Extra Pepperoni

I had a conversation with a co-worker about our new space. We’re moving into the Super-Tent in March, and the construction on Theobald Smith Hall (where we’re being kicked out of for the gut renovation) is supposed to finish in 2011. There’s been no discussion about where IT will go after we move out of the Super-Tent, except that we’re not moving back, because Smith (and Flexner) will be all open-bay lab space (no administrative departments allowed).

We all assume Flexner will start as Smith is winding down, so if Smith takes 4 years, Flexner might take 3 (until 2014). At that point, Bronk is going to look quite old and unloved (as it already does, actually), so that’s 2017. RU IT is over 60 people now, so by then we should be 80+, and the University is extremely unlikely to have a nice space to put a group of 80+ people (we’re currently in 5 locations in 4 buildings, spanning 5 blocks).

So perhaps in 2017 (barring major construction delays, and we all know all construction finishes on time, right?!?), the University will be trying to figure out what to do with 80 people, who are less important than any lab.

At this point, I have to think they’ll wait to think about it (as they waited to give us new space, or renovate our existing space for a few years). Perhaps 3 years later the City will finally make them remove the tent (which is not approved as a permanent structure, of course), so around 2020, I expect RU to be scattering the IT department across campus again. Maybe we can find the 13th Colony!

Note: Bathrooms will be outside — outhouses are so retro!

Check out my Super-Tent photos and the RU article on the construction plans.

We have a bunch of 48-port terminal servers (they’re Linux/ssh based, and quite good). Unfortunately, one of ours has a bad Ethernet port (intermittent connections — no good for lights out management!)

Today (Friday), I spent from 4:15 to 5:30 labelling 48 Cat5 cables, replacing the old terminal server (a tight fit!), reconnecting the cables, and testing. It increased my respect for our Network group, as they do this type of thing all the time (although usually with less ports), and scheduling network downtime is much tougher than scheduling console downtime. Lots more people notice. Fortunately, the terminal servers are for our group, and used almost entirely by 4 particular people, so notification and scheduling was easy.

Still, it wasn’t fun. At the end I had a label maker with dead batteries, a whole bunch of garbage from the labels, and grimy fingers, but we regained remote access for the weekend, which was my goal.

Next time I’ll ask a hardware guy to do the cable swapping!