For background on Sierra and the migration project, please see this PowerPoint presentation file.
- What system downtime will be associated with the migration, and what exactly will the “downtime” entail?
- How will logins and authorizations in Sierra work? Can some areas retain generic logins (e.g., generic Circ logins for students) that can then be overridden with specific authorizations?
- Diacritics in Millennium aren’t easy to type in. We have to type them in by their codes, but we can’t see what the codes are. Is this improved in Sierra?
- Will we be getting the Sierra Dashboard product? (Is it a separate piece?)
- How will Sierra affect printing templates/options?
- Will SQL mean faster Create List completion?
- Will there be formal training/tutorials available when we launch?
- For how long will we still be able to use the Millennium client on top of Sierra after Sierra goes live? What about the telnet version of III?
- Is there a date by which we need to stop making changes to Millennium?
- Will patron loads work the same with Sierra?
- Will the Music Special Collections database that contains, e.g., the WFAA/WBAP collections continue to work in Sierra?
- Will the Output Vouchers and PVE system still work in Sierra?
- Will LDAP / single sign-on features still work in the WebPAC in Sierra?
- Will the self-checkout stations continue to work in Sierra?
Q: What system downtime will be associated with the migration, and what exactly will the “downtime” entail?
A: There are three dates that will involve system downtime:
- November 8th, ~8AM to 4 or 5PM, for installation of two new servers.
- November 18th, ~1-4 hours at the most in the late morning, for upgrading Millennium to version 2011.
- January 23rd, ~10AM to 6 or 7PM, for switchover to Sierra.
“Downtime” means that the staff-side Millennium client is unavailable, the telnet application is unavailable, and the WebPAC is unavailable. For the first two dates, this will have no effect on electronic resources–the IR Services page and all databases will be available even though the catalog is down. For January 23rd, since we will have migrated the electronic resource front-end into the catalog by that time, the databases/e-journals A-Z lists and search interface will be down, but individual databases and e-journals will not be affected (e.g., if you have them bookmarked).
During the downtime, circulation functions will be performed–depending on the area–either using the Millennium offline circulation program or a paper process. If you work in a circulation capacity and aren’t sure what your area will be doing, please check with your Circulation Work Group representative to find out.
Q: How will logins and authorizations in Sierra work? Can some areas retain generic logins (e.g., generic Circ logins for students) that can then be overridden with specific authorizations?
A: The situation with logins in Millennium is a little complex. In Millennium, there are two separate components: logins and initials. Certain settings are tied to your login, while authorizations are tied to your initials. Some areas have group logins and group initials; other areas have individual logins and individual initials; still other areas have some mixture of group and individual logins and initials.
Sierra combines logins and initials into one single “user.” Once you log into Sierra, you inherit whatever authorizations are tied to that user. It will be possible to set up “context users,” which will function similarly to Millennium logins–you log in with the context user’s name/password, then you log in with your username/password to set your permissions. It will also be possible to override permissions if you’ve logged in with a user that has a more restrictive set of permissions and need to perform a particular function that the regular user is not authorized to perform. And our system could use both single-user and context-user access.
For more information, please see the Sierra Knowledgebase article, Migrating Users from your Millennium System.
Q: Diacritics in Millennium aren’t easy to type in. Is this improved in Sierra?
A: Unfortunately diacritics in Sierra appear to behave exactly the same way as in Millennium.
Q: Will we be getting the Sierra Dashboard product? (Is it a separate piece?)
A: We will be getting the Sierra Dashboard product–it is not something we have to purchase separately.
For more information about the Sierra Dashboard, please see the CS Direct Knowledgebase FAQ on the topic.
Q: How will Sierra affect printing templates/options?
A: Not at all. Print templates and options will be the same in Sierra.
Q: Will SQL mean faster Create List completion?
A: Yes. Create List jobs will just be running SQL queries in the background, so they should run very quickly in Sierra.
Q: Will there be formal training/tutorials available when we launch?
A: Yes. The Sierra page on CS Direct has the Sierra Knowledgebase which has video tutorials and articles. You can also access the Sierra manual (Sierra Web Help).
Q: For how long will we still be able to use the Millennium client on top of Sierra after Sierra goes live? What about the telnet version of III?
A: Officially there is no date yet by which the Millennium client will stop working with Sierra. However, we would like to phase out Millennium entirely by June 1st.
In Sierra, there is still a significantly stripped-down version of the telnet interface (called the “Admin Corner”) that contains the functionality that they just haven’t yet moved into Sierra–things like system options and certain circulation settings. They will begin moving those things into Sierra starting with phase 2 of Sierra development with the intent to eventually completely remove the telnet interface.
But, there will still be a full working version of the telnet interface tied to the Millennium client.
Q: Is there a date by which we need to stop making changes to Millennium?
A: No. Even though the Sierra database will start building on December 14th, it will remain in synch with Millennium until the time Millennium is taken down on January 23rd for the final switchover.
Q: Will patron loads work the same with Sierra?
A: Yes. We’ll need to start using Data Exchange instead of telnet for patron loads, but there’s not much difference.
Q: Will the Music Special Collections database that contains, e.g., the WFAA/WBAP collections continue to work in Sierra?
A: It will still be available as it is now for the foreseeable future. The web interface will still be up on port 81. The telnet interface will still be available via the Millennium client that runs on top of Sierra. We will just need to make sure there is a workstation in music that’s set up with the Millennium client so it can be kept up-to-date.
Q: Will the Output Vouchers and PVE system still work in Sierra?
A: The “Output vouchers” feature will also transfer to Sierra as-is, so the PVE system should work the same way in Sierra. We will discuss this with Lib TACO before the migration to make sure.
Q: Will LDAP / single sign-on features still work in the WebPAC in Sierra?
A: Yes. Users will still be able to log into their accounts in the WebPAC using their EUIDs via LDAP.
Q: Will the self-checkout stations continue to work in Sierra?
A: Yes. There will be small configuration change needed, but they will continue to work.
