 |
 |
Several months ago, a number of MSU Windows sysadmins attended a meeting to explore an offer from Microsoft to offer some consulting on Windows system administration to MSU at no charge. Microsoft has informed us who will be consulting with MSU. His name is Mark Scott, and he once worked at MSU as a student employee in the Computer Center. Mark is planning to come to MSU next week for an initial visit. He will return to MSU later for more in-depth consultations. His tentative schedule is to come to East Lansing next Monday, staying through Wednesday at approx. noon, then return August 30 for a full week. Steve Moran of Microsoft forwarded to me the set of questions posed by MSU folks as possible topics for consultation. Reviewing these questions, these common themes appear: -- Migrating services from NT or Windows 2000 to Windows 2003 -- Administering Windows computers using SUS or WUS -- Microsoft Exchange administration and migration -- Windows security issues in general -- very common theme -- Miscellaneous other Windows security and Windows administration issues Here's the proposed schedule: -- Monday, August 9: 1:30 till 3:30 (or later, if needed): Town hall meeting to discuss back to school security issues at MSU in general, and in particular considerations for MSU Windows sysadmins. Also open mike time for any general questions about Windows system administration. -- Tuesday, August 10, and morning of August 11: Mark consults with MSU Windows sysadmins who responded to the call for consulting help after the last meeting. -- Mark then spends a few weeks doing research, planning to come back to MSU. -- August 30 (or another date, see below), Mark returns for specific consultations with those who sought such. August 30 is the first day of classes. My colleagues in ACNS are worried that this fall could be as bad, or worse, than last year, due to the fact that Windows XP Service Pack 2 did not come out, and therefore new computers will arrive with no beter protection than in fall of 2003. So it might be useful to have a Microsoft person on site during the storm -- or it might make sense to delay for a few weeks until things are much quieter. When we meet on August 9, please bring your ideas as to whether Mark should return on August 30 or later. I will contact those folks who asked for in-depth consultation tomorrow. The list of units/people at MSU who asked for help that Microsoft provided me is: Jim Willson Information Technology Services Broad College of Business Aaron Brubaker Administrative Information Services Bill Wheeler Michigan State University Libraries Amin Elrashid Food Science and Human Nutrition Chris Wolf Agricultural Economics Jesse Howard Michigan State University Press uwe [[log in to unmask]] Uwe Rossbach If you are not on this list, and if you asked Steve Moran of Microsoft for consulting help, please let me know ASAP. Please do not use this as an opportunity to make a new request for consulting. Thanks, /rich