Updating the ESnet Site Coordinator Model

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Updating the ESnetSite Coordinator Model

• Joe Burrescia
• Mike Collins
• William E. Johnston
• v3.1 6/9/04

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What is an ESnet Site Coordinator?

• An individual appointed by a Sites management
  to
• Be an authoritative single point of contact
  between the Site and the ESnet Staff
• Request ESnet Staff to make site specific network
  changes, insuring that the request meets the
  Sites policies, ESnets policies and the ESnet
  AUP
• Provide various network related contact
  information to ESnet Staff for the site
• Represent the site and participate at ESnet
  Coordinating Committee Meetings

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Importance of the Site Coordinator

• The Site Coordinator initiates changes to Sites
  external routing
• Changing the ESnet configuration for the site can
  impact the sites network connectivity
• The Site Coordinator identifies individuals at
  the Site to deal with specific ESnet related
  concerns
• Lack of a responsive site security contact can
  result in ESnet blocking site hosts from the
  Internet
• ESnets ability to maximize network management
  and maintenance coverage to a site depends on a
  correspondingly available site contact
• The Site Coordinator is the responsible party for
  ESnet equipment located at the Site.
• ESnets ability to place ESnet equipment at the
  sites depends on appropriate property management
  by the sites
• The Site Coordinator is the Sites representative
  to the ESCC.
• ESnet planning is coordinated with the ESCC
• ESnet provided science support services A/V
  network based conferencing, Grids certificate
  infrastructure, etc., are planned and structured
  through the ESCC and its committees

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Motivation for Change
The Site Coordinator model has worked exceedingly
well in the past. There are however, several
operational shortcomings in the process

• The appointment and succession procedures for a
  Site Coordinator is not clear
• There is no formal mechanism for an alternate
  Site Coordinator to ensure a continuously
  available site contact
• The Site Coordinator has not been able to
  delegate simple tasks (such as approving DNS
  secondary requests)

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Motivation for Change
We propose to augment the current Site
Coordinator process by

• Formalizing the Site Coordinator selection
  process and implementing a procedure to keep the
  Site Coordinator contact information up to date
• More formally document the Site Coordinators
  responsibilities allowing for the delegation and
  backup of Site Coordinator functionality

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Role Identification Process

• ESnet will initially contact Site Coordinators
  listed in our internal Contact Database to
  confirm they are still active in this role
• Within a year, the site manager with
  responsibility for networking at the site will
  reaffirm their Site Coordinator selection
• Site Management will also notify ESnet and the
  ESCC Chair if their Site Coordinator changes
• Semi-annually, ESnet will send email to each Site
  Coordinator requesting confirmation that he/she
  is still active and that any other contacts the
  he/she has supplied are still correct
• ESnet will populate and maintain an email list
  named
  site-coordinators_at_es.net and make this available
  to the ESnet ESCC chair

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Responsibilities (1 of 2)

• The Site Coordinator is the person responsible
  for the consequences of requests made to ESnet on
  behalf of the site.
• The Site Coordinator must supply a Site Security
  Contact for ESnets use.
• The Site Coordinator must supply a Network
  Operations Contact for use in problem diagnosis.
• The Site Coordinator must supply the information
  necessary to register an assignment of ESnets
  address space to the site.

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Responsibilities (2 of 2)

• The Site Coordinator must give ESnet a pointer to
  a locally maintained mail list for the
  distribution of ESnet status messages.
• The Site Coordinator must establish
  responsibility for ESnet property (routers, etc.)
  at the site
• Provide prompt response to information requests
  by LBNL Property Management representatives
  during inventories of ESnet equipment
• Coordinate the signing of a property
  responsibility MOU

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Delegation

• The Site Coordinator should name an Alternate
  Site Coordinator
• The Site Coordinator may delegate the network
  operations POC
• The Site Coordinator may delegate the site
  security POC
• The Site Coordinator may supply a DNS contact for
  managing the sites DNS requests
• The Site Coordinator may supply the names of
  additional Technical Contacts to interact with
  ESnet Operational Personnel

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Roles Summary
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Summary
We propose to keep the current model of the ESnet
Site Coordinator and ameliorate the current
shortcomings by

• Putting in place a process to identify and keep
  Site Coordinator contacts current
• More formally documenting the responsibilities of
  the Site Coordinator
• Increasing the flexibility of delegating
  someSite Coordinator tasks

The Site Coordinator role document is available
at www.es.net/sitecoord