2007 News
December 11: PALS Office Holiday Closings
From: Cathy J. Colby, Coordinator, Support and Training Services --
The PALS Support Center will be closed December 24-25 and December 31-January 1.
You may continue to send problem reports and questions to the PALS Support Center http://pals.custhelp.com during these time periods, Support Specialist will tend to these requests when we return to the office.
Happy Holidays!
November 19: Aleph Update from Stephen Elfstrand
Stephen Elfstrand, PALS Director, sent out a brief update about activities and progress on Aleph.
November 8: PALS Organizational Study
From: Stephen F. Elfstrand, Executive Director, PALS
Dear MnPALS Library Deans, Directors and staff,
As you know, the PALS office has commissioned an organizational study from the Minn. Dept. of Administration, Management and Analysis & Development unit. Mark Scipioni was the consultant who worked on this project. He interviewed the PALS staff and selected members of the MnPALS Consortium as well as people from other large Aleph consortia, bringing to bear his considerable experience as a management consultant to help us prepare for the future. I am happy to inform you that we now have his final report and it is available on our web site at http://www.mnpals.org/aleph/syslibs/pals_org_study200709.pdf.
I hope you will take the time to read though it and give me your thoughts about it and also more generally about the PALS office and the consortium. To make this easier and to retain a history of the discussion, we have also created a FORUM discussion list at http://forums.mnpals.org/index.php?board=30.0 I’ll be monitoring it closely and participating in the discussion. I welcome your opinions whether you wish to participate via the Forum, send me email or just call me on the phone. I imagine we will be discussing it in some detail at the next Executive Committee meeting and other meetings as well.
MnPALS User Council and Executive Committee Meetings: November 1
The next MnPALS User Council and Executive Committee meetings will be held Thursday, November 1, 2007 at Rasmussen College's Brooklyn Park campus.
Map/Directions:
http://www.rasmussen.edu/campus-locations/brooklyn-park-MN-campus.asp
User Council Agenda:
http://www.mnpals.org/sections/MnPALS_Governance_UC_Nov07.html
Executive Committee Agenda:
http://www.mnpals.org/sections/MnPALS_Governance_EC_Nov07.html
October 30: MnPALS Downtime Explanation
From Rod Bruce, UNIX System Administrator:
As many of you are aware, our MnPALS production server was down this morning for about an hour and a half. Here is a summary of where we are at:
- The crash was caused by a memory error. That is, an error with physical memory not an error caused by running out of memory.
- This is the third memory error we have had on this server since we set it up in August. The memory errors have all been on the same processor board (the server has two processor boards, each with 64GB of RAM).
- I have conflicting theories from two different engineers at Sun (the hardware vendor). One is that we need to replace a memory module, the other is that the problem is with some other component on the processor board.
- The plan is to replace the memory module that is being reported as bad AND to then swap the entire processor board with an identical board from our development box. This will happen either later this evening or tomorrow morning. We will be able to do this while the system is running. This way, in case the problem is with the board and not just a memory module it will not affect the production server. We will then run stress tests on the board on our development server that might reveal more information about the problem.
- In order to decrease the likelihood of the system crashing again before we have a chance to replace the memory module, I have removed the entire processor board from service. This means that the production server is currently running on half its normal processors and half its normal memory. Performance might be somewhat degraded, but from what I can tell so far, it still has enough capacity to handle the current load.
Updated October 31:
This is a follow-up to the email I sent out yesterday regarding the crash of the MnPALS production server.
- PLEASE if you notice anything out of the ordinary with Aleph today, report it to the Support Center. We have noticed a lot of corrupt Aleph logs resulting from the memory problem. We are identifying all of the non-log files that were changed yesterday and reviewing them in an attempt to identify any problems. So far only log files seem to have been affected.
- Last night an engineer from Sun Microsystems was onsite to exchange processor boards between the production and development servers. He moved the board from the production server that has been having problems to the development server and replaced it with an identical board from the development server that has not had any problems. So as of about midnight last night the production server was back running with its full contingent of processors and memory.
- Later this morning an engineer from Sun Microsystems will be onsite to replace the bad memory module on the development server. We will then be doing some stress testing of the board to try to identify the source of the problem.
I think that pretty well sums it up. Sorry for the down time and the inconvenience that it caused for all of you and your patrons. I am hopeful that we have, if not solved the problem, at least moved it from our production environment to our development one.
ARC License Survey during October
The PALS Office is conducting a survey of the Consortium member libraries to determine what type of license each library needs for the Aleph Reporting Center (ARC). The survey is being sent to the administrative head of each library. In addition, there is detailed information about the licenses available at the following secure link:
http://www.mnpals.org/aleph/syslibs/ARC_license_descriptions.pdf
Aleph Down: Sunday, September 23, 1 am to 9 am
From: Rod Bruce, PALS UNIX System Administrator
We did not complete the switch over of the MnPALS server to our new hardware this past weekend. We did run some tests Sunday morning between 1:00 and 2:00 AM so MnPALS was unavailable at that time. There are still a few pieces of supporting software that have not been thoroughly tested. We are planning on trying again this coming Sunday (September 23), so the server will be down from 1:00 to 9:00 AM. We will point the Web OPAC at our development server.
We apologize for any added inconvenience. We just really want to be sure that the cut-over will be smooth and seamless.
From: Rod Bruce, PALS UNIX System Administrator
First off let me again say "thanks" to all of you for your patience and understanding yesterday. The impact of the power outage yesterday was due to several system failures, some human and some mechanical.
Some of you may want to know a little more detail on what exactly happened, so here is a "quick" explanation of what went wrong as I understand it.
Excel notified Minnesota State Mankato late yesterday morning that from 1:00 to 5:00 Excel would be taking MSU off of the power grid. This is not unusual and MSU has three 2-megawatt generators that are used to power the campus when this occurs.
At some point after the switch over to generator power, the load on the generators got to the point where the power coming into the Data Center was not at an acceptable level and the Data Center's UPS took over powering the Data Center. The UPS only has battery life to power all of the systems in the Data Center for about 45 minutes and it's purpose is to give us time to gracefully bring systems down before we lose power completely. However, we were not notified until about 10 minutes of battery life remained that there was a problem. I was just getting ready to start shutting down servers when I heard multiple "thunks" (one of which I believe was my stomach) and looked up to see that all of our servers were dark.
We also have an emergency generator whose purpose is to power critical systems on campus (which includes the Data Center) in case of a failure of the campus generators. A transfer switch switches us over to the backup generator when necessary. The reason why the transfer switch did not kick us over to the emergency generator is that it saw power coming from the campus generators.
Here are a couple of short-term resolutions that we have discussed with MSU Mankato-IT:
- If the UPS kicks in, notify us immediately. In that case we will start taking systems down, starting with the least critical. The last systems we would take down would be the ones running services that you rely on most (mainly MnPALS and LibProxy).
- Calibrate the transfer-switch to the same tolerance level as the UPS. That way, if the UPS sees a power problem so will the transfer switch and we will be switched over to the emergency generator.
- Have a plan to do a manual override of the transfer switch so that if it fails to switch automatically it can be done by hand.
We will also be working with MSU Mankato on some long term solutions.
Call for Agenda Items for Consortium of MnPALS Libraries Fall 2007 User Group
PALS will be holding their Fall 2007 Consortium of MnPALS Libraries User Group meeting on Thursday, October 11th and Friday, October 12th at Minnesota State University, Mankato.
The purpose of User Groups is to create a forum for all of the consortium libraries to come together for networking, discussion of issues and exchange of information.
In preparation for the MnPALS Consortium Fall 2007 User Group meetings, please send agenda/discussion topics to the appropriate User Group conveners listed below. Send topics pertinent to the subsystem you use.
The deadline for submitting agenda topics to your User Group Convener is Wednesday, September 12.
MnPALS Consortium User Group Conveners:
Watch for a general agenda for MnPALS Consortium of Libraries User Groups to be posted on the PALS home page later this week.
Watch for registration information the week of August 20th. Registration information will be sent directly to MnPALS library staff that are currently on the PALS discussion list, Aleph migration list, or have an account for the PALS eDesk.
Subsystem specific agendas will be posted by October 4th.
PALS would like to remind you that each subsystem has a specific mailing list available. If you are not currently subscribed to the appropriate list(s) we encourage you to do so. User Group business and discussion topics specific to your subsystem can be conveyed via these lists. To see which lists exist and for sign-up information go to the following link: http://www.mnpals.org/sections/MnPALSMailingLists.html
Questions? Please send them to the PALS Support Center pals.custhelp.com, choose MnPALS as the product and Information as the subproduct.
Power Outages - PALS Office
July 17, 2007 – Service to the MnPALS libraries will not be interrupted by the scheduled power outages detailed below. This is a courtesy notification for the MnPALS libraries.
As part of a Minnesota State University, Mankato campus-wide electrical infrastructure improvement, two power outages that involve Memorial Library where the servers running Aleph are housed have been scheduled. The first power outage will be Friday, July 20, from 3am to 6am and the second will be Wednesday, July 25, beginning at 7:00 pm, lasting approximately 6 hours. During the power outages the computer center where the Aleph servers are housed will be powered by the emergency generators.
Again, PALS does not anticipate any disruption of service to our libraries. There will be a System Administrator on site monitoring the system during the time the power outage lasts. Libraries should not notice any interruption in access to the system..
Aleph and ILL Service Packs Installed
May 27, 2007 – The latest service packs have been installed for both ILL and Aleph.
The May Aleph and ILL service pack descriptions have been put out on our website:
http://www.mnpals.org/aleph/syslibs/17sp.html
You will need to run version check to update your Aleph client.
System down times for reindexing
May 21, 2007 – The following systems will be unavailable to reindex the SYS01 and SYS60 databases.
Sunday June 17, 2007 from 1 AM until 9 AM
HARP - the PRODUCTION system - if you are open at this time you will need to be running backup circulation
Friday June 8th starting at noon
LUTE - the DEVELOPMENT server will be unavailable for the entire week. If things go well it should be available again possibly by Friday June 15th. We will send out an email when lute is available again.
This reindexing will accomplish the following:
- Fix the 'see reference' problem.
- Build the browse indexes for all logical bases.
- MITF adjustments for SYS60
- Phrase search fix.
Adjacency will be turned back on so the putting searches in "double quotes" will work again. (But don't worry the !0 search will !0 still !0 work!!!)
For a further explanation
We are going to try something new that we've tested on lute, so the actual down time on harp, the production system, will be very minimal. If things go according to plan harp will be unavailable starting at 1 AM Sunday June 17th. At this time we will make a cold backup of the database. When the backup is finished we will drop the old indexing tables and import the new indexing tables that will have been built on lute during the previous week. We should be finished and have the system back up and running between 7 AM and 9 AM on Sunday June 17th.
We will start the indexing process on lute on the afternoon of Saturday June 9th. In order to prepare for this we will be shutting down Aleph on lute on Friday afternoon June 8th. On Saturday June 9th we will clone the production Oracle database from harp to lute. We will then reindex this cloned database on lute. When the reindexing is done, we will export the Oracle tablespaces that contain the new index tables. These tables will be copied to harp and imported during the down time on Sunday morning June 17th. We will have set up Oracle triggers on June 9th on harp that will remember all of the records that were reindexed between June 9th and June 17th. These records will be reindexed again by the background indexing once the system is brought back up. It is hoped that ue_01 will be caught up by Monday morning.
What does all this mean? Continue your work as usual during this week. The production system will only be down on Sunday morning for 7 or 8 hours if things go well. When the system comes back up on Sunday the ue_01 background indexing will be behind, as it has to reindex everything that was updated during the previous week. When we see how many actual docs need to be reindexed we can give a better time estimate.
This does mean that lute will be unavailable from June 8th to approximately June 15th..
Preparing for a Survey Evaluating and Ranking Centralization of Tasks
May 11, 2007 –
To: Consortium of MnPALS Libraries
From: Linda Richter
Re: Preparing for a Survey Evaluating and Ranking Centralization of Tasks
As part of strategic planning, several strategies were identified to move the consortium closer to its vision. For the strategy “Effective use of resources”, one of the action steps is “Centralize technical issues to central office”. Some of the preliminary work for this action has been completed by Becky Bell of the PALS staff. The next step is to gather input from each of the member libraries in order to determine which technical issues we should focus on. Each library will receive a survey in August to collect the data, but I am sending this mailing to alert you to the types of information we will need so you can be thinking about it.
It is recognized by member libraries and the PALS Office that Aleph requires additional work on the part of library staff than the PALS system did. This may be in part software design, but our Aleph configuration and setup may also contribute to the efforts that are needed. Now that we have some experience with the Aleph system, the User Council and Executive Committee agree that the time is right to analyze whether we are making the most effective use of our collective staff resources.
In order to determine where changes in the assignment of duties would be most beneficial, information on current library practices and time commitments are needed. There are two documents to assist you in analyzing which tasks should be moved to the central office to provide the greatest benefit to your library.
The first is a list of Aleph tasks divided into three categories: those that are the library’s responsibility, those that are shared by PALS and the library, and those that are a PALS responsibility. The second document includes a list of the sixteen tasks that have been identified to consider for centralization (although with your feedback it may change between now and August). In addition an example of the survey format we are envisioning was included. Please take a look at this information, discuss it with your colleagues, and give some consideration to how we might best be able to help you. Then, look for the survey to arrive in August.
If you have any questions or input regarding the list of tasks please let us know by replying to the email sent to the Aleph Migration mailing list.
Summer Tasks
Over the summer months, PALS and volunteer test libraries will be working on some special projects. Those projects will be: 1) Inventory Services in ver. 17, 2) Exporting library ownership/holding to OCLC on bib records that are not cataloged through OCLC, and 3) Creating Summary Holdings and Exporting those Holdings to OCLC. We had announced via the mailing lists and at Spring User groups that we were looking for volunteer libraries and received many responses from libraries who offered to volunteer. We had to choose just a few to work with on each project.
Listed below are the libraries that will work on these projects:
- Inventory services – St. Ben’s & St. John’s University
- Exporting library ownership to OCLC on bib records – St. Cloud State University with their GPO bib records brought into the Aleph Catalog via z39.50
- Creating Summary Holdings and exporting those holdings to OCLC
- Libraries using Aleph Serials Module: Inver Hills Community College & Minnesota State University/Mankato
- Libraries *not* using Aleph Serials Module but manually maintaining seriality on the Item Record: Alexandria Technical College and Northland Community and Technical College/East Grand Forks Campus
We have no specific deadline for the completion of these projects, but hope most of the work will be done by the end of summer. Upon completion of each project, we will report to MnPALS our findings and provide written procedures on how to utilize each of these processes.
On behalf of the PALS Tech and Support staff working with these libraries, we thank the volunteer libraries in advance for their willingness to help with these projects. Good luck to all of our teams as we’re off and running.
PALS Tech Staff: Deb Domek, Al Rykhus, and Mike Barnett
PALS Support Staff: Dee Nolan and Mary Ann Greenwald
Executive Director Interview: Linda Richter
April 24, 2007 – On behalf of Becky Schwartzkopf, PALS Executive Director Search Chair:
Linda Richter will be interviewing for the PALS Executive Director position on Friday, April 27. Her presentation and the open Q&A session will be held from 10-11:30. To view her presentation and participate in the Q&A from a remote site go to the following url: https://breeze5.metnet.edu/richter/ a few minutes before 10. For those on-site the session will be held at MSU, Mankato Memorial Library in ML110.
Enter your name for the login. You will see the presentation and presenter. The chat box (in the center on the left side) can be used to submit questions. We will attempt to ask Linda all of the questions that are received. We may combine similar questions to maximize the use of our limited time.
The evaluation for those off-site is attached to this message. To submit your evaluation, the form needs to be printed, completed and faxed directly to me at: 507-389-5155. We can not guarantee anonymity but your comments will be kept confidential. On-site evaluation forms will be distributed at the presentation. I encourage everyone to take the opportunity to participate in this process. Evaluation forms should be submitted as soon as possible after the last interview event you will be attending
Executive Director Interview: Steve Elfstrand
April 18, 2007 – On behalf of Becky Schwartzkopf, PALS Executive Director Search Chair:
Steve Elfstrand will be interviewing for the PALS Executive Director position on Friday, April 20. His presentation and the open Q&A session will be held from 10-11:30. To view his presentation and participate in the Q&A from a remote site go to the following url: https://breeze5.metnet.edu/elfstrand/ a few minutes before 10. For those on-site the session will be held at MSU, Mankato Memorial Library in ML110.
Enter your name for the login. You will see the presentation and presenter. The chat box (in the center on the left side) can be used to submit questions. We will attempt to ask Steve all of the questions that are received. We may combine similar questions to maximize the use of our limited time.
The evaluation for those off-site is at www.mnpals.org/pals/Elfstrand_Fax_Evaluation_Form.pdf. To submit your evaluation, the form needs to be printed, completed and faxed directly to me at: 507-389-5155. We can not guarantee anonymity but your comments will be kept confidential. On-site evaluation forms will be distributed at the presentation. I encourage everyone to take the opportunity to participate in this process.
Please contact me if you have any questions.
Version 18 Survey
April 12, 2007 – On Wednesday, April 4, a survey was sent to the Dean, Director, or Coordinator of each member library of the Consortium of MnPALS Libraries. The purpose is to gather input on the preferred timing of the upgrade to Aleph version 18. The idea for the survey came out of a discussion at the Annual Meeting. Included with the survey was a document entitled "Considerations in Upgrading to Aleph Version 18", which provides information on new features and known impacts of the upgrade. Survey responses are due back by April 23 so that the Executive Committee can review them at their meeting on April 26.
If you are interested in seeing the survey and the accompanying document, you may view them at the following links on the secure portion of our web site.
The survey is at: http://www.mnpals.org/aleph/syslibs/v18_consortium_survey.pdf
The considerations document is at: http://www.mnpals.org/aleph/syslibs/v18considerations.html
MnPALS and MnPALS ILL Unavailable Sunday morning, April 8
April 4, 2007 – MnPALS and MnPALS ILL will be unavailable on Sunday, April 8 from 8 - 10 AM:
- Aleph will be down on harp for approximately 1 hour on Sunday April 8th.
- ILL will be down on harp for approximately 2 hours on Sunday April 8th.
First we will upgrade the Oracle software. When the Oracle software is upgraded Aleph will be brought back up.
At that time the ILL software will be patched. We will be installing the latest service pack for ILL. There are 2 rep_changes that are supposed to improve performance. We are unable to really test these on lute as the issues are not present there. This will take an additional hour.
PALS Office Rolls Out New Web Site
March 29, 2007 – We are pleased to announce the availability of the new PALS web site at www.mnpals.org. In addition to a new look, we have re-organized the content to make it easier for our customers to find the information they are looking for. We hope that you like the new look and find the new site a valuable information resource.
We welcome your comments and suggestions.
Daylight Saving Time
March 9, 2007 – This weekend is when we make our switch to DST, a few weeks earlier than in previous years.
The updates that we made to the Aleph servers last weekend took care of any issues at the operating system level. We have updated Java with a patch supplied by Sun (Java is installed as part of Aleph but I'm not really sure if there is any part of our installation of Aleph that uses it). According to Ex Libris there are no DST related issues with the version of Oracle that we use. There is an issue with batch processing in Aleph that causes certain jobs to be run twice, so we are planning to just have batch processing turned off for a few hours early Sunday morning.
As far as we can tell we have made all of the necessary changes to the servers and applications to ensure things go smoothly this weekend. That being said, if you notice any serious problems Sunday please call the PALS office at 507-389-2000; during non-office hours that number has a message giving you our off-hours support number.
System Down Time - Feb 18 - SUNDAY AM
February 15, 2007 – The PALS Tech Staff will be installing the latest service packs this Sunday morning, February 18th. The systems will be down for 15 to 30 minutes while the installs take place.
This should happen before any of the libraries are open, sometime between 7 AM and 9 AM when there are no jobs scheduled to run.
Aleph Version 17 - service pack 984
ILL - service pack 519
Strategic Planning Follow-up
January 16, 2007 –
To: Members of the Consortium of MnPALS Libraries
From: Linda Richter
Re: Strategic Planning Follow-up
On behalf of the Steering Committee of the Executive Committee, I am forwarding this information related to the strategic planning sessions that were held in November. The first attachment is the final report from Barb Deming of the Management Analysis and Development division of the Minnesota Department of Administration, who served as our consultant for strategic planning. The report includes the results of both strategic planning sessions. As the Executive Committee, assisted by the User Council, moves forward with the action plans that resulted from our planning effort, they welcome your input. Please provide comments, concerns, and suggestions to your representative on either of these groups for consideration as we continue this work. This document will be discussed by both groups at their meetings on Februrary 1, so please contact them in advance of that date.
The second item is a draft vision statement: The Vision Statement for the Consortium of MnPALS Libraries
Draft to be reviewed by the User Council and Executive Committee on February 1, 2007
Our vision for the next five years is to create a consortium that is more collaborative and that provides services that are focused on the user. We will accomplish our vision by using innovative technologies, working toward progressive funding, making more effective use of resources, and creating a progressive structure that works.
You'll notice in the report, that the vision for the consortium includes five areas to focus on. It was agreed at our second planning session that a more concise vision statement should be developed. This is a first draft that attempts to include the five vision areas in a short statement. A discussion of this statement will also be on the agenda for February 1, so comments related to it should also be sent to your User Council or Executive Committee representative.
PALS Staff Receives RightNow Version 8 Training
January 15-19, 2007 – Kyle Snay and Frank Embree of the PALS Staff traveled to Bozeman, Montana for training on version 8 of the RightNow Service Module.
Consortium Libraries Go Live on Aleph Version 17
January 8, 2007 – Aleph version 17 was successfully put into production for the Consortium Libraries on January 5. Highlights of version 17 include a new Booking and Media Maintenance module.
URGENT! Unexpected down time
January 04, 2007 –
From: Becky Bell, PALS Assistant Director
The MnPALS system (web OPAC and GUI Client) will be taken down today at 5 pm to correct errors detected during the past few days. The system will remain down through Monday, January 8 (best estimate at this time).
The Web OPAC will be directed as before. The LibProxy will work as before. Libraries using circulation must go into offline circulations (see Answer 3079 for instructions about version 17 offline circulation).
The issues that we plan to resolve include:
- Holdings and bib record re-linking
- Headings link to authorities
- Other issues that have been reported primarily relating to the above issues
During the past few days, many have reported not being see recent records exported from OCLC. This is due to a backlog of indexing. The backlog currently is approximately 250,000 records. The backlog will continue to grow as new records are added. The system will eventually catch up and indexing will be more immediate. Remember, you can always find the record using the Aleph system number.
Watch for continuing updates on the status of version 17.
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