SYSTEMS STAFF MONTHLY UPDATE - February 2007

ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. Staff hotline

2-2772 (CSSB). It will ring all staff phones and has voicemail.

2. NYS-Grid systems on-line

Three CEWIT systems are now part of the NYS-Grid.

3. Mat Lab available in Trans labs

Mat Lab R2006b v7.3 is available on all 90 of the PC's that are part of the Trans lab including rooms 2210, 2129, 2126.

4. Software upgrades in the grad PC lab

Xwin32 to v8.08, Powerarchiver to 2006 v9.63, Firefox to v2, Netbeans IDE 5, IBM Rational Software Architect v6.0, Adobe Acrobat to v7.08. The software list in the Gradlab is located at: http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~gradlab/software.html

5. Transaction Processing Lab software

The following are software versions of installed packages in the Trans lab. We are noting these packages/versions due to faculty inquiries about their availability in the Trans lab. Other packages not yet installed are covered in the "FUTURE PLANS" section (Item #1).

BlueJ 2.1.3, Java 6, Netbeans 5.5, MATLAB R2006b 7.3, Maya 6.0 6.00.0000, Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 11.0.7969.0, ROBOLAB 2.5.4, Rational Suite Enterprise 2003.06.12.280.000, TortoiseCVS 1.8.28

6. Security alerts for Microsoft products

Multiple vulnerabilities have been identified in products which could result in remote code execution on an affected PC.

6a. Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-002 affects: Microsoft Excel 2000, Microsoft Excel 2002, Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 2. These remote attacks require the person executing the code to have administrative access.

6b. Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-003 affects: Microsoft Outlook 2000, Microsoft Outlook 2002, Microsoft Outlook 2003. These remote attacks require the person executing the code to have administrative access.

6c. Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-004 affects: Internet Explorer 7 on Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2, Internet Explorer 7 on Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Internet Explorer 7 on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1, Internet Explorer 7 on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition. A person logged into the system with administrative rights executing carefully crafted code could pass complete control of the system to a remote attacker.

In general you can minimize your exposure to these remote attacks by keeping a separate admin account and a "normal" user account. Only use the administrative account when installing software or modifying system parameters. See LINK

7. Web updates

Updated the special-topics course page to list courses that will be offered in Spring 2007.

ONGOING WORK

1. MySQL in Trans lab

Due to requests for MYSQL support this semester, the staff is testing a MySQL installation in the trans lab. The current configuration should provide the basic support required for anticipated projects this spring and expanded features in the future.

2. Server upgrades

Orders for server hardware upgrades have arrived at the vendor and are expected to ship any day now.

3. Webmail system

The webmail system is nearly ready for production use. Expect an announcement in about 7-10 days.

FUTURE PLANS

1.IBM Rational Software Architect 7.0 and Modeler 7.0.

The staff well be deploying IBM Rational Software Architect 7.0 and Modeler 7.0 in the Transaction processing lab for use this semester.

2. Web site management systems

The web admin will be investigating web publishing and content management systems for the department web site. If you have experience with such tools you may share your impressions and experiences by sending email to webadm.

REMINDERS

1. CEWIT

The CEWIT reporting website is: http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~cewit There are now 16 32-bit compute nodes (Dell, Xeon cpu) named compute-0-0 through compute-0-15. There are two HP 32GB RAM 4-CPU nodes available (compute-1-0, compute-1-1). A number of additional nodes are assigned to "Planet Lab". If you are interested in projects for CEWIT or Planet Lab contact Dr. Mohr (amohr) or Dr. Ajay Gupta (ajay). Specific requests for support (add software, problems, questions) should be submitted using WREQ.

2. WREQ Problem Reporting Tool

Work requests and problem reports must be submitted to WREQ and not to ntadmin/root or individual staff members. This helps us track the progress of work requests better. We suggest using the Web interface to submit wreq requests at the URL: http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~wreq You can also email to wreq at cs dot sunysb dot edu but the Web interface is preferred. If you send email, please send plain text (without MIME attachments).

3. SECWREQ Problem Reporting Tool

You are encouraged to use SECWREQ for requests such as requisitions, course room changes, office supplies, grade changes, room reservations, payroll issues, tuition issues, reimbursements and building management issues (heat/cooling/ lights/leaking roof). The SECWREQ tool is located at: http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~secwreq. You can send mail to secwreq at cs dot sunysb dot edu; however, please do not send attachments or MIME mail there.

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