CWRUnet Status

1
CWRUnet Status

• By
• CWRUnet Services Engineering
• Jeff Gumpf, Asst. Dir. for Engineering, CWRUnet
  Services
• October 26th, 2000

2
Topics for Discussion

• Recent problems
• Off-campus network performance
• Cisco 6509 ATM LANE disconnects
• E-mail problems
• On-campus network performance
• Firewall upgrade
• CWRUnet upgrade status
• Routing IP on CWRUnet
• Windows 2000 Active Directory
• E-mail aliases
• Future projects

3
Recent Problems

• Off-Campus Performance Problems
• Performance problems caused by high levels of
  packet loss, sometimes greater than 40
• Packet loss problems isolated to the ATM
  connection between firewall and external router,
  but we were unable to localize the problem any
  further
• What we did to fix it replaced the ATM
  connection with a Fast Ethernet connection
• Occasional Cisco 6509 ATM LANE disconnects
• Breaks connectivity between ATM and central
  server Ethernet (including off-campus
  connections)
• Cisco TAC thought they had fixed this, but it
  broke again this morning

4
Recent Problems

• E-mail Problems
• Continued occasional performance hits
• Waiting for funding
• On-campus network performance problems
• Further complaints about poor performance in
  areas already identified with problems
  (Wickenden, East Wing of the Medical School)
• Wickenden improvements are waiting on funding for
  Phase II
• East Wing received some relief from a PowerHub
  8000 re-deployment

5
Firewall Upgrade

• Upgraded firewall to more powerful system
• Old - 500 MB RAM, 2x300 mhz Sparc processor
• New - 4 GB RAM, 4x450 mhz Sparc processor
• Upgraded firewall software to next major release
  which also fixed security vulnerabilities

6
Quick Review of CWRUnet Plans

• Change of Architecture
• Replace ATM and shared Ethernet with switched
  Ethernet
• Route IP on CWRUnet
• CWRUnet performance and port problems phased
  approach (priorities based on collected
  performance data)
• Phase I Core switch-routers at Crawford and KSL
• Phase II Bingham hub plus some leaf switches
• Phase III Mather Memorial hub plus some leaf
  switches
• Phase IV Health Sciences hub plus some leaf
  switches

7
CWRUnet Upgrade Status

• Phase I equipment operational in KSL and Crawford
• Re-deployed PowerHub 8000 to Medical School East
  Wing
• Re-deployed PowerHub 8000 to Biomedical Research
  Building
• Two new leaf switches ordered for Dentistry
  (Phase IV)
• Cisco 6009 with Fast (100 mbps) Ethernet and
  Gigabit Ethernet uplink
• Recovers one Cabletron shared Ethernet hub
• New switch ordered for Health Sciences hub (Phase
  IV)
• Cisco 6509 with Gigabit Ethernet
• Additional Gigabit Ethernet blades for KSL and
  Crawford
• Recovers one PowerHub 8000

8
CWRUnet Upgrade Status

• New hub switch ordered for Bingham hub (Phase II)
• Cisco 6509 with Fast Ethernet and Gigabit
  Ethernet
• New leaf switch ordered (Phase II)
• Cisco 6009 with Fast Ethernet and Gigabit
  Ethernet uplink
• To be deployed in Millis
• Recover two Cabletron shared Ethernet hubs
• Deploy recovered Cabletron hub and blades in
  remodeled Biology building
• New switch ordered by the School of Management
  (Phase II)
• Cisco 3548 (48 10/100 TP Ethernet with Gigabit
  uplink)

9
CWRUnet Upgrade Status

• Total new equipment on order (500K)
• 4 leaf switches (2 Dentistry, 1 Millis, 1 School
  of Mgt)
• 2 hub switches (Health Sciences, Bingham)
• Cedar Avenue Service Center improvements
• New fiber backbone link installed currently
  running at 10 mbps replacing a leased T-1 circuit
  at 1.5 mbps
• Preparing order for new leaf switch for the Cedar
  Avenue Service Center
• No word on further funding for network upgrades
  significant parts of Phases II, III and IV are
  not yet funded

10
Routing IP on CWRUnet

• Planned for January 2001 (just after New Years)
• DHCP software (ISC product) testing underway
• Dynamic IP assignments tested and work
• Dynamic DNS assignments tested and work
• Host names will roam with the system provided
  release/renew is performed
• Both short (x.CWRU.Edu) and fully qualified
  domain names (x.subdomain.CWRU.Edu) will work
• Static IP available only in home subnet
  (dynamic when roaming)
• Note Cached name servers may take some time to
  update for roaming systems
• DHCP database management tools being developed

11
Routing IP on CWRUnet

• Working to completely eliminate IPX traffic
• E-mail notification to users not using DHCP being
  planned
• Windows browsing (in Windows networking
  terminology) will behave differently (BE
  PREPARED)
• Basic rule browsing occurs only within a subnet
• Impact on file sharing for Windows systems
  cant see systems in your network neighborhood
  from subnets other than your own unless you are
  part of a common Windows domain (ie, clients on
  the same Windows server)
• Explicitly naming a system to open a share will
  work
• URL for More Info - http//cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/net
  /iprouting

12
Windows 2000 Active Directory

• Waiting on funding
• If this is important to you, you need to
  communicate this up the management chain