ARC System Will Be Unavailable for Use During Thanksgiving Week
Schedule notice for ARC system downtime during Thanksgiving 1972
Norton, J.C., "ARC System Will Be Unavailable for Use During Thanksgiving Week", RFC 416, DOI 10.17487/RFC0416, November 1972, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc416>.
@misc{rfc416,
series = {Request for Comments},
number = 416,
howpublished = {RFC 416},
publisher = {RFC Editor},
doi = {10.17487/RFC0416},
url = {https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc416},
author = {J.C. Norton},
title = {{ARC System Will Be Unavailable for Use During Thanksgiving Week}},
pagetotal = 2,
year = 1972,
month = nov,
} RFC text
NETWORK WORKING GROUP James C. Norton (SRI-ARC)
Request for Comments #416 7-NOV-72
NIC #12542
THE ARC SYSTEM WILL BE UNAVAILABLE FOR USE DURING THANKSGIVING WEEK
The ARC PDP-10 system will be unavailable for ARC and NIC users
from Friday, November 17 (6:00 pm PST ) through Sunday, November
26. (10:00 pm PST). This will give our hardware team a period of
nine days to work on equipment with a loss of only three SRI
working days to users (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.)
This is the Network Information Center's notice to its network
users of the schedule.
In addition, a login message will be sent starting about 6
November to all users showing schedule.
It will read something like: "THE ARC/NIC PDP-10 SYSTEM
WILL BE UNAVAILABLE FOR USE FROM FRIDAY NOV 17 (6:00 pm
PST) THRU SUNDAY NOV 26 (10:00 pm PST) FOR MAJOR HARDWARE
WORK AS OUTLINED IN (12542,)".
For those who are interested, the hardware facility work to be
done during this period will include:
Removal of the Bryant disk, Bryant disk controller and
Cybernex drum-disk interference.
Moving the Tasker display system and DEC dispack (old and
new) equipment to their new locations.
Having Bryant people run a combination drum maintenance and
training session to teach ARC people how to change heads and
clean the drum.
Redoing the power cabling to the drum.
Putting the new signal cable in between drum and controller.
Debugging the parity checker.
Making a check of all main signal levels in XCORE.
Debugging the new cable from the parity checker to XCORE.
Wiring the parity bit through the Cybernex XCORE interface.
Getting any necessary power wiring done.
Building a wall for the next dispack location.
[ This RFC was put into machine readable form for entry ]
[ into the online RFC archives by BBN Corp. under the ]
[ direction of Alex McKenzie. 1/97 ]
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§1ARC System Downtime Notice
The ARC PDP-10 system, operated by the Network Information Center (NIC) at Stanford Research Institute, will be unavailable for all users from Friday, November 17 at 6:00 pm PST through Sunday, November 26 at 10:00 pm PST, 1972. This notice announces the schedule to network users, and login messages will be sent starting about November 6 to inform all users.
A shared computer on the network will be shut down for over a week so people can fix its hardware.
§2Maintenance Work
During the downtime, the hardware team will perform nine days of work including: removing the Bryant disk and controller; moving the Tasker display system and DEC dispack equipment to new locations; conducting drum maintenance and training; redoing power cabling to the drum; installing new signal cables; debugging the parity checker; checking all main signal levels in the XCORE memory interface; wiring the parity bit through the Cybernex interface; and building a wall for the next dispack location.
Workers will remove old equipment, move and rewire devices, fix checking systems, and prepare space for new equipment.
§3Impact on Users
The downtime stretches from Friday evening through the following Sunday evening, spanning nine calendar days but affecting only three working days (Monday through Wednesday). This schedule allows hardware work while minimizing the impact on users.
The timing is chosen to include a weekend so most working days are not affected.