NorthGrid Management Board 21^st April 2005, 12:00

Present:           Roger/Peter/Matthew/Brian, Paul/Andy, Alessandra, Mike/Mike/Themis

1.             Networking and NorthGrid (R Tasker)

• Robin gave an overview of the current network status and plans, and of the recent UK HEP networking meetings. There are challenges associated with getting a lightpath from RAL to Lancaster by July as planned.  

2.             Technical Co-ordinator’s Report (A Forti)

• Sheffield is running well – a commendation is in order.
• Lancaster has commissioned the new CPUs, but the disks are proving problematic, as they are being dCached and we are learning. There are also problems with missing network cards, to be fixed by the supplier.
• Liverpool is still off. There is a severe crisis of manpower. AF will assist until the hardware post is filled.
• Manchester has closed the response to tender process and are now judging between the top two vendors.

3.             Report from GridPP PMB (R Jones)

•  The main relevant item is that much of the hardware request has been approved, although the dCache head nodes were not approved. The security and monitoring nodes were taken as a good idea, but held back as a strategy is needed for all sites to have these.

4.             News from Institutes (All)

• Lancaster have filled their hardware post. Liverpool are having trouble filling theirs. Manchester have one post filled and another will be filled in June/July.
• By this stage, all were tired and the substantive points had already been reported.

5.             AOB

• The next meeting will be in about a month, but finding a slot is difficult.