1. Background
The Athena desktop computing environment currently runs on over 300 IS&T owned systems in general use clusters around campus and over 600 other systems owned by departments, labs, centers and individuals. Initially put into production use in 1990 as the sole Institute Academic Computing platform, the Athena desktop continues to be actively used as one platform among many, and to be actively supported by IS&T as a significant service offering.
Over the years, significant evolutionary changes have been made to the Athena desktop computing environment. Athena 10 is the next evolutionary stage of Athena.
2. Findings
- Utilize Upstream Provider
Athena should rely on upstream providers for operating system and application updates as much as possible. Similar to the update process used on Windows and Mac OS X, this will allow MIT to focus on configurations and applications that are unique to the Institute. In order to respect blackout periods, updates for cluster machines should be mirrored locally, giving us control of when they are deployed.
- Cluster Installation and Update Process
There are existing methods for installing and updating cluster machines that could decrease deployment time while minimizing network impact. These options should be reviewed to determine which could be used to deploy Athena in computing clusters.
- 3rd Party Applications
In order to provided a seamless migration for users, it is important that third party applications work in Athena 10. Such applications should be reviewed to determine what level of support is provided for Ubunut, Athena 10's underlying operating system.
3. Recommendation from the TAP Consultation
DRAFT