Careful Planning Behind Recent Leopard Upgrades- May 13th, 2008

College of Education computer users were eager to start using the latest Mac OS X version, 10.5 “Leopard,” as soon as it was introduced last October. With over 300 new features, Leopard would bring to the desktop many of the cool capabilities first seen on the iPod and iPhone.

But the Technical and Network Services (TNS) of the Learning Technology Center had to take a more cautious approach. Coordinator Ryan Baldwin and his team are charged with the security and integrity of the College’s data networks, users’ computers, and servers. They must make technical decisions based on what will best keep these systems secure and functioning. Large-scale changes in particular must be carefully and methodically tackled, identifying potential problems and analyzing the issues involved until solutions are reached. This deliberate process was essential for the upgrade to Leopard, which presented a number of problematic challenges.

In truth, when Leopard came out, there were bugs and security gaps. Most critically, it did not work with the College’s central login directory system, which authenticates the login information for each computer connected to the network and is essential for keeping College computers uncompromised. It wasn’t until February 2008, when version 10.5.2 came out, that Leopard was robust enough to migrate the login directory server to it. But even then, the task was no small feat.

“Our challenge was to upgrade the directory server to Leopard with a minimum of downtime so that users would not be inconvenienced,” said Ryan. The solution was to set up a “development bed,” a testing system, of several Mac Mini computers set up as exact replicas of the servers within a self-contained network.

James Cutrone, the LTC’s Network Security Officer, tested the upgrade procedures on the development bed until he was sure it would go smoothly, then performed the real migration during weekend overnight hours in late February. Most network users were unaware of any downtime. Chris Yallalee, an LTC Systems Analyst, used the same process to migrate the e-Portfolio and iChat servers.

Leopard’s improvements in security and management features make it worth the wait and hard effort. It also allows expanded file sharing among users with fewer passwords needed.

Now the TNS team is working to upgrade College users’ computers to Leopard, helping them determine whether more RAM is needed or they need to purchase licensing. Workstation computers and servers in the LTC labs should be upgraded to Leopard by the fall. Leopard poses another set of challenges to the labs’ imaging system, which deletes added files and restores an identical structure and set of applications to each workstation. But, in their usual determined manner, the LTC’s Technical and Network Services is sure to come up with the solution.

—Laurie Caldwell, LTC Communications Coordinator