Attending:
Scott Randle: Ferris State University, E-Learning Specialist, Vista 8.03
Randy Dalhoff, Iowa State, Vista 8.0.3, Sys Admin, rdalhoff@iastate.edu
Sam McCool, NevSt: Instructional Technology Manager, Nevada State College, Nevada Learning Network, sam.mccool@nsc.nevada.edu, Vista 4.2.3
Cheryl McCann, CSUS, V802.1: mccannc@ct.edu, Vista 8.0.2-1, Vista Apps Admin, CT State Univ System
Nick Dean: Marshall University, LMS Administrator, Vista 8.0.2HF1, nick.dean@marshall.edu
Kathy Saville, Director MUOnline Design Center, Marshall University, Vista 8.0.2 MH
Bryant Withers CE 8.01 SQL: Bryant Withers, withersb@cortland.edu, SUNY Cortland, Info Sys Asst, CE 8.01 SQL
Pete Boysen Iowa St,V8.0.3: Pete Boysen, Iowa State, Vista 8.0.3, system analyst,pboysen@iastate.eduMelodyB-ColoState-CE802: Melody.Brake@colostate.edu, Colorado State, CE 8.0.2
David Schlater CE803: davids@uidaho.edu BB Admin, 803 ce
Jamie Bethel, Joe Jacobson, Travis Kramer, Bille Dorsey
Hot Topics
The group celebrated the birth of Amin Ali-Hasan, Sahar and Shahdy's new baby.
Melody Brake - asked about the fix for the Save all feature of the assessment tool. A patch is now available (listserv distribution) from Blackboard. A true fix will be available in an later update. Nick Dean commented in chat: It doesn't actually stop the problem but it enables the operation to complete by ignoring the Gets. David reported that Idaho will install it today. It is for only Vista 8. Matt Davis commented in Chat: "Collectively, this group did a great job of isolating, and helping us solve, this issue! Well done folks."
Cheriyl McCann - reported that assignments hang up when they try to submit an attachment. Kathy suggested recreating the assignment. And, checking the assignment that preceeds the assignment for bad code in the assignment directions. This is case - #626022.
Round Table
Bille Dorsey - nothing today
Bryant Withers - nothing today
Cheryl McCann - Garbage Collection failed three days in a row and prevented them from upgrading to SP3. Discussion followed about how other schools have experienced similar failures and recovery.
David Schlater - reported that he is considering removing JDK150_08, folder of files, and will remove it. Wondered if others have removed it. Bryant reported that he removed the folder from the Cortland installation without detrimental affects. David will patch login page on production now that the patch works on pre-production. Asked if he could install both patches before restarting. Randy confirmed that he could install both before restarting and wouldn't have to run a refresh. Finally, he reported that as a result of his attempts to upgrade the config file with the information regarding clusters, the application won't start. He duplicated the process that Randy successfully completed but still was unable to get application to start.
Jack Sharon - nothing today.
Jamie Bethel - nothing today
Joe Jacobson - nothing today
Kathy Saville - asked about StudyMate CS and issues she encountered trying to import into CS from Author.
Matt Davis - announced that he will be at Educause and will hope to get together with any of us who will also be attending.
Melody Brake - asked about SP3 and lessons learned. She is considering upgrading and wondered if those who have already had advice. Luminis processing - Mary Holmes reported improvement. Others shared issues
Nick Dean - nothing to add.
Pete Boysen - nothing to add.
Randy Dalhoff - reported that he conducted query of student section counts or pulled other stats and discovered that only 3000 out of 27,000 have not touched Bb Vista.
Sam McCool - reported on the Mac browsers Chat links at "Go to Chatroom"; reported on current production state; and then concluded with current state of InTech at NSC -- moving to new offices and hoping to hire two new employees.
Scott Randle - asked what others do for load testing for workflow. Randy reported that the same question was asked at a session on Linux System Administration panel session at Bb Conference. Several tools were recommended: BadBoy, JMeter, and Grinder. Tim Lambert reported in chat: Grinder was used here at UMOL when Bb came in to do performance testing on our new cluster. Jack Sharon contributed several methods for testing load and what to look for during a test. He made a distinction between test cases and real use cases.
Travis Kramer - received pressure from group for pictures; Sahar set a new bar in sharing baby pictures. Nothing new to report.