Bristol (10 Questions)

Question 1

Provide the name and contact details of your local (Departmental) and Institutional network support staff.

• My Departmental network support contact is:

Jean-Pierre Melot 928 8767 j.p.melot@bristol.ac.uk
Rhys Morris 954 6948 r.morris@bristol.ac.uk

• My Institutional network support contact is:

IaStewart 928 7866 I.Stewart@bristol.ac.uk
Josh Howlett 928 7850 Josh.Howlett@bristol.ac.uk
(+others)

Question 2

Provide details of the responsibilities, together with the demarcation of those responsibilities, of your local and Institutional network support staff.

• The departmental contact is responsible for:

JP Melot & Rhys Morris: All networking & security infrastructure within Physics.
JP Melot also manages microsoft servers; Rhys Morris manages un-Particle Physics Unix/Linux & 25% of Particle Physics Unix/Linux.

• The institutional contact is responsible for:

UBristol IS manages campus-wide network, UBristol mail, DNS, time, & security (including campus VPN & wireless services).

Question 3

What is a Regional Network Operator (RNO), and why does this matter to you?

• An RNO is:
  

See http://www.ja.net/services/publications/policy/connection-policy.html

"A Regional Network Operator is an organisation that operates a regional network and holds a contract with UKERNA
for the delivery of JANET services to those organisations which receive PRIMARY connections via the regional network."

They are commercial operators; there is an SLA but unsure if they are penalized
if not (it's said RNOs are "measured" against 2 SLAs)

Each RNO has BAR = backbone access router connectioed to JANET

• I care because:

They provide our connection to the Internet. I don't as yet know who the RNO for
Particle Physics in University of Bristol is, though (just started the job).

Question 4

What is SuperJANET4? And more importantly what is SuperJANET5?

• SuperJANET4 is: current production network
  

UK-wide; not optical; due retire mid-05; Dec end of MCI SJ4 contract

• SuperJANET5 is: next-generation production network
  

- Resiliency tra RNO & SJ5 core will be provided via dual connections @ 2 locations w/in RN;
- Connection at transmission layer (vs IP)
- RNEP regional ntwk entry point w/HA (backup generator = core reqt)
- optical?

Questions 5, 6, 7 and 9 (part)

5: Draw a simple diagram showing your local (Departmental) network and sufficient of your Institutional network such that you can trace a line from your end-system to the connection from your Institutes network into the RNO infrastructure.
Work in progress

6: On the diagram produced in answer to Question 5, show the capacity of each link in the network and provide a note against each link of its contention ratio.
Work in progress

7: On the diagram produced in answer to Question 5, colour and distinguish the switches and routers and for each device provide a note of its backplane capability.
Work in progress

9.x: On the diagram produced in answer to Question 5 colour in the firewall(s) (or other security devices).
Work in progress
(upload an image via http://wiki.gridpp.ac.uk/wiki/Special:Upload)

Question 8

What is the average and peak traffic flow between your local (Departmental) network and the Institutional network?

• Average traffic:about 50% of -- 100Mbps ?? We must/do have a 1GBps link but that
  

might be direct to JANET - TODO: check network layout with JP.

• Peak traffic: about 80% of 100Mbps (same qualification)

(100Mbps is only the Grid machines - when setup there was some issue with 1Gbps so fellback to 100Mbps)

What is the average and peak traffic flow between your Institutional network and the RNO?

• Average traffic: To-Do: Check this
• Peak traffic: To-Do: Check this

What is the total capacity of your Institutional connection to the RNO?

• Our total capacity is: To-Do: Check this

What are the upgrade plans for your local (Departmental) network; your Institutional network and the network run by the RNO?

• Departmental plans: To-Do: Check this
• Institutional plans: To-Do: Check this
• RNO plans: To-Do: Check this

Question 9

Do you believe in IS Security? Does your Institute believe in IS Security?

• I'm a believer: YES
• We're collective believers: YES

Do you believe in firewalls? Does your Institute believe in firewalls?

• I'm a believer: YES
• We're collective believers: YES

Provide information of how changes are made to the rule set of the firewall.

• Firewall rules are changed by:

Request to Information Services who are responsible for institution firewall

Provide a note of the capacity of this device and what happens when that capacity is exceeded.

• The capacity is: TO-DO: Check this
• When it goes over-capacity, the following happens: TO-DO: Check this

Question 10

What is the best performance you can achieve from your end-system to an equivalent system located in some geographically remote (and friendly!) Institute?

• Best performance is:

For your end-system: TO-DO: Check this

Do you understand the kernel, the bus structure; the NIC; and the disk system?

• I understand: Partly (experienced Unix SysAdmin but new to LCG / this job)

Do you understand TCP tuning and what it can do for you?

• I understand: Partly...

Do you understand your application and what it can do to your performance?

• I understand: Soon.