Managed Workstation Services News
June 12, 2015
MyIT budget release
A MyIT release which permits adding budget information for group directories and default budgets for users and desktops is now available. What and When: As of this morning, MyIT includes new capabilities to set budget information along with some other updates. The changes include: On the “IT Things I Own/Manage -> Nebula File Services” page, aka https://support.nebula.washington.edu/myIT/fileServices.aspx, there is now the ability to set budget on a per file directory basis. On each individual department page accessible from the “IT Things I Own/Manage -> Nebula Departments” page, aka https://support.nebula.washington.edu/myIT/myNebulaDepartments.aspx, there is now the ability to set a default user...
May 28, 2015
MyIT release includes estimated FY16 costs
A MyIT release which includes estimated monthly FY16 costs is now available. What and When: As of Wednesday, MyIT includes new information on the “IT Things I Own/Manage -> Nebula Departments” page, aka https://support.nebula.washington.edu/myIT/myNebulaDepartments.aspx. Department contacts will see 4 new columns on that page for each department representing estimated FY16 costs for desktops, group directories, home directories, and a total FY16 monthly cost. The total is side-by-side with the current monthly cost allowing for easy comparison. NOTE: estimated are based on preliminary FY16 rates for the Nebula Managed Desktop service and are subject to Management Accounting & Analysis...
May 22, 2015
Preliminary FY16 rates
Preliminary FY16 rates for the Nebula Managed Desktop service are available. What and When: As of late yesterday, preliminary FY16 rates for the Nebula Managed Desktop service were submitted to Management Accounting & Analysis (MAA). MAA provides final review and approval of rates for all cost-recovery centers at the UW. We believe these rates will be approved, but they are not final until MAA approval. We will notify you only if these preliminary rates are not approved. The preliminary rates are: Nebula desktop rate: $34.50/desktop/month Nebula file storage: $.25/GB/month The other Nebula rates (Consulting, Nebula Windows...
May 7, 2015
Update to MyIT portal published–please verify department contact and provide active users for your department
The MyIT portal has been updated. What and When: This morning, several changes to the MyIT portal were published. The changes included are: Nebula Departments page – new. You’ll find this under the left-nav bar, under ‘IT Things I Own/Manage’. Department Detail page – new. You’ll find this under the left-nav bar, under ‘IT Things I Own/Manage’, under ‘Nebula Departments’, when you click on a department listed. Group Sync Info page – new. You’ll find this under the left-nav bar ‘Export to csv’ capability sprinkled across more pages. What you need to do: We have a variety...
March 23, 2015
Nebula Managed Desktop service catalog update
A change to our service catalog entry occurred. What and When: On Saturday, March 21st an updated service catalog entry was published at https://depts.washington.edu/uwtscat/manageddesktop. What you need to do: Nothing. This is purely an advisory to you that we’ve updated the catalog entry that describes the service, so you aren’t caught off-guard. More info: This update isn’t intended to introduce any significant change to what the service provides, but rather was a refactor of our catalog description to more accurately represent what we are providing. As an example, one topic that came up recently on the nebula-discuss...
March 19, 2015
Nebula phone practice change: 4/6/15
A change to our phone practices is planned. What and When: On Monday, April 6th Nebula will change its phone practices. When you call the UW-IT Service Center (221-5000), the service center staff will do the same initial triage they’ve always done when you call for any UW-IT services. If they can’t easily resolve the issue, they’ll create a request record for Nebula in UW Connect and end the phone call, just as they do for every other UW-IT service. Nebula service staff will see your request and begin work. In some cases, they’ll call you back, in...
March 9, 2015
Spring 2015 Customer Meeting
Thanks to everyone who joined us for the customer meeting! Our initial foray into recording the meeting failed, so we don't have a recording to share. But we'll try again next time, hopefully with more success. Here are some notes from the meeting. ----------------- Nebula Customer Spring Meeting, Mar 5, 2015 Brian Arkills, Service Manager for Nebula Managed Workstation presented a Powerpoint presentation based on the topics discussed in the most recent Newsletter. Presentation summary: Folks who wish to continue receiving the newsletter should join the nebula-discuss mailing list. See https://it.uw.edu/wares/nebula/contact-us/ for more information on communication options including nebula-announce. We’ve clarified the auto-response situation...
March 9, 2015
Nebula Newsletter March 2015
Welcome to our first semi-annual Nebula service newsletter, which brings you valuable updates and information to help you make the most of our services. Because this is our initial newsletter, we are sending it to all Nebula users. We hope you’ll opt into receiving future issues by signing up for the nebula-announce mailing list, a low-volume mailing list we use to send customers notices about service interruptions and notable design changes, in addition to this newsletter. Go to https://itconnect-test.uw.edu/wares/nebula/contact-us/ for info on how to join that list. ==== New Capabilities and Improvements ==== * Nebula-discuss: A new two-way...
January 26, 2015
Nebula billing change
A small change is planned to how Nebula does billing. What and When: Beginning with the bill you receive in February, Nebula desktops will show up in the non-recurring portion of your bill. What you need to do: Nothing. J Why we are making this change We've made some changes to the way we internally report billing charges to both simplify the process and improve the accuracy. Moving where the Nebula desktop charges show up in your bill is an unfortunate side-effect that we anticipate we’ll be able to change back in the near future. More...
December 4, 2014
New mailing list & communication practices for Nebula
We’ll be making a couple changes to the way the Nebula service communicates with you. This mailing list will continue to function as a 1 way communication channel for important announcements. This will continue to include things like changes to the service design, and other broadly useful communication. My goal is to keep communication to this mailing list to the minimum you might need to be aware of what’s going on with Nebula. In the past, there have been a number of other Nebula related mailing lists. Some you may have heard about and others you probably didn’t,...