ITEC Home PageC S S C N E W S L E T T E R Vol 1 No 2 March 17, 1993 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 Disaster recovery 2.0 Installation of newest DECUS CD's 3.0 Status on Pathworks for MAC, Client software, Version 1.1a 4.0 Online, Internet-accessible Digital Product Information 5.0 Is a system count for Pathworks for DOS needed under CSLG? 6.0 CDROM OnLine Documentation March 1993 7.0 Election of CSSC Executive Board 1.0 Disaster recovery With the World Trade Center tragedy freshly in our minds, disaster procedures for our computer centers should not be far behind. An article in the March 8, 1993 issue of "Information Weekly" entitled "Towers Without Power," reports the WTC's tenants "faced the enormous and largely unprecedented task of restoring their distributed computer systems before they could resume anything remotely resembling business as usual...Most [companies] were simply unprepared." The following is a list of data processing centers' biggest disasters: # of Data Centers Event Location downed 8/14/87 Rain storm Chicago 5 10/01/87 Earthquake Whittier, CA 3 5/08/88 Network outage Hinsdale, IL 3 8/15/89 Hurricane Hugo Charleston, SC 5 10/17/89 Earthquake San Francisco 18 8/13/90 Power outage New York 28 1/27/90 Utility vault fire New York 2 8/19/91 Hurricane Bob Northeast 3 4/10/92 Terrorist bomb London 7 4/13/92 Flood Chicago 33 5/01/92 Riot Los Angeles 2 8/24/92 Hurricane Andrew Southeast 39 12/11/92 Nor'easter New York 7 2/26/93 Bombing New York 21 Include SUNY's own potential for disasters, i.e., where PCB exposure did not directly affect the computer center at a SUNY campus itself but it could have!...and we see how important it is for us to come up with a strong disaster recovery plan. To formulate our own plan, the CSSC has been designated as the "hot site" for member campuses. In case of a disaster which makes it impossible or unreasonable to operate a VAX at a participating campus, the most critical applications can be operated at Buffalo. Tests have been done to demonstrate required network capability and operational recovery time from point of failure at a disaster site. A test VMS account has been set up on node SBSCVA to allow users to log on and run their applications from Syracuse. All users logon to the same VAX account and are routed to their application via a menu. This testing is continuing, while the procedures and scripts that have been developed are being documented. Look for future reports on disaster recovery in upcoming CSSC newsletters. FOOD FOR THOUGHT...we can put together a plan for the mainframes but what about the data on the PCs? 2.0 Installation of newest DECUS CD's Three new DECUS CD's were recently installed: Collections 9, 10, and 11 (Spring 1991, Fall 1991 and Spring 1992 respectively) on node SBSCVA. README.FIRST document in the DOC utility under the DECUS directory explains how to access the CD's. If you are a full member of the CSSC and wish to have an authorized DECUS account, contact SCACAD@snybufva. 3.0 Status on Pathworks for MAC, Client software, Version 1.1a There are known problems between Pathworks for Mac 1.1 and System 7.1 specifically regarding Mail for Macintosh, MacX and MacTCP. In order to support the release of System 7.1, Pathworks for Mac, Client software, Version 1.1a is required. The Support Center will be getting this update on Digital's March CD release. Use CWIS to look at SOFTWAREA for Version 1.1a's availability. 4.0 Online, Internet-accessible Digital Product Information Digital is pleased to announce the availability of online, Internet-accessible product information. The available information spans a diverse range -- from information sheets, to technical overviews, performance summaries, brochures, software product descriptions (SPD's), whitepapers, presentations and even the System and Options Catalog. The DEC_FTP.mmyy document explaining this information is located in the DOC utility, under the VAX/VMS directory. Don't forget to sign onto the Support Center machine as CWIS from which you can easily access DOC. 5.0 Is a system count for Pathworks for DOS needed under CSLG? Digital has added an addendum to the DECTEI-L "Announcing Changes to U.S. CSLG and ESL Programs" message (see VAX Notes, X-DECTEI-L, note 36.1) which discusses the most frequently asked question: > If my school is using Pathworks for DOS on a PC, do > we need to include that system in our CSLG system count? Don't forget you can access VAX Notes by signing on as CWIS. 6.0 CDROM OnLine Documentation March 1993 This document can be accessed on VAX Notes, X-DECTEI-L conference, note 37.64 by signing on using CWIS and picking the VAX Notes option. 7.0 Election of CSSC Executive Board Information will be forthcoming soon from Paul Voninski (Oswego) to members of the CSSC Advisory Board explaining the upcoming CSSC Executive Board election. ******************************************************************** We didn't receive very many comments on the first CSSC newsletter. How was it? Are there any suggestions you can make? What would you like to see in future editions? Do you know of any listserv list that might like to be informed about our newsletter? Editor: Betty Spencer SCACAD@SNYBSCVA