SPECIAL CENTER AVAILABILITY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83T00573R000300170015-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 29, 2001
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: January 14, 1980
• Content Type: MF

Approved For R, ase 2001/08/07 : CIA-RDP83T005731 00300170015-8
Software Specialist
INS!
Chief, OD/r/ODP
Chief, ED/P/ODP
DD/P/ODP
Chief, SPD/P/ODP
Chief, OLSk/SPD/ODP
ODP-0-44
14 January 1980
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SUBJECT Special Center Availability
1. Recent trends in availability in the Special Center,
particularly in the RED/BLtE complex, have not been good.
Significant outages have occurred over the last several
months. The impact to the user community has been significant,
both in real terms (lower productivity and increased backlogs)
and in their perception of the quality of service ODP provides.
The problems encountered have causes spanning all aspects of
the Special Center complex: system software (MVS and JES3);
applications software; hardware; and computer operations.
2. To counter this trend I propose we establish an avail-
ability working group. The group would have representatives
from each of our organizations and be formally in existence
for about two to four weeks. The representatives should be
able to devote nearly full time to the group, though this may
vary depending on the nature of the work and findings. The
group should examine all items pertaining to the availability
of online systems. The group should determine causes of out-
ages and draft a formal, written set of recommendations to
improve availability. User groups should be contacted, their
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input solicited, and be briefed on steps being contemplated.
The following list defines the minimum number of topics to
be examined:
? Categorize and quantify (both in number of incidents
and resultant doAmtime) the outages that have
occurred in the last six months.
? MVS software availability.
? JES3 software availability.
? STAR software availability.
? NIPS software availability.
? The reasons and rate of change of both systems and
applications software.
The reasons and rate of change of hardware.
0 The management of change.
0 Operating procedures.
0 Problem diagnosis.
? The availability and use of the required people --
operators, techn._cians, applications programmers,
systems programmers.
0 Problem reportinc;, downtime reporting (for both ODP
and the customer.,).
? Hours of normal operation, scheduling of abnormal
hours of operation, reaction to emergency situations.
? Backup configurations.
? Switchover procedures.
3. M nominee as the SPD member of the working group
would be HE brings the necessary expertise
in the area of system software and configuration planning as
well as a high degree of sensitivity to the problem and a
concern for the end user. if this group is to be successful
your organization should nc-minate people equally qualified
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in their respective areas. In my opinion no other topic is
more important than availability. Performance issues,
important as they are, are secondary to the achievement of
high availability.
4. If you agree with this proposal, please contact
me and we will get it started.
STATINTL
Approved For Release 2001/08/07 : CIA-RDP83T00573R000300170015-8
 Approved For Release 2001/08/07 : CIA-RDP83T00573R000300170015-8
DATE
Z9
FORM RM R505-24 1 REPLACES PERM 36-9 FEB WHICH MAY BE USED.
Approved For Release 2001/08/07 : CIA-RDP83T00573R000300170015-8