Sunline Server Restoration
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