Network Managers Meeting Minutes

October 04, 2001

 

Minutes by Joe Dance – send corrections or comments to dancejoe@moore.sc.edu

 

 

 

Michael Dollar opened the meeting.

-          Gateway is willing to apply disk images to new machines.

-          There are more people in IT jobs outside of Computer Services than inside Computer Services.

 

Lorie Edwards presented CSD announcements:

-          Dan Gallagher drafted a summary of work completed in recent months. It has been posted online at http://uts.sc.edu/ais/reports/csupdate.htm .

-          A time-and-effort project tracking system has been purchased and is being implemented.

-          Rick Jordan has resigned; see Elisabeth Mathis instead.

-          Michael Dollar asked if Dan Gallagher could be made available to colleges and departments to help tune networks; Lorie answered yes.

 

Dwaine Wagner discussed GroupWise Upgrades:

-          GroupWise is being upgraded to version 5.1. Database repairs, indexing, and other tasks will now be multi-threaded. The new client will tolerate minor disconnects better. The number of messages carrying viruses has been running about .5% of the 900,000 messages per month received from outside USC.

-          He also noted that WebShield sends messages to the sender and intended recipient of any infected message, to inform them of the infection.

-          GroupWise is still supporting Macintosh users.

 

Ronnie Wilkinson discussed Security

-          Demonstrated the interface for an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) interface named Demarc, which is being implemented.

o        Demarc allows drill-down on various kinds of information; for example, drill down to view contents of suspect packets.

o        Allows searches for specified IP addresses or signatures.

o        Allows alarms to be defined.

o        Currently running on OpenBSD, on a series of Dell Power Edge 350 servers, with a Dell Power Edge 1500 master.

o        Demarc is the management interface; monitoring and detection is performed by Snort; data is logged to a mySQL database.

-          Also demonstrated NMIS, a web-based interface for monitoring routers.

o        NMIS will graph utilization, availability and other parameters

o        Allows drill down to see particulars for a selected router.

o        Graphing capabilities are based on RRD (Round Robin Database).

o        NMIS can also monitor switches.

o        It does not currently track MAC addresses, but could; it is a matter of writing another MIB.

-          Analysis of firewall performance, using the RRD tool to generate graphs, revealed that we are encountering large numbers of bad connections.

o        The firewall connection table is set to allow 100,000 connections.

o        When the number of bad connections reaches 70,000 or 75,000, too few connections remain available to users, and performance falls off sharply.

-          Both Demarc and NMIS are free.

-          The security group met Tuesday. The new Security Lab in Engineering, was introduced.

-          Some ideas were discussed:

o        Certifying networks

o        Publishing reports, quantifying problems

o        Publishing articles in the Gamecock

 

Barbara Koski discussed the Microsoft Contract

-          Welcome Kits, with monthly updates, can be purchased for $395 by network managers.

-          An ftp site is not being established for software distribution.

-          Software can be obtained on CD, upon request.

-          For information on the contract or the Select program, see www.sc.edu/software

-          The contract covers desktop products, not server products, and includes Office Professional, but not Office Premium.

-          Windows XP is due out later this month; it has not been received to date.

 

Michael Dollar attended some of the meetings re: Strategic Directions and Initiatives (SDI):

-          He asked about commitment to IT, and received assurance.

 

Jim Demarest discussed the Telephone Switch implementation:

-          Columbia Hall was not cut-over last week; it will be rescheduled, for completion by December.

-          The G3 switch will be upgraded Friday night, Oct. 12, and will take about five hours.

-          The G3 upgrade will not effect the G2 switch.

-          The Coliseum is the next cut-over, re-scheduled for Saturday morning, 27 Oct.; this action also affects the Law Center, USC Press, etc. Notice will be published Monday.

-          Go to CS/Projects for info about switch projects.

 

Michael Dollar concluded the meeting.