What’s the story with matrix?

Some of you will have been wondering what happened to matrix over the
last week, so I’ll give you some details.

Q: So what did happen to matrix?

A: Matrix was unhappy – it wasn’t getting the attention it felt it
deserved. Haste, lack of communication amongst a group of 7 admins,
outside pressure and other factors had left matrix an unmaintainable
mess, its once shiny and new programs getting tarnished as time went
by. No one quite knew how all the different factors interacted; maybe
the next change we made would be the one which would bring the whole
house of cards down on our heads. Everything was holding together for
the moment, but sooner or later that last straw would break the
camel’s back. We decided to take proactive action over the Christmas
holidays to resolve the situation.

Q: So what did you do?

A: We reinstalled Solaris on matrix – roughly the equivalent of wiping
the blackboard clean and starting again. Everything is configured for
maximum performance (you should see a marked improvement) and
maintainability. All the programs we’re installing are the latest and
greatest versions, installed in such a way that we can (relatively)
easily upgrade them later when even better versions come out 🙂

Q: Why is this good for me? Matrix was gone for 5 days, so you’ll
have to work hard to convince me.

A: There are several reasons why:

1. Better overall performance.
2. Newer versions of everything, with more features and (hopefully)
   fewer bugs.
3. Quotas – most of you don’t come anywhere near your quota (1 GB) so
   the limit won’t adversely affect you, but if matrix’s disks fill up
   it’ll cause problems for everyone: lots of programs won’t work
   properly, mail will bounce, there will be much wailing and gnashing of
   teeth. This is far less likely to happen now that reasonable limits
   have been set.
4. More options and flexibility, e.g. you can now control where your
   mail goes (via a file called .forward in your home directory), you’ll
   have more control over your website, etc. etc.
5. More likelihood that we’ll install what you want on matrix: because
   we don’t need to worry (as much) about problems, we’ll have more time
   to do stuff for you, and fewer problems doing it.

Q: What are the downsides?

A: Things are a bit broken at the moment, and lots of programs you’re
used to using are missing. But we’re fixing the problems one by one,
and in a week or two most things will be back. In the meanwhile if
you notice any problems or we haven’t installed your favourite
program, send a mail to
help@netsoc.tcd.ie giving
details and we’ll get to work on it. Please be patient though – there
is a lot to be done, and we have full time jobs too.

Q: So you’ll never, ever do this again? Right?

A: Dear God no – it’ll be years before we get out of therapy . . . you
try spending New Years Day, and night, and the next morning in the
comms room of the Maths Dept and see how eager you are to repeat the
experience 😉 Seriously though, we shouldn’t have to do this for a
long, long time – the next foreseeable reason is to upgrade to Solaris
9, but we won’t be doing that for several years.

We apologise for not informing you beforehand; even though this had
been planned since last November, and first mooted last July, we
weren’t certain until New Years Day that we’d be able to go ahead. So
far it’s been a success: we haven’t lost any mail, and as far as I
know no user has lost any of their files. If you think you’re missing
anything then send us a mail immediately
(help@netsoc.tcd.ie)
because we can’t keep using the Maths Dept’s disk space for ever.

Many thanks are due to David Malone and the Maths Dept for their
continued help and support; we really wouldn’t have been able to do
this without them.

Finally some advance warning: matrix will be unavailable late on
Friday evening for a couple of hours while we install some necessary
patches. You can expect a short period of downtime every month or so
from now on as we apply patches to ensure that matrix is kept in peak
condition, but happily it will be short (an hour or two).

Enjoy your Friday night out, and spare a thought for those of us
who’ll still be busy working on matrix then 😉