The articles marked [Web] appear only in the Web version of "Technical Notes" at http://datacenter.cit.nih.gov/interface/.
The Century Rollover Weekend—"Day One" Plans
Rollover Weekend—What’s Open. What’s Not. And When
NIH Is Well Prepared for Y2K
Y2K Awareness Information—Are You Prepared?
Annual Audit Confirms Security of MVS Systems
OS/390 Rates Have Been Reduced for Fiscal Year 2000
New Service Request Ticket (SRT) Replaces PTR for Reporting MVS Problems
Next Disaster Recovery Test—February 23, 2000
WYLBUR Retirement Update -- Extensive Usage Identified
Forward WYLBUR Mail More Easily—Via the Web
EZStart—A New Way to Create and Manage Relational Data via the Web
The GMAC Menu Has Been Replaced by a Versatile New Web Menu
TSPrint to Be Replaced by VPS on the MVS South System
PCON.CU.NIH.GOV to Retire March 31
Reminder—Change Control Moratorium in Effect Until February
Reminder—Yearly Documentation Subscription Renewal Ends January 30
NIH Computer Center—Holiday Service Schedule
Several years of work by CIT and NIH are about to pay off with a smooth transition into the next millennium. This article discusses the past and planned activities related to Y2K.
Special activities before, during, and after the Y2K century rollover weekend are shown by date, time of day, and services affected.
An NIH-wide NIH Y2K Work Group reports that Y2K compliance has been met in mission-critical application systems, non-mission critical application systems, voice and data communications, desktop computers, Unix workstations, biomedical equipment, and the NIH Computer Center, among others.
People telecommuting should extend Y2K considerations to the home. Here are some of the things you can do to prepare for January 1.
The recent annual security audit of the MVS North and South Systems at the NIH Computer Center has confirmed that CIT provides a computing environment suitable for critical applications and highly sensitive data. Among the areas reviewed in the audit were security control objectives, the MVS RACF facility, and Y2K compliance.
Rates for OS/390 services on both the MVS North and South systems have been reduced for fiscal year 2000. The fiscal year 2000 rates went into effect on October 1, 1999.
A new Web-based Service Request Ticket (SRT) system has been developed to enable MVS North and South system customers to report problems, ask for information or request refunds.
The first of two hot site tests next year will test communications, operating environments, and resources needed to recover critical application systems. If you or your organization are responsible for critical applications and want to participate, please contact the disaster recovery manager.
The WYLBUR retirement group has addressed a variety of issues—WYLBUR usage, reengineering of applications, training, and tools, to name a few. The retirement group is developing a Web-based "knowledge base" to help everyone in this conversion and reengineering effort.
Users can use their browsers to change the forwarding address or to simply stop forwarding WYLBUR mail on the MVS South system.
CIT has introduced a new tool—EZStart—to help MVS South system users convert non-relational data (including WYLBUR edit format data) to relational data. EZStart consolidates many useful DB2 functions in a single place, with an easy-to-use Web front end.
Many things you used to find on the "GMAC menu" (GMAC is the Grants Management Advisory Committee)—including FSR snaps, Summary Statements, IRG Reports, direct cost rates, assurance information, and the new CRISPplus—are now conveniently located on one Web page that has links to both IMPAC I and IMPAC II data.
The transition from TSPrint to VPS on the MVS South system will be completed by the end of 1999. As of January 1, 2000, VPS will be the only network printing service running on the MVS South system. The switchover has been virtually transparent to TSPrint users, but new requests do require proper configuration by users on the "client" side (i.e., the local print server and queues on that server).
As previously announced, pcon will be removed from service on March 31, 2000. Users of pcon are advised to employ an alternate means of establishing 3270 sessions with the MVS South system. CIT will work with you to determine the most appropriate replacement.
The moratorium that CIT has imposed—on changes to NIH Computer Center facilities that could impact NIH mission-critical systems—remains in effect through January 30, 2000.
After January 30, people who have not renewed publication subscriptions will be removed from the automatic documentation service and won’t receive updates to their publications.
The schedule of service over the December 25 and New Years weekends—for the MVS, Helix, ALW and EOS systems.
Training
Interface 211 - December 15, 1999