Status of HCLS Demo servers

[Alan Ruttenberg]

Today we will pack up the demo machines that were loaned to us from  
HP. so hcls1 and hcls2 will be down, for at least a little while.
We have been offered a server hosted by Amit Sheth's group and should  
be able to set this up hopefully this week or next.
Another server will be purchased and set up at DERI courtesy of  
Giovanni Tummarello. As that machine needs to be first ordered I  
anticipate that it will be at a minimum 2 weeks before it is up.

In the interim, assuming that we can support the traffic, we will  
redirect hcls1 and hcls2 to the neurocommons server, however there  
will likely be a one or two day downtime while we do this.

If you are using the server and it will seriously inconvenience you  
to have any downtime, please send me or Jonathan a note and we will  
provide direct access to the neurocommons server.

There are other possibilities for hosting mirrors that are under  
discussion - I'll report back if I have any news.

If you want to host a pubic or private local mirror of the server,  
please contact either of us for help in doing so. On the task list is  
to create a simple how-to and document this on the wiki. If you are  
interested in helping write this up, which would include verifying  
that those instructions work on a machine of your own, please also  
let us know - that would be very helpful.

Another task that could be taken up by someone interested would be to  
help analyze the logs we have to get some statistics about the demo's  
use - number and kind of queries, hosts, errors etc. Please let us  
know if you are interested in helping with that.

I've been a bit out of touch because of a combination of travel and  
my laptop breaking down, so apologies if I haven't responded  
adequately to emails. I will be catching up this week now that I am  
back.

Finally thanks once again to Ray Hookway and Jeannine Crockford at HP  
for arranging to get us these loaners, and to Amit Sheth and and  
Giovanni Tummarello for their offers to make the demo continue to be  
available to the public!

Regards,
Alan