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Upgrades Coming (or already on) Your Desktop: Citrix and Microsoft Exchange (Outlook)
We are in the development and testing phases of upgrades to the Citrix Server Farm (NLU Farm) and Microsoft Exchange Server (NLUExchange). These involve both software and hardware upgrades. Citrix is widely used at NLU. It serves the Banner application to all Banner users, delivers desktop applications (i.e. Microsoft Office) to winterm users, and provides a method for remote access to network file shares (H: and I: drives) for users that are out of the office. Microsoft Exchange is the email and groupware server that provides email, group calendaring, shared task lists, and other services to approximately 2000 faculty (full-time and adjunct) and staff.
The Citrix upgrade will take NLU from Citrix Metaframe 1.8 on a Windows NT 4.0 platform to Citrix Metaframe XPe on the Windows 2000 Server platform. The updated version of Citrix will allow for the upgrade to Microsoft Office 2000 for Winterm users. Improved speed, stability, security, and user capacity, along with updated applications are why this upgrade is essential to NLU.
The Citrix server farm upgrade is currently being tested by a pilot user group of Winterm users from various campuses and departments. The pilot phase will last approximately 3 weeks. Once completed, we will switch users to the new servers running the new software. This conversion will not require users to change the setup of their Winterm or Citrix client. Scheduled conversion date is February 8, 2003.
The Microsoft Exchange upgrade from version 5.5 to Microsoft Exchange 2000 will bring many updated features. Some of the most important are a larger information store (mailbox capacity) that will allow us to increase individual mailbox size limits and a user-friendlier web interface (http://nluexchange.nl.edu).
OIT has begun early development and testing for the Microsoft Exchange 2000 upgrade. We are testing best practices and upgrade paths in order to determine the cleanest and safest route to follow during the actual upgrade. We expect to be ready for conversion in mid to late April 2003. This conversion is among the most complex and difficult of upgrades. We will proceed only when we are certain that the process will be successful. |
