Minimum Workstation and Software Site License Subcommittee Minutes

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February 18, 2010
Meeting in AH-1120 at 10 a.m.
Diana Osborn, Chair

ITS Update
ITS is working on three large Smart Classrooms in Peterson Gym which will be available for fall 2010. There has also been two new Smart Classrooms added at the Brawley campus over the winter break and another new smart classroom is being planned for Brawley this summer. ITS plans for the summer will focus on refresh of existing Smart Classrooms. It was noted that ITS is working to support faculty who are in the midst of converting 13 more high-demand courses for on-line delivery this summer.

Academic Affairs Update
Since the last MWSSLS meeting, Carol Phillips has been working with a vendor, Faronics Technologies USA Inc. to solve a problem at the Library; an issue between our new PCReservation software and our existing Deep Freeze software. The conflict between them was causing PCReservation to crash; tying up over 600 computers every time the conflict happened. The solution, PowerSave, would allow the other two software packages to play nice.

When the vendor alerted Carol to a rebate that SDG&E offers to businesses for new use of (not pre-existing use of) Network Power Management software, it became a solution that could benefit the campus as a whole. With input from John Ross, Rich Pickett, John Denune, Al Martin and the vendor, the Library and Information Access department and the College of Ext. Studies are in the process of “greening” almost 900 computers. SDG&E will cover the cost of the software with $0 dollars coming from SDSU. It is saving SDSU approximately $13,065 even before the benefit of energy savings kicks in.

While John Ross had found several other departments interested in being a part of this:

ITS with approximately 220 Win and 220 Mac computers
CAL with approximately 700 Win and 100 Mac computers
Aztec Shops with approximately 200-250 computers

They could not meet the Library’s installation deadline to solve the original problem. Our evaluation copies expire on 2/25/10, so our paperwork for the campus, Faronics and SDG&E is in process now.

Generally this rebate is only done once for a business, but Al Martin (Physical Plant) asked about the possibility of SDG&E extending the rebate to give other departments more time to install and benefit from the budget and energy savings. SDG&E said Yes, but the details are still being worked out. As soon as they are known, Carol will pass them along to the MWSSLS mailing list. If you think your dept./college would like to be added to the interested list, please email phillips@rohan.sdsu.edu with your quantity of computers for each type of OS, along with a chargeback account/authorizing signature name, and names of your technical staff who would be handling your installation.

The installation scenario starts with downloading the 30-day evaluation copies of the software for each version of OS in use. Then the software console portion is setup on one of your servers and the client portion is installed on each of the computers you want to control via the console portion. The Library and Information Access department and the College of Ext. Studies used a combination of MS Active Directory and Faronics Deep Freeze to push out the clients, which made their installations go fast. If you have to visit each computer, it will take more time. Each of the participating areas setup a console of their own, so the clients would report their energy consumption back to the IP of their area’s console. Each console can control the sleep, startup or shutdown mode of its clients individually or by groups or using global settings for a consumption profile. Also the software allows for scheduling of holidays, when your area is closed on days that fall within your normal operations.

Once the installations are complete, you run a Full Operation Report from the console that will sense each of your clients. Once all of your clients are showing on the report, then the report is emailed to the start of the rebate process. This report shows the dollar amounts of energy saving, along with the saved energy equivalents in EPA calculations to let you know:

Then comes the paperwork, followed by SDG&E verifying the counts and making the payment. After which, the vendor releases the Serial Number. Entering the Serial Number will move the evaluation copies to Production mode. Finally we rake in the energy saving dollars (way cool).

Survey Software
Diana Osborn announced - Carol Tohsaku and Rofiee Harun are currently looking into several different survey packages (SurveyMonkey, SurveyGizmo, etc.) and will have an update for the next MWSSLS meeting.

Windows Enterprise 7 and Server 2008
There is a 6-month verification of the key used at installation of Windows 7 and Server 2008 that may cause problems. This campus, due to network issues, is using a special MA key that needs to be used during installation. If you see error messages showing up stating this was an incorrect install, go to Properties and in the lower area change the default key to our MA key. This will avoid further problems with the 6-month verification process.

It was also noted, during the discussion of the above, that there is a Bootcamp issue with Windows XP SP2 & 3 happening with new iMacs using Snow Leopard. The department having the issue may move to Windows Enterprise 7 to solve this for their 17 iMac lab.

@ONE On-line Free Webinars
@ONE strives to provide timely training on technical and online teaching topics at as low a cost as possible. We are funded by the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office to provide training to publicly funded K-20 education in California...including the CSUs. For example CISOA (California Community Colleges Chief Information Systems Officers Association ) has just funded us to offer the following free online seminar Information Tech series, which may be of interest to you (available at: http://www.onefortraining.org/seminars):

If anyone at SDSU is interested in signing up for one of these, be sure to discuss it with your supervisor.

Targeted Discussion Idea
A Targeted Discussion Idea has been proposed by Carol Phillips and is as follows:

The idea is to send out to the MWSSLS mailing list on the 1st of each month 1 or 2 examples of what other universities are doing educationally or technology wise, what the CSU is launching, or things that have a bearing on topics IT units are facing. The examples would include an article at least or a video, demo, or some additional information at most. Then at the next meeting, MWSSLS would include an open discussion of the examples that would gage the interest among SDSU’s IT units and maybe map out who would needs to be included in any further discussions.

This idea stems from the belief that regular participation at the MWSSLS meetings would foster greater participation and collaboration between the IT units of SDSU. We might even hear about something that would get our juices flowing and produce something for the next CATS Conference. It could help us see early directions that faculty are interested in heading and be able learn about the technology that would support their efforts.

Some example topics for consideration were mentioned and discussion of the idea was held. With the majority in favor, Diana announced that a topic would be sent out to the MWSSLS mailing list on March 1st. The targeted discussion would then be the last item on the March agenda.

Last Item
It was noted that the mail.sdsu.edu change would be happening soon. And everyone acknowledged that email transmissions between an individual’s computer and the server are done in "plain text" This is what SDSU has now and will still have after the change.

Next meeting will be March 18, 2010.

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