Coral versus CAC
As CNF migrates equipment to the new Coral system, you will find that some
equipment is running off of Coral and some off of CAC. Equipment that is still
running off the old CAC system will not be listed in the Coral client.
Conversely, equipment running off the new Coral system will no longer be
listed in the old web scheduling system or in CAC itself.
Remote Coral
Coral can be run "remotely" from any web browser with an appropriate java
runtime installed. You will need either a version of Java6 or the latest
version of Java5. Early versions of Java5 will not work. Java4 and earlier
will also not work.
Running Remote Coral over a dialup internet connection is not recommended due
to the large size of the files which must be downloaded. Remote Coral also
requires a reasonable amount of horsepower to run.
Start Remote Coral by clicking the Coral link on the cnfusers web page.
Local Coral
"Local" coral is run from your Sunray linux account. If remotely logging into
your sunray linux account, you will need to enable X11 forwarding/tunneling
and run an X server (such as Exceed on Windows).
If your AFS tokens have expired, you will not be able to run Coral.
Start Coral either by typing in "coral" (without the quotes) at a command
prompt or by choosing Coral from the Applications menu.
Viewing Equipment Status and Qualifications
When initially starting Coral, the left most pane will display a list of
process areas. To expand a particular process area and see the equipment under
that area, double click the process area.
If there is an asterick after the name of the piece of equipment, then you
have been qualified to use that equipment. Qualificiation means you have
successfully completed training on that equipment and the equipment manager
has entered you in the list of allowed users for that equipment. If you have
completed training but not yet been marked as qualified, talk to the primary
or backup contacts for that piece of equipment.
You cannot make reservations on or enable equipment for which you have not yet
been qualified. Only make reservations to use equipment for which you are not
yet qualified if you know you will have completed training by that point or if
a staff member will be helping you to use the equipment
If someone has a piece of equipment enabled, the username will appear in
parentheses after the name of the equipment.
A traffic light to the left of the equipment name shows the status of the
equipment. Green indicates there are no problems with the equipment. Yellow
indicates a problem has been reported with the equipment, but the equipment
may still be used. Red indicates the equipment has been shutdown and is not
available for use.
More information on the status of equipment with yellow or red traffic lights
is available by highlighting either the equipment or the equipment area and
then clicking either the Maintenance or Equipment Status Summary tabs. Each
tab allows you to select which type of statuses to show. The Maintenance tab
also allows a date range search.
Scheduling Equipment
In the left pane of the Coral client, highlight the piece of equipment for
which you would like to reserve time. In the right pane, select the
"Reservations" tab, and use the mouse to drag and highlight the time period to
reserve. Then, under the "Reservation Actions" menu, choose "Make". A "Machine
Reservation Information" windows pops up. Select the Project and Account to
which you are planning on charging your time (when enabling equipment, you
will choose which project/account is actually charged... this is for your and
for staff information when viewing the reservation). In the "Process" box,
leave any quick notes that staff may need to prepare the equipment for your
use.
Scheduling equipment across midnight requires making two separate
reservations. And, to advance or step back the week show for reservations, use
the "Next" and "Previous" items under the "Reservation Actions" menu.
To view an existing reservation, just double click that reservation in the
Reservations tab grid. To make changes to the reservation, first delete the
reservation and second create a new reservation.
To delete an existing reservation, click once on any portion of the
reservation in the Reservations tab grid, then choose "Delete" from the
"Reservation Actions" menu.
Various scheduling restrictions apply to each piece of equipment. The
easiest way to view the scheduling restrictions for a piece of equipment is on
the Equipment Information Sheet for that piece of equipment. You can also look
at the Reservation Policies for that piece of equipment in the Coral client.
First, highlight the piece of equipment. Second, select the "Policy" tab.
Third, double click "ReservationManager" to expand the tree. Next, double
click "CNFReservationPolicySet" to further expand the tree. You will then see
the rest of the policy tree. Highlight any item in the policy tree to view an
brief explanation of the policy rule.
Note that not all scheduling restrictions are enforced by Coral. Refer to the
Equipment Information Sheet.
Enabling Equipment
If you are not yet qualified to use a piece of equipment in the Coral system,
you will not be able to enable that piece of equipment.