Several people have opened support tickets recently asking about warning messages being produced by OpenVPN when connecting to Informatics. The reason for these warnings has been that the configuration syntax has gradually changed over time to accommodate new features, and the form we have in our configuration files is now deprecated and will be removed […]
As previously advised, the new Forum server room UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) will be connected to the server rooms on Saturday the 20th of July. This will necessitate the powering down of all machines in the Forum server rooms, and therefore the loss of the Informatics services provided by those machines. It is probably safest […]
The 6th minor update for ScientificLinux 7 (which is based on RHEL7) is now ready for deployment to the Informatics DICE office and student lab machines. A minor update like this provides us with the opportunity to update important software and fix any bugs which are not security issues (we apply security updates as soon […]
Earlier this year, we mentioned that we intended to replace the Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) system which supplies power to all of the server rooms located in the Informatics Forum – see our blog post Forum server room UPS from January 24, 2019. Since then, we’ve been doing lots of preparation, and we are now […]
With the introduction of the University’s centrally provided blogging service (blogs.ed.ac.uk), no new blogs will be created on the Informatics blog.inf.ed.ac.uk and wp.inf.ed.ac.uk services. The central service is based on a current version of WordPress, and has a selection of modern themes, and plugins, including an EdGEL one to match the University’s branding. Using the […]
We are about to upgrade all rack power bars in the Informatics Forum self-managed server room IF-B.Z14. We will be replacing the existing metered power bars (APC models AP7853 and AP8853) with switched versions (APC model AP8953). The new power bars will allow us fine-grained control of individual power outlets; they’ll also help us prevent […]
Last weekend (Saturday 19.1.19), the UPS system which supplies power to the various server rooms located in the Informatics Forum developed a fault which meant that one half of the pair of units which comprise the UPS went off-line. As a result, the other half of the pair became overloaded: we now have so many […]
We will shortly be upgrading the remaining Forum core network switch. With this one there will be some (expected) visible effects, as follows: This switch is normally the “root bridge” for the entire Informatics network. While we do have extensive redundant connectivity, the active paths are usually based around this switch being at the centre. […]
The computing help elves have been busy. In the past few weeks they’ve overhauled the pages on Printing and on Audio-visual facilities. In particular there are now pages on AV in Appleton Tower (formerly not covered at all) and AV in the Informatics Forum (formerly split over many pages). If you’re looking for help or […]
Apologies for the short network disruption yesterday afternoon. It was caused by a 10Gbps forwarding loop, which was created as the second-last fibre was being connected as part of our core switch upgrade programme. As soon as we realised there was a problem the fibre was disconnected again and the port configuration corrected. Background: we […]
