Tuesday, February 11, 2003
|
Time |
Agenda Item, Presenter(s), & Expected Outcome
|
8:00 am |
Welcome and Introductions / Agenda Review
Presented by: Brian McCallum
Expected Outcome: Information Updates |
8:30 am |
Caribbean District Program Overview
{ Attach presentation here }
Presented by: Matt Larson, District Chief
Overview follows: Matt has been at Caribbean District since 1987.
- The island is frequently exposed to hurricanes and other large hydrologic
events.
- Caribbean tectonics plate's graphic shows PR is in the middle of two
tectonic plates that move in opposite directions. PR susceptible
to frequent small quakes. 1918 -- last large magnitude quake.
- Bedrock geology -- Northern part of island is mostly limestone. In this area
we find the islands major aquifer.
- Island affected by various moisture events -- Trade winds, Northeastern cold
fronts, inner tropical convergence zone among others.
- Hurricanes can bring half of the islands needed rainfall but PR does not
have the needed storage capacity.
- Flooding used to be the major cause of death about 200 years ago. Thanks
to advances in flood-warning systems, flood related deaths are now a rare
incident.
- During EL Nino PR get less hurricanes. During La Nina PR gets more
hurricanes. We are entering a La Nina period. Many hurricanes expected
this year. (NWIS chief later recommended that PR should be one of the
first sites to move to NWISRT).
- The island suffered major droughts at the end of the 90's.
- Bermuda highs -- high-pressure zones also affect weather in PR. It prevents
cold fronts from reaching us and moves tropical weather away. This yields
to beautiful low humidity days but are drought prone events.
- Removal of forest cover --increases storm flow and affects water quality;
this is a concern to local government because PR has high urbanization.
- Fecal colonies (a major problem in Northeastern and Southeastern part of
the island) are polluting rivers.
- Matt: "We are taxing our resources pretty heavily in this island";
both electricity and fresh water. This problem is compounded by delays in
repair of water leaks and illegal hook ups.
- None of PR lakes are natural.
- Real-time pages show substantially low streamflow in recent periods.
Expected Outcome: Educate ITAC and guests on scientific
elements involved in WRD projects. |
9:00 am |
Caribbean IT Overview
{ Attach presentation here }
Presented by: John Parks, System Administrator
Overview follows:
- Approximately 40 people, one NWIS server, one Lotus server, three NT.
- 13 dial-up lines -- used for redundancy during hurricanes to get
data to cooperators and to fax cooperators RTD graphics during emergency
events.
- Backup generators -- most important part of operations. One for computers,
the other for office lighting. Following the last hurricane the office was
on generators for 3 months. Generators switch on automatically but each can
individually support the office with a manual override, in case one fails
or needs servicing. Service plan test them one a week and services them
once a month.
- Strongly recommends Dreamweaver over Frontpage to validate web pages.
- He is convinced that Frontpage is not good. Clean up scripts finds hundreds
of unneeded page tags. Dreamweaver creates cleaner pages. He believes SAs
are encouraged to use Frontpage because it is free.
- The office has two web servers, one for development, the other a production
server -- very easy to manage with Dreamweaver. He uses development site
to preview pages. After DC approval they are pushed out to production server.
He helped the SC District and PRs Department of Health redesign their web
pages on the development server. Access to development server is limited to
PR subnet.
- Caribbean National Forest (El Yunque) Information Kiosk -- Bob Hirsh visited
El Yunque and decided the USGS needed a presence at the visitor's center.
He now has one kiosk up and running at the Caribbean District office and one
at El Yunque available to the public.
- The kiosk uses a free Internet map server called "MapServer" (very similar
to ArcServer) to pull GIS layers that show the location of stream gages and
rain gages. People can zoom into areas of interest. It is not currently
tied to NWIS but he plans to rebuild the application to interact with NWIS.
Everything available at the Kiosk is "local" data except one part ... the
only time the kiosk goes out (to the internet) is to request hydrographs
from NWISWeb. It makes an http query to NWISWeb. He strips everything from
NWISWeb replies and displays only the graph.
- Keyboard and mouse are hidden inside the kiosk. Tried using two different
touch screens but one was too sensitive to humidity so he stuck with the
pressure sensitive model.
- Because of learning curve involved, the time it took to develop (3 years)
and the change in technologies, the first kiosk cost about 50K but now
could be done for almost half the cost.
- The kiosk also has information about other USGS disciplines.
- This was a joint effort from Hirsh, the Forest service and special
initiative funds the District had. He is also working on other admin
applications such as sign in and out, and a WRD guest information kiosk
for the front office.
- SA is also very involved in Hurricane Mitch project in Central and South
America -- considered various technologies for data transfers DCP stations
and NWIS databases but EMWIN proved most reliable and cost effective.
- DRGS -- expensive- 35K-125K
- Radio -- Radio repeaters come down during landslides,
not reliable
- Internet lines -- depends on communication lines which are not
reliable in C&S America. 6K per month.
- EMWIN -- Preferred method. Cheap, simple installation, reliable
although sometimes data is transmitted twice. One time fee of
1.2K per ground station.
- EMWIN -- has 3 cues.that prioritize jobs. Graphics are last.
They cannot carry the 15K DCP sites that we (the USGS) have.
Works well for Central and South America because they only have
about 240 stations.
- AD Research February 3-7, 2003 -- Sam Martinez, Scott Brondel, John Parks
- Expected outcome -- to understand pro's and con's of the two AD
models. John also needed to develop a plan to migrate one loaded
NT server (that handles RAS, WEB, BDC and dial-up pools) to
separate servers.
- They tested using RAS dial-out to communicate with the
central AD servers in case of an emergency. John said it worked
well. This is a possible solution to WAN outages but only for
offices that have separate lines for WAN and phone traffic
(separate T1s).
- PR currently has 3 NT servers. They now plan to buy 4 low-end to
mid range systems, continue using 2 existing systems and
decommission one.
- Kerberos tickets are good for 8- to 10-hours (adjustable parameter).
If users stay logged in, they should be ok even if both WAN and
RAS dial-out are down.
- Test started at 1:30pm and communications were established within
an hour using RAS.
- Paul suggested testing when users are just arriving to the office
and logging in the morning.
- John sees the same issues with a central implementation as we have
seen with Lotus before he got a local Lotus server.
Expected Outcome: Educate ITAC and guests on Information Technology:
- accomplishments and strengths of Caribbean District.
- share Information Technology with other WRD offices.
|
9:45 am |
BREAK |
10:00 am |
TOWN HALL MEETING -- brief presentations:
Presented by: ITAC Members & District Employees
- Local District issues:
- IDs now required due to orange code.
- Largest number troops activated in PRs history.
District Chief mentioned staff family members that
have been activated.
- IT purchase freeze still on.
- Congratulations for 3 Awards and 4 promotions.
ITAC Overview (5 minutes) -- Brian McCallum
Recent achievements -- Raised concerns on BASIS plus,
alerted WRD Senior staff of issues the offices are facing;
influence Bureau on AD direction; jump started SLEDS
implementation; Guidelines for Home Computing; list of
training needs for SA training; but most importantly,
improved communications and raised field concerns to the
GIOs office.
Bureau IT issues
(10 minutes) -- Kevin Gallagher
- This is his first chance to see a WRD office in action.
- Local [District] offices are not always exposed to pressures
coming from Washington.
- Explained how Clinger Cohen Act is forcing Federal agencies
to "think enterprise".
- Bureau IT Issues (a.k.a. Enterprise Initiatives):
- Budget cuts for 04 -- The Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) pressure- DOI got $166M cut in IT.
These cuts are seemingly random, not related to OMB
300 Process. USGS has to figure out how to cut 12.2M
out of IT.
- ITMR Study -- Applying best practices and
private sector benchmark to DOI IT, such as consolidation
of servers and services and mass purchase program. Kevin
volunteered to be part of the group that will develop
the acquisition contract for mass purchases. His main
goal is avoiding purchases of antiquated equipment.
Bureau has been very proactive in acquiring exemptions
for scientific equipment and setting up waiver process.
Once the acquisition contract is in place the freeze
will be lifted and people will purchase equipment from
the contract.
- Network SecurityDrivers:
- Federal IT Security Reform
- KPMG Audit- auditing financial systems
- IG Security Audit
- COBELL law suit agains DOI
- DOI Memos
- DOI Perimeter Security Plan
- SAIC Score card- DOI hired SAIC who graded USGS
on security. The USGS accounted for over half
of the vulnerabilities in the Department. Bureau
Network Security Project will address these
vulnerabilities. We need to patch servers, build
DMZs, consolidate servers, and obtain OMB A130
accreditation.
- Microsoft Enterprise Agreement -- 3-year but will
probably be renewed once the agency standardizes.
- Centralized deployment of Active Directory -- DOI
was initially very aggressive in pushing for a centralized
deployment. The Bureau knew from the beginning it would be
difficult to implement but had to participate. Recently,
last week, there has been a realization by the DOI that
the network infrastructure is not in place and they
Decided to take phased approach.
- DOI Secretarial Order -- Mandates that all Bureau
develop an IT Capital Planning Process. Kevin suggested
that the GIO form a Capital Investment Board to make IT
investment decisions. He hopes that this board will make
cuts at the HQ level, among projects like Lotus, Enterprise
Web, etc. and not at the cost center level.
DIS Office update -- Tom Wood --
First/last visit to PR was in 1985 teaching Info.
- DIS responsible for NatWeb, water.usgs.gov, Field Computer
Project, OI Cyber seminars. Due to the IT reorganization,
several people have been transferred to GIO office and several
other people have been transferred in to the DIS Program
Office.
- DIS will deliver media for several MS EA software packages
to all WRD offices.
- NT TAC supporting local AD model but participating in testing of
centralized model.
- DMZ- impact on District- if you want to continue providing public
services you will need to separate servers that provide public
services and get additional hardware (a firewall) to implement
a DMZ.
- DIS coordinates SPLUS training and Maintains Electronic Forms
templates.
NWIS Status
(5 minutes) -- Susan Trapanese
- 4.3 release beta testing late February -- bug fixes to ADAPS,
GWSI and NWIS. UV editing will be turned back on in Hydra/ADAPS.
SWUDS is being beta tested at 3 districts.
- NWIS RT -- Susan explained importance of NWISRT system to the
PR office. There is a second part to this project that will
serve redundant mirroring of NWISWeb servers. "What is needed
to process NWIS data is totally different than what is needed
to process NWISWeb data". Announced availability of cyberseminars
in March.
Questions and Answers with District Staff
(Jessica Alvarez capturing notes):
- When will IT Freeze be lifted? What is the estimated
timeframe?
DOI has an aggressive timeframe of 2 months
but Kevin does not see it happening. In the mean time use the
emergency waiver process if the equipment is not on the exemption
list.
- When will we be able to serve longer periods of unit value data
and more daily values data (other than the current 1.5 years or
historic streamflow)? -- PR needs to serve longer periods
of water records to show extended drought. For example 10 years of
data.
Susan's reply: period of record for
published daily values (all parameters) is the number one requested
enhancement to NWISWeb. This enhancement will require work from
both NWIS and NWISWeb teams who are currently concentrating on
completing the NWIS RT project and beginning their
"getting-off-the-treadmill" tasks. For Unit Value (UV) data, OSW
is investigating strategies to put "historic" UVs on another server
and link it to NWIS Web; NWISWeb would continue to serve "current"
UV data. Although this historical uv "archive" will utilize NWIS
extraction routines and metadata for linkages to NWIS databases,
the archive can be implemented "outside" of NWIS/NWISWeb so that
NWIS won't have an additional system/service to manage.
- What is the status of dumping NWIS data into STORET
-- USGS and EPA are meeting again. What is on the table now is
that districts/USGS will not be required to put data into STORET
(depending on the terms of individual district agreements with
coop partners). USGS and EPA have agreed that dumping data into
STORET is not the way to go. Instead we should provide a service
for users to come to a portal to access water quality data from
either USGS or EPA (and potentially other entities) and the data
would be described in a similar manner. We are back at the table
trying to figure out how to do this. Prototyping for this portal
has already begun. A Team is being put together to develop an
overall plan with "phased" implementation. One of the team's
first tasks (and most challenging) is to map/relate the USGS and
EPA water quality data/information to a common logical "view".
- When will we see detailed reports from BASIS+ ? --
Katherine commented that BASIS+ is a moving target
that is out of our control. AOs are forwarding concerns through
conference calls with Gene Summerhill. Our concerns are now
going up a level, to Carol Aten. Mindy Lanza will be going on
detail to help them develop policy and the business processes
handbook and to work with the BASIS+ team on reports and system
enhancements. This gives us an opportunity to pass on WRD
reporting needs. Her detail will hopefully allow WRD to request
that BASIS expects fixes or find an alternate temporary solution.
- Is the rumor true, that Interior plans to develop a
department-wide financial system?
Kevin says an
initiative is on its way. A Request for Information (RIF)
is being done, very early stages. This will not be anytime
soon, maybe 2 to 3 years down the road.
- Is there any movement to provide windows clients for NWIS?
We have the MS EA in place and we are running windows but
NWIS is not on Windows.
Susan: SWUDS is such a client. NWIS has discussed how
they might approach a migration of a client. Two small pilots,
using technical consultants, are in place to explore developing
NWIS applications in Java -- the pilot applications are Peak
flow and site visit. Although the goal of these pilots is to gain
practical experience and to document new development techniques,
the peakflow pilot will produce a "finished/approved" NWIS
software application that will replace the existing peakflow
ADAPs application. Although the development is Java, these
pilot applications will not be browser based.
- Is Advanced Directory (AD) really the greatest thing since
sliced bread?
Paul: Most of the benefit is for the SA, not
having students running around doing updates. Benefit for
traveling users will be access to resources at other offices
without SA intervention.
Nelson: it will primarily benefit managers who
travel a lot.
Jim: two things we have to answer; 1) does a
centralized implementation make sense as a business practice and;
2) what happens if we can't connect, problems presented in John's
presentation need to be resolved.
Jessie: It will give top level IT managaers
control to hold-on/secure the OS on Windows host and allow them
to easily produce reports to show DOI how secure Windows
systems are.
Expected Outcome: Discussion |
11:30 am |
LUNCH |
12:30 pm |
Real-Time Flood Alert System (RTFAST)
Presented by: Dianne Lopez, Computer Specialist, Guaynabo, PR
Meeting Notes follow:
- Java based
- Developed as part of FEMA agreement. Funded by CINDI.
- 40 radio transmitted station maintained by PREMA.
- Main driver was the need to know flood stages within minutes or hours.
- Most cooperators use ADAPS to get info but learning curve is high.
- Program was written to integrate different sources of information from
different agencies.
- RTFAST's Interbase database is maintained at PR District.
- Only 3 months of data is kept in db because emergency management
agencies are not concerned with historical data.
- Program features:
- Calculates cumulative rainfall and rainfall intensity
- Produces hydrographs of stage and discharge
- Allows user to compare an existing even with a known previous
event. Currently 2-yr and 10 yr events currently available.
- Cooperators can choose data to be viewed by station number
or station name or by basin.
- They can choose to view data in increments of 15min to one
hour.
- When plotting numerous stations, if one is out of "whack" it
can be turned off so that it does not affect the plotting of
the other stations. The graph will automatically adjust.
- Future plans -- to work on automating station updates from NWIS to
RTFAST. Currently it has to be done manually. She has NWIS server setup
to ftp data to her database, just like it ftps data to the NWISWeb
server.
Expected Outcome: Discussion |
12:45 pm |
ITAC Discussion of Town Meeting and Issues
Presented by: ITAC Members
Expected Outcome: Ensure Caribbean District needs are heard
and addressed during the ITAC meeting.
Insights from Town meeting:
- Frustrations with number of Bureau, Headquarters, and Information
Technology specific acronyms -- hit with too many.
-- Offer a chance to learn what acronyms mean as a follow-up.
Spell out acronyms in minutes.
- Concerned about lack of questions -- hope presentations were
understood.
- A note will be sent to District offering contact with ITAC during
the next 2 days.
- Jessica recorded 7 questions which were
discussed during meeting:
- We let them have an idea of issues that ITAC does discuss.
-- Walked away with idea of broader issues
- We need to make certain District staff has enough time to ask
questions, but information dialog among ITAC members was
informative.
- Consider getting a sense of what they would like to know
before starting presentations.
- Matt feels presentations were fine and challenging to the
audience.
- He heard very little "Reston-speak" (aka TQM junk)
- Only requested tuning to District needs and reactions
in the the future and not scrap what was done.
- Send e-mail to District Chief highlighting types of questions
asked by other Districts.
|
1:30 pm |
Expectations of meeting (brainstorming session)
Presented by: ITAC Members
Expected Outcome: ITAC member interaction
List of Expectations follow:
- Communicate (educate) CTO about WRD issues. Kevin to come away
with understanding of what ITAC is be about:
- Don't just complain -- demonstrate how we can be effective
for WRD and USGS.
- Make him aware that we have talented people in every District
-- and how ITAC is used to do maintain senior staff abreast of
District IT strengths and weaknesses.
- Problems with Basis+ and feedback -- continue to explain problems
and ask for solutions.
- We do not know our budgets and close out will be a true issue.
- Personnel costs and possible deficit or surplus discovered
late in the year.
- Suggested to consider turning on a minimum number of reports.
- Cut across issues within ITAC.
- Easy to be negative towards the Bureau and WRD; managers and ITAC need to
accentuate the positives.
- Example: IT freeze and budget -- field people still
know our mission
- Looking how databases will change in the future.
- Discussion about IT competitive sourcing. Can ITAC help?
- Provide feedback to District.
(Feb2003.PR.23)
Jessica Alvarez -- will write down 7
questions from the Town Hall meeting and provide the answers
(after verification) to District.
- Should have brought up mobile computing at town meeting
(but Charlie is not here)
- Charlie wants to know what to do considering no budget
- Consider line item in budget to modernize operations
(data collection)
- Better communication across the areas (field v. AO v etc)
- Support for direction memorandum for AD -- discussion and feedback.
- Feedback on AD and NWIS and future goals from this cross-cutting
part of group.
- Educate new ITAC members as to the function of ITAC and what can we
influence (reference the Troy, NY meeting and discussion session).
- Recovery cost of enterprise agreement calculated to be $200 per FTE
per site.
- Remind Districts of this cost
- South Carolina and Tennessee District are both in dire straights.
- Furlough in both and possible TN RIF early next year
- Cost recovery on top of this
- How do we get the word out to assist?
- Get reality considered at DOI.
- Talk to Congress and figure out how to do it
- NWIS, NWIS-Web, field computing and other WRD specific issues need to
be constantly addressed to continue to have good products through
these difficult times.
|
2:00 pm |
BREAK |
2:30 pm |
OLD BUSINESS:
- Review Action Items
from previous meetings
Presented by: Brian McCallum
Expected Outcome: Progress update.
Action item discussion deferred to next meeting/conference call
in order to keep agenda on schedule. ITAC members have been focusing
on this meetings organization leaving little time to address Action
Items as of last conference call one month ago.
|
3:00 pm |
NEW BUSINESS:
- FY 2003 ITAC Goals
Presented by: Brian McCallum
Expected Outcome: Approval of FY 2003 goals
Meeting notes follow:
Goals listed as distributed by Brian to make certain they are
relevant:
- Goal 1 -- approved (change Active Domain to Active Directory)
- Goal 2 -- approved
- Goal 3 -- approved with the following change:
change "institutionalize the mobile computer effort"
in first bullet,
to "facilitate the design of the field mobile computer
effort implementation plan"
Goals for FY2003 were approved with changes as noted above.
- ITAC Charter
Revisions
Presented by: Brian McCallum & Katherine Lins
Expected Outcome: Approval of Charter Revisions
Katherine discussed some revisions and logic behind those revisions.
Current version is posted to ITAC website and changes are in blue font.
- Election of ITAC Vice-Chair
Presented by: Brian McCallum
Expected Outcome: election of Vice-Chair.
Sonya Jones was elected as ITAC Vice-Chair.
- Awards to previous members & Chair
Presented by: Brian McCallum / Charlie Merk
(Feb2003.PR.24)
Katherine Lins - will present awards to previous members
and Chairs. -- Recognition and appreciation letter to be written
by Katherine Lins and signed Bob Hirsch for all out-going
members and the Chair. Non-monetary awards to be considered for
the outgoing Chair.
|
4:00 pm |
Oracle Possibilities in
WRD
Presented by: Harry House
Topic/Subject Matter: I will review some of the capabilities
of Oracle systems that I feel are most immediately relevant to WRD generally.
As I am not intimately familiar with the major data systems currently being
deployed in WRD, and the challanges they face, I will NOT go into much detail
regarding specific applications of the Oracle technology to those systems.
It is my opinion that there is a tremendous lack of understanding and
appreciation in WRD and USGS in general in relation to the power and
potential of the currently licensed Oracle software we have in hand. The
primary goal of the talk will be to provide an initial enlightenment of
our IT staff to that end.
Why it is important: For IT personnel and managers to
understand this because of the potential cost savings and improved
efficiencies that could be realized by replacing or augmenting current
methods and systems with selected applications using the Oracle technology
stack.
Expected Outcome: I would expect ITAC personnel to have a
fuller appreciation for what Oracle brings to the agency. I would expect
this will be an opportunity for ITAC to ask questions throughout the
conference to further enhance their knowledge. I do not anticipate any
direct action items to come out of this presentation. That said, I believe
some action should be taken to ensure that there is additional education
regarding this product going forward. An enterprise structure should be
configured around existing and new deployments to ensure easier data
sharing and integration nationally. I believe both of these efforts will
require specific personnel assigned to these tasks.
(Feb2003.PR.25)
Tom Wood - will get costs and a handle on what we are paying
for data bases. We already own SQL servers, Ingres, Oracle, and Access.
Do not buy another and until we understand what we already own. -- Start
talk about what should be communicated ... who supports Oracle at the
Bureau level?
(Feb2003.PR.26)
Tom Wood & Jessica Alvarez - need to get the word out to Project
Chiefs as they are relying on local resources.
Additional discussion notes: Kevin expands on his
experience with database management:
- Centralizing Oracle servers raises many possibilities, for example,
more cost effective for Districts.
- When one compares databases, there is no clear winner.
- SQL Server lighter while Oracle can do more but is heavier.
- Coast Guard decided that databases needed to be web based
and centralized.
- Oracle was used for warehousing.
- Local database selection was based on what the developers knew.
- Moving data from a variety of locat databases into the Warehouse
was "piece of cake" using XML, etc.
- Coming to agreement on schema is most important (data model).
- While enforcing a data model brings efficiencies to the Enterprise,
sometimes you can't get there.
- Centralization (comes at a cost but has its trade-off).
- Warehousing requires heavier tools such as Oracle.
(Feb2003.PR.27)
ITAC members - will consider a standard data model for the simple
things (date, time, etc.)
NWIS will communicate what they are doing about data models and bring in
someone for Oracle. Not an action item at this time. NWIS believes most
sites end up adopting their existing data model when designing local
databases.
|
5:00 pm |
Review of Action Items from the day
Presented by: Brian McCallum & Charlie Merk
Expected Outcome: Documented list of action items |
5:15 pm |
ADJOURN for the day |
Wednesday, February 12, 2003 |
Time |
Agenda Item, Presenter(s), & Expected Outcome
|
7:30 am |
Description of the DOI Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft
- Implications of this agreement, along with a status report on
testing and distribution of the software, will be presented.
- Paul Exter is the WRD Site Administrator, Maryland District, and
Bureau representative for MS Enterprise Agreement with DOI.
Presented by: Paul Exter
Expected Outcome: Communication of impact on WRD
Meeting notes follow: See
http://nttac.usgs.gov/os/xp.
- MS Enterprise Agreement - 3 yr contract of $6.2 M for 8,450 USGS
enterprise desktops [with office and lotus on them]. Field laptops,
thin clients, and UNIX desktops are not included. This contract
includes current version of office and upgrade license to current
version of windows. Does not include Publisher FrontPage. Although
we still have license to FrontPage 2000 version. Work at home
licenses not included for XP, but still ok for Office 2000. $1.6 M
is the FY03 cost.
- Only have 26 copies of SMS and 6 copies of SQL server [it is required
for SMS] and 600 copies of MOM [requires SMS and SQL], so those will
not be distributed at this time.
- We have a brewing problem with the cost of true-up being a pay-up front
fee for all 3 years.
- Nelson: Its important to distinguish between Enterprise desktop
and scientific desktop when report number to DOI. If DOI thinks we
saved xx $ million with this contract, it might be considered an IT
budget reduction, yet it did not save WRD money, because we would not
have purchased these numbers this early.
- Active Directory - ITAC members debate cost/benefit of local vs.
centralized, especially over Paul's slides on pros and cons. Paul
seeks ITAC support for proceeding with AD. Suggestions on how to
proceed:
- Form AD Integration Project Team, to include workers on ADA,
Network, and Security Teams. Abolish ADA Team. WRD must fund
representatives on the AD Integrated project Team (ADIP).
- Continue testing and learning AD, documenting how to deploy
locally with minimal pain if we must convert to centralized
deployment, later.
- Support offices that have already deployed centralized, and
support those who have deployed and will deploy localized.
Action Items:
|
8:30 am |
Departmental Mandate to Implement Active Directory
- An update on the Department of Interior (DOI) efforts to mandate
and implement one centralized active directory structure for all
DOI bureaus. This will include a status report on preliminary work,
and work remaining to be done prior to implementation.
- Kevin Gallagher is the USGS GIO Chief Technology Officer.
Presented by: Kevin Gallagher
Expected Outcome: Communication of impact to WRD
Meeting notes follow:
- See { PowerPoint from Paul }
- 10-17-02 DOI says all Bureaus on single AD by 12/04. Bureau reps asked
for business case and pointed out our network will not support it.
- 12-5-02 DOI says all Bureaus each on separate AD by 12/04
- 1-31-03 AD at bureau discretions with common schema, naming, etc. DOI
intranet time frame 6-12 mo. With 10.x internal IP's
- 4 phases are all pilots includes Interior building and Grace Hall in
AK -- all on XP.
- Our current hardware firewalls are between bureaus [and Disciplines]
and will not let AD happen easily.
- DOI core team meets monthly in Denver.
- WRD has a volunteer group working out standards and plans and
piloting. See NTTAC pages under windows 2000 server.
- BLM has approximately the same number of employees and offices with
only 20 domain controllers.
Suggestions from Paul Exter:
- Have GIO come to an official statement on Centralized Advanced
Directory - Investigate AD, or decide to hold off at this time.
- If Investigate:
- Put together AD IPT (Integrated Project Team)
- Have representation from GS ADA (subset),
plus all other IT areas.
- Decide how to fund these people to do this work.
- Adopt the below documents as a beginning step and
present to GIO cost, process needed, etc. to Implement
AD.
- AD Documents from Paul:
|
9:15 pm |
BREAK |
9:30 am |
DIS IT Infrastructure Direction
Memo on Active Directory
- Implementation within WRD
Presented by: Tom Wood, Chief, DIS Program Office
Draft action item prior to meeting: Tom will make necessary
adjustments to the DIS IT Infrastructure Direction memo on Active Directory
Implementation within WRD. Tom will provide the revised memo to ITAC and CTO
for a final review by xx/xx, with comments due by xx/xx. Tom will send the
memo to all WRD employees.
Expected Outcome: Draft memo will be provided to ITAC
and CTO during the week of Feb 3. ITAC and CTO will come to the meeting
prepared with any clarification questions/concerns. The memo will be
discussed and a decision will be made on whether ITAC and the CTO will
support the release of the memo.
ITAC questions: Deployment costs? Operation costs and server
purchases.
ITAC suggestions: Motion to accept. Passed. CTO concurs.
Suggested additions: Add "... and pilot testing..." to the
second bullet under "Centralized/Bureau Managed AD Deployments". Also, vet
with RGIOs before sending out.
(Feb2003.PR.21)
Tom Wood - will incorporate the suggested addition, vet the memo
with the RGIOs, and send the memo to all WRD, cc to GIO and RGIO.
Status: IT
Direction Memo #14 was emailed by Tom to all WRD employees on 2/24/03.
|
10:00 am |
IT Issues Roundtable Q&A
- IT outsourcing -- In USGS, IT is not a speculative target
until FY 05, and has not been "declared." GAO is still interpreting
guidelines. Based on Greg's knowledge of the process, it seems
helpful at some point in the future to compile a list of functions
and business practices.
Presented by: ITAC Members, Kevin Gallagher, Paul Exter
Reference doc: Clarification
- IT Hardware Freeze
Expected Outcome: Clarifications of IT Issues |
11:30 am |
LUNCH |
12:30 pm |
Lotus Notes Issues
- Size limitation/constraint issues
- How are sizes enforced (i.e., no more emails)
- No Customer Advisory Board for Lotus issues
- Vulnerabilities
Presented by: Sandy Williamson
Expected Outcome: ITAC recommendation for creation of
customer advisory committee in written document.
Sandy presented 4 recommendations he'd like ITAC to propose to Lotus:
- Create Customer Advisory Board or User Group -- In principle, Kevin
agrees and will discuss with Karen.
- Formalize Lotus support group staff at the Bureau level/
- Change disk space limit.
- Change space limit enforcement mechanism -- to "can't send" vs.
"can't receive."
Graig McHendrie recommends replication for anyone who archives.
Overall replication yields better performance plus email database will
always be available to user if on laptop.
(Feb2003.PR.20)
Katherine Lins - will forward, to Kevin Gallagher, through Bob Hirsch,
Sandy's "Draft Recommendations from ITAC about Lotus" with modifications as stated
by Katherine and agreed to by ITAC. |
1:30 pm |
NatWeb Migration by WRD:
- Should ITAC officially encourage districts to migrate from local
web servers to NatWeb?
- A brief list of important pros and cons of migrating to NatWeb will
be presented. This list will be written using the experiences of at
least two sites that have already made the transition. A
recommendation on whether or not ITAC should endorse NatWeb, based
on the findings, will be submitted for discussion.
- This session should conclude with a vote on the issue, and a
resulting recommendation for distribution to District Chiefs and
District webmasters.
Presented by: Nelson Williams
Expected Outcome: ITAC endorsement on direction for WRD
migration to NatWeb.
Nelson's proposal is: "ITAC recommends that districts
migrate their web pages and web applications to NatWeb." Ref Nelson's proposal
(1/31/2003 e-mail from Nelson to ITAC) for details and notes to the
recommendation.
The NatWeb Team is soliciting IIS expertise -- Brian Reece, Gary Lebing, and
others -- to solve the problem of integrating IIS services into NatWeb. Lorna
concurs that PHP and MySQL be likewise solved by NatWeb.
ITAC Decision: Motion to accept Nelson's proposal passed
unanimously, with amendments:
- With the network security project announced by Chip Groat, it is
probable that public access to public Web pages will be cut off within
months away.
- ArcIMS and associated data base access issues need to be solved,
whether by NatWeb or DMZs. (Tabled is the ArcIMS issue for later
resolution).
(Feb2003.PR.22)
Nelson Willams and Lorna Schmid - will draft letter for Katherine
to review and send, informing districts of ITAC's endorsement of the "NatWeb
Migration by WRD" proposal.
|
2:30 pm |
BREAK |
3:00 pm |
BASIS Plus issues
- Access to fiscal reports
- Consolidation of Florida Subdistrict issues
Presented by: Debra Tracey
Reference handouts:
- CR Concerns with BASIS+
Implementation memorandum dated 2/6/03
Letter from NORDICS
dated 1/29/03 -- to alert you to the serious adverse impacts on
District programs of the implementation of BASIS+ in FY03, and to
invite Eastern Region and Headquarters management to meet with us
to try to determine appropriate ways to address the issues raised
in this letter.
Draft letter to Bonnie McGregor
dated 2/11/03.
Expected Outcome: ITAC recognizes that District Chiefs and
AOs are documenting issues in letters being forwarded to RD's and Carol Aten
(e.g. NR DC's letter). These letters might lack adequate specificity, but
point out the fact that current reports are not adequate for a cost center
to determine it's financial status. Expenditure info is in FFS; funding
estimates in BASIS+ have not yet been transferred to FFS. Monthly FFS
reports, as provided now, are not adequate, timewise. Reports to consolidate
info from both data bases is not available.
Meeting discussion follows: Oracle Discoverer can access
BASIS+, but does not yet have that access. Bob Hudson has solicited from
the SR AOs the top reports needed, and will provide this info to Bonnie
McGregor. BASIS+ staff have prioritized their list of reports to develop.
BASIS+ is working on some of these issues, but we don't know when the
improvements will be available.
ITAC struggles with how to help. Options include:
- Identify the appropriate tool (Crystal Reports, Oracle Discoverer?)
and expertise to develop interim reports from FFS and/or BASIS+
- Recommend that AIS be re-enabled as an interim solution, at least
for salary reports; however, can AIS still acquire all the necessary
info from FFS?
Upon discussion of the current status, ITAC is not prepared to make a
recommendation for additional resources. There is no available technical
solution within WRD to recommend for this particular problem.
|
4:00 pm |
Enterprise Web Update
Presented by: Greg Allord
Expected Outcome: Information Exchange
--- This presentation was postponed to next meeting, we need a
speaker from the GIO. |
4:15 pm |
Review of Action Items from the day
Presented by: Brian McCallum & Charlie Merk
Expected Outcome: Documented list of action items |
4:30 pm |
ADJOURN for the day |
Thursday, February 13, 2003 |
Time |
Agenda Item, Presenter(s), & Expected Outcome
|
8:00 am |
NWIS Future Plans
Presented by: Susan Trapanese, Chief of NWIS
Meeting Notes follow:
Reference NWIS Status notes.
Susan shared highlights of the NWIS 4.3 release, SWUDS status, and NWIS-RT.
In order to provide a district backup service from NWIS-RT, NWIS4.3 must
be installed on the district NWIS servers. RCSers and Rgnl SW
Specialists will review assignment and "rollout" schedule of districts
to NWIS-RT servers. NWISWeb/NatWeb teams have been testing replacement
methods for the ftp-ing of files from NWIS hosts to the NWISWeb/NatWeb
systems. Rsync was the selected method, of 4 methods studied.
Sniff-Spikes may be expanded to include other real-time parameters
(water quality, reservoir levels, ground-water levels). Help needed
from discipline specialists to define thresholds for these parameters.
Need was discussed for better tools to review thresholds, because too
many invalid data are passing through to NWISWeb. The NWIS User groups
(a subgroup called the technical integration group) are working through
these issues (including enhancements to ADAPS for real-time data QA).
Susan listed the "get off the treadmill" activities, which includes
an overall architectural strategy.not just an assessment of a port to
Oracle. However, regarding Oracle issues, Steve Brady is discussing
matters with Harry House. Oracle consultants will be required for
technical details such as replication. Of note is that NWIS has not
yet been able to start the "off the treadmill" process. Other activities
include mentoring replacements for key staff. For instance, Jim Cornwall
is being mentored by Scott Bartholoma and Ernest Dreyer.
Expected Outcome: Update for ITAC members. Discussion
of concerns from field. |
8:30 am |
NWIS Communication Process
Presented by: Susan Trapanese
Meeting Notes follow: Susan displayed her
"Stakeholders-diagram.doc"
showing interaction between NWIS and its various stakeholder groups. End users
can communicate their requirements through any of the appropriate stakeholder
groups, as well as through GNATS.
Regarding the proposed External Users User Group and the Program Management
Needs and OFA Partnerships, Bill Horak pointed out the vital need to give
greater weight to state cooperator needs.those stakeholders who support us
fiscally and before Congress, in contrast to OFAs (e.g. NWS) who provide
little support in either category. We also need to recognize the constituents
who mine our data and use NWISWeb heavily.
Expected Outcome: Clarification of communication process
to submit enhancements and bugs |
9:00 am |
Consolidating ftp servers in WRD
Presented by: Jessica Alvarez
Background Information/Importance: Back in November the
courts ordered the Department of Interior to discontinue the use of
anonomyous ftp. The USGS response was, in summary, such a measure would at
this point partially paralyze our operations. NWIS and the NWQL are almost
ready to replace ftp with sftp but individual Districts have not yet started
to consider the use of a centralized ftp server. Lorna Schmid had suggested
using the NatWeb servers, placed in a DMZ (secure demilitarized zone) as
the central ftp servers.
Meeting Notes follow:
Reference:
Consolidation of ftp servers (pdf) presentation. USGS is not in
compliance with (draft) DOI Perimeter Security minimum firewall configuration
mandate (Ref appendix 1), requiring USGS to reduce its FTP servers. Every
office will need a DMZ and a waiver to continue using READ-ONLY anonymous
FTP. There are other unsolved needs and problems.
We need to understand DOI requirements, as well as our requirements.
FTP access will be allowed from internal network to the Internet.
Sensitive information must be encrypted when transferred. No external
FTP access will be allowed through the USGS firewall to FTP servers
within DOI's trusted/private network. FTP traffic between USGS sites
will not be allowed, unless the FTP server is in a the DMZ. Anonymous
FTP servers are not allowed, site may get a waiver for READ-ONLY
anonymous ftp servers, after adequately secured.
Expected Outcome: ITAC needs to determine how removing
ftp servers from individual offices will affect Districts and work
with Lorna on defining a timeline and process to consolidate servers.
Action Items:
-
(Feb2003.PR.7)
ITAC Members: - Prior to meeting -- Access difficulty
of moving to sftp. Query sites to find concerns and define possible
problems. Line up assistance with either Sun Tac or NatWeb group.
During meeting -- Make a decision and recommendation on
how sites should proceed.
-
(Feb2003.PR.8)
Tom Wood - will send a "request for comment" (RFC) to district
SAs and Webmasters including the problem, draft ftp requirements list,
and solicit district comment on the requirements. ITAC members will
share the RFC with their constituents as well. DIS will consolidate
all input and coordinate results and funding needs with Kevin Gallagher.
-
(Feb2003.PR.9)
Kevin Gallagher - will share Jessie's presentation with
Stu Mitchell, will seek clarification for our assumptions and proposed
solutions, and will report back to GS-W ITAC and others, as appropriate.
-
(Feb2003.PR.10)
Kevin Gallagher - will have Mike McNally request that DOI allow
USGS to use anonymous ftp "read-only" from a DMZ, without having to
request waivers.
-
(Feb2003.PR.11)
Lorna Schmid, Tom Wood, Jessie Alvarez, and Kevin Gallagher -
will coordinate the groups that need to come together to provide the
technical solutions to the anonymous FTP, ArcIMS, and related issues.
Suggestions: The solution for cooperators is to allow them
vpn access. Kevin feels that the USGS VPN service will meet this need and
just needs some fine tuning of Web page.
|
9:30 am |
BREAK |
10:00 am |
WRD Publications Update
Presented by: Greg Allord
Meeting Notes follow:
Reference { insert Greg's powerpoint here }
. In addition to lots of details in the powerpoint, Greg rapidly
described an impressive array of activities and initiatives, that are not
recorded. { Greg, provide URL } .
USGS Product Warehouse Simple Search is operational. A spatial interface
is under development. Search capabilities will advance from searches of
abstracts to full content searches of all reports.
All information products must be on the Web. All interpretive info
must have Director's approval. The Product Warehouse will manage the
central collection of on-line reports (pubs.usgs.gov). Standard procedures
will be developed for "versioning" of reports, including association of
errata with each version of a report.
All 32,000 Open File and WRI's, including plates, are being scanned in
(OCR) by Denver Warehouse contractors.
Web sites managed by authors that do not receive proper approval or
that present interpretive information that is not properly document are
unacceptable. Solutions are being studied.
Workflow -- In Design and FrameMaker are the supported page layout packages.
Other software in the USGS Publishing Core Package are Illustrator (785),
Photoshop (564)
Acrobat (), and Go Live, although DreamWeaver is certainly a viable
alternative. Greg's CLP program has saved DOI nearly $2M (saved USGS $1M).
Software maintenance is very important and needs to be purchased with these
products. It's inexpensive, at $156.30 for one year of maintenance for all
CLP products for one pubs professional; without software maintenance, the
upgrade costs are over $1K.
Publications serving is moving into the database arena. ITAC help is
needed to identify future publishing technologies and selection criteria/process,
facilitating standardization, training methods (including on-line version of
DreamWeaver vs. GoLive recommendation needed).
"Introduction to USGS Hydrologic Reports", 20 hours.
Expected Outcome: Information Exchange
-
(Feb2003.PR.12)
Katherine - will send a June e-mail to districts presenting
Greg's cost savings research and recommending that districts
purchase of maintenance with/for all CLP publishing software.
Related Documents:
-
reports discussion
-
web design products review.
-
GoLive Real World Adobe GoLive 6 Jeff Carlson, Glenn Fleishman.htm
- PC
Magazine reviews Dreamweaver 4.htm
(Feb2003.PR.13)
Tom Wood - will pursue a discounted contract for
DreamWeaver.
(Feb2003.PR.14)
Kevin Gallagher - will ask Alan Davidson to work with Greg
Allord, Harry House, and Sandy Williamson to explore Oracle
solutions for needs that Greg and Sandy envision.
|
10:45 am |
Review/Finalization of Action Items from entire meeting
Presented by: Brian McCallum/Charlie Merk
Expected Outcome: Documented list of
action items for
entire meeting. |
11:15 am |
Preparation for upcoming conference calls/meetings
Presented by: Brian McCallum
Expected Outcome: Katherine and Brian feel that meeting in
June is not a good idea this year; instead, a two half-day CyberSeminar
will be organized in place of the meeting.
-
(Feb2003.PR.15)
Jessie Alvarez - will prepare an issues/solutions presentation
for the February ITAC conference call.
-
(Feb2003.PR.16)
Debbie Tracy and Grady Moore - are assigned the task of
defining issues with TMS and proposing correction. Consider
involving Diane Jeffries and inviting her participation when
this issues is brought before ITAC in the April conference call.
-
(Feb2003.PR.17)
All ITAC notetakers - will send their minutes to Ruth for
posting. Presenters are to send their powerpoint files to Ruth
also for posting.
-
(Feb2003.PR.18)
All ITAC members - are to share ITAC meeting highlights
with their constituents.
-
(Feb2003.PR.19)
Jessie Alvarez and Margaret Bunch - will help create Lotus
abbrevs for ER and WR studies chiefs, respectively.
The Puerto Rico District extended their thanks to ITAC for visiting the
District and interacting with the PR District staff. |
11:30 am |
ADJOURN Meeting
- Streamgaging station field trip (Optional)
|
