Inside Cover

 

Interface 211 - September 15, 1999

Published by
Center for Information Technology
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, Maryland 20892

 


Table of Contents


The articles marked [Web] below appear only in the Web version of "Technical Notes" at http://datacenter.cit.nih.gov/interface/interface211.

Features

Millennial Milestones—A Status Report on NIH Y2K Readiness
Significant milestones in NIH’s preparations for the year 2000 transition are already behind us. NIH’s mission-critical application systems and the NIH Computer Center are Y2K compliant and have passed independent validation and verification (IV&V). Some 99% of NIH’s non-mission critical systems are Y2K compliant, and NIH is conducting IV&V on selected non-mission critical systems. ICs are encouraged to take advan-tage of funding and staff available from CIT to assist in this process.

Change Control and Y2K—Moratorium Beginning October 1
From October 1, 1999 through January 30, 2000, CIT will impose a moratorium on changes that could impact NIH mission-critical systems. This more restrictive change control policy will be implemented to ensure continued Y2K readiness and to comply with DHHS and NIH policy.

NIH Computer Center to Close on December 31 to Prepare for "Day One"
The NIH Computer Center’s MVS systems will be unavailable for customer processing on December 31, 1999, while CIT makes backups of all MVS disk volumes. These backups will provide an additional safeguard against Y2K-related problems.

Are Your MS-Kermit Scripts Y2K Compliant?
All custom scripts supplied with the CIT-supported MS-Kermit have been verified to ensure that they will work correctly with NIH systems in the year 2000. We urge users to test their own Kermit scripts to verify that they will continue to work correctly in the new year.

Enterprise Open Systems User’s Guide Now Available
The Enterprise Open Systems User’s Guide is now available from CIT’s Technical Information Office and on the Web. A Unix-based platform, EOS hosts a variety of production and development applications in a stable, robust environment.

CIT’s Web Site Wins Award
CIO WebBusiness magazine chose CIT as one of 50 best Internet sites.

From Porpoise to Whales—Information Alert Service for Scientists
WHALES—Web Homology ALErt Service—is a new service that can keep you well informed of relevant new gene sequences that have appeared in the major nucleotide and protein databases each week. Accessible from computers on the NIH network, WHALES returns search results by e-mail.

NIH Data Warehouse—A Better Way to Do Business
NIH Data Warehouse has several new capabilities that will help authorized administrators, managers and supervisors in managing their staffs and budgets. These new Web features provide accurate, easy-to-use desktop access to administrative and financial information.

Changing the Way Some NIH Employees Get to Work—Via Cable TV
Cable television is changing the way some NIH employees get to work. CIT recently teamed with Cable TV Montgomery to offer cable modem access to the NIH network, with a data transfer rates about twenty times faster than a modem.

New TCP/IP Clients Available for PCs in October
On October 15, NIH users will be able to download new TCP/IP clients to replace the old OnNet TN3270, FTP, and Telnet clients that are no longer provided or supported by CIT. CIT has site licenses for the new client products—QWS3270 Plus, WS_FTP Pro and NetTerm.

WYLBUR Retirement Planning—Identifying WYLBUR Use
The WYLBUR retirement working group is identifying how and where WYLBUR is currently being used. If you would like to participate in the WYLBUR working group, please let us know.

MVS Standard System—We Need Your Input
We would like South system account sponsors, North system account coordinators, and people responsible for large applications to work with us on developing the techniques and tools that may be needed for migrating to the new MVS "standard system."quot; Please call us—this is an opportunity to contribute to the selection of facilities that could benefit you.

Reminder—Oracle RDBMS on MVS Systems Will Retire September 30
Oracle RDBMS will no longer be provided on the NIH Computer Center’s MVS systems as of September 30, 1999. All Oracle data residing on MVS must be migrated to another platform. CIT provides another robust server platform—the Unix-based Enterprise Open Systems (EOS)—to house Oracle data.

WYLBUR’s Enter PTR Command Will Retire December 13 on the MVS South System
The Enter PTR command will be retired from the MVS South system on December 13, 1999. The problem tracking and reporting (PTR) system will ultimately be replaced with Remedy—a system that has been used by CIT internally for several years to track problems on different platforms.

Old Migration System Retirement on the MVS South System—Users Will See Changes in Data Set Names
Data sets moved from the MVS South system’s old migration system to the current hierarchical storage manager (HSM) will have an additional qualifier .Dyyddd. In addition about 5% of the old system’s data sets—those with names that are invalid under HSM—will be restored with names slightly modified to make them valid.

IRS Software—Replacements Are Available on the MVS South System
The inquiry and reporting system (IRS) program includes date-handling functions that may not work in the year 2000. Since the IRS program has no vendor or CIT support and the source code is no longer available, you should eliminate use of IRS as soon as possible. Replacement software is available.

MVS South Users—An Opportunity to Test Potential DB2 Facilities
The OS/390 (version 2.5) upgrade on the MVS South system provides some powerful new capabilities. Users interested in helping us evaluate these products for possible production support will have an opportunity to help find capabilities that meet their DB2 needs.

Notice—Releasing of Inactive MVS South System Tapes Delayed until 2000
CIT will delay releasing inactive MVS South system tapes until some time after January 2000, to ensure that we do not interfere with custo-mers’ last minute year-2000 issues. Resumption of the tape releasing process will be announced via the terminal "message of the day.quot; In the meantime, we would appreciate your releasing any tapes that you no longer need.

Do You Use "pcon.cu.nih.gov" on the MVS South System?
The hardware used to provide network protocol conversion to 3270 format—pcon.cu.nih.gov—is no longer supported by the vendor, and no replacement hardware is available. We will work with you to determine the most appropriate replacement.

New Security Protection for MVS South System Tapes
Account sponsors may request tape security and then assign access authorities to permit specific individuals/groups to use their critical application tapes.

QUIKJOB Migrates to VISION:Report on the MVS South System
QUIKJOB—a program development and report writing tool running on the NIH Computer Center’s MVS South system—is not Y2K compli-iant and is being replaced. The QUIKJOB module will be renamed on November 15, 1999, and completely removed on December 13, 1999. The replacement, VISION:Report, requires no program modifications, but users will need to make some JCL changes in order to access it.

Reminder—The TAPESCAN Procedure Helps Avoid ABENDs for MVS South System Tape Jobs [Web]
Control-T—the tape management system for the MVS South system—stores a data set’s name and sequence number in a database that keeps track of the tape data sets. Data sets stored on tape before Control-T went into effect (December 1997) and not accessed since are not part of this database. If you submit a batch job to the MVS South system that references such a data set, the job will ABEND. Use the TAPESCAN procedure to avoid this problem.

Reminder—SQL*Forms on MVS North System
On September 30, 1999, SQL*Forms will retire on the MVS North system. See the announcements in Interface (issues 205, 208 and 210) and on the Web at http://datacenter.cit.nih.gov/interface.

Switch to Generic RACF Profiles on MVS North
The MVS standard system—that CIT is developing to ultimately replace the current North and South systems—will focus on the use of generic RACF profiles instead of discrete RACF profiles for data sets. The MVS North system Web RACF now lets you deal with generic profiles in an effortless manner by supporting RACF commands that create, delete or list generic profiles.

RACF Protection of GDG’s on MVS North to Change October 4
CIT will replace all of the existing discrete profiles created for genera-tion data group (GDG) data sets with comparable generic profiles on October 4, 1999. The discrete GDG profiles will then be deleted. This change—part of the implementation of generic RACF profiles—uses standard features of RACF and allows the CIT to retire the special local coding.

MVS North System Web Pages Now Have an E-Mail Facility
The latest addition to SILK Web technology on the MVS North system is Webmail, accessible from the North system Web page.

MVS North System Documentation Can Be Ordered via the Web
CIT users can now order MVS North system documentation from CIT’s Technical Information Office via the Web.

Documentation Subscription Renewal Period Begins
Subscriptions to CIT documentation and software need to be renewed annually. Renew subscriptions for next year now—while you think of it. The renewal period ends December 31, 1999.

Training

CIT Computer Training Program—Fall 1999

CIT Computer Training Calendar—Fall 1999

Dates to Remember

Publications

NIH Computer Center Hardware and Software

Computer Services Telephone Directory

Online Services Directory




Notice—NIH Computer Center to Close Early on December 31, 1999

On the last day of this year, CIT will not be open for customer processing on the MVS systems, in order to obtain a full backup of all MVS system data stored on disk—as an added precaution before the year 2000.




Interface 211 - September 15, 1999

 

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