On Saturday November 21, we will begin the re-indexing process to rebuild the SYS01 bibs, SYS10 authorities, and SYS60 holdings indexes. This will include some system downtimes. If everything goes as planned the following is the schedule:
Development server - dev19.mnpals.net This system will be unavailable starting on November 21. An announcement will be made when the system is available again. It will be unavailable most of the week.
Production server - aleph.mnpals.net This system will be down on Sunday, November 29 starting at 7 AM. It should only take a few hours to import the new indexing tables and bring the system back up. If you are open on Sunday morning, you will need to be on backup circ. The Web OPAC will be redirected to the development server during the downtime. MnPALS Plus will also be available. An announcement will be sent when the system is back up and running, hopefully before noon.
Why are we re-indexing?
1. There are a number of indexing changes that have been requested, tested, and approved by the MnPALS Indexing Task Force. These changes will be implemented with this re-indexing. For more information about these changes refer to the following post on the Indexing Task Force board on the MnPALS Forum: http://forums.mnpals.org/index.php?topic=1095.0.
2. General maintenance of the indexing tables. As records are updated and deleted they leave behind old unused headings. Re-indexing rids the database of these headings and cleans up the database.
September 7: PALS Office Holiday Closing
The PALS Support Center will be closed in observance of Labor Day on Monday, September 7.
You may continue to send problem reports and questions to the PALS Support Center http://pals.custhelp.com during this time period. Support Specialists will tend to the requests when they return to the office.
August 20: DEV19 server unavailable August 24 - 26
The DEV19 server will be unavailable on Monday, August 24, 2009 at 8:00 a.m. until Wednesday, August 26, 2009 at 8:00 a.m. This is the development server only.
Scheduled Aleph Downtime: August 28 (5 pm) - August 31 (8 am)
The Aleph production server will be down beginning at 5 pm on Friday, August 28, 2009 for the implementation of the Authority Control enhancements and new Authority database refresh and reload. We expect to have the production server back up by 8 am on Monday, August 31, 2009.
The Authority Control enhancements were made available in Aleph version 18 with some outstanding issues. These issues have been resolved in Aleph version 19. Implementing the Authority Control enhancements will bring the benefits of the new Aleph authorities features to staff and patrons, and at the same time we will be installing a fresh copy of the authorities file. This will save your cataloging staff time and improve the accuracy and consistency of search results for your reference staff and library users.
Also, please note:
The Aleph development/test server will have its data refreshed during the week of August 24, 2009. While tables won’t be updated, testing setups (patron and item data) that you have on the development server could be affected.
Aleph Web OPAC will be redirected to the version 19 development/test server during the down time (date of the data is August 22, 2009).
MnPALS Plus will not have live status information on individual records. The status will be correct as of Friday, August 28, 2009. Patron logons will be disabled for all functionality.
Interlibrary loan will not be available during the down time, from either a blank form or the link from the OPAC. If a patron clicks on either of these links, they will receive a message indicating that interlibrary loan is unavailable.
The MnLINK Gateway will be pointed to dev19 for searching the backup OPAC. MnLINK Gateway ILL links will work and requests that are entered during the downtime will be queued for processing in Aleph ILL once the system comes back up.
SFX, Serials Solutions and OCLC WorldCat Link Manager will check dev19 for holdings information.
Patron authentication will be done via dev19.
Proxy server will be working during the down time, but authenticating against dev19 patron data.
If you choose to use Aleph offline circulation, you may find Support Center answer #3079 helpful for instructions and tips. Using offline circulation is not required, but you will not have access to Aleph circulation during this time. Alternatives are tracking via paper, Excel spreadsheet, Word document, etc. and manually updating in Aleph when the production server is back up. Remember that you may need to load any new non-PLIF patron records acquired during the downtime, before sending the offline circulation files when the production server is back up.
If you have questions, please let us know. You can call, email or enter a question via the Support Center at http://pals.custhelp.com .
August 11: MnPALS systems unavailable the morning of August 13
All MnPALS systems will be unavailable from midnight to 6:00 am on Thursday, August 13th. This includes the MnPALS Online Catalog and Aleph staff functionality, MnPALS Plus, hosted EZProxy systems, our web site, wiki, forum, and mailing lists, etc. All of our computer systems will need to be powered down to accommodate the installation and testing of a new fire suppression system in the Mankato Data Center.
We have a plan in place to handle the regularly scheduled nightly batch jobs that run in Aleph. Some jobs, because of the setup parameters, cannot be delayed to the next automatically scheduled run. These jobs (e.g. cir_10) will be manually processed by the PALS staff after the system is back up. Other jobs (e.g. cir_51) will run automatically during the next scheduled time.
PLEASE DO NOT schedule any other batch jobs to run the evening of the 12th or the morning of the 13th.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation
August 5: Forum, Wiki, Mailing Lists, and Web Site Downtime TODAY
We are going to be doing some system work today on the servers that run our forum, wiki, mailing lists, and web site. These services will each be down for 1-2 hours today.
July 8: Dev19 Server Unavailable
We will be doing some re-indexing on the Aleph version 19 development server beginning early tomorrow morning, 7/9/09. That means the server will be unavailable for a few days. We will let you know when it is available again.
This is the Aleph DEVELOPMENT server only.
July 8: Service Pack Install Scheduled for Sunday, July 12
PALS will be installing Aleph service pack 695 on Sunday morning July 12th. This will require 10 or 15 minutes of down time while we install the service pack. The system should be up and running by 9 AM.
This service pack will include 5 new executables and 1 help file for the Aleph client. You will need to run version check to get these executables and help file. The following are the new files:
acq/bin/acq.exe
alephadm/bin/alephadm.exe
catalog/bin/catalog.exe
circ/bin/circ.exe
ill/bin/ill.exe
alephcom/help/eng/cathlp.chm
The release notes for the service pack are located at:
We will post a message to the list before taking the system down and when we bring the system back up.
July 3: PALS Office Holiday Closing
The PALS Support Center will be closed on Friday July 3rd in observance of Independence Day.
You may continue to send problem reports and questions to the PALS Support Center http://pals.custhelp.com. Support Specialists will tend to these requests when we return to the office.
May 5: Service Pack Install on Sunday, May 10
This Sunday morning we will be installing service pack 615 on the Aleph production server. The system will be down briefly (approximately 30 minutes) while we install the service pack. The system should be up and running again before 9 AM.
The install of this service pack will require running version check on your pcs for new Aleph clients, but things will work without the update.
We will post to the MnPALS-Announce mailing list when the install starts and ends.
March 31: Open Source ILS Team Report
The PALS office formed an Open Source ILS Team in May of 2008. The team is co-chaired by Linda Richter and Dee Nolan. There are seven other members of the PALS staff on the team as well as Stephen Elfstrand, the director of PALS.
The main purpose of this team is to explore the feasibility of using an Open Source ILS product. This open source product could be used for some segment of our consortium, as well as other new libraries that might be interested in an open source product. The team has focused primarily on two open source products; Koha and Evergreen.
March 22: IMPORTANT: DNS changes for version 19 OPAC need to be made ASAP
We have sent several messages over the last few months regarding changing DNS references for harp.msus.edu to aleph.mnpals.net. However, we discovered that many of your DNS entries are pointing at a numeric IP address and not a name. That IP address (199.17.248.200) still points to version 18 of Aleph and that is something that we cannot easily change.
This Step MUST be done first. In the AlephADM, change the server address in Libraries Configuration to aleph.mnpals.net:<port#>. This needs to be done on each work station. See Support Center answer #3238, which was updated for version 19.
We need to backup the Aleph Oracle database to make sure that the backup is in sync with the Oracle upgrade that was performed Sunday morning. Our backup procedure requires that Aleph and Oracle are down for about 10 minutes. We have looked at jobs that run overnight and have determined that the best window for doing the backup is at 1:15 a.m. As such, we have scheduled a backup to run tomorrow morning, March 4, at 1:15 a.m. We know that there are some libraries that are still open at that time and we apologize for the inconvenience that this might cause for your staff and patrons. However, if something were to happen that corrupts the database between now and our next scheduled backup on Saturday we are concerned that we might not be able to recover any data that has been changed since the Oracle upgrade Sunday morning.
Thank you for your understanding.
February 24: Aleph Production Server down Sunday Morning, March 1
From Debra Domek, Technical Services Coordinator:
We will be performing an ORACLE patch and upgrade on Sunday morning, 3/1/09, and will need to take the production system down while this occurs.
If all goes well, it should only be unavailable for a couple of hours. We will send a message when the upgrade is done and the system is available again.
February 23: Change in Domain Name Delay and Clarification
From Linda Richter:
I received a request for an explanation of how a library knows if they have the harp domain name in applications such as Z39.50 or ftp. For many MnPALS libraries, if you have taken care of any addresses you have in a self-check machine, Inventory, and Connexion Client, you are probably all set. The other uses of the harp domain name are less common and, if you don’t know if you have them, you probably don’t. If something turns up when we make the change, we’ll deal with it then. In summary, If you’ve made the changes you know about, that’s all that is needed.
In addition, we are postponing this change until April 13. We want to make sure we’ve covered all the bases and we think it would be prudent to separate this change from the version 19 upgrade to make debugging easier should any problems arise.
Following is the original announcement with the new date.
WHAT
By Monday, April 13, 2009, any reference to the domain name ‘harp.msus.edu’ or ‘harp.mnpals.net’ must be changed to ‘aleph.mnpals.net’. The new domain name is now in place and this change can be made now, but must be made no later than April 13.
WHY
‘harp’ is the name of a specific server which currently runs the Aleph library system. Since servers and their names will likely change, basing the domain name on an individual server is not a good long-term naming convention. It is better practice to base the domain name on the service, which in this case is Aleph. In addition, the msus.edu domain is being phased out and, in our case, is being replaced by mnpals.net.
WHERE
You may have the domain name ‘harp.msus.edu’ or ‘harp.mnpals.net’ in any of the following situations.
A link to MnPALS through a Z39.50 interface. For example, instead of ‘harp.msus.edu:210’, use ‘aleph.mnpals.net:210’.
Access to MnPALS from a self-check machine or any other sip connection. Replace ‘harp.msus.edu’ with ‘aleph.mnpals.net’.
Address used for ftp’ing an inventory file or any other ftp application. For example, ‘open harp.msus.edu’ should be changed to ‘open aleph.mnpals.net’.
The link to MnPALS from OCLC’s Connexion Client. If the host name is ‘harp.msus.edu’, you will need to change it to ‘aleph.mnpals.net’.
DNS entries used by your library or institution where an alias is pointed to harp.msus.edu. In this case, change ‘harp.msus.edu’ to ‘aleph.mnpals.net’.
Access to Aleph tables. For example, instead of ‘harp.msus.edu/tables’, use ‘aleph.mnpals.net/tables’.
WHEN
No later than April 13, 2009. You can make this change anytime before then, and the new domain name will work.
February 18: ACQ/SER Global Changes
Update [February 23] Deb from the tech staff completed the global changes in acquisitions and serials on Sunday morning, February 22nd. If you have any questions, let us know. Thanks.
The PALS staff will be making the following global changes in acquisitions and serials this coming Sunday morning, February 22, 2009.
At the 2008 spring Acquisitions/Serials User Group meeting, there was a motion made to globally change the To Date in the Subscription records and the Subscription End Date in the order records from 12/31/2010 to 12/31/2025. These dates need to be changed before 12/31/2010 or the records will become inactive.
This is the criteria we are using to make these changes
For the subscription records if the z16_copy_to_date is equal to or greater than 12/31/2010, it will get updated to 12/31/2025.
For the order records if the z68_subscription_date_to is equal to or greater than 12/31/2010 AND the z68_order_status = ‘N’ or ‘SV’, it will get updated to 12/31/2025.
These changes have to be done individually for each ADM, i.e. BSU, MTR, SCS, etc.
It is important that no work activity takes place in acquisitions and serials on Sunday morning while we are doing these changes. We hope to have the changes done by noon on Sunday.
January 20: Job Opening at PALS (Developer / ITS2)
NOTE: This job position has been filled.
POSITION OPEN: Information Systems Developer and Integrator
PALS, a MnSCU program, has an opening in Mankato for an Information Systems Developer and Integrator for state-wide library systems. This is a full time, permanent, classified position at the Information Technology Specialist 2 level. The salary range for this position begins at $40,278 per year.
This position provides technical support for an enterprise library system, Aleph, running on Solaris and using Oracle; as well as other applications. Application development & programming will also be expected.
Qualifications, Required: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field, knowledge of UNIX and/or Linux, programming & scripting languages, application development, and relational databases.
Desired: Knowledge of library information systems, interest and proficiency in new and emerging technologies
For more information & a complete description, or to apply, visit the MMB website at www.careers.state.mn.us Applications are only accepted at this website and must be submitted by Feb 6, 2009.
Minnesota library consortium delivers an affordable next generation discovery experience for patrons of 70 libraries
The new user interface, known as MnPALS Plus, makes library collections more visible and attractive to today’s web users. It utilizes a simple Google-like interface with faceted searching, and includes social networking features such as tagging and user comments. You can experience MnPALS Plus with its images of book covers, reviews, and author biographies at http://plus.mnpals.net.
“Initial usability studies indicate that library patrons easily learn the new searching style and are enthusiastic about the Web 2.0 look and feel.” said Stephen Elfstrand, executive director of PALS.
MnPALS Plus is based on an open source tool known as VuFind, which is in development at Villanova University. In keeping with the cooperative spirit of the open source software movement, a committee of Minnesota reference and cataloging librarians worked with the PALS development team to further refine the design, and customize MnPALS Plus for use in a multi-library, consortium environment. PALS staff is eager to show libraries the many advantages of implementing MnPALS Plus for their users.
PALS has been providing innovative library technology services to a large and diverse group of Minnesota libraries since 1978. More information about PALS can be found at http://www.mnpals.org.
January 14: Aleph Version 19 Upgrade Update
Linda Richter posted a report on the status of our upgrade to version 19. It can be found here.
January 12: Job Opening at PALS (Support / ITS3)
Support and Training Specialist
NOTE: This job position has been filled.
PALS at Minnesota State University, Mankato has an opening for an Information Technology Specialist 3, permanent, classified Support and Training Specialist for state-wide library systems. The specialist, working with the library staff of over 60 member institutions, provides software and applications support and training services to ensure that member libraries can effectively use the Aleph Library Management System and other library-related applications. Activities include: resolving software application problems, managing and prioritizing support incidents, testing functionality in service packs and version upgrades, creating documentation and delivering training both in person and online.
Qualifications, Required: Earned Bachelor’s degree, extensive knowledge of library automation systems, excellent written and oral communication skills, analytical and problem-solving abilities, effective instructional skills, ability to work both independently and on teams. Ability to travel is necessary. Desired: Coursework in library science, library experience, knowledge of the MARC format, knowledge of adult learning and training techniques, experience in a help desk or call center, experience with Customer Relationship Management software.
To apply, or for more information & a complete description, visit the MMB website at www.careers.state.mn.us Applications only accepted from that website; deadline January 26, 2009. AA/EOE and a member of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System.
