Committee meeting - July 23, 2020

Carol Lu Ìý
Secretary to the Committee Ìý
July 23, 2020 Ìý
 Ìý
Present: Don Duff-McCracken, Jason Testart, Lori Paniak, Paul Miskovsky, Pratik Patel, Steven Bourque, Andrew McAlorum, Robyn Landers, Bill Baer, Trevor Bain, Dave Kibble

Guest:ÌýJoe Allen

Regrets:ÌýAndrea Chappell, Daryl Dore, Erick Engelke, Greg Smith, Adam Savage

 Ìý
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  1. WatIAM outage discussion (Lori Paniak) [5 min.]
  2. Presentation: OneDrive advocacy project update (Joe Allen) [20 min.]
  3. Chair’s remarks (Steven Bourque) [5Ìýmin.]
  4. Approval of the minutes of the meetings of Thursday July 9, 2020Ìý[5Ìýmin.]
  5. Email Threat Protection RFPÌý(Steven Bourque) [5 min.]
  6. Gitlab discussion (Lori Paniak) [10 min.]
  7. Update on O365 email migrations for faculties (Andrew McAlorum) [5 min.]
  8. Other Business [10Ìýmin.]
  9. Roundtable discussion – all [20Ìýmin.]
  10. Next CTSC Meeting
    [Will be held Thursday August 6Ìýat 1:30 p.m. via Teams Meeting]
    Ìý

WatIAM outage discussion (Lori Paniak)

  • Jason Testart provided additional email regarding the WatIAM outage via email to the CTSC mailing list
    • Root causeÌýwas a bug in Sailpoint IIQ that has existed for a long time. The software was trying to fetch data from a file that did not exist; instead of an error, it just calls it NULL and writes that back to the database.

Comments and discussion

  • Database corruption occurred in the afternoon on Monday, July 20
    • Any changes made between July 20 and July 21 were lost
  • There isn't a clear idea of how disruptive this outage was to the average campus user
  • Seven accounts were identified in an 'error' state; these users were notifiedÌýdirectly
    • Mostly CEL and Quest applicants
  • It was quicker to go to backups instead of trying to reverse the issue
    • Half of the recovery time was the WatIAM batch process
  • WatIAM has a lot of redundancy built inÌý
    • At least four servers that process for WatIAM, but there is only one database
    • The WatIAM database is not designed for redundancy
  • In the future, it may help to move certain processes outside of WatIAM to improve resiliency (e.g. user password changes, adding password recovery emails)
    • If WatIAMÌýstarts having more outages and being more disruptive, this can be further investigated
  • WatIAM uses Microsoft SQL database
    • DPM backups are used for most SQL databases
    • Database snapshots might be better for restoration than backups

Presentation: OneDrive advocacy project (Joe Allen)

  • Joe AllenÌýgave a presentation on the OneDrive advocacy projectÌý
    • Project purpose is to promote the use of OneDrive; plans to do several presentations (e.g PDAG, WatITis, Q&A seminars)ÌýÌý

Comments and discussion

  • Arts is aiming to have all first year students using OneDrive instead of the N drive by Fall 2020Ìý
  • AHS completed a Known Folder Move for faculty and staff in December 2019
  • Can highly restricted data be stored onÌýOneDrive?
    • Highly restricted data can be stored on OneDrive if you have 2FA enabled
    • Secure data guidelines/resources from IST:Ìý
    • Are there any restrictions against syncing your University OneDrive to a non-University owned computer?Ìý
      • Full disk encryption for your personal computer is required if you have highly restricted or confidential information stored; using a University-owned computer is the preferred option
      • OneDrive has a files on demand feature
        • You can store your personal, non-sensitive data on your computer locally
        • Highly restricted files can be kept in the cloud and not stored locally on your computer
    • For shared group access: if one user makes a mistake could it wipe out the entire group's data?Ìý
      • You can restore a previous version of the data if a user makes a mistake
      • Issues regarding departmental drives are a separate matter that will be addressed in the future

Chair's Remarks (SteveÌýBourque)

  • UCIST had a discussion about expanding CTSC membership to include Affiliated and federated institutions of À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ (AFIW)
    • Greg Parks will be joining CTSC to represent the University Colleges

Approval of the minutes of the previous meeting

  • The previous meeting’s minutes were accepted as distributed. Ìý

Email Threat Protection RFPÌý(SteveÌýBourque)

  • RFP has been rewarded to CompuComÌý(vendor for Cisco Email Security) for a 3-year term
  • Cisco Email Security will be provided for staff, faculty, alumni and students
    • Microsoft does not have a solution for licensing alumni beyond the free option at this time; feedback has been given to Microsoft regarding their alumni licensing limitations
    • Came down to price point; Cisco had the best price
    • Offers an 'unsubscribe' feature and graymail feature
  • PO should be going out this weekÌý
  • Cisco Email Security is expected to be activated October 2020Ìý
    • TIS will go through the regular testing and deployment procedures first
  • ProofPoint will still be in place until January 2021

Comments and discussion

  • Any concerns that ProofPoint will blacklist the University for no longer being a customer?Ìý
    • Not likely since the University does not have a reason to be blacklisted
  • In regards to mail routing: how will Cisco Email Security be routed?Ìý
    • Cisco Email Security is cloud-based
    • TIS is still coming up with the routing design; this will be discussed at a future CTSC meeting

Gitlab discussion (Lori Paniak)

  • Follow-up to Daryl Dore's email to CTSC regarding the use of Gitlab
    • Email stated Gitlab is running out of user storage space
    • Is it possible to add more storage instead of asking users to limit their Gitlab usage?Ìý

Comments and discussion

  • The Games Institute is looking for large file support in Git
    • Users store game assets and other large files in Git
  • Daryl's email was in reference to a small number of users taking advantage of Git storage (e.g using Git to store backups and large binary files)
    • The purpose of the email was to raise awareness among CTSC members and to garner support for maintaining appropriate usage for Git
    • Users should be storing backups and large binary files in OneDrive
  • Steve to follow up with Daryl re: Git large file support
  • The University should not try to create artificial scarcity and limit the usage of resources like Git
    • Most users will not meet or exceed storage limits
    • Maybe a disclaimer banner can be added to theÌýlogin page to inform users not to misuse Git?
    • Maybe a cost/charge to users can be introduced if they exceed storage limits?
      • May be difficult and labour intensive to set up a billing system
    • Hard limits/quotasÌýcould be set for each user

Update on O365 email migrations for facultiesÌý(Andrew McAlorum)

  • Migrations are going well; Academic Support unit migrations are expected to be complete by the end of the Spring term
  • Starting to plan for Faculty migrations; faculties will start being migrated in the Fall term (September 17)
    • Lisa Tomalty is putting together a migration schedule
    • Plan is to migrate all users in a department together; departments will move one at a time
  • Accounts are being migrated every Thursday
    • Currently 500 users max. per migrationÌý
  • Some initial issues during the piloted migration with IST (e.g. OAuth, Thunderbird); there have been no major issues with any subsequent moves

Comments and discussion

  • Environment's MAD team migration went wellÌý
  • Non-Windows platforms may have challenges (e.g. may need to reload Outlook on Mac)
  • Some faculties/departments may want to migrate after September 17 since it is a busy time during the term
    • Faculty schedule has not been finalized yet
  • Faculties interested in moving early can submit a request toÌýrt@uwaterloo.ca
    Ìý

Other Business/Roundtable


WUSA (Pratik)

  • Currently compiling a list of users to migrate to Skype phones
  • What will the migration process for service phones look like?Ìý
    • A lot of student groups have service phones
    • This will be discussed more in the future; the current focus is on individual user accounts
    • Announcement was made in the Daily Bulletin asking staff to get in touch with their IT account reps to learn more about the process for special phone circumstances

Environment (Don)

  • Setting up Skype phone migration for next Monday
    • Migrating most users but not the help desk phones yet
  • Migration turnaround is currently very quick - will this continue to be the case for future migrations? Would it be possible to complete all department migrations by September?Ìý
    • There is no guarantee on how fast the turnaround will be; this will depend on the availability and schedule of the Skype team

AHS (Trevor)

  • CELÌýcreatedÌýa useful resource for choosing a screen recording tool
  • Screencast-o-matic is a popular, inexpensive optionÌý
    • Easier to learn than Camtasia
  • ISTÌýcreated a useful resource for choosing a remote meeting tool:
    • Chart indicates WebEx is a recommended team collaboration space
      • Can we clarify if this is accurate? Isn't Teams the recommended collaboration space?
      • Chart has been updated to specify that WebEx is a recommended team collaboration space for teaching and learning

Arts (Bill)

  • Already moved three groups over to Skype phonesÌý
    • IST has been looking over the data to ensure nothing is missed (e.g. clarifies and asks how certain phones should be rerouted)
    • It might be a good idea to offer a one month reroute window to give people time to update their phone number information on websites and other directories
      • Advancement is looking to avoid missing any funding phone calls
  • Testing Azure Lab Services, remote Windows in Toronto, Quebec, and US East
    • Has been fast overall; US East latencies are reasonable in comparison to the Canadian sites
    • Testing is for Adobe Creative Cloud which does. not work well through remote desktop
      • Initial testing with Stratford campus and Fine Arts has gone well so far
    • Majority of users will likely be Arts students, may be a small subset of Environmental Studies students
      • Looking at 400-1500 licenses
      • Contact Bill Baer for more information

Client Services, IST (Andrew)

  • Offering Microsoft Bookings app as a pilot
    • Requires Exchange Online; users need to be migrated to Office 365 email before using Bookings
    • Access to Bookings is not enabled for all users; access is being given on a request-only basis
    • Tool can be used for appointment booking (e.g. office hours, academic advising)
      • Housing is currently using BookingsÌýto schedule student residence move-in appointments
      • WatCard is using Bookings for service appointment bookings