What's new in KP3 computing ?

See the FAQ and YAB lists as well as the `Trouble Log' for VMS.

February 13^th, 2003
- The group server lxgs03 and with it all KP3 clients were from KDE 3.0.5a to KDE 3.1 .
February 6^th, 2003
- The new wXP/Suse-linux system kp3nbg001 was installed.
January 31^st, 2003
- The group server lxgs03 and with it all KP3 clients were upgraded from Debian 'potato' to 'woody', which includes an upgrade to kernel 2.4.20 and to KDE 3.0.5a.
January 22^nd, 2003
- The KP3 web server www-kp3.gsi.de is now a virtual host on the central linux web server www-linux.gsi.de. The CVS pserver was also migrated.
August 30^th, 2002
- The new linux system lxg0312 was installed.
January 28^th, 2002
- kp3pcj upgraded from 64 to 128 MByte..
January 10^th, 2002
- The new linux system lxg0311 was installed.
November 20^th, 2001
- The WNT node kp3pcf failed, probably disk failure. Decommisioned because system is too old to justify a repair.
May 4^th, 2001
- New Linux node lxg0310 setup in room 4.166.
March 8^th, 2001
- The VMS Alpha system AXP612 was finally decommissioned. The FDDI connection to this node was already cut on March 23, 2000 and it hasn't been used ever since.
November 2^nd, 2000
- Two linux systems were borrowed from KP1 and temporarily given names associated with the KP3 system server:
```
        lxg0200  --> lxg0309
        lxg0214  --> lxg0301
```
September 26^th, 2000
- The whole Linux cluster was upgraded to Debian 2.2 (potato). Lots of fun afterwards because egcs was replaced by gcc 2.95.2, which generate incompatible C++ code.
May 3^rd, 2000
- The linux system lxg0301 was convered into a WindowsNT system and renamed back to kp3pcj.
March 23^th, 2000
- The GSI FDDI intrastructure, based on DEC GigaSwitches, is retired. As a consequence, the FDDI connections to AXP612 and AXP645 are disconnected. The node AXP612 was connected to FDDI on July 5th, 1994 and worked as a `group server' for a long time.
January 2^nd, 2000
- The VMS CLEX1 cluster has been shutdown permanently. No impact on KP3 because the last VAX system was already shut down on April 27th, 1998
December 15^th, 1999
- The VMS node AXP627, a AXP-3000-M300LX was retired. This is the end of VMS desktop systems at KP3. Left are AXP612 and AXP645.
December 2^nd, 1999
- The VMS node AXP625, a AXP-3000-M300LX with an FDDI interface, was retired.
November 26^th, 1999
- Two new Linux systems were installed (PIII, 500 MHz) with the names lxg0306 and lxg0307.
November 10^th, 1999
- The node kp3pck was converted to lxg0302. This completes the transition from Debian 1.3 to 2.1 as well as from systems with a local system disk to systems based on your group server lxgs03 (see also October 14th).
November 4^th, 1999
- The web server was relocated again (see June 21). The KP3 group server houses now the web server. The IP alias www-kp3.gsi.de points now to lxgs03.
October 20^th, 1999
- Nodes lxg0005, lxg0007, and lxg0015 upgraded and renamed as described on October 14^th.
- Nodes kp3pck and lxg0303 were exchanged, kp3pck now in room 4.162.
October 19^th, 1999
- Former node kp3pcj converted to lxg0301.

October 14^th, 1999

The new KP3 Linux group server lxgs03 is taken into service. All KP3 Linux desk top systems will be served from this group server. All systems will receive a new node name like

      lxg03nn
         ^ ^
         | all clients are numbered 00,01,...
         |
         indicates that a client is served from lxgs03.

The new names for the KP3 Linux desktop systems will be

        new             old             User
        ---             ---             ----
        lxg0300         lxg0007         Luehning
        lxg0301         kp3pcj          bittiger
        lxg0302         kp3pck          lukasik
        lxg0303         kp3pcm          gourio
        lxg0304         lxg0015         turzo
        lxg0305         lxg0005         carsten

The former node kp3pcm was upgraded to Debian 2.1, converted from a stand-alone system to a system tied to lxgs03, and has now the name lxg0303.

October 1^st, 1999
- The AL_POOL0 area was finally moved and is available under the old logical name.
September 30^th, 1999
- The MX mail delivery system used on VMS doesn't work reliably after the upgrade to VMS 7.2. It was been temporarily replaced by the DEC SMTP implementation. Unfortunately this doesn't support mailing lists, so all KP3 mailing list are defunct at the moment.
- The AL_POOL0 area was cleaned to fit onto a central disk. The following areas were backedup:
```
   [ADAR...]
   [BEGEMANN.SCHNITT]
   [DP2...]
   [FSWARE...]
   [INDRA...]
   [LUKASIK.NDIM]
   [KP3_MHONARC...]
   [OCKER.PP...]
   [OCKER.VAX]
```

September 28^th, 1999

The VMS cluster was upgraded to

    OpenVMS 7.2-1
    TCP/IP (ehemals UCX) V. 5.0A 
    DEC Motif V 1.2-5
    C    V. 6.0 
    C++  V. 6.2
    Fortran V. 7.2

September 23^rd, 1999
- The venerable KP3 server for VMS, the node AXP607, has been retired from it's server duties. The node was setup on April 4th, 1996 and served all the KP3 owned VMS disk in the last three and a half years with great reliability and performance.
- The contents of the disks served by AXP607 was copied to disks attached to the central file servers.
```
      Area name      Old device    New device               Comment
      ---------      ----------    ----------               -------
      KP3$ROOT       disk$dl175    disk$dc133 ($1$dkg100:)

      AL_TEMP0       disk$dl124    disk$dc134 ($1$dkg200:)
      AL_DATA0       disk$dl124    disk$dc134 ($1$dkg200:)
      AL_DATA1       disk$dl124    disk$dc134 ($1$dkg200:)  Merged with AL_DATA0
      
      AL_TEMP1       disk$dl126    -- not longer available --

      AL_POOL0       disk$dl178    disk$dc133 ($1$dkg100:)  to be done !!
```
  Please note that
  - All relevant logical name definitions ect have been updated, so most of the changes should be completely transparent.
  - The contents of AL_DATA0 and AL_DATA1 has been merged into one file system. The logical AL_DATA1 is still available but simply an alias for AL_DATA0.
  - The area AL_TEMP1 is not longer available. Use AL_TEMP0 instead.
  - The area AL_POOL0 is currently unavailable and will be restored later this week.
- The node AXP607 has been renamed AXP645 and is available for interactive use.
August 3^rd, 1999
- The node lxg0005, which failed on July 23rd, back in service. The problems were caused by a misconfigured /etc/fstab.
July 23^rd, 1999
- The node lxg0005 became unusable (errors when accessing /tmp) and didn't reboot anymore.
July 22^nd, 1999
- The node kp3pco, which failed on July 10th, was reconfigured as lxg0015 and runs under Debian 2.1 now.
July 10^th, 1999
- Node kp3pco failed on July 9th and July 10th at 4:42 am when cron executed "run-parts /etc/cron.daily". It turned out that the scsiinfo command executed in gsi_daily_refresh caused SCSI resets when /dev/sda was inquired. The SCSI resets brought down the system, and as a consequence, the file systems were corrupted.
July 6^th, 1999
- Node kp3pcj back in service. Failure was probably caused by a worn out CPU fan.
July 2^nd, 1999
- Node kp3pcj failed.
June 25^rd, 1999
- The node axp612 has been repaired. The processor box had collected a lot of dirt, had overheated, and some memory modules had died.
June 23^rd, 1999
- The node axp612 failed.
June 21^st, 1999
- The IP alias www-kp3.gsi.de points now to kp3pck.
June 18^th, 1999
- The KPIII Web site http://www-kp3.gsi.de/ was moved from the VMS to Linux. The old server, based on the OSU software, on AXP607 was installed on August 19^th, 1997 will still serve some VMS specific items, but allmost all data has been moved to the new Apache based server currently located on kp3pck. For details see "What's new on the KP3 Web".
May 10^th, 1999
- The VMS account botvina, disabled on April 28^th, was reenabled.

April 30^th, 1999

The VAX cluster is scheduled to shut down on May 1st:

  Es wurde ja die Abschaffung des CLEX1 Clusters von hoher Stelle gefordert.
  Seitens der Nutzer gab es keine Einwaende. Nachdem nun die gewuenschten Er-
  satzgeraete zur Verfuegung stehen, erwarten wir, dass bis zum 30-Apr-1999
  alle Nutzer ihre Daten auf andere Welten kopiert und dieses Cluster verlas-
  sen haben. Ab 1-May-1999 steht das CLEX1 Cluster nicht mehr zur Verfuegung.
  w.s.

Most of the accounts have been removed a year ago, on March 16th, 1998 and on April 30th, 1998. Some remaining accounts were backedup and removed now

	claudius
	indra
	takahashi

The aladinsoft directory as well as the OS9 server areas (os9$root:[caveb] and [elex]) have been backedup too.

April 28^th, 1999
- The node kp3pci was reconfigured as lxg0007 and runs under Debian 2.1 now.
- Three PC's were reconfigured to solve the recently observed problems with SCSI resets: the external SCSI connector was removed, the system set to internal termination. Affected were
```
	kp3pck		had only passive terminator
	kp3pcm		had no terminator
	kp3pco		had only passive terminator
```
  Note, that all three had no proper SCSI termination.
- The VMS accounts
```
	desesque
	mahi
	moehlenkamp
	schnitt
	serfling
```
  were disabled, completely backedup and removed. The VMS accounts
```
	andreas
	botvina
	claudius
	hongfei
	ocker
	sfritz
	woerner
```
  were disabled (login and email).
April 13^th, 1999
- The failure of kp3pcp on April 6^th was in all likelyhood due to corruption of software and/or configuration. The system was reconfigured as lxg0005 and runs under Debian 2.1 now. Apart from a BIOS upgrade, which didn't fix the original problem, no hardware changes were done.
April 6^th, 1999
- The linux system kp3pcp died over Easter break. The system boots, but the monitor just shows a black-dark blue flicker when the system starts the graphics. Keyboards and mouse are dead.
- It turned out, that kp3pcp was delivered with a double processor motherboard because at this time normal boards were in short supply !
February 8^th, 1999
- Yet another two Linux systems, kp3pco and kp3pcp, were installed. Their configuration is identical to kp3pck, kp3pcl, and kp3pcm: 333 MHz, PII, 128 Mbyte memory, 4 Gbyte disk.
January 12^th, 1999
- The systems kp3pci, kp3pcj, kp3pcm (linux), kp3pcf (WNT), axp625 (VMS) and dswa01 (DEC/UNIX) were connected to the twisted pair ethernet infrastructure. All systems use 10baseT so far.
- Two 18 Gbyte disks are now available as a stripe-set on the Linux cluster under /d/kp3/
Dezember 18^th, 1998
- The KP3 linux system kp3pck was the first node to use the new 100baseT network infrastructure. The GSI Kurier wrote:
  
  100Mbit/sec - oder: Darf es ein bißchen schneller sein?
  Wenn auch die Zeichen nicht immer günstig standen, so ist es der Netzwerkgruppe trotzdem gelungen, wie geplant, noch im Jahr 1998 die erste Twisted Pair (TP) Netzwerkverbindung mit 100 Megabit/sec Übertragungsrate in einer Denkzelle im Südbau Ebene 4 in Betrieb zu nehmen. Am 18. Dezember um 11.00 Uhr ging der PC KP3PCK ans neue Netz.
  
  Zwischen dem 7. und 12. Dezember wurden von einer Fachfirma ca. 8 km TP-Kabel verlegt. Im Januar sollen die restlichen Arbeiten in der Ebene 4 im Ostteil des Südbaus abgeschlossen werden, so daß diesen Netzlast-gebremsten Benutzern in jedem Raum Anschlüsse mit 10/100 Mbit/sec Bandbreite zur Verfügung stehen. Es ist aber auch bereits an die Zukunft gedacht: so kann das installierte System ebenfalls Daten nach dem GIGAbit Standard 1000BASE-X (Nutzdatenrate 1 Gigabit/sec) übertragen.
October 13^th, 1998
- Returned the loaned WNT system depc21.
October 7^th, 1998
- One more Linux system installed, kp3pcm, which has the same configuration as kp3pck, except that it is running Debian 2.0 Linux.
September 29^th, 1998
- The Linux systems kp3pck and kp3pcl were moved to the offices, kp3pci was relocated.
September 17^th, 1998
- Two more Linux systems were installed, kp3pck and kp3pcl. Both are 333 MHz, PII, 128 Mbyte memory, 4 Gbyte disk systems running Debian 1.3.1 Linux. kp3pcl has a second 4 Gbyte disk. Both systems were installed in the Cave B shack.
June 24^th, 1998
- The Linux system kp3pcj is installed in the Cave B shack.
June 11^th, 1998
- The two new Linux systems were installed, kp3pci and kp3pcj. Both are 233 MHz, PII, 64 Mbyte memory, 4 Gbyte disk systems with a 10 Mbit combo Ethernet card running Debian 1.3.1 Linux. The system kp3pci is in active use, while the screen for kp3pcj is still missing.
April 30^th, 1998
- The disks $68$DKA300: (DL015) and $68$DKA500: (DL061), holding the area ce_pool0, have been retired. The files were backedup. The disks had the capacities
```
	$68$DKA300:    663 Mb    Impremis 94191-1   Rev 0815
	$68$DKA500:   1040 Mb    Impremis 94601-1   Rev 4158
```
- The node vsbz was transfered to the KP I division and moved to the Cave B shack (will be used as OS9 disk server).
April 27^th, 1998
- The area kp3$broot was moved from $9$DKA200:[kp3.] to $2$DKA400:[kp3.].
- The disk $9$DKA200: (DL093) holding kp3$broot as well as disk $9$DKA400: (DL094) holding bz_temp0, both 2 Gb DEC DSP5200S drives, were retired.
- The node vsbz is not longer used as a server by KP3.
March 24^th, 1998
- The disk $9$DKA300: (DL095), a 2 Gb DEC DSP5200S holding bz_pool0 and reference copy areas, was retired.
March 23^rd, 1998
- Removed BZ_POOL0 area.
- Removed secondary and tertiary swap file for VSBZ on DL094 and DL095 (they were added June 23rd, 1992 when VSBZ was the lastest and most loaded system).

March 20^th, 1998

Cleanup in VAX systems. The following accounts were backedup and disabled:

  andreas
  botvina
  muellerw
  pochodzalla
  raciti
  schnitt
  sfritz
  woerner

The following area on the VAX cluster were backedup and removed:

  CMS_S022	CMS_S031
  REF_S022	REF_S031
  
  DATA_S031	DOC_S031	DST_S031

  TIM_S022      DOC_S022

  DOC_S114

March 19^th, 1998
- Cleanup local disks on AXP625 and AXP627. The areas
```
  a25_pool0:[ocker]
  a25_pool0:[serfling]
  a27_pool0:[serfling]
  a27_pool0:[theo]
```
  have been backedup and removed. The logicals
```
  a25_pool0
  a25_pool0
```
  which were introduced on July 28th, 1994 were removed.

March 16^th, 1998

The Xterminal XWTDV, a Tektronix XP358 color system with 12 Mbyte memory, broke after a power outage last month and was scraped.

Cleanup in AXP systems. The following accounts were backedup and disabled:

  hofmann
  kunde
  kunze
  lindenstruth
  milano
  mudex
  zude
  kp3guest1,kp3guest2,kp3guest3,kp3guest4

Cleanup in VAX systems. The following accounts were backedup and disabled:

  kp3guest
  lindenstruth
  moehlenkamp
  mudex
  serfling

The following BZ_POOL0 areas were backedup and removed:

  [ANDREAS...]    [BEGEMANN...]    [CARSTEN...]
  [CLAUDIUS...]   [HONGFEI...]     [KLEINEVOSS...]
  [KREUTZ...]     [KUNZE...]       [LAND...]
  [LYNEN...]      [OCKER...]       [POCHODZALLA...]
  [SCHNITT...]    [SERFLING...]    [SFRITZ...]

  [AU1000...]  [AU800...]    [S114...]   [S117...]

Archive of `old news':
- 1997 January - December
- 1996 January - December
- 1995 July - December
- 1995 January - June
- 1994 October - December
- 1994 July - September
- 1994 May - June

Walter F.J. Müller

Created: June 2^nd, 1994
Last modified: Mon Feb 24 20:42:53 CET 2003

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