Requirements 1 u Home directories n NT based

Requirements (1) u Home directories n NT based (no Novell) l n NICE ALNTS No Yes File sharing, single password etc. Support ~400 users Yes No Same environment for all users yes l Backup/restore yes l 24 hour assistance no l Reboots scheduled with users (no) yes l n yes no Disk space / quotas Under experiment control no l Backup of local disks? no no l Web access: http: //lhcb. cern. ch/~user (no) l n (no) yes Quality of service currently better on ALNTS, but cannot scale to 400 users Marco Cattaneo, 23 June 1999 1

Requirements (2) u Desktop software n n MS Office, Netscape, Phone book, Printing etc. Stability: l Users Ø should be encouraged to use new versions, but should be able to choose timing Ø should be able to install their own software and configure it, without fear of losing it after next NICE update l n Mirroring not acceptable - can choose when to mirror but not what to mirror. And it does not work. . . Support l Mirroring to local server means no support Ø No central support (mirrored system different from central system) Ø No local support (no expertise) l Local solutions mean poor support Ø e. g. Printers n Major cause of unhappiness, both NICE and ALNTS have pros and cons Marco Cattaneo, 23 June 1999 2

Requirements (3) u Physics software (LHC++, CERNLIB) n Must be able to choose version to use l n Must be able to access latest features/bug fixes in “new” area l n Currently not possible to link together NICE versions of CERNLIB and LHC++ Access to central repository is a reasonable solution l u Requires remirroring on ALNTS Compiler options and versions must be consistent l n Possible with NICE and ALNTS Provided LHCb and IT/ASD can agree on compiler options Central software repository (c. f. ASIS) n n For both desktop and physics software Notification of ALL changes To allow informed choice on what/when to update l Automatic update should be possible with high granularity l Marco Cattaneo, 23 June 1999 3

Requirements (4) u LHCb production software n “Project” space needed, accessible to all LHCb users Currently on ALNTS l Could be provided on central service l n Includes homegrown software, but also commercial software required (and supported) by LHCb l u Software Development Environment n n u (Who manages licenses? ) Should be accessible to all LHCb users LHCb specific configuration, requires support within LHCb specific desktop environment needed n Identical for all LHCb users l c. f. Hepi. X Marco Cattaneo, 23 June 1999 4

Requirements (5) u Development server n In parallel to production service for LHCb community, computing group needs a “private” server to: Test new tools l Develop and test new software l Test new configurations l etc. l n By definition less stable, strange behaviour and “random” reboots should be acceptable Marco Cattaneo, 23 June 1999 5

Conclusion u Production service for ~400 users best provided on centrally maintained server n But requires major changes in NICE to allow Experiment specific services l Experiment specific service configuration l u In parallel, “small” development server needed to support R&D activities of well defined computing team. n (c. f. Zodiac cluster in Aleph Online) Marco Cattaneo, 23 June 1999 6