninstalled \ installed. I ran a trial period of this where on my SCCM emails I gave users deadlines (two weeks) when they need to upgrade old applications and on the deadline these will be auto uninstalled and be replaced with new application and reboot. Even though I gave a two week notice, the number of users who voluntary updated these applications were low. When the deadline passed I had a number of comments “I was in a VC meeting and Vidyo stopped working (Adobe Flash update) and my computer rebooted.” ”I had a popup message to say my computer would be rebooted and I had no way of stopping it, this disrupted my work.”

	Another argument for forcing the installation of 3rd party software. Some admin support users are unsure of what software needs upgrading, or ask a member of the PPD support team to do it for them.

Possible action	Investigate in using an automated maintenance windows, which is out of hours say (10pm to 4am) and Wake on LAN. This maintenance Window will be used to force the upgrade of applications such as Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash, Adobe Shockwave, FireFox, and Java
Possible action (PPD Computer group)
Action
Ongoing action
Action completed

Contributor initial comment	Do not have permission to install OS-es other than windoze on our desktop.
Current status and date	Uploaded onto twiki from general department email 20/6/14
PPD IT forum open discussion	The PPD Computer Group has always offered a choice of either a Windows or Linux device as their primary desktop device. PPD Scientific IT support will manage and support any Linux installations as PPD Business IT support likewise for the Windows installations.
Possible action
Possible action (PPD Computer group)
Action
Ongoing action
Action completed

Contributor initial comment	Integration of the Outlook calendar on Linux (though I think this is a fundamental problem for which there is no solution available as long as we run Microsoft Exchange servers).
Current status and date	Uploaded onto twiki from general department email 20/6/14
PPD IT forum open discussion	Doesn’t Thunderbolt plus the Lightning plugin work? I know http://webmail.stfc.ac.uk this doesn’t have all the functionality of the Outlook calendar, however it is a service that can be used from most browsers. I provide the Windows terminal server with the Microsoft Offfice 2010 suite.
Possible action
Possible action (PPD Computer group)
Action
Ongoing action
Action completed

Contributor initial comment	When printing documents, it seems to be the default that no title page is printed, containing the person’s name. This leads to chaos in the printer room, with documents from different people all being mixed up together. I would suggest reinstating the title page, preferable printing it on different coloured paper (e.g. yellow) to make it more obvious.
Current status and date	Uploaded onto twiki from general department email 20/6/14
PPD IT forum open discussion	On the old large HP printers I used banner separator pages.
	When the new Cannon printers were originally installed all of the print queues were configured for secure printing, where you entered a pin on the printer, for it to print the jobs. This has stopped, however the functionality is still available on the print queues. I have spoken to the system administrator who was responsible for the print server when this change took effect, asking for a reason. Reply was along the lines of; users were getting confused and not understanding the method of how secure prints worked.
	A different colour paper – This is easily doable for Windows devices as clients get the printer configurations from the print server, however this isn’t workable from MAC or Linux operating system as these operating systems don’t get the Windows print server print queue configurations.
Possible action	Re-establish the secure print method and create an up to date how to guide printing document. Possible option – keep the status-quo or update the printing documentation and introduce web interface then remove all or some printer deployments via GP’s
Possible action (PPD Computer group)
Action
Ongoing action
Action completed

Contributor initial comment	availability/support for notepads
Current status and date	Uploaded onto twiki from general department email 20/6/14
PPD IT forum open discussion	I major obstacle why I haven’t been looking into tablet devices is the lack a good wireless thoughtout our department.
	Due to the nature of my work I would like to use a tablet device, as it suites my needs better than a laptop, and I would be willing to support them. Like phone there are many different types of tablet devices and I would be willing to put the effort into supporting one manufactures tablet device. There may be more effort in this when we temporary move out of R1 and more so when we return. We need to agree on one cost effective tablet device for the PPD Computer Group to support.

Possible action
Possible action (PPD Computer group)
Action
Ongoing action
Action completed

Contributor initial comment	What would be a good improvement on the mac side would be to have a pool of mac peripherals such as USB-ethernet adaptors (I've need this at times), USB to VGA/HDMI adaptors. There has been a few times when people have come to give talks and needed these and we have struggled to provide them.
Current status and date	Uploaded onto twiki from general department email 20/6/14
PPD IT forum open discussion	I had a pool of Dell laptop peripherals many years ago and over time there were permanently on loan. If having such peripheral will enable you to work more freely and not asking to borrow from elsewhere then I would be happy to pay. Note: If a USB-ethernet adaptors is requested, this is solely for one PPD member of staff and linked with one device and not to be shared with anyone, to circumvent STFC’s networking and security policies.
Possible action	Email department laptop users, asking if they require any peripheral devices to allow them to work effectively.
Possible action (PPD Computer group)
Action
Ongoing action
Action completed

Contributor initial comment	More clarity on what our quotas are on the H-drive
Current status and date	Uploaded onto twiki from general department email 20/6/14
PPD IT forum open discussion	On your Windows device go to My Computer and under network locations you will have your H:\, S:\ and T:\ drives. Depending on your view layout you will have either columns with Total Size and Free Space or a bar with similar information.
Possible action
Possible action (PPD Computer group)
Action
Ongoing action
Action completed

Contributor initial comment	When printing documents, it used to be the case that only a list of ones personally selected printers was shown, whereas nowadays, every printer in PPD was listed. I preferred this as it was, since it made it much easier to find the correct printer
Current status and date	Uploaded onto twiki from general department email 20/6/14
PPD IT forum open discussion	Even though there is user documentation on how to add a networked printed, I have been constantly asked to add print queues to user’s computers. In deploying all of the print queues to desktops this has instantly stopped these types of support requests.
Possible action	Possible option – keep the status-quo or update the printing documentation and introduce web interface then remove all or some printer deployments via GP’s
Possible action (PPD Computer group)
Action
Ongoing action
Action completed

Contributor initial comment	More up to date information on web pages & twikis
Current status and date	Uploaded onto twiki from general department email 20/6/14
PPD IT forum open discussion	The computer group has a twiki with user documentation https://twiki.pp.rl.ac.uk/twiki/bin/view/Computing/Documentation/WebHome and I’m aware that some of this information is out of date.
	What other documentation would you like to see here?
	I have put a few PDF’s documents into everyone’s H:\PPDComputerGroupSupportDocuments drive with the most common user guides.
Possible action
Possible action (PPD Computer group)
Action
Ongoing action
Action completed

Current status and date
Contributor initial comment
PPD IT forum open discussion
Possible action
Possible action (PPD Computer group)
Action
Ongoing action
Action completed

Current status and date
Contributor initial comment
PPD IT forum open discussion
Possible action
Possible action (PPD Computer group)
Action
Ongoing action
Action completed

Current status and date
Contributor initial comment
PPD IT forum open discussion
Possible action
Possible action (PPD Computer group)
Action
Ongoing action
Action completed

Topic revision: r3 - 2014-07-30 - KevinDunford