- Current Network Status
On October 30 at 8:15 PM, a flash flood caused extensive damage on the
UH Manoa campus, devastating the UH library and interrupting power to 35
buildings. Running the network core from 4 portable generators, UH-ITS
was able to restore the Internet and services to the Big Island around
2:00pm on Oct 31. DNS service was also restored later that day.
In the next few days, there were small interuptions as UH-ITS
disconnected the generators and returned power to the Hawaiian Electric
Grid.
The JAC summit router, running an old version of IOS, was exhibiting
the same symptoms as the old CFHT router. The JAC network traffic
has been rerouted through their Hilo router awaiting an upgrade to
their summit router.
- Wireless on the summit
Pui Hin has received a complaint of an oberservatory using wireless
equipment on the summit and reminded everyone that wireless is not
allowed on the summit. Everyone can help keep the summit wireless
free by notifying the network administrator of the offending observatory.
Sometimes users might be using wireless equipment without the knowledge
of the administrator.
There was a discussion on whether the Bluetooth technology -- which
functions at 2.4 gigahertz, even though it's designed for short range
and low power -- will be harmful to the radio and submillimeter
telescopes. Mac Cooper from SMA was asked to look into the possibility
of a study on this, perhaps in cooperation with VLBA.
- Southern Cross 10Gbps dual rings - connection to MK Observatories
The NSF proposal, submitted by UH-ITS in conjunction with USC and UW in
May, has been selected for an award. However, the amount awarded is much
less than requested. Also NSF Cyberinfrastructure -- which is part of
Computer, Information Sciences, Engineering Group -- is clear that they
are funding backbones for science; not local connections. The current
plan for Hawaii is to first establish the connection point at Spencer
Beach while looking for alternate funding for the connection to MK.
CANARIE, a funding agency in Canada was interested in providing funding
for high speed connection to CFHT. Since this will involve cooperation
among UH-ITS, AARNet, and CANARIE, a meeting has been planned for
February 1st at CFHT to talk about the possible ways to utilize the
AARNet 10Gb for the CFHT connection, how it might benefit the rest of
MK, and the costs in preparation for a proposal to CANARIE.
- Extension of Mauna Kea Observatiories DS-3 Verizon Services Agreement
Pui Hin distributed new pricing from Verizon which includes rates
for 300Mbps and 1000Mbps bandwidths.
- Report from MKO Users' Meeting
As done last year, Pui Hin presented statistics on the reliability of
the network. Between October 2003 and September 2004, there was a
total system-wide downtime of 30 hours. That makes 99.65% availability
compared to 99.8% the year before. This year's downtime includes
a 21 hour outage caused by fiber damage along the Saddle Road.
On behalf of the MKOCN working group, Pui Hin recommended to the
committee the installation of fiber between the main building and the
dormitory buildings at HP and Cat6 cable into the rooms for Internet
Access.
Also Pui Hin reported on the Verizon network rate reduction on Mauna
Kea and the lauching of the Southern Cross Cable Network. She alerted
the directors of a February meeting for CANARIE, NRC, AARNet, UH to
meet and discuss with the observatories ways to upgrade the network
bandwidth to the summit of Mauna Kea.
- Other Discussions
An incident occurred where UH-ITS blocking of TCP port 53 was
suspected to have affected email delivery for CFHT. It is UH's policy
to block the port unless there is a special request with source and
destination, mainly for DNS zone transfer only. Pui Hin will ask UH-ITS
for a list of filtered ports for future reference.
There was a discussion on whether the implementation of NAT is necessary
for the wireless network at HP. There were diverse opinions:
Ryu Ogasawara, for example, would like the extra security; while
Kevin Cornwell thought that all PCs should have their own firewall
protection anyway. Pui Hin will look into a small router to be used
for NAT only.
There was a discussion on how DNS secondaries should behave when the
network is down.
- Next meeting
March 10th Thursday, 10:00 AM at CSO, Hilo
Note: This meeting has been rescheduled for April 7th.
