R18 http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/ en-us Copyright 2008 Tue, 30 Oct 2007 08:10:54 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=3.35 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss We're live and we're still alive We opened R18 to all users just a wek ago today. Hard to believe it's only been a week. We still have issues - who doesn't? We don't have any showstoppers. WebAdvisor, Ben-R18 interface, Communication Management, AP Checks, Core Enhancements; they're all working and those stinkin' computed columns are getting corrected first in big lumps, now one at a time.

Users are not screaming, at least, not at us which is all we ask. A big thatnks to User Services for handling all the login issues.

Over all, it went pretty well. Who would have guessed?

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http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/10/were_live_and_were_still_alive.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/10/were_live_and_were_still_alive.html Tue, 30 Oct 2007 08:10:54 -0500 Test day almost over, live day tomorrow We started at 5pm on Thursday and fought through all kinds of problems, from virus scans automatically running when I was trying to update DMI (times out every time) to patches with 16 hour post installs, to BNGN crapping out of cc'c with slashes in the name.

Nearly at the end of our testing day, almost everyone outside this office is happy. We JUST got AP Checks printing correctly while I was typing this. At least one office wore black on Friday to mourn the passing of Kermit. We'll miss it.

Tomorrow should be fun. Just keep the coffee pot full so I can stay awake.

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http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/10/test_day_almost_over_live_day.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/10/test_day_almost_over_live_day.html Mon, 22 Oct 2007 15:40:17 -0500 Here we go!

http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/10/here_we_go.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/10/here_we_go.html Thu, 18 Oct 2007 16:49:42 -0500 Live Day! Well, the day has come. Are we ready? It depends on what level. We've tested a lot but I'm sure more will be tested next week after we bring up the production environment. On an emotional level we all just want to get it over with and move ahead.

WebAdvisor was down this morning. Our datatel password expired at midnight! Bad omen? Sure hope not. Bad timing for sure!

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http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/10/live_day.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/10/live_day.html Thu, 18 Oct 2007 08:37:11 -0500 Step by step, inch by inch... It's getting closer. So who remembers what that title is from or the key phrase that triggered it? It really fits!

PADUG was a success and I say that not just because I won a very nice digital camera. Good sessions good networking and I agree with my daughter about Juniata's food. It left something to be desired but that wasn't the reason we were there. We were getting away from our R18 conversion! But it's still here.

Things are slowly (very slowly) falling into place. Just hope not too much if falling through the cracks. We'll see next Tuesday! Til then, "slowly I turned..."

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http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/10/inch_by_inch_step_by_step.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/10/inch_by_inch_step_by_step.html Tue, 16 Oct 2007 16:27:23 -0500 NINE DAYS including weekends Like I said, 9 days to go. Been busy. New environment prodtest2 is built and patched - still working on post install details. Still cleaning up after user testing. I think we'll be cleaning up for a loooong time.

PADUG is next Monday. Jason and I are presenting on Informer and how wonderful it is. Don't tell anyone but we don't have it running on R18 yet.

Add it to the list...

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http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/10/nine_days_including_weekends.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/10/nine_days_including_weekends.html Tue, 09 Oct 2007 16:02:43 -0500 Time grows short We continue to test R18 and the new HP-UX server. Don't know which one is more confusing. Actually, I do but HP-UX is a big change from Tru64. X.LIST.LABEL and all the other PCL sending print routines should work in the next few days, now that I found the flaw in the setup string. Keep testing, everyone.

Brian reports that all his screens work flawlessly. That's two screens down 8 billion more to go.

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http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/10/time_grows_short.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/10/time_grows_short.html Mon, 01 Oct 2007 14:49:23 -0500 Onward... 21 days to go and we are finally making progress on testing. Users have passwords, as of noon today. I expect (hope) to have our test WebAdvisor pointing to prodtest1 today. We are fixing problems as they come in from user testing. After a status meeting today we decided to stick with our published live date - for now.

An editorial correction, it's Elias Mitchell Ramsey - very cute kid!

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http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/09/onward.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/09/onward.html Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:31:49 -0500 Thank you Dave Lasky Down to 29 days to conversion day. We found out last week that we have been running on the wrong verion of Unidata the whole time. Requested the correct version from Datatel. They sent us the same one we had before *sigh*

Called Dave Lasky. He went down and dope slapped the IT people at Datatel and they sent us the Itanium Unidata, which is now installed. We'll see how it runs. Faster, I hope!

Oh yeah, Jason and Tiffany had their baby on Monday - Elias Matthew. Congratulations!

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http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/09/thank_you_dave_lasky.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/09/thank_you_dave_lasky.html Wed, 19 Sep 2007 10:12:22 -0500 Time is running out! We are down to a month and a day until we start to go live. I feel pretty good about building the environment. Last one went very well. However, we just found out that Datatel sent us the wrong version of Unidata for our HP server. We got the non-Itanium version for an Itanium server. It works, sort of, but does not scale well to heavy loads so some big processes would bring Unidata to its knees. Ordered a replacement Friday. Here is it Monday afternoon and no response from Datatel. Come on guys! We're on a tight schedule here!

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http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/09/time_is_running_out.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/09/time_is_running_out.html Mon, 17 Sep 2007 15:21:36 -0500 New test environment ready! A new test environment is ready to use - prodtest1. This will start our user testing. Better late than never, I guess. Data is from R17 live as of last week. Everything looks good so far. The account was built in about 24-26 working hours without pushing it. I think I can do better. prodtest2 will be a timing test to see how conversion weekend will run. Why does everyone want to get married the weekend we are loading R18??

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http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/09/new_test_environment_1.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/09/new_test_environment_1.html Thu, 06 Sep 2007 09:42:18 -0500 New test environment I'm in the midst of building a new test environment called prodtest1, based on our live account. It is a slow process - DMI Upgrades are flakey and popapp takes forever and there are still hundreds of patches to apply. Should be ready for user testing my mid-week.

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http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/08/new_test_environment.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/08/new_test_environment.html Fri, 31 Aug 2007 11:09:47 -0500 Thngs are moving along We have had a series of successes this week. I haven't wanted to say anything for fear of jinxing the whole thing. So this week we got The Ben 5.1 R18 interface working, WebAdvisor test working to R18, pretty much, user signin through our menu shell, communications management, sending email from CC and a few other things. Live date is 1 month, 25 days, 2 hours 12 minutes and 6, 5, 4 seconds and counting.

Plans for next week include a new test environment and LOTS of testing.

Here we go!

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http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/08/thngs_are_moving_along.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/08/thngs_are_moving_along.html Fri, 24 Aug 2007 14:34:55 -0500 Cedarville DOWNLOAD works Don't know why I'm surprised. I guess any success on R18 is worth noting, though. The Cedarville Download, at least our version 7.11, works fine on R18. Check that one off.

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http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/08/cedarville_download_works.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/08/cedarville_download_works.html Mon, 06 Aug 2007 09:44:07 -0500 Important progress Yeah, it's been a while. We've all been busy, when we can breathe! So we got the licensing for S/Rexx settled late last week and now our good old menu works. That is a really good and important step. We once again have full control over our users logging in to the new server. They cann fall through to UI or if they come in character mode, we can point them to a query account or a Benefactor account. This is one major hurdle we have passed. Now people can log in!

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http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/08/important_progress.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/p/pgifford/r18/2007/08/important_progress.html Mon, 06 Aug 2007 08:09:47 -0500