Take these important steps by May 31 if e-mail address has letters 'ubvms'

By ELLEN GOLDBAUM
News Services Editor

That warning comes from Computing and Information Technology, which, for more than a year, has been spreading the word that the VMS platform will be terminated after May 31.

CIT, which estimates that there are still about 5,000 active VMS accounts at UB, suggests that users who know that they still receive mail at addresses that include "ubvms"‹and haven't arranged for mail to be forwarded to another account‹should do one of the following:

- Contact the CIT Help Desk at 645-3542

- Contact CIT's user liaison desk at 645-3540 to set up a new e-mail address and account on the UNIX system

- Establish a new address through their department mail server if there is one

- Take the steps outlined in the Abridged VMS Migration Guide available from CIT or check out the unabridged online version at http://wings.

buffalo.edu/computing/Documentation/vms/migration.html to set up a UNIX account and to find out how to move files

- Contact their computer support person.

According to Harold Carter, chief applications analyst in academic services, if mail addressed to you on VMS is now being forwarded to another address you use, you need do nothing for now. Until May 1998, CIT will continue to forward to your other addresses' mail messages being sent to VMS. However, you should begin checking your mail messages and changing your address on messages you send to anyone still reaching you on VMS.

Listservs are a special problem, Carter noted. Once your electronic address is invalidated, you will no longer be able to access listservs that send to that address. To insure that you receive messages from a listserv uninterrupted, follow the instructions it provides on unsubscribing and then resubscribe using your new address.

Any files that you are keeping on VMS, but which you do not need, should be deleted. Those that can be viewed with VMS-type commands‹the great majority of files‹are easily transportable to UNIX, said Carter. Those that cannot be, will

either need to be converted or will be of no use on the new system, he explained.

According to CIT, the main reason behind the switch to other computing platforms at UB, most commonly UNIX, is to focus computing resources.

According to Geraldine Sonnesso, associate director for user services at CIT, many other large universities also are undergoing the same kind of switch from VMS to UNIX.

"While VMS is an easy platform to support, the latest software programs are being provided only for UNIX," she said. "And when students graduate and go into the job market, that's the system they are going to find."

The decision to phase out VMS was recommended in Vision 99, the plan formulated to guide UB's information technology efforts through the 1990s and beyond