HMC Mathematics Computing Weblog

The testing is complete. I have restarted all workstations and printers, so everything should be back to normal.

We did suffer one casualty, a faculty workstation whose power supply died. It's not clear that the problem was caused by the testing, but I have called the vendor for a replacement. (I have notified the machine's primary user by e-mail, so if you didn't get e-mail from me about your machine dying, your machine should be working -- please let me know if it isn't!)

Power-system and generator testing by the Claremont Colleges Physical Plant staff will affect all non-UPS-backed workstations on the mathematics department network. Because we cannot be certain about the duration of the outages, we will also be shutting down nonessential workstations.

The following systems will be unavailable:

• Scientific Computing Lab Workstations (including the shell.math.hmc.edu alias)
• Clinic Lab Workstations
• Faculty Workstations
• Networked Printers

We expect that the servers and other equipment in our machine room (backed by UPSs and local generators) will continue to operate during the outage period. ponder.math.hmc.edu should be available for checking e-mail and other simple usage during the outage.

The testing is scheduled for completion at 4:00 PM. If all goes well, the affected systems should be back soon after that time. If there are problems, systems will either be back by 6:00 PM or will not be running until sometime tomorrow, Saturday, 2005 December 31.

Please check back here, http://www.math.hmc.edu/computing/blog/, for updates on system status.

The Claremont Colleges have scheduled some power-related work during the holiday break. The outages on December 27 and 29 do not affect our systems, but the outage on December 30 affects the entire campus.

These outages are to replace the last of the "G&W boxes" that were responsible for the (unscheduled) power outage earlier this semester.

I'm checking with Theresa Potter to verify whether the outages will affect our servers. They will definitely affect our workstations, however.

Impact

At a minimum, power will be interrupted for significant periods of time between 12:00 PM (noon) and 4:00 PM (or later -- Theresa's message indicates that the end time is approximate). Because workstations in faculty offices, the Clinic lab, and the scientific-computing lab have short-run or no UPSs, they will not be available during this time period.

During this time, no workstations will be available, including individual office and lab machines and the shell.math.hmc.edu alias.

If machine-room power will be interrupted, mail, file, print, and web services will also be interrupted.

If machine-room power is maintained, people using POP or IMAP will be able to access their mail. Web service should also continue to be available, as should ponder.math.hmc.edu.

Timeframe

I will shut down any workstations (including faculty, Clinic, and scientific-computing lab machines) that are running on Friday morning (around 10:00 AM).

If it turns out that the outage will affect the servers, I will arrange to monitor them in person or remotely and shut some or all of them down if that seems to be required.

If I'm not already on campus to deal with things when the outage ends, I will come by in the evening to check on the situation and (possibly) restart machines. Given the previous record on electrical work requiring power outages, I am not expecting it to end at the scheduled time. If power is not restored until sometime after early evening on Friday, I will come in and try to restart machines on Saturday.

Check back here for updates and notice of restored service.