NICE provides centrally organized home directory servers (at the moment there are about 20) plus 5 binary applications servers. The Windows 3.1 operating system is also stored on the applications servers, not on everyone's PC. This allows the whole environment to be maintained centrally. The applications servers are replicated each night. The servers incorporate SCSI disks with mirroring for availability and central backup is provided. There are about 1000 users. Every user runs in the same consistent environment so they can easily move from PC to PC and debugging is simplified. Configuration files which contain hardware specific information are constructed automatically.
They have site licenses for many MicroSoft applications and are looking at license servers in particular a product from Funk Software called AppMeter. They actually don't want to control licenses, but rather keep a count of usage (eg. # copies simultaneously in use) so they can buy more licenses as necessary. They have looked at the next version of Windows, Chicago, at the Microsoft developers conference and doubt they will consider OS/2 any further.
Dave Foster stated that the consistent environment and limited choices of NICE could be used for Unix support. It is not a technology issue but rather a cultural issue that has lead to the bizarre (in Foster's view) requirement to support 6 Unix platforms at CERN. Dave proposed a radical vision of desktop PC's for all people with a number of symmetric multiprocessor high performance Unix file servers and some Unix applications servers.
Software distribution is a problem for Macs. In order to introduce a centralized NICE type structure, an Ethernet is needed on every Mac (using them with a FastPath is too slow). However the CN network group are concerned about adding an extra 1000+ Macs to the CERN Ethernet.
The ASD Mac and PC support group look after software applications procurement,licensing and installing on the binary servers (consulting with the CN NICE section) for the whole site. They have MicroSoft Select for standard PC and Mac applications and are working with Apple to get site-wide agreements for MacTCP, MacOS and MacX.
There are 2 FTE's in ASD who look after purchasing hardware. They keep about 100KSFr of spare parts plus a few current machines which they sell with a 5% markup. The ASD people receive, checkout and install standard hardware and software. PC installations are done over the network. Macs are done locally. Cabling, etc. is looked after by the CN network group.
For mail on the Macs they have about 1200 QuickMail licenses supported by about 25% of an FTE. They use the StarNine gateway product to provide access to and from QuickMail recipients. For the PCs they chose MicroSoft Mail over ccMail. They are running an AppleShare file server on a Sun using EtherShare/Helios software which includes shared printing support.
For Macs they have about 25 AppleTalk II zones extending to DESY-Zeuthen in Berlin. They have several AppleShare servers, one is on the central VMS machine using Pathworks for central distribution of software and documentation. Macs are also used from home via local modems and AppleTalk Remote Access to provide connectivity to a networked MAC on-site.
They have a sitewide license for MacTCP and are working on a site license for Microsoft products. Training is via outside commercial parties. Backup is provided for the central servers using Retrospect and DAT drives. They are looking at the IBM ADSM product. There is roughly 40% of an FTE in Mac central support plus about 35 people around the site providing Mac and PC support. Mac and PC activities of these 35 people are not coordinated centrally. The main requests from users are for: software distribution, printer support, license management and training.
DESY wants to improve PC support. First they need to find out what people need, then provide advice on what to buy, reduce the diversity and set up network services (e.g. mail., print) to be available everywhere. They are interested in CERN's NICE environment. They have not decided on a recommended email package though many people in the machine group are using Microsoft Mail.
"The more successful aspects have been the diary function, the document repository, the electronic communication of notes and documents, and the several MIS functions accessible from OV/VM. The most significant failing has been in satisfying in full the specialist needs of the scientific staff resulting in a large portion of them eschewing OV/VM altogether ... The key lesson learned from this experience are the importance of a critical mass of users, and of integrating office functions into the normal computing environment of scientific staff. Almost all the potential benefits available from diaries, email, document preparation and information dissemination are lost if an insufficient proportion of the staff actually makes use of the facilities on a regular basis".
The OSSWP came up with a set of goals (see "RAL Administrative Computing and office systems: A strategy for the Nineties" T. Daniels 27 May 1992.) The working Group agreed that the IBM mainframe would need to be replaced, the provision of office/information services would be based on a client/server approach. They also recommended setting up a technical working group to select and define the suggested components of an alternative office system and to oversee their introduction.
This technical working group of about 16 people provided a progress report (see "Office Systems Technical Working Group: Interim Peport to DL and RAL Management Boards" T. Daniels & A. A. Taylor 6-Dec-93). The report provides extensive appendices including user requirements, current uses at RAL and the evaluation of many possible products.
RAL does not want to lock into one vendor for all office products. They regard OS/2 as a solid system that is the best buy (for PCs) today but likely to be supplanted by NT in 4-5 years time, so they do not wish to lock into OS/2. Even today drivers are more common for Windows than OS/2 which can lead to problems. People who have moved to OS/2 seem to be happy running Windows applications under OS/2. It appears to be the more sophisticated (less than 10) users (similar to Unix types) who are moving to OS/2. As such RAL regards OS/2 as a specialist niche for clients. It may have relevance for servers. There is no interest at RAL in Nextstep, it is too limited a market. There also appears to be little central investigation of NT in progress. They appear to have considerable hopes for Windows 4 with it's 32 bit support and NT like features but without the high overhead required for NT. NT is expected to be mainly needed for servers.
The administration group is using a Novell Netware server to support shared disks. Such a solution is not seen as suitable for the entire site, since it is proprietary. There is a central Unix NFS file server with site-wide access. It provides shared backed-up data. They have not looked at WDSF/ADSM for backup.
Central PC support consists of about 6 FTEs. They charge back PC support at a rate of 1 FTE per 100 PCs. Repair requests are made to the help desk. The PC people provide spare monitors & PC machines for loan in case of problems. Most of the hardware problems are associated with monitors & mice and a few particular models of disks. PCs are purchased from a single selected vendor (Viglund) which is small enough that they respond to RALs concerns. The choice of vendors is reviewed based on reliability,cost concerns. They have a database to keep track of what is supported & the warranty information. They find it impractical to try & keep track of the hardware & software on machines or where the PC is located.
RAL has about 100+ Macs and 1000 PCs About 1/3 of the PCs are Ethernetted. They are buying about 200/year. They also have a few hundred UNIX workstations. The central support group specifies what to buy, makes up the requisition, receives the equipment, and sets it up. The vendor deliver it with DOS and windows 3.1 preinstalled. For applications they recommend Word, Lotus 1-2-3 or Excel (see section on Electronic Mail for Mail recommendation), PC/NFS, FTP Software Inc, some DECnet, & Vista eXceed for Xterminal emulation. The applications and networking software are installed in the central area before the machines are delivered to the user. Most new PCs are Etherneted installations facilitated by using CDROMs and Network installs and can be done in parallel. Accepting and preparing the machines centrally enables RAL to spot infant problems and catch problem trends early. It is observed that once users have a working system they seldom want to upgrade. This is fortunate since upgrading in the field without something like NICE is labor intensive, especially since the machines are usually customized by the users.