CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
At CERN
Progress Report
Alberto Di Meglio, Ivan Deloose, Per Hagen, Frédéric Hemmer, Alberto Pace
Information Technology Division - CERN
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Outline
• Pilot experience
• Plans for production services
•
•
•
•
•
Home directories
Migration out of Novell Netware
Migration out of NT4
Tools
Application distribution
• Next Steps
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Windows 2000 Pilot Experience
• ~ 150 systems
• 30 Windows 2000 Servers
• 130 Windows 2000 Professional
• 2.5 % of expected scope
• Variety of users 
• … but mainly volunteers 
• Variety of platforms
• Laptops (15)
• 90-800Mhz, 48->512 MB
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
General problems encountered
• DFS FRS on large volumes sometime fails
• Maybe due to staging space limitations
• Decided to switch FRS off for Home dirs.
• SMS software metering sometimes fail
• Will see if future versions solve this
• DNS integration with Unix bind was not easy
• Server backup SW long to arrive
• Some problems with portable and PNP/Modem/APM
have been observed
• Cleared by a reboot
• Support for some devices is still flaky
• E.g. GSM, HP consumer printers
Overall impression positive
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Windows 2000 on Portables
• Benefits
• All your documents can be made available for
offline use
• Hibernate/Standby support
• DHCP
• PnP
• Resilient to network/server failures
• Problems
• Some PnP problems appearing occasionally
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Windows 2000 Desktop Stability
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Outline
• Pilot experience
• Plans for production services
•
•
•
•
•
Home directories
Migration out of Novell Netware
Migration out of NT4
Tools
Application distribution
• Next Steps
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Home Directories
WINIT01
adimeg
WINDFS02
WINDFS01
Users\a\adimeg
Users\a\azu
Users\z
WINEP01
azu
•Initial pilot proposal based on a divisional structure
But …
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Problems with this approach
• MS recommends maximum 1000 DFS
mount points
• There are more than 8000 users
• We ran into the limit where no more links
could be created (September 2000)
• Automatic creation of users gets
complicated
• A lookup on every div is necessary
• Users change from div to div
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Physical structure (II)
WINDIV01
adimeg
.
WINDFS02
WINDFS01
Users\a
.
azu .
WINDIV26
zhyon
Users\z
So alphabetic ordering was implemented
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Architecture limitation ?
• With this approach, all accounts with the
same initial letter must be on the same
physical server
• All home directories must be hosted in 26 servers
maximum
• However …
• Better that divisional approach where all home dir
had to be hosted in max 11 servers
• In all cases, project space can be used to offload
home directory servers if necessary
• With present technology, all home directories
could be hosted in 4 servers – there is lot of space
for growth … (especially because server
technology evolves very fast)
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Logical Structure
cern.ch
Dfs Tree
adimeg
Users
a
…
…
azu
z
Old Mount
New
MountPoints
Points
Projects
LHCB
harvey
scratch
Applications
Systems
Unlimited evolution
(several thousands mount points possible)
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Macintosh support
• Should we offer Appleshare services
from DFS ?
• File services for the Mac are one
generation behind services for Win
• Can compromise the stability of the DFS
service (as it did with Novell in the past)
• Only for a minority of users
• Still unclear if the Mac will be a supported
platform at CERN
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Outline
• Pilot experience
• Plans for production services
•
•
•
•
•
Home directories
Migration out of Novell Netware
Migration out of NT4
Tools
Application distribution
• Next Steps
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
NetWare Migration to W2000
• A nightmare, largely underestimated
• Multiple name spaces
• Support for Macintosh
• Historical situation grown from 1990
•
•
•
•
Large number of accounts (>8000)
Large number of groups (>800)
Large number of (old) files (10 M)
Complex file protection scheme
– Not directly mappable to W2K
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Scenario
• Migrate NW file systems to NTFS5
• CERN NT domain (not W2K pilot)
• Keep UNC paths unchanged (user transparent)
• No NT4 servers
• Successful reliability and performance results win2000
• Better ACL mappings (inheritance, special rights)
• Name spaces
• DOS-OS2 (long names), MAC, NFS
• Different server types
• Workgroup servers, MAC only servers, NICE
application servers, divisional servers, home
directory servers
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Technical Problems
• MAC name space
• NW provides APIs to extract AFP
resources (icons, MAC name), but no
Win32 API to write these back to a NTFS
server -> Use a Mac to transfer files
• The Mac does not copy ACL and all
security related information
• NFS name space
• No solution for automated file
ownership/rights migration
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Migration sequence
Netware server
W2K server
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Migration sequence
NTMigrate (Win2000)
1 - Get a PC (NT4 – 32bit NW client)
5 – Convert users, groups
and file rights
4 – Generate Trustee &
NW Group member files
2 - Create Directory structure file
DOS, AFP name space (NDSDump)
7 - Get a Macintosh
Netware server
5 – Create groups and
add members
6 – Set ACLs on
directories
8 – Copy files using
DirStruct file (speed)
9 – Rename directories
DOS -> Mac name
3 - Create Directories on target server
W2K server
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
NetWare Servers migration
Server
srv1_home
srv2_home
srv3_home
srv4_home
srv5_home
srv1_div
srv2_div
srv3_div
srv4_div
srv5_div
srv6_div
srv0_nice
srv1-5_nice
Totals
Files Directories
GB Home Dirs
979832
165935
59.2
2017
755757
88993 59.37
642
717329
122990
52
1245
1245558
227270 56.98
3948
317218
57803 20.98
720
4015694
662991 248.53
8572
395830
32699
59.2
406373
38836 47.99
154572
11321 30.78
288426
54488 59.06
541471
7736
46.4
40250
2532 31.81
1826922
147612 275.24
803410
88181 42.35
4017050
440905 211.75
10663076
1339689 777.87
8572
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Problems Encountered ?
• Client for MS sometimes not correctly configured
• Manual fix
• Netware/NT Password not synchronized
• Manual / automated fix
• ftp access syntax changed
• New syntax to learn, scripts to modify
• Manual drive mappings
• Needs to be recreated
• No root mapping
• Kludge exist on NT; nothing on W95
• Trustee manager not available
• Trustee manager written
• Disconnected portable take time to logon
• Eject PCMCIA Ethernet adapter
• Home Directories are browsable
• Feature, similar to AFS
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Outline
• Pilot experience
• Plans for production services
•
•
•
•
•
Home directories
Server Migration out of Novell Netware
Server Migration out of NT4
Tools
Application distribution
• Next Steps
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
NT 4 Server Migration to W2000
• WINS Servers done
• Domain Controllers done
• Including remote DCs in experiments
• CERN Domain promoted to Win2000
native mode
• In-place upgrade
• Mostly transparent to users
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Outline
• Pilot experience
• Plans for production services
•
•
•
•
•
Home directories
Migration out of Novell Netware
Migration out of NT4
Tools
Application distribution
• Next Steps
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Tools that had to be developed
•
•
•
•
•
•
Printer Wizard
Trustee Manager
Group Manager
User Registration Services
Computer Registration Services
To be done
• Password recovery, “Administrators” Local Group
management, Local Administrator Password
recovery, Computer Account Reset, User Profile
recovery and reset, quota enforcement, quota
management …
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Outline
• Pilot experience
• Plans for production services
•
•
•
•
•
Home directories
Migration out of Novell Netware
Migration out of NT4
Tools
Application distribution
• Next Steps
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
0
Applications
Ftp Inc 3270
NetMeeting
Publisher
LView
Outlook Express
NCD PCXWare
Illustrator
FrontPage
CorelDraw
PhotoPaint
Exceed Telnet
WinZip
PaintShopPro
Access
Outlook
Exceed Ftp
DreamWeaver
Ftp Inc FTP
Micrografix Designer
Pine
Project
Framemaker
GSView
FileMaker Pro
IE
PowerPoint
Ftp Inc Telnet
Exceed X Server
Excel
Word
Acrobat Reader
Netscape Navigator
Netscape Mail
Application Concurrent Usage
2000
1800
1600
1400
1200
1000
< 100
< 40
800
< 20
600
400
200
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Managed Applications
• Part of OS
• Internet Explorer
• Assigned to Computer (using MSI)
• MS Office 2000
• Access, Excel, FrontPage, Outlook, PowerPoint, Word
• Acrobat Reader, Printing Package, Phone Book,
Winzip, anti virus, and other tools …
• Published to User (using MSI or ZAP)
• MS Project, MS Publisher
• Remedy
• Exceed
All most used functionalities are provided
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Application Deployment
• Still unclear to what extent SMS will be
used
• We are trying to deploy using mainly MSI
and ZAP files
• In order to use ZAP files, the
“Administrators” local group has to be
managed
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Comparing SMS 2.0 and Win 2000
Application deployment
New OS deployment
Windows 2000
SMS 2.0




OS update deployment
User settings management
User data management



Remote tools

Software metering

Network analysis / diagnostics

Health monitoring
Only overlap is in software deployment! 
Hardware / software inventory
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
SMS Questions
• Are there any privacy issues?
• Do we have to restrict access to these
tools? To whom?
• Do we have to include special clauses
in outsourcing contracts ?
• Do we have to have our own staff to
sign something ? (cf. HR data).
• How do we publicize this ?
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Few words on an hot topic
• Netscape is currently the most used app at
CERN
• But we see a dark future …
• Netscape 4.7 has not been made available
(as a managed app.) in the pilot
•
•
•
•
•
No SMS/MSI install available
No CERN customization available
Repackaging risk to be difficult
IE 5.x integrated in the OS
Outlook now part of Office (with MSI)
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Current Proposal
(under discussion)
• Recommend Internet Explorer and Outlook
2000 as the browser and mail client for
Windows 2000
•
•
•
•
•
Apparently stable
No CERN specials anymore
Bookmarks and Address Books can be imported
IMAP mails & structure unchanged
Deployment of collaborative tools possible
(calendaring, groupware, video conferencing, …)
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
W2KMTF
• The current question is now:
• How to proceed with the next steps, I.e. how do
we go from the current NICE 95/NT to NICE 2000
and what timescale ?
• Applications: many of them, overlapping
functionality, support not always clear, work
needed to repackage ?
• At what speed are the divisions/experiments ready
to migrate ?
• What are the show stoppers ?
• A working group has been setup
• Windows 2000 Migration Task Force
• First meeting scheduled the 7th of November
• More than 30 participants …
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Outline
• Pilot experience
• Plans for production services
•
•
•
•
•
Home directories
Migration out of Novell Netware
Migration out of NT4
Tools
Application distribution
• Next Steps
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Next Steps
• Define automated installation procedures
• Unattended W2K setup + assigned applications
• sysprep / disk image for new PC’s & portables
• Develop missing tools
• Repackage missing applications
• Once the application set has been decided …
• Customize mail client for CERN environment
• And finally, start migrating client computers
• 4000 PCs, 2 hrs/PC  5 man*years
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
Schedule (July
(today)
(February
2000)2000)
Proof of concepts
Applications availability with MSI
Migration scenarios
Coexistence & Migration plan
Prototype
Windows 2000 Pilot
NICE 2000
NICE 2000 NICE 2000
Checkpoint
Jan
Feb Mar
Apr
May Jun
Jul
Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb
NICE 2000 with minimal set of apps
CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research