| Date proposed | Title | Original suggestion | Status | Ticket (internal to OUCS) |
|---|
| 2010-11 |
Git server |
It would be useful for us to be able to host git projects internally.
Developing features concurrently, creating hot fixes, timing major
releases and merging is an order of magnitude easier than with
subversion. Also, it's considerably faster.
A google of 'git vs subversion' will give a host of reasons why e.g.:
http://thinkvitamin.com/code/why-you-should-switch-from-subversion-to-git/
Of course, if our policy is to develop most software in open source,
there's no reason why we can't use external hosting like github or
sourceforge (at no cost to us).
Although I have no direct experience, by virtue of the architecture of
git I would imagine git is easier to maintain server side than
subversion. |
Sysdev at OUCS would like to offer Git alongside Subversion as
part of a version control portfolio, but at present there is no
resource to work on it. We suggest that Subversion for purely internal
projects is adequate, and that Github for OSS projects is probably
more sensible anyway. |
1623181 |
| 2010-11 |
Windows terminal services |
I currently use a Mac for development but need to do testing and
experimentation on Windows, running a VM works but means my
computer starts to crawl due to lack of RAM and disk IO. Having a
second computer isn't a very green or cheap option.
I would really like it if there was a terminal services server I could
connect to and work on.
Maybe in the first instance this could just be an internal OUCS
service. |
We do not think that terminal services are the best way to
meet this need. We suggest borrowing Windows machines, and getting
more memory for your VMWare |
1623680 |
| 2010-11 |
Passing back info from OUCS to ITSS |
Please could
OUCS review procedures surrounding passing
requests by members of the University back to
ITSS. It would help reduce ITSS workload and
provide a much more efficient service overall if
OUCS Help Desk staff could record relevant
information about a request and pass this back to
ITSS for action (rather than just referring people
back). This way ITSS will be able to act more
quickly and 'customers' won't have to chase a
response. Examples of this would be where students
want project accounts or staff who have entered
their SSO account details into a phishing email
will be dealt with quickly. Obvious solutions
would be simply passing free text in an email back
to ITSS or using more structured online forms -
perhaps for self-self-provisioning. With the
example of phishing then this should be past to
the OxCert team who monitor these 'attacks'. |
This is being pursued by OUCS help centre and ITS3. We accept
the principle, but need to consider the best way to manage it. |
1636141 |
| 2010-11 |
An Oxford PURL server |
We, Kwiakowski Group at The Wellcome Trust Centre
for Human Genetics,
are thinking of running a Purl server (see
http://purl.org/) within
our name space eg http://purl.cggh.org/ .
Before we proceed I would like to know whether
OUCS is planning to run
such a service at a University level i.e.
http://purl.ox.ac.uk/ |
OUCS has no current plans for this, but would be happy to work alongside
your group if you set it up. |
1627513 |
| 2010-11 |
Altiris server for Oxford |
It might be good to provide a repository for
Altiris .bin files for ITSS to use for rolling out
security updates. It might be that ICTST would be
the major contributor but others could also
contribute. It would be great if OxCERT security announcements
could include pointers to this repository so
people could roll out patches/updates easily and
not all have to replicate the work of making
Altiris packages. |
This is agreed in principle, and work at OUCS has been chartered |
1627473 |
| 2010-11 |
Mailling list logs |
Would be extremely useful for a maillist-manager
to be able to view logs for emails sent to an
OUCS-hosted mailing list - specifically to answer
queries about why a message failed or to verify
that yes, a message has been sent this time. As
well as being able to audit the traffic to the list.
(This is specifically for lists where the people
authorized to send to the list are not actually on
the list themselves). |
This has been added to the desiderata for the new maillist
system planned for 2nd half of 2011. We will not be planning changes
to the existing system |
1630952 |
| 2009-11 |
RSS Feed on vacancies |
I would be very interested to here of upcoming
vacancies in OUCS and would consider that a RSS
feed from the vacancies page to be most useful. |
We are looking to move job vacancies into OXITEMS to solve this |
1636141 |
| 2010-04 |
Poster Printing |
I would like the ability to print A0 posters on
fabric rather than card. This would allow me to
fold my poster in my main luggage for conferences
rather than risk it with hand luggage.
This facility is available at no extra cost to the
end users at the University of Manchester |
Sadly, we cannot do this. Our printer does not accept fabric. It
will be born in mind if/when the printer is replaced. |
1514642 |
| 2010-03 |
semantic web/linked data help |
|
Work is now being undertaken in this area as part of a project
with Estates Directorate |
1505262 |
| 2010-03 |
Server Network Monitoring |
I produce a lot of data that I make publicly
available and which gets quite heavily used. I'd
like to start making my data readable in some
format aka the semantic web/rdf etc. Is there any
support available to help me do this? I think
this is going to be a very useful thing to do and
I'd like to get a bit ahead of the curve. |
Work is now being undertaken in this area as part of a project
with Estates Directorate |
1503104 |
| 2010-03 |
Embedded viewer option on podcasts.ox.ac.uk |
I think that one of the options on
podcasts.ox.ac.uk should be a link to (dynamically
generated) embedded viewer page to watch the
videos. This would be convenient for those users
who don't have appropriate media playing software
on their computer or don't want to fire up such
software to watch the first 20 seconds of
something to see if they are interested in it.
|
This will in Weblearn from start of 2011 |
1505711 |
| 2010-01 |
alternative to anonymous proxies |
As a web developer trying to serve different
content to different audiences (and of course hide
some content from some of them), it is quite often
useful to be able to check what 'the rest of the
world' can see of our pages. While it is possible
to do this by viewing a site from home using a
commercial ISP connection, or using an anonymous
browser, it would be preferable to be able to use
a secure, safe, in-house resource rather than have
to turn to an advertisement-driven third-party
site |
The wireless network 'eduroam' provides this facility neatly,
as it puts users outside the Oxford network. We suggest using a
wireless laptop connected in this way to test webpages.
|
1479556 |
| 2010-01 |
Secure transfer of c.300MB files from NHS to Oxford
Networks |
|
A new service for this will start in Hilary 2011, and be in full
service in Trinity 2011 |
1405739 |
| 2009-07 |
Poster printing |
It would be good if the poster printing service
would accept files submitted electronically. It
would be trivial for me to place a high-res PDF
on our departmental website, and email in a
confirmation of payment from the online shop.
|
OUCS will be implementing this later in 2010 |
1367900 |
| 2010-03 |
Signed TSM packages from HFS |
I'd like to request that (human/time) resources be
available so that the TSM client packages are signed.
We use the HFS backup service on our servers. HFS
do not want anyone to use 3rd party packaged TSM
clients.
HFS say that they will not 'sign' the packages
they produce as it causes work (see RT#1499104)
however it puts the updates they push out at risk
of tampering - that is, a compromised package
would compromise all hosts using the hfs client
without any warning to the individual sysadmins.
The comment in that RT ticket that 'only oucs'
requests this is not because oucs is unreasonable
but because we are expected to have the technical
knowledge to know why these situations are bad. It
shouldn't be made trivial to silently compromise
the majority of oucs's infrastructure by
compromising one server simply through refusing to
sign packages. |
Accepted, will happen in due course |
1499329 |
| 2009-10 |
mailing list system that ties into predefined groups |
|
This will be part of the deliverables of the OAK Groupstore
project, scheduled for 2010 |
1406603 |
| 2009-11 |
Windows 7 x64 VPN Support |
Please add support for a VPN client which supports
a 64bit version of Vista/ windows 7. |
The current release (Connect Anywhere) should be fine with
Vista/7 64-bit |
1428026 |
| 2009-10 |
Wireless Registration Step by Step Guide for New Starters |
We get many new starters who connect up to the
OWL network, see the OWL-Visitor home page and
then don't really know what to do next. A super
simple 'idiots guide' web based setup wizard on
the OWL-Visitor home page would be really useful. |
We quite agree, and are actively working on a new guide now. |
1416120 |
| 2009-10 |
Nexus Address Book Alias |
Displaying everyone's login user name as their
'alias' in the address book in the nexus new
message interface is not a particularly useful
feature and would be an aid to those wishing to
hack into the accounts of others, particularly
those prone to using weak passwords etc. |
We are sorry, but this is not possible.
We have to provide a short form alias, and the username is the obvious
choice.
It is exposed in all sorts of places across Nexus, and it is not practical to conceal it from people. |
1414388 |
| 2009-10 |
mailing list system that ties into predefined groups |
A mailing list system that ties into predefined
groups that are automatically updated according to
University card status and unit affiliation |
This will be part of the deliverables of the OAK Groupstore
project, scheduled for 2010 |
1406603 |
| 2009-10 |
Captcha service |
Centrally-hosted captcha service for spambot protection |
We do not consider this would offer university members a
significant advantage over the freely-available 3rd party systems; in
addition, the accessibility problems over Captcha make this a
rather controversial area which we do not have the resources to get into. |
1401812 |
| 2009-08 |
Subsidised upgrades to Snow Leopard |
Given the imminent migration to an Exchange
Server, the support for this built into the new
Mac OS, and the University's site-license for
Windows Operating Systems, I suggest that some
funds should go to providing free or subsidised
upgrades to Mac OS 10.6. |
OUCS does not have any budget for this. Volume discounts are
available from Apple. |
1380351 |
| 2009-10 |
Auto updating of mailing list subscriptions |
In many situations, the e-mail addresses for a
list can be automatically generated from an
existing database (e.g. all graduates, all
staff). The existing Ezmlm mailing list facility
allows a list owner to manually upload a text
file with a list of subscribers.
It would be useful to have an interface (e.g.
SOAP) which allowed an automated process to
update the subscription to mailing lists without
human intervention. |
This will be part of the deliverables of the OAK Groupstore
project, scheduled for 2010 |
1352778 |
| 2007-12-17, 2008-08-12 |
Large temporary space for file download
|
Imperial College run a rather nice service at:
https://fileexchange.imperial.ac.uk/ .
It allows a non IC person to upload a (possibly
several 100Mb) file to be collected by the owner
of an IC email address, or an IC person to upload
a file for someone outside the University.
It's simple to use and effective and would be
great for Oxford. I know of quite a few users
making use of external services such as
megaupload, dropload etc to transfer files too
large to email. But they're usually heavily
ad-infested and offer questionable security.
|
Work on a system to implement this functionality
will start in January 2010 and should be completed by
April 2010 |
See
1249774
for a reminder on this topic; also 1405739
|
| 2009-07 |
Nexus Folder Usage Table, sortable |
The 'Nexus folder usage' page on
https://register.it.ox.ac.uk/self/nexus displays
a table of Folder/Items/Size. It would be good if
this folder was sortable by any of these
(particularly size). |
Agreed that this is a good idea, passed to Registration team for
implementation |
1368352 |
| 2009-07 |
Team blogs |
It would be nice if the various teams could have (central) blogs, so
that we on the outside could see a little more of what they're all up
to, if they're willing to share. |
OUCS staff now have team and individual blogs at http://blogs.oucs.ox.ac.uk; we hope you enjoy them. |
1363276 |
| 2009-06-18 |
Automated update of mailling lists |
It would be useful to have an interface (e.g.
SOAP) which allowed an automated process to
update the subscription to mailing lists without
human intervention. |
OUCS
anticipate adding this feature in due course as
part of a larger reworking of the mail list service (either a
replacement of the software used to provide mailling list services, or through the
Group Store project which will provide group-based mail lists and
interfaces for programmatically updating group membership). We do not
therefore
anticipate doing any development of the current system in isolation.
|
See
1352778 |
| 2009-04-15 |
Secondary authentication |
Could OUCS and BSP begin to explore the use of one
time passwords for managing more sensitive data eg
changing staff and student records or oucs mail
routings. This will become more important when
these systems move to using webauth for routine
operations. Where data is changed- not just read-
there needs to be extra security in place in case
a webauth account is compromised.
eg
http://blog.nominet.org.uk/tech/2009/03/18/a-quick-review-of-yubikey-one-time-passwords/ |
A UAS working group is now actively looking at this |
RT 1329559 |
| 2009-04-23 |
Central RT service |
A centrally managed RT system would be really useful.
Several units around the University use Request
Tracker (RT) to manage IT support requests,
maintenece requests etc. OUCS already use it to
manage several of their support queues, and it
is easy to add Webauth integration. St Antony's
college is considering using RT for IT helpdesk
and maintenence. Although it is relatively
straight forwards to set up, we would be
interested in using a centrally provided RT were
one to be offered.
|
RT is sufficiently easy to run locally that we do not
see a real case for a central installation. NSMS will
run it for departments if requested. |
RT
1332356;
RT 1325673
|
| 2009-06-07 |
Register of clubs |
The register at http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/clubs/register/index.shtml
has been is this state for several years. There would be benefits for the clubs and to OUCS
and the University if this site had up-to-date data.
This is independent on what computing facilities
OUCS give to the clubs themselves ;-) but if we do
continue to give them facilities then update to
date data on who is currently registered is
essential- and much better that the information is
public than just a file send to OUCS. |
The director of OUCS is liaising with the clubs committee to
ensure more timely exchange of information |
RT
1345503 |
| 2009-03-24 |
wiki upgrade of OERC |
I'm quite sure the this wiki instance is horribly
out of date, although I haven't been able to find
a version number, but the following my give an
indication:
MoinMoin/InstallDocs (last modified 2006-08-08
15:59:59)
|
The OUCS sysdev team manage the wiki server using Debian,
and follow their cycle of updates for software like MoinMoin |
RT
1322648 |
| 2009-03-13 |
Groups in Sakai/OAK |
The Medical Sciences Division is developing a
student record system (SRS) that takes data from
OSS. We frequently need to divide a year cohort
into smaller groups for teaching. Our SRS will
generate and maintain groups. We would like to be
able to write these and other groups to Oak.
We also want to produce personalized timetables
for students, possibly from Sakai. To do this we
would need to be able to populate 8 - 12 groups
per year cohort automatically. Groups change
rather dynamically through the year and are
different for each year of study.
|
The writeable group store now under development should provide
the necessary facilities. |
1319579 |
| 2008-02-25 |
Project collaboration workspace |
Are there currently any OUCS-supplied utilities
that enable a collaborative workspace for
projects? I'm looking for something that is
available now and could be accessed from anywhere
within the University, and would offer something
like bulletin-board or blog functionality as well
as somewhere to share and edit documents. |
The new WebLearn Beta pilot service (based on Sakai) will offer shared
(collaborative) workspace / filestore, a wiki, protected and public facing
web pages, a bulletin-board, research diary and an announcements tool. There
is no blog tool at the moment but this could possibly be added at a later
date if there is enough demand. The pilot service will become a production
service in June 2009. The new Groupware service will go live in summer
2009 as well, offering Sharepoint services for research and admin projects. |
1176041
|
| 2008-02-12 |
Increase personal disk space on linux.ox.ac.uk
|
I am currently using my account on linux to back up my
thesis work, but I find the quota is quite small, 100m right now. Can
I get a larger one, say 500M - 1G for convenience? |
The
quota has been increased to 250 M but in general the HFS is recommended
for backup
|
1173138
|
| 2008-01-29 |
Seminar interface to OXITEMS |
Oxitems works
very well as a newsfeed but it doesn't quite answer a growing need
for a system to collect and display up-to-date interdepartmental seminar
information... [we need] .... to develop an interface and script that would
automate this, essentially allowing seminar organisers to post their own
information, |
This will be carried forward by OUCS'
information services team working on OXITEMS. A new version is planned
for summer 2009
|
1168959
|
