By Pierre Fortier, Director Corporate Informatics, CFPSA, Ottawa,
(613) 996-1837, Fortier.Pierre@CFPSA.com

In its continuing efforts to improve the functionality and stability of the CFPSA system, the Directorate of Corporate Informatics (the IM/IT folks) upgraded the e-mail system in December, 2002. At that time, we went from a 3-year-old single server to a brand new redundant set of servers with automatic fail-over so that if one server fails, the other will automatically take over the full load. This redundancy is invisible to the user - the system appears to continue working with no interruptions. This system is better able to handle the increasing workload of e-mail receipt and storage as well as providing us with more assurance that the e-mail system will operate on a continuous basis.

A brand new e-mail system provides a more stable environment.

Unfortunately, for all the efforts to establish a system that will not fail, there is no guarantee of 100% up time. Things can still go wrong, and while the e-mail server has continued to operate over the past four months, interruptions have still occurred. Connections and files can still be inadvertently deleted; network name translators (where the network device names are translated to the network address that is actually used for connections) can become corrupted; power supplies can fail. Any of these, individually or in combination, as well as a host of other problems, can limit the ability of a user to connect to the e-mail server, even if it is still up and running.

However, for all that, this e-mail server is better, bigger and faster than the old server and has definitely provided us with improved e-mail service since its inception.

But, it is not alone in providing us with improved e-mail services over the past four months. At the same time as upgrading the e-mail server, the IM/IT staff were also investigating and implementing an improved Anti-Virus system. The new system is an Agency wide, centrally controlled application that automatically updates almost all network PCs and servers, making sure that all systems are up-to-date in their virus fighting abilities and cover all areas in which a virus could be caught - e-mail, diskette, Internet. Since its implementation, we have had over 400 virus attacks, per month. None of those viruses made it through to the network except those that came through some older Windows 95 systems, and they were quickly found when they attacked a Windows 2000 system and were eliminated with little noticeable impact on the network. Of course, to limit the holes in the network that are represented by the older Windows 95 systems, we are working on replacing them, shutting them down or removing their sources of infection (e-mail and Internet).

Together, the upgraded e-mail and anti-virus systems have greatly improved the overall network availability and functionality. To continue that improvement even further, an e-mail committee has been established that will review various.aspects of the e-mail system and its usage. For example, the committee will:

• Review the requirement for Distribution Lists (the old ones were lost with the transfer to the new system) to ensure that sending e-mail to groups of users can be made easier, rather than using the 'hunt and pick' method from the overall Global Address List (GAL);
• Determine who will be responsible for the administrative task of ensuring that the names of users listed in the GAL are up-to-date (in particular the non-network users who are listed for convenience) and for obtaining the pertinent information to be included with the name listing (telephone number, address, title, etc);
• Formulate a policy on the use of the office e-mail (SPAM, jokes, obscenity, etc)
• Formulate a policy on the use of the Public Folders on the e-mail server - what should go in there and who is responsible for maintaining it?

Improvements resulting from the decisions that will be made by this committee, which will have its first meeting in early May, will be implemented as soon as they have been formulated, rather than waiting for a final report. Each of the implemented items will be advertised to all users as they are implemented. Once a final report has been issued, it will be published in Apropos for the information of all.

In the meantime, enjoy the newer, more stable environment!

Photo Credit: Carlos Vazquez