FIS BULLETIN Number 15

Announcements | Calendar | Status | T&T-Q&A | Training | Inside Peek | Odds & Ends

December 5, 1997

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS

GENERAL: SCHEDULED FIS BANNER DOWNTIMES

FIS will be UNAVAILABLE on the following days:

Wednesday, 12/24, 5 p.m. until Friday, 12/26, 7 a.m.
Wednesday, 12/31, 5 p.m. until Friday, 1/2, 7 a.m.

ACQUISITIONS: None.

BANNER REPORTS: None.

OTHER FIS / BANNER ITEMS:

FIS Training Schedule and Registration Information - see Odds and Ends for details

CALENDAR OF FIS / BANNER EVENTS

MONTHLY INTERFACE SCHEDULE (Financial data from other admin systems)
All interfaces begin running at 5pm; dates subject to change

FIS STATUS

FIS PROJECT STATUS

Work continues on the 1997-98 Projects outlined in the September bulletin. Below are some progress highlights for the past month:

ORACLE DATABASE PERFORMANCE TUNING: The Banner FIS table defragmentation process has been completed! The last (and biggest) table in FIS was defragged on Nov 22-23. Preliminary statistics indicate that at least some processes using this table are now running more quickly.

Thank you for your patience during the weekend downtimes that the defragmentation process required. Eventually, as more data is added to FIS, we'll need to perform this process again...but hopefully not too soon!

OPERATING SYSTEM UPGRADE: The Solaris operating system upgrade was successfully performed on Nov 15-16. (Although there were a few glitches; see Section E Insider's Peek for details.) The most noticeable result to FIS users is the reduction in time it now takes to actually get into Banner.

IMPROVED CAMPUSWIDE REPORTING: (Also known as the Reports Analysis Project). We are currently analyzing the most common FIS reports to determine which data, summarizations, and selection criteria they have in common. This analysis is feeding the preliminary specifications on a "one-size-fits-most" data extract process which will ultimately allow reports to run much more efficiently, and with less impact on the system.

DISTRIBUTED ONLINE MEMO LIENS: We are still in the process of testing FIS functionality in this area in order to determine where we will need to supplement the base system. We are also investigating how the current FIS reports will be impacted by memo lien transactions. Our plan is still to have a preliminary working process for review in January.

TIPS & TRICKS / QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

TIPS & TRICKS
None submitted this month.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

An astute FIS user (aren't we all?) writes:

"When you enter FGIBDST (the query screen) the cursor is always sitting at "Location". This means that you have to tab forward a bunch to get to org code, which is commonly what you want to start with in a query, or shift tab backwards 7 times to get to the org. code cell. Is there anyway that you folk in Bannerland can shift that cursor to a place that is useful? Like the org code cell?...Thanks a lot even if you can't do anything about this silly, stupid annoyance." Well, it doesn't happen often, but every now and then the old adage "ask and ye shall receive" happens without any "yeah, but..." attached! With flying fingers and a tiny sprinkle of fixie dust, one of our crackerjack ADS programmers made this FIS user's dream come true. Enjoy!

________________________
Questions or problems regarding the Banner system can be directed to:
Acquisitions, Accounts Payable - Karsen Jones (kjones@cats)
Ledger Reports, Fiscal Closing - Vicki Gutzwiller (vickig@cats)
Banner Security, Access, Other - Monique Leduc (mleduc@cats)
FIS Training Content, Schedule - Nancy Miller (njmiller@cats)

INSIDER'S PEEK AT FIS

HARDWARE, FIRMWARE, SOFTWARE...BEWARE!

As you probably will recall, dinky (the server Banner FIS runs on) had a few rough spots in the past few weeks. Here's a behind-the-scenes recap of the latest "Dinky Doldrums."

Tuesday 11/18/97
At approx 10:30am, dinky spontaneously rebooted itself. All user connections are lost. Preliminary error checking reveals nothing; system brought back on-line by 11:30am. Sys Admin begins technical dialogue with Sun Systems, manufacturer of both the hardware and operating system (Solaris) that comprise dinky.

After much discussion, Sun suggests the problem may have been caused by a flaky CPU (the processor "brain" of the machine...luckily, dinky has 8 of them.) Dinky is taken down at 7pm, and a Sun Hardware Engineer comes out and replaces the CPU. However, CATS and Sun technical staff continue to analyze the incident over the course of the next several days, as the CPU solution doesn't fit all the evidence.

Tuesday 11/25/97
At approx 3:30pm, dinky reboots itself again. (Guess that CPU wasn't flaky after all!) Decision is made to keep dinky off-line until problem can be isolated. Sys Admin works with Sun into the evening, and is able to finally diagnose the problem as a piece of the software (called a "patch") that was not installed during the recent Solaris upgrade, as Sun had indicated it was not essential. Attempts to apply the missing patch late into the night are unsuccessful. After more consultation with Sun, it is determined that the same fix can be accomplished by replacing 3 of dinky's disks. This is because the version of the firmware on the new disks will preclude the need for the Solaris patch. (Firmware is a cross between hardware and software; it is special programming code that lives in a particular piece of hardware, like a disk drive, and provides very low-level instructions for how that hardware interacts with the operating system.)

All data is backed up off the old disks, and between midnight and 4am, a Sun engineer replaces the 3 disks.

Wednesday 11/26/97
Mother Nature shakes loose with a rain/windstorm that knocks out campus power around 4:15am. The campus Cogen power backup comes online at 8:30, and power is restored to essential areas of campus, including Communications (where CATS and dinky live.) CATS CSO staff begin working on restoring the data that was on the old disks to the new disks. In the course of the restore, it is discovered that one of the new disks is defective; luckily, we have a spare and the bad disk is swapped out. At approx 2pm, dinky is back in operation.

Monday 12/01/97
At approx 10:30am and again at 4:00pm, the network router that dinky is connected to is unexpectedly rebooted during maintenance. (A router is the computer that acts as the traffic controller, making sure the data flowing through the network ends up where it belongs.) In both incidents, the router is up and functional again within 5 minutes. The effect on users is that during those 5 minutes, the link between the user and dinky is broken; if a user tried to enter any keystrokes (even just a Next Block), the signal cannot get to dinky, and the user's connection is lost. However, if the user is elsewhere (than FIS) during those 5 minutes, and doesn't touch their Banner session, when the router comes back up the connection is restored as if nothing had happened.

From dinky's point of view, it looks like all the users took a simultaneous coffee break during those 5 minutes. Those users who were attempting keystrokes lost connectivity on their side of the fence; however, dinky still thinks their sessions are open and active! This results in some number of "ghost" sessions, that are still active on dinky, but broken on the user side. (FIS folks are very scared of this kind of ghost...) These ghosts can cause problems for Oracle, the database on which FIS is built, so they need to be chased away on the dinky side as well.

This is accomplished by "sending a wall" out to all apparent connected users. "Wall" is short for "Write All", which is a UNIX command which displays a message on everyone's screen. (Rather abruptly and often accompanied by many beeps and/or dings.) In addition to providing users with a terse statement of what is going on, it also causes the ghost sessions to be terminated.

Today
Thanks to those of you who have waded this far (and managed to stay awake!) We are continually working on ways to improve our communications with end users during both extended downtime situations (as happened Thanksgiving week), and short downtimes (as happened on Monday, 12/1). We appreciate your patience during these unplanned interruptions; if it's any consolation, be assured that they're even more painful for us!

BONUS SECTION FOR THOSE WHO READ THEIR WAY ALL THE WAY HERE:

BANNERSLUG'S 90 SECOND ACCOUNTING LESSON

INSTALLMENT 1

[Editor's Note: This is the first in a ongoing, occasional exploration of what makes accounting the fun activity that it is.]

LESSON #1: Always listen to the sage advice of a slug (or maybe it was "listen to the advice of a slug eating sage").

With our remaining 84 seconds (85 if you're a fast reader) and 90 seconds of a lot of future Bulletin editions, we'll talk about some of the general rules and policies that all good accountants must live by, otherwise known as Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or GAAP. (Wait! Don't leave, it's not as bad as you think it might be)

Before we get into the nitty gritty detail, let's look at the world from an accounting perspective. Accountants (and other recorders, compilers and users of financial information) think and act governed by these following truisms:

1. SEPARATE ENTITY ASSUMPTION (The "What's Mine is Mine, What's Yours is Yours" Assumption):
The entity being accounted for is carefully distinguished from all other similar entities and persons. Example: the personal assets of the Regents are not included in the measurement of the University, itself. Looking at it from an FIS angle, FIS has the capability of supporting different, separate ledgers (with absolutely no commingling allowed).

2. CONTINUITY ASSUMPTION (The Energizer Bunny Assumption):
The entity will not be sold or liquidated in the near future, but will continue to carry on its operational objectives indefintely. Example: equipment purchased by CATS will be depreciated over a number of years because we assume that the campus, of which CATS is a part, will continue to operate indefinitely. Looking at it from an FIS angle, FIS has the capability of supporting our accounting for all eternity (probably not necessarily a pleasant thought for some).

3. UNIT MEASURE ASSUMPTION (The "Moolah" Assumption):
The assumption that the US dollar is the unit of measure in accounting for the financial activity of an entity. Example: the campus pays foreign vendors in the required foreign currency, yet records the disbursements in campus accounting records in equivalent US dollars. Looking at it from an FIS angle, FIS has the capability of supporting different types of currency because the Banner system is used in several different countries. However only one currency can be used for any one ledger.

4. TIME PERIOD ASSUMPTION (The "Every June, We Panic" Assumption):
The for-profit and not-for-profit business communities assume that the activities of a business can be divided into a series of equal time periods. Example: the University uses a time period of 12 consecutive months that begins each cycle on July 1. These twelve months make up the fiscal year. Looking at it from an FIS angle, FIS is set up to account for things in terms of a fiscal year and accounting periods (i.e. months).

Sufficiently armed now, you too can now start thinking like an accountant. (Did I just hear a scream? Wait! Don't run away. The best is yet to come. It will get more interesting, I promise.)

ODDS & ENDS

UPCOMING FIS TRAINING SCHEDULE

To register for a course, please send email to Nancy Miller (njmiller@cats) and include:
-----the desired class name and date
-----the attendee's name, phone number, email address, unit and
supervisor.
Each attendee will receive a call confirming class registration.

FIS Banner Training Course Schedule --- Location: 247B Kerr Hall

Contributors: Nancy Miller, Karsen Jones, Kirk Lew, Monique Leduc
Your comments and suggestions are always welcome. Please direct them to the Editors, Monique Leduc (mleduc@cats) or Kirk Lew (kllew@cats)

Financial Affairs | Accounting Offices | Campus Controller | FIS

Comments to: controller@ucsc.edu - Maintained by FIS, Updated