CERN Accelerating science

CERNVM Rundown Schedule

The memorandum sent by the Director of Research and the Technical Director to Division Leaders and Spokespersons of experiments on 22 March (published also in CNL 219 and in the Computing and CERNVM newsgroups) resulted in many thoughtful responses. These were of considerable help in preparing the CERN Management Board discussion of 27 April. At this meeting, as reported already in the CERN Bulletin 19/95 of 8 May, the Management Board endorsed an overall approach comprising the following specific points:

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a decision should be taken in October 1995 on the details of a significant downsizing of the CERNVM configuration, to take effect at the end of 1995;

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no batch utilisation on CERNVM in 1996, except that authorized by COCOTIME;

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the aim should be to stop the CERNVM service as early as possible in 1996, in the middle of the year if at all possible. The final decision should be taken in March 1996.

The responses to the Directors' memorandum contained many detailed observations and requests for information, often overlapping and reinforcing those received from others and the answers are clearly of interest to the whole CERNVM user community. For this reason, we intend to prepare replies and publicise them in appropriate ways such as the CNL, electronic newsgroups and the World-Wide Web. Already in this issue you will find a selection of articles that address some of the major topics. A first general user meeting on migration issues has been held, as well as one specifically for the personnel of PS Division. More such meetings are planned in the future -- watch out for the announcements in the usual channels.

Please contact the authors if you have questions or comments about the migration-related articles in this CNL. As a reminder, I repeat in the table below the main people to contact on the different aspects of the rundown: