1CERN Computer Newsletter • November–December 2004

EditorialYour feedback will help define future of CNL 1Announcements & newsCERN Courier reports on Grid project in Asia 2IT department announces its closure timetablefor Christmas 2CHEP’04 hailed a great success 2A reader writes to right our wrongs in article aboutSMTP server 2Desktop Support makes smooth transition toimproved services 3Physics computingLINUX upgrade required to keep operating systemsup to date 4New Time Units simplify procedures 4LSF webpages feature enhanced statistical data 4Desktop computingCERN switches from Office XP to Office 2003 5Scheduling powers of Outlook make meetings easyto organize 5Technical briefLicensing system works to give users access whenthey need it 8Internet services & networkDon’t miss out – keep up to date with changes inWeb Services 9Updated Listbox service takes the hassle out of e-mailing lists 10How to stay in touch with CERN wherever you are inthe world 11Information cornerQuestions and answers from the Helpdesk 13Recent changes to CERN’s IT services 13Recent acquisitions at the IT bookshop 13Calendar 13

Editors Nicole Crémel and Hannelore Hämmerle, CERN IT Department,1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland. E-mail: cnl.editor@cern.ch. Fax: +41 (22) 7677155.Web: cerncourier.com (link CNL).

Advisory board Wolfgang von Rüden (head of IT Department), François Grey (ITCommunication team leader), Christine Sutton (CERN Courier editor), Mick Draper(group leader, User and Document Services).

Produced for CERN by Institute of Physics PublishingDirac House, Temple Back, Bristol BS1 6BE, UK. Tel: +44 (0)117 929 7481. E-mail: chris.thomas@iop.org. Fax: +44 (0)117 920 0733. Web: iop.org.

Published by CERN IT Department

©2004 CERN

The contents of this newsletterdo not necessarily represent theviews of CERN management.

Contents

CERN COMPUTERNEWSLETTER

Volume XXXIX, issue 2 November–December 2004

Welcome to the second issue of the new-style CERN Computer Newsletter (CNL).We hope you enjoyed the first one; if forsome reason you missed it, you can findit on the Web at www.cerncourier.com/articles/cnl/1/9/ or at http://cern.ch/cnl.

The impetus for renewing CNL was theresult of an informal survey of some of itsreaders that we carried out exactly oneyear ago. At this point, we would like torepeat the survey, inviting all readers tocontact us with their feedback. Keyissues we would like your opinion on are:● Contents – CNL aims primarily toprovide CERN users with the sort ofinformation that will make their lifeeasier when using the IT infrastructure atCERN. Is the new CNL maintaining yourinterest? Are there new features youappreciate? Are there aspects of theprevious style that you miss?● Distribution – mailing individual issues,and keeping mailing lists up to date,adds significantly to costs. For thesereasons the new CNL is primarilyaccessible on the Web, although we aremaking black and white print-outs of thePDF available at several sites on the

CERN campus (B31, B28, B40, the Computer Centre, the UsersOffice and Central Library). How did you get your copy (real orvirtual) of the new CNL? What could be done to make it more easilyavailable to the target audience? Would being sent your own copymake a big difference to you, and if so why? ● Layout – are there aspects that could be improved in the onlineHTML version or the associated PDF?● The link with CERN Courier – part of the strategy for the new CNLis to move articles of more general interest into the pages of CERNCourier, in a “Computing News” section that will appear everysecond issue to coincide with CNL. Links between the twopublications exist both in individual articles and in the sharedwebsite. How do these links work in practice for readers? Howcould they be improved?

Of course, any constructive feedback you may have on otheraspects of CNL is also welcome, as are suggestions for futurearticles. Just drop us a line at cnl.editor@cern.ch. We will publishthe results of your feedback in the next issue, and thank you inadvance for your help.Nicole Crémel, IT/UDS, and Hannelore Hämmerle, IT/DI, CNL editors

Stand and deliver: hardcopies of the CNL PDF.

Your feedbackwill help definefuture of CNL

Announcements & news

2 CERN Computer Newsletter • November–December 2004

Computing News● Fostering Grid computing in AsiaAcademia Sinica ComputingCentre is acting as Gridoperation centre and global Griduser support.● New infrastructure to aidcollaborationKick-off of a new digital-libraryinfrastructure with the DILIGENTproject.● All Hands Meeting spreads thewordPresenting the LHC ComputingGrid to researchers from otherdisciplines in UK e-science.● A production Grid infrastructurefor scienceOpen Science Grid to providecoherent environment fordiverse scientific teams.● Processor farm grows atBerkeleyIncreasing processing powerand disk space for the ParallelDistributed Systems Facility.● A look back at the pioneers ofthe netCelebrating the 35thanniversary of the ARPANET.● IHEP launches fast InternetchannelSatisfying the growing

communication needs of theRussian Institute for High-Energy Physics.● Rewind: 15 years ago – firstmention of TCP/IP

Calendar of EventsWorkshops and conferences,including EGEE2 and HiPC 2004.

New IT products

The articles that are listedbelow have been published inthe November 2004 issue ofCERN Courier. Full-text articlescan also be found on the CERNCourier website at www.cerncourier.com, together withthe rest of the issue’s contents.

CERN will close for its annualshutdown on Friday 17December 2004 at 5.30 p.m. andreopen on Monday 3 January2005 at 8.30 a.m.

The final arrangements anddecisions will be madesometime in December. As soonas these are complete,information concerning theavailability of IT Services duringthe shutdown will be publishedin the weekly bulletin andposted in the computingnewsgroups (cern.computingand cern.nice2000).

The Computing Helpdesk(78888, or helpdesk@cern.ch)will be closed, but an operatorservice will be maintainedthroughout the shutdown andcan be reached at extension75011 or by e-mail to computer.operations@cern.ch.

Please remember to shut downand power off any equipment inyour office that you don’t expectto be used during the closure.

Note that you can find acalendar of the official CERNholidays and the school holidaysin the surrounding areas ofFrance and Switzerland athttp://cern.ch/User/Institute/Organization/OfficialHolidays/OfficialHolidays.html.

IT departmentannounces itsclosure timetablefor Christmas

CERN Courier reportson Grid project in Asia

A reader writes toright our wrongsin article aboutSMTP serverOur last issue included an article“Alternative SMTP server on port2525 will use CERN mail serversremotely” (p9). In response areader has written the following.

It might not have been clearthat the alternative SMTP serveron port 2525 is supportingsecure connection (TLS). Settingthe SMTP port to this TLS secureconnection on port 2525(instead of 25 in the past) is therecommended configuration andshould be checked (or done) byall users in their mail clientconfiguration.

Computing in High Energy andNuclear Physics (CHEP) is amajor series of internationalconferences for physicists andcomputing professionals in thefields of high-energy and nuclearphysics, computer science andinformation technology. Thisyear, CHEP’04 took place inInterlaken, Switzerland, and wasorganized by CERN on theoccasion of its 50th birthday.

On the last day of this

successful event, 1 October,seven speakers summarized themain topics discussed duringthe conference: onlinecomputing; event processing;core software; distributedcomputing services; distributedcomputing systems andexperiences; computer fabrics;and wide-area networking.

Lothar Bauerdick fromFermilab presented the overallconclusions: CHEP’04 had astimulating programme and awell-thought-out schedule,including many interestingposters; the organization,

facilities, networks, food anddrink were all superb; and therewas a wonderful “birthdayparty” on Wednesday. He gavethanks to all who were involvedfor a very successful conference!

In his closing remarks,Wolfgang von Rüden thanked allthe speakers, chairs, sponsorsand conference organizers fortheir contributions, and thedelegates for attending. Beforebidding farewell and wishingeverybody a safe trip home, heannounced the venue forCHEP’06: TIFR Mumbai, India, inFebruary 2006.

CHEP’04 hailed agreat success

3CERN Computer Newsletter • November–December 2004

Announcements & news

As many CERN users alreadyknow, a call for tender was issuedearly in 2004 to renew theoutsourced contract for DesktopSupport, which includes thefront-line Computing Helpdesk aswell as General and LocalSupport. The company chosenwas SERCO Holland, who tookover the contract in July 2004.Since then, some new people arestaffing the Helpdesk, and manyusers have already heard newvoices when calling 78888.

A presentation of the newcontract with some statisticsand first conclusions was givenat the Desktop Forum meeting inOctober 2004. Here are the mostimportant points of thepresentation, and the changesresulting from the new contract.

New structureThere is no longer a strictseparation between Helpdesk,General and Local Support. Mostcontract staff will do all the workaccording to the nature of thetask and its complexity. As in thepast, departments who havedecided to pay for Local Supportcan ask Support for specialconfigurations and expect afaster response. However,precise procedures must bedocumented by the local CERNrepresentative and a preciseservice-level agreement (SLA)must be established. Theseprocedures should representuser expectancy, which wassomething globally lacking in theprevious contract. On the otherhand, users must be aware of theagreed procedures and SLAs, sothat they know what to expect. Itis the duty of the DesktopSupport departmental managerto inform their users accordingly.

StaffA smooth transition between theold and new contracts has beenensured by SERCO taking oversome staff from the formercontract. It was especially usefulfor the new Helpdesk, the frontline of all their services, toensure continuity of theirexperience. For the immediate

future the plan is for staff torotate in order to broaden theirexperience and ensure serviceduring absences and holidayperiods. Experience during thelast four months has shown thatstaff who already knew the CERNenvironment have been trainingthe new recruits, and the newstaff have added an extradimension. The contractmanagement from SERCO, whichensures a regular follow-up andquality control, is dynamic.

ProceduresIn the old contract the LocalSupport procedures were agreedorally between the Local Supportclient and the Local Support staffmember, who was generally adedicated person. The newcontract is strictly service-basedand there is no longer adedicated Local Support person.Therefore a clear description ofthe job, and all the non-standardprocedures provided by theprevious Local Support contacts,must be written down. This hasbecome a handbook, maintainedby SERCO and available on theWeb. Not all the Local Supportclients have been contacted yetabout providing theseprocedures, but this will becompleted in the coming weeks.

HelpdeskMost of the staff in the contractare now sharing one large officespace. This has proved useful forthe sharing of knowledge. Inorder to receive all e-mails andphone calls at the Helpdesk (thefront line) three new people havebeen hired and two people havebeen kept on from the previouscontract. Together with the factthat the call volume during thesummer period was rather low,this has helped with training andensured a smooth transition.

There is still a member of theUser Assistance team in IT/UDS(User Services andDocumentation) who is acting,on a daily shift basis, as the “ITHelpdesk Manager on Duty” (orMOD). He/she and the SERCOcontract manager receive copies

of all tickets to retain goodoverall control of the service.They may reopen call tickets, forinstance when a user replyindicates that the solutionprovided is not sufficient.

The MOD is also maintainingand updating the IT ServiceStatus Board as soon as he/sheis informed by a servicemanager about a possibleservice incident, a scheduledintervention or a service change.Please note that at any time youcan consult the status board athttp://cern.ch/it-servicestatus/.

A new phone system has beeninstalled at the Helpdesk. Newfunctionalities such ascascading calls from helplinesand providing announcementswill be added in the near future.Some solutions are beinginvestigated with SERCO, Alcateland Boport for an outstandinglicence issue. Outside Helpdeskworking hours (8.30 a.m. to5.30 p.m.) calls are redirected tothe operators (75011). If theproblem is not urgent they inviteusers to send an e-mail that willbe treated by the Helpdesk thenext working day, but if there isan urgent problem on centralservices, they will contact theservice manager directly. Pleasenote that the ComputerOperations are staffed by aseparate contractor.

Problem trackingThe same system (the ActionRequest system from Remedy)and CERN application (PRMS) areused for problem tracking as inthe previous contract. Since theAdministrative InformationServices (AIS) have joined the ITdepartment in 2004, PRMS is theonly Remedy application that isnow used for all the computingservices provided by thedepartment, and interfacingdirectly with the users. Thismeans that all the notificationmessages that are used tocommunicate with the usershave been standardized.

The current internal structureof the PRMS application was notsuited to the new Helpdesk

organization and a newcategorization scheme is now inplace to reflect the actualworkflow. Many support e-mailaddresses that were in the pastdirected to specific services arenow directed to the Helpdeskwhich is the central call centrefor all computing questions. Forinstance, Linux.Support hasbeen redirected to the Helpdesksince mid-September and moreaddresses will follow in thefuture (e.g. AIS.Support as ofJanuary 2005). Therefore we areexpecting a significant increaseof cases at the Helpdesk.

Some ongoing improvementsin the messages used tocommunicate with users havebeen made (for instance, it isnow possible to communicate inFrench). Apart from this, there isnot much difference for userscontacting the Helpdesk bye-mail, although now thenotification message with theticket number is sent back assoon as the mail is registered inthe system. This ticket number,in the form CTnnnn (nnnn is anumber), must be quoted in thesubject of any further messagerelated to the same query(Outlook users may simply usethe link that is provided in thefirst notification message for allfuture communication related tothat query). We stronglyrecommend that users, whenreplying to a mail sent by thesystem, do not include theoriginal mail in their reply; afterseveral replies the message getsvery long and quite difficult tounderstand in the PRMSapplication (which alreadytracks all mail replies internally).

ConclusionWe hope that you, as a user, arehappy with this new contract,even though computing issuesare not always simple to solveand everything cannot besupported. E-mail any commentsto User.Relations@cern.ch,which is looked after by the UserAssistance team.Nicole Crémel and RogerWoolnough, IT/UDS

Desktop Support makes smoothtransition to improved services

4 CERN Computer Newsletter • November–December 2004

Physics computing

LINUX upgrade required to keepoperating systems up to dateCurrently most of the nodesproviding the LXPLUS andLXBATCH services at CERN run atailored version of the Red Hat7.3 LINUX distribution.

Red Hat released a newversion called Red HatEnterprise server 3 (RHES3)some time ago and no longersupports 7.3. CERN and otherHEP sites, notably Fermilab,have decided to standardize ontheir own compilations of theRHES3 open source thatcontains packages needed forscientific computing and is fullybinary-compatible with RHES3.This packaging is termedScientific LINUX 3.

There are local differencesbetween CERN and Fermilab,such as the version ofAFS/Kerberos; the version at

CERN is called SLC3 (ScientificLINUX CERN RHES3) and iscurrently under certificationtesting by the LHC experiments.An important change for them isthat the default and only gcccompiler and libraries change toversion 3.2.3. In Red Hat 7.3versions 2.96 (the default), 3.2.2and 3.2.3 were all available.

We need to migrate all ourservices to this version as soonas possible since we cannotbase production services on anunsupported operating systemfor long.

Currently the generic servicename lxplus maps to about 70PCs running Red Hat 7.3. Inparallel, we have a cluster ofPCs running SLC3 under theservice name of lxslc3 andusers, especially experiment-

code and production-chainmanagers, should log in there,instead of to lxplus, to testtheir programs.

Batch submission from lxslc3will automatically be to workernodes also running the SLC3operating system. All users areencouraged to try the servicelxslc3 instead of lxplus.Eventually lxplus will bechanged to point to lxslc3 – sobe prepared!

There is a high degree ofcompatibility between Red Hat7.3 and SLC3 and the mainchanges are described at thewebsite http://cern.ch/linux/scientific3. An overview andspecific issues for lxplus usersare at http://cern.ch/plus/SLC3.html.

We have recently taken

delivery of 400 new PCs whichhave faster CPU speeds of2.8 GHz and 2 Gb of memory.Most of these nodes will be putinto the lxslc3 interactive andbatch services so users will seean improvement over thecurrent lxplus which runs on1.0 GHz CPUs which have 1 Gbof memory.

The SLC3 services will sooncontain most of the new PCs andwe will start converting existingmachines to SLC3.

The service name to reachRed Hat 7.3 is already availableunder the name lxplus7. Thiswill be continued on a smallnumber of nodes after thechangeover of lxplus but onlyas long as it is absolutelynecessary.Harry Renshall, IT/FIO

New Time Units simplify proceduresCERN batch facilities have alwaysbeen heterogeneous with a widevariety of differing CPU speedsamong the nodes. We have hencespecified our accountingreporting and job queue CPUlimits in an arbitrary unit to whichall machines are normalized.

The current unit is the NCU, ornormalized CPU unit – though itstarted life as the New CERNUnit equal to 100 CERN units,one CERN unit being the powerof an IBM 168 mainframe circa1980. On a given machine theNCU is obtained by running abenchmark suite of what usedto be typical CERN programs,but this is now out of date. Ourcurrent machines range inspeed from 1 to 4 on this scale,so a CPU-intensive jobsubmitted to run for 8 NCUhours, queue name 8nh, wouldrun about eight real hours onour oldest machines and tworeal hours on our newest.

Soon most of our capacity willbe on faster machines and LHCjobs will become longer as codedevelops, so it makes sense toredefine the normalization ofour CPU factors so that one unitof queue time corresponds to

about the same CPU time on ourfastest nodes. We will hencerenormalize all machine speedsby a factor of four while leavingthe queue names the same. ACPU-intensive job submitted tothe 8nh queue would hence runabout eight real hours on ourfastest machines and 32 hourson our slowest.

Another factor is that with theincreasing use of the Grid itbecomes important to attempt tofind a standard CPU speednormalization between machinesthat all sites will recognize. Themost common one is theSpecINT2000 benchmark, orSI2K, supported by the StandardPerformance EvaluationCorporation. In fact for sometime experiment requests forcomputing time resources havebeen made in SI2K units. Nearlyall machines have an SI2K ratingwhile very few have a CERNbenchmark rating. Note thatdifferences of 20% between SI2Kand CERN benchmark ratings fora machine are not uncommon.

At the same time asmultiplying the queue timelimits by four, we will convertthe accounting reporting to be in

time units of thousands of SI2K,or KSI2K. The reason to usethousands is that 1 NCU is about180 SI2K, so rather than going toa base unit of 4 NCU or about720 SI2K we will anticipate thefuture and go to a base unit of1000 SI2K – namely the KSI2K.

In fact, our newest machineshave an SI2K rating of 1037,very close to 1 KSI2K. Anaccounting report that a userused one hour of KSI2K timewould mean he ran for one hourof CPU time on our newestmachine, or four hours of CPUtime on our oldest machines.

We intend to make this changewhen full services reopen in thefirst week of January 2005, so asto have full accounting years inone unit. Users who submit to aqueue will not have to change,except that there is an advantagein turnaround time if you submitto the shortest queue possible. Ajob that runs today in the 1nw(one week) queue could then besubmitted to the 2nd (two daysqueue). Usage reporting will thenmatch the units in whichexperiments make requests, sothey will be easier to understand. Harry Renshall, IT/FIO

LSF webpagesfeature enhancedstatistical data

The LSF webpages found athttp://cern.ch/batch or fromthe IT department homepageinclude a “usage and statistics”link that has now beenenhanced. There are two newlinks to the CERN LEMON (LHCEDG monitoring – see http://cern.ch/lemon) monitoringrepository. They lead todisplays of the queuedistribution of running jobs(globally and for individualusers) and job turnaround timedistributions (for individualusers). There is also a set ofdisplays of performancemeasurements (for clusters ofnodes and individual nodes).Harry Renshall, IT/FIO

The batch farms at CERN.

Desktop computing

Currently the NICE environmentsupports two operating systemson desktop machines (Windows2000 Professional and WindowsXP Professional) and threeOffice Suites (Office 2000,Office 2002 also known asOffice XP, and Office 2003).

Microsoft supports its majorapplications for five years aftertheir release date, and for Office2000 this support ended in June2004. The new Microsoft Office2003 has been tested at CERNon a panel of computers andwill progressively replace OfficeXP since it offers severalimproved functionalities like the

offline mode in Outlook. Whatfollows is a reminder of thecurrent NICE support level.● Machines already installed willnot be forced to upgrade to anew version. Installing the oldversions of the software willremain possible when theseversions are specifically needed.● Security updates will bedeployed for the old versions,when they are published byMicrosoft.● Since June 2004, Office 2000has become “not supported atCERN”. Users having difficultieswith this product will have toseek the solution themselves.

The Computing Helpdeskrecommends upgrading to thelatest version of Office (Office2003) to obtain support.● Office 2003 is now pre-installed on all new machines asthey come from the PC Shop(with Windows XP Professional).Office 2003 is also installedinstead of Office XP when themachine is re-installed fromscratch with a NICE XP floppydisk (see http://cern.ch/win/docs/WinXPSupport).● Upgrading from Windows 2000to Windows XP is possible (justselect the “Upgrading fromWindows 2000 to Windows XP”

entry in the Add/RemovePrograms tool in the ControlPanel). Note that this upgradewill also update Office 2000 toOffice 2003 and can require upto two hours to complete.● For computers runningWindows XP, upgrading fromOffice XP to Office 2003 ispossible (use this form toregister your machine: http://cern.ch/win/services/office2003mgr, then just rebootyour machine). Note that thisupgrade can require half an hourto complete.Michel Christaller and DjilaliMamouzi, IT/IS

CERN switches from Office XP to Office 2003

5CERN Computer Newsletter • November–December 2004

Every user of CERN Mail serviceshas a calendar included in themailbox which is fully integratedwith e-mail, contacts and otherfeatures, and can be accessedusing Outlook XP, Outlook 2003and even Outlook Web Access(Webmail) by a click on theCalendar icon or folder.

The Calendar lets you:● Create appointments andevents – just as you wouldwrite in a paper-basedorganizer (box 2).● Organize meetings – Outlookwill help you find the earliesttime when everyone is free.When the meeting notice ise-mailed to invitees, each willreceive a meeting request intheir Inbox. When they open it,Outlook notifies them if themeeting conflicts with an item intheir Calendar. They can accept,tentatively accept or decline byclicking a single button. Whenan invitee accepts, the entry willbe automatically added to theirCalendar. If allowed by you, asmeeting organizer, invitees canpropose an alternative meetingtime. You can track who hasaccepted, declined or counter-proposed times (box 3).● Resources such as conferencerooms, cars and video projectorscan be added and handled bythe Calendar service (box 4).Emmanuel Ormancey, IT/IS

Scheduling powers of Outlookmake meetings easy to organize

Month view of the Calendar function in Microsoft Outlook.

Work-week view of the Calendar function in Microsoft Outlook.

1. Calendar views

Select day or month.Bold days indicate anappointment.

Select view.New appointment

Views can be configured tofit the user’s preferences.The basic view modes thatcan be selected are:● Day● Work week (Monday toFriday, configurable inTools_Options_PreferencesTab_Calendar Options)● Week● Month

6 CERN Computer Newsletter • November–December 2004

Desktop computing

In Calendar view click New to create a new appointment. In the pop-up window, fill in basic fields like subject, time and duration. Note thePrivate checkbox to keep privacy on shared calendars.

2. Create an appointment

Select meeting date, time and duration.Click Scheduling to inviteattendees to the meeting.

Check Private boxto keep privacy ona shared calendar.

Set a reminder, tobe warned beforethe meeting starts.

The appointment can be scheduled with other users. Outlook will help to determine other attendees’ availability, and to schedule the meetingat a date and time convenient to all. Invitation handling and participation status are also handled automatically.

When a meeting with participants is created, an invitation is automatically sent to all expected attendees. This invitation will propose buttons toAccept or Decline the meeting. Upon receiving an accept or decline answer, the Appointment entry in the Calendar will be updated withresponses. You can check the tracking tab in the appointment to view answer status.

3. Organize a meeting and invite attendeesClick Scheduling to invite attendees to this meeting.

Simply select a time onyour Calendar, createan appointment andselect people to invite.

AutoPick Next will automaticallyselect the next period of time whereall attendees are free (non-blue).

Click Send whenfinished. Aninvitation will besent to everyparticipant.

Type attendees’names or click AddOthers to addusers.

Blue barsshow periodswhere theuser is notavailable.

You can click on any timeslot in the OutlookCalendar and begintyping. You can opt tohave a sound or messageremind you ofappointments, meetingsand events, and you canadd colours to items forat-a-glance identification.

7CERN Computer Newsletter • November–December 2004

Desktop computing3. Organize a meeting and invite attendees continued

Resources for the meeting can be booked in the way attendees are invited, and will be automatically accepted or declined depending on theiravailability. Note that not all the CERN resources are currently available – if you would like to have a new resource added, please refer to thehelp pages on the Mail Service website at http://mmm.cern.ch or contact the Helpdesk.

Blue boxes showperiods where theresource is notavailable.

AutoPick Next will automatically select the next period oftime where all attendees and resources are free (non-blue).

Click Add Others toadd a resource.

Click Accept,Decline orTentative for“try to attend”.

Acceptance

Tracking tab

Answer status per user

Select a resource andadd it to the list.

Resource booking status isknown instantly whensending or saving theappointment.

Correspondence to invite people to meetings: (1) Invitation received by attendee – note Accept, Tentative and Decline buttons; (2) Response(accept) received by meeting organizer; (3) Tracking responses – answer status for each user is given in the tracking tab of the appointment.

�1 2�

3�

4. Add resources

8 CERN Computer Newsletter • November–December 2004

Technical brief

Have you ever been unable touse some software because oflicence problems? Do you wantto know how a licence serverworks? If so, keep reading thisarticle and we will explain all thedetails to you.

The Product Support (PS)group of the IT department atCERN distributes and supportsmore than 100 softwarepackages, ranging from tools forcomputer-aided design, fieldcalculations, mathematical andstructural analysis through tosoftware development. Most ofthese tools, which are used on avariety of LINUX/UNIX andWindows platforms by differentuser populations, are commercialpackages requiring a licence.

Keeping track of the largenumber and variety of licences isno easy task, so in order toprovide a more automated andmore efficient service, the PSgroup has developed a databasesystem to track detailed licenceconfigurations and to monitortheir use. The system is calledPSLicmon (PS Licence Monitor).PSLicmon consists of four maincomponents: report generation,data loader, Oracle productdatabase and a PHP-based Webinterface. The system also hasan alarm system to notify aboutlicence expiry.

Thanks to PSLicmon, thesupport team can better matchlicence acquisitions with thediverse needs of its usercommunity, to keep licencecosts within limited budgets andto be in control of migration andphase-out scenarios betweendifferent products and/orproduct versions.

The rest of this articleprovides a description ofsoftware-licensing schemes aswell as the PSLicmon systemand its main features.

Definitions you need to knowA product is a software package.Many of the products supportedby our group are commercialones, such as Ansys,Mathematica, Euclid and Mafia.

A product may have several

components or modules, each ofthem called a feature. Differentfeatures in many casescorrespond to different binaries.For instance, Mathematica hastwo different features: a front-end and the kernel.

A licence is a key to controlthe use of a software productand its features. A licence isusually stored in a file, andthere are different types oflicence. First of all, there are sitelicences that allow anyone in theorganization to use the product.In a site licence, there are norestrictions on the number ofusers. Another type of licence,and the most common thesedays, is the floating licence.

In this case, there is amaximum number of concurrentusers for each feature of theproduct. If that number isreached, and a new user tries touse the product, access to thefeature will be denied, and theuser will have to wait until oneof the current users stops usingthe product and frees a licence.

A licence server is a computerthat hosts the licence files andkeeps track of the number ofconcurrent users. For eachlicence there is a process in thelicence server, called vendordaemon, that handles thelicence for a product.

When a user tries to use afeature of a product, theapplication will first try tocontact the vendor daemon ofthat licence and check if it isallowed to run. The licenceserver normally holds thelicence log files of product andfeature use. If anything failsduring the communication withthe licence server, the users willnot be able to use the product.This makes licence servers acritical element of computinginfrastructure: if for any reasona licence server has problems,all the people using productscovered by that licence serverwill be unable to work.

To prevent this situation, thePS group has set up a redundantlicence-server configuration: aset of three machines that deal

with the same licences. Thethree machines are in constantcommunication with oneanother, and as long as at leasttwo of them are operatingcorrectly they can serve licences.Thanks to this redundancy, wecan carry out maintenance onthe licence servers withoutdisturbing the end users.

On the licence servers we usea locally developed alarmsystem UIMON (http://uimon.cern.ch/uimon/) to ensure thatall the vendor daemons are upand running.

There are many differentschemes for implementingfloating licences. The PS groupcurrently hosts licence serversfor Flexlm (http://www.macrovision.com/products/flexlm/), LUM (http://www-306.ibm.com/software/awdtools/lum/), Mathlm (http://www.wolfram.com/products/network/mathlm.html) and Elan. Themost widely used licencemanager is Flexlm, which isbecoming the de facto standard.

PSLicmonThe core of PSLicmon is aproduct database, where wekeep information about all of theproducts the PS group supports.

The database containsessential information abouteach product, such as contactsat the supplier company, CERNpower users, supportwebpages, etc. Part of theinformation is useful to the usercommunity and is available viaa public “Product Index”(http://uimon.cern.ch/index/)webpage that provides a list ofall supported products.

The rest of the information inthe product database is relatedto installation, support,purchasing and so on, and isreserved for the support team.The database containsinformation about productlicences and the expiry date forall product features. Automaticreminders are sent to the personresponsible for the productbefore a feature expires, inorder to allow the support team

to take action and renewlicences in due time.

Application- and licence-monitoring is the core ofPSLicmon and statistics ofapplication use are stored in thedatabase. At the moment, wecan monitor four different types:Flexlm, LUM, Mathlm and SMS(http://www.microsoft.com/smserver/). However, addingproducts based on other licencemanagers is straightforward, aslong as some log facility isoffered to report the usage ofthe licensed products.

A Web interface to maintainand browse the database hasbeen implemented (https://uimon.cern.ch/licmon/). Fromthis webpage, the personresponsible for the product candisplay and update theinformation stored in thedatabase. New products can beeasily inserted into the system.The Web interface allowsmembers of the support team tobrowse through the usagestatistics of monitored products.

Another webpage ProductStat(http://uimon.cern.ch/ProductStat/cestat.pl) providesonline information on thecurrent usage of products andfeatures. This allows the supportteam to contact the users incase of blocked licences or towarn the users about systeminterventions. The ProductStatwebpage is made available tothe user community at CERN andallows them to contactcolleagues to free a licencewhen necessary. (In some casesa licence may be blockedinadvertently after a systemcrash, and the user is not awareof the problem.)

These are the maincomponents of PSLicmon. If youwant to know more, pleaseconsult the informationprovided at the websites wehave mentioned, or contact usand we will be happy to helpyou. We also invite you toconsult the index of supportedproducts on the Web.Nils-Joar Høimyr, IT/PS, and PabloSaiz, IT/GM, for the PS Support team

Licensing system works to giveusers access when they need it

9CERN Computer Newsletter • November–December 2004

Internet services & network

The whole infrastructure for WebServices has been updated thisyear. By the end of 2004, we willbe finishing the migration of allthe centrally managed websites.Therefore we are taking thisopportunity to present the keyfeatures of the service andhighlight the changesintroduced by this update.

This is not a manual for theCERN Web Services; weencourage you to read the fulldocumentation on the service’swebsite for more information:http://cern.ch/web.

Web Services and centrallymanaged sitesWeb Services at CERN aim toenable users to create andmanage websites for theorganization’s internal use aswell as for a worldwide visibility.All tasks related to websites areperformed from a single Webinterface at http://cern.ch/web,and users may request help orreport problems to the Helpdesk(web.support@cern.ch ortelephone 78888).

The Web Services team iscommitted to managing andmaintaining the infrastructurethat allows those websites torun. This infrastructure consistsof 30 dedicated servers (most ofthem part of the NICE serverenvironment) hosting 6500sites. Those websites arereferred to as “centrallymanaged sites”: the commonadministration tasks areperformed for the users.

They are not the only websitesat CERN: the central WebServices do not meet all needsand some well known websitesand applications use their owninfrastructure and servers, suchas EDH, CDS, EDMS, or theWelcome page. These are allnon-centrally managed sites.

What you can do with Web ServicesWeb Services offer three ways tohost a website, each hostingservice having its own features:● hosting on the central Webservers (also known as“frontpage” websites);

● hosting on the AFS homedirectories;● hosting on the NICE homedirectories (also known as DFS).

Centrally hosted websites arethe most versatile ones, andshould be preferred: they canrange from a simple, staticinformation site to a full-featured Web application withback-end databases. Thewebsite’s files are stored onthe central web servers, hencethe site is “centrally hosted”.Such sites are typically editedfrom a workstation with Web-authoring tools such asFrontPage, Dreamweaver andVisual Studio.

AFS- or DFS-hosted sites haveexisted historically and use fileslocated in the file system of theAFS or NICE environments.Authors edit the website directlyby modifying files in their homedirectory or shared workspace.Depending on the environment,there is more or less support foradvanced features such asdynamic content generation(scripts), databases, etc.

How to edit a websiteThe methods are differentdepending on the hostingservice. AFS and NICE/DFS-basedwebsites are edited directly fromtheir respective environment,because they consist of normaluser files: any editor can beused. The constraints on editingthose sites from outside CERNare the same as for accessing theassociated environment. Forinstance, off-site access to DFSfiles is possible from http://cern.ch/dfs or via WindowsTerminal Services (seehttp://cern.ch/wts).

Frontpage (i.e. centrallyhosted) websites are stored inthe Web server itself. They aretypically edited with dedicatedWeb-authoring software thatconnects to the Web server inorder to manipulate the files.However, any other tool can beused provided a connection tothe files stored on the Webservers is established.

CERN Web Services support

Windows-based Web-authoringsoftware such as the following.● Microsoft FrontPage is therecommended authoringsoftware. It is supported by theHelpdesk and training isprovided. It uses proprietaryinterfaces to manipulate files onthe Web server, and works fromboth inside and outside theCERN network.● Dreamweaver can be installedfrom Add/Remove Programs onNICE computers. It connects tothe Web server using WebDAV.It cannot be used from outsideCERN but is available onWindows Terminal Services.● Microsoft Visual Studio can beused by advanced developers. Ittakes advantage of theproprietary interfaces used byFrontPage (the “FrontPageServer Extensions” method).

Non-Windows users can runthose tools from WindowsTerminal Services (http://cern.ch/wts).

If other tools need to be used,there are several ways to set upa connection to the files storedon the Web servers. Here is ashort explanation – details areavailable at http://cern.ch/web.● WebDAV is a standardizedprotocol for remote filemanagement; clients areavailable for virtually allplatforms. It should beconsidered as a replacement forFTP, and can be used fromoutside CERN if encrypted.● A Web interface is available tomanage files from any Webbrowser, anywhere. It isaccessible only to the registeredauthors of the website.● SMB (the Windows file-sharing protocol) is of courseusable from Windows, butclients also exist for LINUX(Samba project) and Mac OS X(out of the box). This isrestricted to the CERN network.● FTP is now available only ondemand, and within the CERNnetwork. FTP presents securityrisks(http://cern.ch/security/ftp) and WebDAV should bepreferred whenever possiblesince it supports encryption.

A few recommendations● Do not use different authoringtools on the same website. Theymay conflict with each other,with unpredictable results.● Even if you are not aFrontPage user, do not deletethe special FrontPage folders(their name begins with _vti).They are required for thewebsite to work properly.● Use HTTPS (encryptedcommunications) instead ofHTTP whenever sensitiveinformation is involved, such aspasswords. HTTPS links shouldalways begin with https://www.cern.ch/MySiteName, regardlessof the actual hosting server. TheWeb infrastructure will take careof rewriting the URL if necessary.

Changes introduced in the newinfrastructureThe motivations for thosechanges have been to make newtechnologies available to users,improve stability and security,and improve manageability (withthe possibility of fixing mosttypical problems automatically).

For users familiar with theexisting system, here are the keychanges with the introduction ofthe new infrastructure regardingcentrally hosted websites.● Dynamic content generation:the technologies available bydefault now include ASP.NETand PHP, in addition to ASP andPerl. ASP remains the simplest(and the recommended)technology for beginners.● FTP access is not provided bydefault.● WebDAV access and a Webinterface to manage files wereadded.● The only way to change filepermission on centrally hostedwebsites now is to use the Webinterface to manage the site’spermissions, accessible from thehttp://cern.ch/web website. (Oruse the built-in permissionmanagement feature ofFrontPage.)● Some advanced features ofFrontPage XP/2003 are nowsupported, e.g. file uploads.Alexandre Lossent, IT/IS

Don’t miss out – keep up to datewith changes in Web Services

10 CERN Computer Newsletter • November–December 2004

Internet services & network

CERN has been providing thehigh-energy physics communitywith a large number of mailinglists for several years. Thecurrent service has more than3000 mailing lists with morethan 50 000 users worldwide andaround 400 000 archived mails.

In September 2004 a newplatform for the CERN Listboxservice was put into productionoffering several improvedfunctionalities. This evolutionwas approved by the DesktopForum held on 27 May 2004after a detailed analysis of userrequirements (you can accessthis document at http://simba.cern.ch/Help/SIMBA2UsersRequirementsDocument.pdf).

Behind the new interfacethere is a completely newdistribution mechanism and allCERN mailing lists will be movedto the new service during thenext two months. This changewill be almost transparent forusers and list owners will beinformed by e-mail when theirlist is moved to the new system.The new SIMBA2 interface (thewebsite is still http://simba.cern.ch) gives access to all listsand users are automaticallyredirected to the old interfacefor lists that haven’t beenmigrated yet.

We strongly recommend thatevery CERN “official” mailing listis registered in the ListboxService. Some of the advantages

of having a list in Listboxcompared with a private list insome user’s address book areshown in the table.

The main task of Listbox is todistribute mails to listmembers. But it also keeps anarchive of the mailing lists andasserts tight permissions forboth posting to the list andaccessing the archives.

Members can be regular CERNusers with a NICE account orexternal users without a NICEaccount. Those people areprovided with a “CERN Externalaccount” in order to beauthenticated by the system. ACERN External account is arestricted account, defined by ane-mail address that gives anypeople registered in the systemthe ability to be a member ofsome mailing lists and to accesssome list archives. A passwordis attached to the CERN Externalaccount. Users with such anaccount can authenticate to theListbox service and use it likeregular CERN users.

If you already are a member ofany mailing list on the CERNListbox service, and your e-mailaddress is not of the formFirstName.Surname@cern.ch orloginid@mail.cern.ch, then youare considered to be an externalListbox member.

To log on to the SIMBA serviceyou need to enter your e-mailaddress as your login ID

(username) followed by apassword, which we haveassigned to you already (if wehaven’t, or if you can’tremember the password, youcan request a new one at theCERN Externals website athttp://cern.ch/externalsweb/).

If you are not a CERN user andare not a member of any mailinglist at CERN then you will needto have an account created foryou by our administrators. E-mail Listbox.Support@cern.chand explain that you want toconnect to the Simba serviceand/or which list you wish tobecome a member of.

How do I go about obtaining asubscription to a Listbox list? To subscribe, you can write tothe list owner. You can alsosubscribe to a list by visiting itsproperty page in SIMBA. Pleasenote subscription may bemoderated by the list owners;that is why we recommend usingthe first method.

I receive messages but when I tryto post to the list, I’m told that I’mnot on the list. What can I do? In order to send messages to alist you must use the exact

e-mail address you subscribedwith. If you are using a differentaddress and posting to the list isrestricted to members only, thenyour messages will be rejected.To see if this is the case, send atest message to yourself. Thencheck the “From:” field of thetest message. If the address isdifferent from the address yousubscribed with, please changeyour mail-reader configurationor update your address in thelist membership.

Why do I need to authenticate tothe old SIMBA after havingauthenticated to the new one?The old SIMBA and the new oneare hosted on two differentsystems. That is why it is notpossible to forward yourauthentication to the old SIMBA.Once authenticated to both,your Web browser will cacheyour authentications and youwill not be asked again for thesame session. Anyway, the oldSIMBA interface will bedecommissioned at the end ofthis year.

What is the basis for the newsystem?The new Listbox is highlyintegrated with the Mail Servicethat was just introduced lastyear. Besides reducingoperation costs, this allows forinfrastructure redundancy andremoves the need tosynchronize a separatepassword for each side. As thisnew infrastructure is based onproduct-managing collaborativetools, mailing lists may berevisited in the future tointegrate closely somecollaborative tools.

Further helpFor more details on how to usethe Listbox service pleaseconsult the Listbox ServicesDocumentation website athttp://simba.cern.ch/Help/?kbid=010001. An FAQ isprovided at http://simba.cern.ch/Help/?kbid=014000. Michel Christaller and Ruben LeivasLedo, IT/IS

Updated Listbox service takesthe hassle out of e-mailing lists

Advantages of using Listbox

Factor List in address book List in ListboxAvailability When the list owner is away, The list is always available.

the list is unavailable.

Data quality It’s the responsibility of the list The list can be updated automaticallyowner to keep the list up to date. using the CERN central database

(either to follow users’ preferred e-mailaddresses or to recreate the listfollowing some selection criteria).

Data consistency If two people want to share a list The list is always stored in one place.(e.g. to overcome the availabilityproblem), consistency can becompromised.

List management By hand. Web interface.

CERN Listbox Services.

Internet services & network

11CERN Computer Newsletter • November–December 2004

What is the difference betweenbeing on the Internet and beingon the CERN internal network?None, if you are accessingservices on the Internet.However, when accessingservices located at CERN fromthe outside, the CERN firewallcan restrict your access.

Connecting to the CERN internalnetwork from the InternetAs a general guideline, all theservices that should beaccessible from home and/orfrom the Internet should beopened in the CERN firewall.There should be no difference inaccessing CERN services fromthe Internet compared withwhen the same services areaccessed from inside CERN.

CERN has made a major effortto ensure that all centralcomputing services are alsoavailable from outside over theInternet. This is true in particularfor the Electronic Mail, WebServices, Terminal Services,LXplus, AFS, DFS (via the webinterface at https://dfs.cern.ch/), EDMS, CDS, EDH and allAIS administrative applications.Also the future Grid computingservices are all designed to beglobally available. There shouldbe no need to request a specialaccess to the CERN internalnetwork, including for websitebrowsing. If you find a websitethat has any IP addressrestrictions, it would probablybe better to ask the website’sowner to remove them. Theowner should then replace themwith one restriction onauthenticated users that wouldsimply prevent anonymouswebsite browsing and restrict itto CERN users, wherever theyare in the world.

Having said that, exceptionsalways exist. Therefore here isthe simplest recommended wayto connect to the CERN internalnetwork when you are outside:open an interactive session onthe “Windows TerminalServices” (see http://cern.ch/wts) or to the central publicLINUX cluster LXPLUS (see

http://cern.ch/plus).As a final solution, reserved

for advanced users who knowwhat they are doing, you canuse the virtual private networkservice (see http://cern.ch/vpn).However, given the securityimplications this should be usedonly for extreme and rare cases,and users are formallydiscouraged against using it asa general solution. This is alsobecause the availability of theVPN service may bediscontinued in the future forsecurity reasons.

In conclusion, then: once youare connected to the Internet, allthe central computing servicesare available and there is nogeneral need to connect to theinternal network. If this needexists in particular cases, usersare recommended to useLXPLUS or the WindowsTerminal Services.

Connecting to the CERN TechnicalNetwork from the InternetThe CERN Technical Network isdesigned to be inaccessible fromoutside CERN. Therefore nofurther information will be givenon accessing it from theInternet. If you need to accessequipment on the TechnicalNetwork from outside CERN youmay want to reconsider why itwas located on the TechnicalNetwork in the first place.

Connecting your home computer tothe InternetThis is the simplest case ofconnecting to the Internet. All

you need is a computer, atelephone line and a modem(note that the modem can bebuilt-in inside the computer).The modem connects to thetelephone socket on the wall.There are several types ofInternet connection:● an analogue modem, wherethe data are transmitted over anormal analogue phone call at aspeed of up to 56 kbit/s (kilobitsper second).● a digital ISDN (IntegratedServices Digital Network)telephone line that gives you64 kbit/s. You can also grouptwo simultaneous ISDN lines tohave a total of 128 kbit/s.However, the advent of ADSL(see below) means that the ISDNsolution is used less and less,and is therefore no longerrecommended for home use.● An ADSL subscription wherethe modem is connected via aspecial “high frequencies” filteron the line. In this case you canhave from 256 kbit/s to 2 Mb/sor even higher.

There are additional types ofInternet subscriptions that canuse satellites or televisioncables. These will not bediscussed here, but the model isalways the same: a modem thatconnects a telecommunicationdevice to the computer.

Note that when using ISDN oran analogue modem thecomputer is typically connectedusing the serial (or USB) lines.Because of the higherbandwidth of ADSL, an ADSLmodem always connects using

an Ethernet or USB interface.Detailed information on how

to install a particular modemand the required software onyour computer should comefrom your Internet serviceprovider (ISP) with whom youneed to subscribe to get anInternet connection. It isstrongly recommended that youenable the local firewall of yourcomputer. For the CERNstandard portable computerrunning Windows XP, this isexplained at http://cern.ch/Win/docs/XP-firewall.

For connecting multiplecomputers to the Internet athome please refer to theextended version of this article:http://cern.ch/RemoteAccess/doc/Scenarios/.

Connecting your CERN portablecomputer to the Internet when youare at homeThis is identical to the way toconnect your home computerdescribed above. Since the vastmajority of CERN portablecomputers are equipped withWireless cards, the ADSL withwireless access point solution athome is ideal because it allowsyou to move your portablecomputer to/from your officetransparently. In all cases,especially if you do not haveADSL at home, any othersolution to connect yourcomputer to the Internet athome remains valid, includingthe analogue modem.

Connecting your CERN portablecomputer to the Internet when youare travellingWhen travelling, things getmuch more complicatedbecause you never know whatyou can expect at the remotelocation. Most probably one ofthe following four possibilitieswill be offered to you:connecting to the Internetusing an analogue modem,connecting using a GSMportable phone, connectingusing a Wireless provider orconnecting using Ethernet.

It would take too long to

How to stay in touch with CERNwherever you are in the world

telephone line (analogue) RS232 or USB

telephone line (digital) RS232 or USB

telephone line with ADSL USB or Ethernet

to telephone wall socket

to telephone wall socket(needs high-frequencyADSL filter)

to telephone wall socketanalogue 56kbit/s modem

ISDN modem

ADSL modem

Connecting your home computer to the Internet.

12 CERN Computer Newsletter • November–December 2004

Internet services & networkdescribe all the four cases inthis article. We again invite youto refer to the detaileddescriptions in the extendedversion at http://cern.ch/RemoteAccess/doc/Scenarios/.

How visitors to CERN can connectto the Internet from hotels andhomes in the CERN neighbourhoodIf you are a temporary visitor toCERN and you require a short-term Internet connection fromyour flat, the easiest andquickest solution is theanalogue-modem connection. Inboth France and Switzerlandthere are “free” ISPs thatprovide you with unlimitedInternet access for the cost of alocal telephone call. If you buy“packages” and you commit to aminimum number of hoursconnected per month, then you

can obtain even better deals.The major difficulty that

visitors may have is finding anISP with Web information pagesavailable in English.

If you live in Switzerland thereare two providers (Infomaniakand Tiscali) that provide youwith a simple number to dial inand get an Internet connection

from anywhere (see table).If you live in France then you

have to get a free subscription.This costs nothing but activationcan take up to 48 hoursaccording to the ISP. Once thisis done, the provider will giveyou the national phone number(at a local-call cost) to call andyour username and password for

the dial-in parameters.Links to available service

providers are at the http://cern.ch/remoteaccess homepage.

For more details, please referto the extended version of thisarticle on the Remote Accesswebsite at http://cern.ch/RemoteAccess/doc/Scenarios/.Alberto Pace, IT/IS

Comedy corner:the peril of plants

We would like to wishyou a very merry

Christmas and a happyNew Year!

Access numbers for Internet service providers in Switzerland

Provider Website Dial-in informationInfomaniak www.infomaniak.ch/ username: infomaniak, password: infomaniak,

www1.infomaniak.ch/acces_internet/ telephone number: 107410840560999num_acces_free.php

Tiscali www.tiscali.ch/ username: tiscali, password: freenet, http://products.tiscali.ch/fr/ telephone number: 0840840850 prod-freenet-index.htm

Details correct at press-time, but are subject to change. In both cases you should check the phone cost withyour telecom operator before proceeding. Please check the service providers’ websites for details.

Please avoid eating anythingnear your keyboard at CERNbecause seeds might fall in anddamage this delicateinstrument…let the photographabove be a warning to us all.

The deadline for submissionsto the next issue of CNL is13 December 2004

E-mail your contributions tocnl.editor@cern.ch

13CERN Computer Newsletter • November–December 2004

Information corner

Edited by Nicole CrémelThe User Assistance Team inIT/UDS maintains a database forQuestions and Answers thathave been dealt with by theComputing Helpdesk. Thisprovides many tips on dailycomputing issues. You cansearch the database athttp://cern.ch/qa/.

Below is one example of aQuestion and Answer (Q&A)that is related to the Mailservices at CERN.

SubjectMail or NICE account blocked

QuestionI have tried to change myMAIL/NICE password with thestandard MMM tool, but soonafter that my mail account wasblocked. Why?

AnswerOne possible problem is thatyou have saved the oldpassword locally in your mailclient, and when opening thisclient it uses this wrong, oldmail password. After fiveincorrect logins your NICE or

Mail account is automaticallylocked (and blocked). This is anintruder-detection mechanismfor security reasons.

The solution is to change thislocally saved password andreset it to the new value beforeopening the mail client.

One known client with thisbehaviour is Mozilla, and notonly in the password used forIMAP, but also the passwordused for outgoing SMTPauthentication. We know ofseveral users who reset thepassword used for the IMAP

session on the mail server butforgot to change the storedpassword for the outgoing SMTPauthentication.

In all cases, a locked accountis unlocked automatically after15 minutes (but re-locks if awrong password is used again).

Questions and answers from the Helpdesk

Other general-interest Q&As and their corresponding websites

Windows (NICE – Office) related● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3529 Windows Installer Service could not be accessed● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3532 Spyware: how to get rid of it● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3535 Outlook 2003 error but the rest of the Office suite is okay● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3537 About \\SWSMS04\SMSPKGE$\CRN00050\WUJustDoit.wsf \s ● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3597 Users of a CERN division and group in NICE GM security

group● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3602 Printer icon is lost on the Windows taskbar● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3609 Scheduled Windows task doesn’t run any more after

password change● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3621 Which Service Pack version of Office am I running?● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3623 NICE account intruder counter: how do I reset it?UNIX (AFS–Lxplus/Lxbatch) related● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3229 Printing from a private LINUX PC on CERN printers● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3652 Remote X-windows display from a laptop● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3596 Function keys on a LINUX keyboardMail (Outlook–pine–mail services) related● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3658 Inbox is huge slowing down logout/login● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3644 Full mail header with OutlookWeb-related● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/0688 Writing permissions for scripts in the central Web servers

4 October Upgrade and merge of DEVDB and DEVDB9 Oracle services27 September WinZip 9.0 Service Release 116 September X Terminal servers move and X Terminals reboot11 August AFS users on Windows XP must install OpenAFS1.3.75 August New tool to deploy Windows Security Patches

The shop is situated in Building513 R-047. CERN users can buybooks and CDs there at discountprices. The service is open onweekdays from 8.30 a.m. to12.30 p.m. and it can also becontacted by e-mail (Bookshop@cern.ch) or phone (74050).

Books are purchased fromsome 15 publishing houses andthe bookshop’s catalogue offersa selection of documentationaimed at the range of computingutilities that are currentlyavailable at CERN. The servicewelcomes suggestions from theuser community for acquisitions.

The bookshop’s most recent

acquisitions include the physicsbook Physics for Scientists andEngineers with Modern Physics,plus in the computing field:● Exceptional C++ Style bySutter (who has already writtenExceptional C++ and MoreExceptional C++)● A Practical Guide to Red Hat

Linux by Sobell (new editioncontaining a CD)● Designing Software ProductLines with UML● The Unified Modeling LanguageReference Manual● Oracle SQL by Example● A new series of three MySQLbooks by MySQL Press

The complete list, with all ofthe relevant information, isintegrated into the CERN librarysystem. It is compiled regularlyand is made available on theCERN network at http://cdsweb/tools/itbook.py.Roger Woolnough and Jutta Megies,IT/UDS

Recent acquisitions at the IT bookshop

CalendarNovember8 5th IEEE/ACM InternationalWorkshop on Grid ComputingPittsburgh, PA, www.gridbus.org/grid2004/

22–26 EGEE 2nd ConferenceThe Hague, The Netherlands,http://public.eu-egee.org/events/conferences

December19–22 HiPC 2004Bangalore, India, www.hipc.org/

February 20057–11 GlobusWORLD 2005Boston, MA, www.globusworld.org/

14–16 European Grid Conference Amsterdam, The Netherlands,http://genias.biz/egc2005/

21–25 Tridentcom 2005Trento, Italy, www.tridentcom.org/

CERN Book Fair, 28–29 October.

Changes to services in the IT department are announced and published in the Service Status Board athttp://cern.ch/it-servicestatus. Below are the most recent changes and their dates of posting.

Recent changes to CERN’s IT services