Recommendations

1) Recreate current system on 3 new computers with current operating system and versions of applications.

• Contemporary software ensures longer-term support.
• Contemporary operating system also ensures easier deployment on new hardware.
• Successfully recreating this interrelated system, and properly documenting it, ensures complete understanding of system, enabling correcting problems or improving the system more quickly and with less risk.

2) Clarify "system down" procedures for likely scenarios for current set-up (and then new system)

• Ensures appropriate response by Testing Center staff and IT support.
• Characterize "pain points" working around different types of failures to help calibrate levels of urgency.
  • Examples: What happens if failure persists for 1/2 day? A week? etc.
• Helps us all invest in activities we wished we did before a failure.
  • For example, Physics IT has made images of each of the 3 computers. What else might be done?

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Approach

The current system generally works well so serves as a good model, so focus on recreated it.

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