Adam Kimball | MP451[x2] | MP452[x1]

Progress this semester:

Lightning Talks:

CS Labs/Server Room:

Bobby Newman, Kyle Pederson, Jared Dunbar, Hunter Bashaw were the other participants

Specced out a couple new budget-oriented 48-port gigabit switches for COSI
Assisted in rebuilding/reconfiguring lab machines for DVD writers (orchestrated by Bobby)
Helped troubleshoot machine 6 for potential failure
REPEATEDLY rebuilt machine 6, ultimately attributed issues to voltage drooping PSU, replaced it.
Configured lab machine BIOS for improved performance (increased VRAM allocation, adjusted some to proper clock speeds, checked memory configuration, etc)
Specced/purchased first round of grease for Makerbot
Proposed and purchased a simple new HDMI cable system to help prevent breaking more expensive cables in the future

Effectively: Big expensive HDMI cable routed from projecter to corner through ceiling, attached to a coupler. Cheap cable on the end.

Continually involved in new GPU purchase discussion (Currently recommending RX470s for lab machines, and RX480 for Beast 1)
Recommended a few end-of-year purchases for when I'm gone!
Attended and participated in nearly every forum, especially with respect to spending
Was actively involved in Amazon AWS discussions (which seem to have fallen through?)
Participated in the several mid-year disciplinary/mending talks

Hydra (New VM Host):

Configured the machine BIOS, save for disabling remote management (Thanks Bobby!)
Mounted the shelf rails in the server room, got the server mounted and wired w/ help of Jared
Assisted w/ configuration & understanding of NUMA nodes
Helped with questions on software setup, but handled in majority by Jared Dunbar
Tested the hell out of Hydra upon first build, filling a day w/ memtest, prime95 thermal tests, PSU testing, & smartctl tests
Diagnosed clock rate issues w/ CPUs, specced out and ordered power adapters to fix
Tore down and completely rewired the machine when said adapters arrived, and installed them
...Which of course meant yet another evening of testing. This time was more automated, though.
Machine re-installed by Jared afterward, now 100% functional!

Elephant/Backup System:

Constructed a new VM Host Backup Script!
Proposed some plans for Amazon AWS backups for core configuration files, but this seems to have fallen through
Specced out/proposed some HDDs for Elephant, but it was ultimately decided to hold off on them
Ran a workshop to get ideas for a new backup system

Orchestrated a more centralized system, documentation coming soon to a Docs near you!
This weekend, to be specific.
The gist of this is that server maintainers will be expected to back up everything they need to a local backup folder, which the backup user should have read/write access to. Elephant will then reach out to each of these machines, and pull in everything in their backup folders.
An exception will need to be made for Bacon

Misc:

Co-Wrote a SHA1 patch for the open source project Vita Shell alongside Bobby Newman
Dusted out and cleaned up machines from second floor w/ Bobby Newman

As always, provided the COSI Christmas Cheer (A USB Christmas Tree!)
Repeatedly assisted students with CS141 material, and various other coursework
Continually cleaned up/organized the labs (especially chairs and the center table...), and tried to keep the whiteboard PG-13
Projector troubleshooting! HDMI/VGA.
With Hunter Quant, participated in and won the 7 Hour Rougelike Compeition run by Jared Dunbar
Attended the Introduction to Rust workshop, by Corey Richardson
Attended one of the Robigalia workshops, by Corey Richardson