CAcert System Admins discussion list

[Daniel Black <daniel AT cacert.org>]

On Sunday 08 March 2009 20:03:30 Sam Johnston wrote:
> Daniel,
>
> First, thanks again for your tireless work in this area.
>
np. I'm going to have more time again soon so i'm just preparing the 
possibilities for more work.

> First and foremost the IT systems need to be brought up to the level where
> they meet or exceed the requirements of the organisation.

I'd love to know where these requirements are. I thinks thats 1/2 (or most 
of) 
the point of this email. I'm doing stuff and don't know what's important.

> I'm still
> drowning in OA related mails from individuals inside and outside CAcert as
> we still don't have a sensible issue (and I mean issue, not bug) tracking
> system. The wiki is also woefully inadequate compared to e.g. MediaWiki,
> but less easy to fix.

Ah, Its a good point that I still don't know what the priorities of the 
organisation are.

I found TroubleTicket System on https://wiki.cacert.org/wiki/SystemTasks.

Can this be broken into its own wiki page with a clear list of requirement 
and 
purposes down the the side of a table. Then the persons responsible for the 
task can present some options and see how they measure against the 
requirements.

If its a urgent requirement should the be fortnightly or monthly board 
reports 
on progress? At least this will stress how important it is.

Sure I've added stuff to SystemTasks and commented now and then however its a 
bit hard to know what are issues that need fixing because they are causing 
people pain and what's just a nice to have.

I'm tempted to throw the whole SystemTasks list at the board and say 
prioritise it. My suggested breakout of this (that has huge scope for 
improvement) is:
0. Issues causing risk to the Audit.
1. Issues that are causing pain to CAcert community members (CCA)
2. Issues that are causing pain to cacert staff
3. System issues that need to improve to reduce business risk
Others:
4. development opportunities that would benefit all and make certificates 
more 
useful in other situations.
5. development opportunities that could benefit cacert systems
6. other cool stuff we've thought of

> The mail system is too complicated so I don't use it,
> and I doubt I'm the only one (I have a bunch of aliases in Gmail but
> cacert.org isn't one of them).

sorry about that. I'm reviewing the documentation now to simplify it. I get 
the feeling its probably more that that so I'll email you privately.

Anyone else with troubles bugs.cacert.org community.cacert.org project.

> These are just some of the things that
> regularly trip me up

love to know about them.

> - availability's another issue that's caused us some
> problems.

yep sorry about the recent mail problem.

> After that the documentation in terms of audit et al is obviously critical
> for us but could also be really useful for others.

sure - love to see more of it.

> I'd love to see a talk
> from you on System Administration in High Security Environments for example
> - usually such things are well under wraps.
> You should consider doing
> something like this at one or more of the various System Administrators
> Guilds and/or events.

I think I'll try to get a good system going here and then present on it (with 
board approval). I'd hate to be talking about system deficiencies and someone 
in the audience going how did they know about my system(s) :-) and getting 
pissed off.

Good thinking though. I am a SAGE-AU member and want to do more 
talks/presentations.

-- 
Daniel Black
--
Email/List Administrator
CAcert