Beth’s Blog

SirsiDynix has a new build coming out.   The target release date is this weekend (August 3), and—like last time—Matt and I will test it over the weekend.  If it is safe to use, we’ll leave it on the server.  If it is full of nasty surprises, we’ll have them pull it off and put the current build back on before Monday, August 6. 

Its main goal is to fix the aging issues, so we will probably let a few requests ‘age’ in place at your location to see if the new build moves them on.  And we’ll create some test requests for folks such as Frodo Baggins, Tom Slick, Jethro Gibbs, and even Al and Matt.

The new build ‘should’ go on the server late Friday evening.   Testing continues as I write this Tuesday morning.  If it passes our test, you will see it download when you fire up your SirsiDynix icon Monday morning, August 6.–Al Carlson

Take a look at the title of this post, and ask yourself, “What do these names have in common?”  (OK, the letters “E” and “A”, but aside from that?)  The correct answer is, “Not much”.  And the point I’m stumbling towards here is that even though they look exactly alike from a distance, they are two distinct individuals.  I’m referring to Palm Harbor and East Lake here.  Danny Devito and Arnold Schwarzenegger actually are identical twins. 

The reason I’m telling you this is that some of you—and I’m not naming any names here—are sending iBorrow loans to the Palm Harbor Library when they should go to East Lake Community Library.  And vice versa.  In the old AlleyCat world, that may have been OK, but in the iBorrow universe, the two have nothing in common but their warm personalities and stunning good looks.  So, please pay attention, when you slap a mailing label on any iBorrow requested item you send their way.  Thanks. 

Footnote

I just took a look at some of the labels on our own TBLC web site, and it looks as though we may have been helping you get this wrong.  Oops!  We’ll look into fixing that, if you’ll do your part when sending things their way.

The title of this post makes it sound as though we’re going to get the Sunline server ready for the Antiques Road Show.  But, as you know, we will be reloading the Operating System to remove all traces of the hackers who invaded it and who may have left secret entrances that we haven’t found.

The proposed date for this is still Thursday, July 12.
The process will take all day.  (If you work the evening shift, you may have access.  We can’t predict that with any certainty.)

While Sunline is down, you can use PC Reliance to do Checkouts. 
Matt will be calling you early next week (The week of July 9) to make sure you are comfortable with it or have some alternate plan.

While Sunline is down, we will “try” to keep RPA working. 
It usually talks to the borrower file on Sunline, and that will be unavailable.  But Sandy Schlueter from SirsiDynix has a plan that should let us export that file as a ‘flat file’ to the RPA server itself, then tell RPA to talk to that file instead of the one on Sunline. 

One small caveat here.  Once the borrower file is copied over to that flat file, any new borrowers who register between then and Thursday morning will not show up in an RPA check.

And while Sunline is down SunCat and SIP will not be able to function. 
SunCat is essentially an index to–and a display device for–the Bib and Holdings records on Sunline.  No Sunline, no SunCat.

SIP, like RPA, accepts a query from a remote PC (e.g the Largo SAM system or the New Port Richey 3M Self Check) and ‘talks to’ the Sunline borrower file in order to respond to that query.  Unlike RPA, SIP can’t work with an exported flat file.  So any devices or services at your library that depend on SIP will not work on July 12.

Are you beginning to see why I think “lethal injection” would be a good concept to put into a convicted hacker’s punishment?

Expect to see more updates between now and the 12th.  If you have questions about this admittedly unpleasant and stressful process, please contact Beth Farmer, Ben Ostrowsky, or Matt Smith.

–Al Carlson

See the post just below this one?  Well, it’s still true except that our target date is now Thursday, July 12.

–Al Carlson

We have to scrape some hackers off the bottom of our shoes.  Well, actually we have to scrape them off the Sunline server.  But the idea is the same.  And we want to do a very thorough job, before we walk on the carpet.  Or restart Sunline. 

Yes.  We’ll have to bring the Sunline server down to do this right.  The traces we’ve seen suggest that the hackers are amateurs who have used tools that someone else designed in order to break into our system.  But those tools may have given them the ability to build secret back doors into our server that we have not found.  So, we need to treat them as a serious threat. 

That means bringing the Sunline server down and reloading its Operating System (OS) from a CD, then rebuilding all of the file structure that allows Sunline to work.It will be an all day job.  And it will affect your use of SIP, HIP, and RPA as well. 

Our first target date is this Thursday (July 5), with a fallback date of next Thursday (July 12).  (The Sunline Directors were clear that Thursday was the best day of the week to do this.) 

We’re between the rock and hard place of wanting to do this as soon as possible and needing to have a complete set of resources to do it.  Plus a guy at SirsiDynix to do the really hard stuff. 

I apologize for the short notice (if we do this on July 5), and I regret having to do this at all.  I’m beginning to think that the penalty for hacking ought to include the words “lethal injection”.

–Al Carlson

Right now, you’re probably asking yourself, “How did the test of that new iBorrow build go this weekend?”  To sum it up in a few words, “Half a fix is better than none.”  (Which sounds like something a drug addict would say.)

The OCLC connection seems to be fixed, and the aging problem seems not to be.  That’s a pretty wishy-washy assessment, so here’s some more detail.

Matt and I have both been able to push requests to OCLC, get the “Pending response from ISO lender” message, and see them move from Mediated Borrowing to Receive Loan a few minutes later.  That’s a good thing. 

That worked whether Mediation was turned ON or OFF for OCLC.  However, I have not yet been able to devise a reliable test to see if a request will go to OCLC unmediated, if it is not fillable locally.  Still working on that.

“Aging” fails to work, in that we found requests in Fill Loan and Mediate Loan both Saturday and Sunday that—based on their “Process By” date–should have moved on to the next lender in the string.  So, any Aging fix in the new build did not affect requests that had been placed before the new build was loaded.  It is possible that it will work correctly with requests that are placed after the download.  I think Tuesday is the soonest we could know that. 

The other good news is that nothing new seems to have been broken.  We got no weird, inexplicable error requests in any of our testing.

But there’s a catch to that one, too.  You will almost certainly have trouble loading the new build.  You will get Java load errors.  You will be annoyed.  You will probably say words your mother would disapprove of.

To reduce that aggravation, I have posted “The Fix” below.  So far, it has worked every time.  If it fails for you, or if you need help with it, give me a call.  Matt is on vacation this week.

If we learn new things about the build this week, I will send a follow up to his message.  And, as always, the information will be here on Beth’s Blog.

THE FIX
Correctly loading the new build is a two step process: clearing your web browser’s cache, and deleting old Java files.  Let’s take them one at a time.

Web Browser
Open your web browser and choose Tools, then Internet Options.
Delete your Browsing History (also called Temporary Internet Files) and delete your cookies.

Java
1. Find the Java icon in your control panel.  If you are using Windows XP, the path should be:
Start—Control Panel—Java
    If you have some other flavor of Windows, it may be Start—Settings—Control Panel—Java

2. Right click once on the Java icon, then click on Open
3. Click on the tab at the top called General.  (This will probably be the default)
4. Find the area near the bottom of the Java Control Panel that says Temporary Internet Files.
5. Within that area, find the Delete Files… button and click it once.
6.  In the Delete Temporary Files window that pops us, make sure there is a check mark in all three boxes.
7.  Click OK
8.  Click OK to close the Java Control Panel
9.  Close Control Panel by clicking the X in the upper right hand corner.
10. Launch your web browser (if it is not still open) and go to http://iborrow.asp.dynix.com/dynix
11. It should say Welcome to the URSA Information Portal. 
12.  Find the blue link that says URSA Information Administration Client and click on it.
13. Make sure the “I agree” radio button is marked with a dot, then click on the I Agree button in the bottom center of the screen.  You may have to use the blue vertical scroll bar on the right to bring the I Agree button into view.
14.  Java will start loading the new build.  The small window should be labeled Java Web Start, and it should say SirsiDynix Client in the center.
15 At the end, you should get a new window that says “The application’s digital signature has been verified.  Do you want to run the application?”  There should also be a green check in the “Always trust content from this publisher” box.  Click on the Run button.
16.  The next window will ask whether you want to create desktop and start menu shortcuts.  Click on Yes.
17 Log in and go.  Close your browser or click on the Home button.

If this doesn’t work, call 813-622-8252 ext 223.

–Al Carlson