Many of you have been writing regarding the problems that have been
encountered over the last few weeks on the AIX/370 system.  To try to
keep correspondence to a minimum and also keep everyone informed, the
following is a summary of what's been happening and what's planned for
the immediate future.

What's happened up until this point:

I.   All PS/2 users have been migrated from the old PS/2 sites to the
     RISC/6000 systems.  Although files appear to be located in two
     places, they actually only exist in one location and are made to
     appear to be on both via NFS.
II.  This additional NFS traffic on top of the existing traffic
     between the PS/2s has caused the subnets involved to go past the
     saturation point, if they weren't already, resulting in NFS
     timeouts.
III. These timeouts have contributed to several problems which include
     delayed mail delivery (no mail losses) and user file corruption
     (usually when the user is editing or writing a file when the NFS
     mount to a PS/2 drops).

What is being done:

I.   Staff members are spending as much time as possible (some working
     double shifts) to try to keep the system stable.
II.  This Sunday as part of the scheduled down time (8AM-NOON), there
     will be a rearrangement of network attachments to place the NFS
     traffic on a low use, internal to the PS/2 and RISC/6000 subnet. 
     This should allow for a more stable NFS environment regardless of
     the TCP/IP traffic on the PS/2 ethernet segments.
III. Once NFS has been stabilized, IS staff will proceed with the
     migration of priority software to the RISC/6000 systems and start
     eliminating additional PS/2 systems as our reliance on them
     decreases.  To this end academic software required for classes
     and file transfer utilities such as kermit and zmodem have the
     highest priority.

What you can do:

I.   Please keep non-academic related activities to off hour low use
     periods.  This will provide greater throughput for those working
     on assignments.
II.  With the exception of ada on the RISC/6000s, try to perform your
     homework assignments at off hours if possible, this will improve
     the loads for those who must do it during peak periods.
III. If you must telnet during daytime hours, use the RISC/6000
     systems instead of the old AIX/370 system, it will help out and
     give you faster response as well.

As more information becomes available, we will post it on the system.

AIX System Administration