eecs it town hall meeting

1

EECS IT Town Hall Meeting

Anthony Joseph <adj@eecs>, CNIL Vice Chair

Eric Fraser <fraser@eecs>, EECS Director of IT

February 21, 2007

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCES

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Berkeley

2

Agenda



• Introductions • EECS IT Survey Results

• IT Manager Presentations (10 minutes each)

• Lars Rohrbach – User Support and Helpdesk• Kevin Mullally – Instructional Computing• Fred Archibald – Networking Services• Michael Bordua – Infrastructure Services• Rob McNicholas – Web and Information Services

• Q and A

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4



Who and What is ?

• Instructional & Research Information Systems

• Mission: To provide state-of-the art computing and networking services in support of the EECS department's instructional and research goals.

5



Who and What is ?

• Instructional & Research Information Systems

• Mission: To provide state-of-the art computing and networking services in support of the EECS department's instructional and research goals.

• Secret Mission: To play with state-of-the-art toys in an exciting, non-corporate environment and get paid for it.

6



HelpdeskManagers: Ann DiFruscia and Phil Loarie

Computer User Support Group (CUSG)Manager: Lars Rohrbach

Information Management Group (IMG)Manager: Rob McNicholas

Infrastructure Development Support Group (IDSG)Manager: Michael Bordua

Instructional Support Group (ISG)Manager: Kevin Mullally

FunctionalGroups

IRIS Purchasing and AdministrationCaitlin Dey-Ward and Rachel Tibbetts

Computer Networking Instructional Labs (CNIL) Committee - Meets 2 x Semester

Prof. Anthony Joseph (VC)Eric FraserProf. Bernhard Boser

Prof. David MesserschmittProf. Kris PisterProf. Doug Tygar

Christopher BrooksProf. Ron FearingProf. Dan Garcia

7

Other Computing Groups (non IRIS)



• Administrative Computing Group (ACG)

• Electronics Support Group (ESG)

• ERSO Computing Services

• ERSO Technical Support Staff

• Clustered Computing Group (CCG)• BWRC Technical Support• Various Technical Research Support Groups

• CITRIS Technical Support

• College of Engineering Technical Support

8



Who are you?

EECS Accounts (total users = 1465)

635

289

120 92 73 56 54 29 22 19 17 14 13 8 24

+2700 student accounts in instructional per semester

9



Where are you?

Users By Location

732

457

8837 31 14 12 33

Cor

y

Sod

a

BW

RC

Etc

heve

rry

HM

MB

McL

augh

lin

ICS

I

Oth

er

10



What do you use?

Computers by Primary OS

2406

727602

344222 171 108 101 90 86 64 59 38 37 15 12 9 8 8 6 5 4 3 3 2 1 1 1

Win

dows

XPLi

nux

Win

dows

2000

Mac

OS X

Printe

rs

Solar

is

Oth

er (u

nliste

d)

Win

dows

2003

Ser

ver

Solar

is x8

6

VX-Wor

ks

Lant

roni

x

FreeB

SD

Sun Ja

va

AireOS

Win

dows

CE

Win

dows

Win

dows

Mob

ile 5

.0IR

IX

Win

dows

98

Win

dows

NT

Win

dows

Mob

ile 2

003

Win

dows

95

HP-UX

Win

dows

Vista

SunOS

Win

dows

ME

Win

dows

Med

ia C

tr 20

05Ultr

ix

+500 if clustered computing is added

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EECS IT Survey Results



Results Summary at:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/Report.asp?U=276217281939

• Survey was sent out to all EECS users except Instructional Accounts (will be done separately)

• There were 448 responses (32% response)

• Too much to cover everything here

• ~68% of users manage their own machines• ~19% have never used the helpdesk

http://www.surveymonkey.com/Report.asp?U=276217281939

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EECS IT Survey Results - Core Infrastructure



0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Cost of storage

Spam and virus filtering

Using the web email interface

Ease of adding/removing a host from the network

Availability of software and licenses on SWW

Performance and availability of wireless network

Opening/Closing user accounts

Quality of service from technical staff

Staff response to computer security concerns

Performance of the file storage system

Recovery process of lost files

Setting up email vacation messages

Process of requesting additional space when needed

Availability and quality of email service

Reliability of the file storage system

Performance and availability of wired network

Forwarding email

Performance and availability of department webserver

Positive

Neutral

Negative

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EECS IT Survey Results - CUSG



0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

CUSG support of your desktops

CUSG handling your requests in a timelymanner

The CUSG job request process

CUSG handling your requests in aprofessional manner

Communication of CUSG staff

Knowledge of CUSG staff

CUSG handling of regular patches and otherpreventative maintenance

CUSG support of your servers

Positive

Neutral

Negative

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EECS IT Survey Results (cont.)



• If a tiered low cost storage service were offered, the most important features would be:

• ubiquitous access from all systems• performance

• Less important would be:• backup• a snapshot feature• the ability to grow and shrink the filesystem.

• Websites should support more services such as Wikis and dynamic content.

• Users would like to see calendar service offered to all members of the department if the funding were there.

• ~300 use it now at $20/year for license• there is a one time $25/user startup fee for adding users

• Clustered Computing support needs better advertising, more resources and better integration with the rest of EECS services.

• http://www.millennium.berkeley.edu/

http://www.millennium.berkeley.edu/

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Thank you for your feedback

Questions?



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Computer User Support Group (CUSG)

Lars Rohrbach <larsrohr@eecs>

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CUSG

• System Administrators for hire

• A recharge unit of EECS, we provide system administration and computing support for faculty, staff and researchers

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CUSG• Annual contract support of desktops and

servers, as well as printers• Time & Materials job requests also

accepted• Supporting Windows, Solaris, Linux, and

MacOS

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CUSG• OS installation and configuration• Help with software• Maintenance (patching, security)• Monitoring (availability, security)• Labor for warranty repair• Troubleshooting• Technical advice

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CUSG• Professional help• Experience and knowledge• Low annual cost• Group availability – there’s always

someone to call on when things go wrong• You and your students get back to

research

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CUSG• Don’t fight the system – let us fight for you!• You do research, while we attend to your

machines• We keep up on policy changes, network

changes, and security issues

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CUSG• Future developments

– Vista preparations– Daylight Savings Time patches– The usual patching & upgrading

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EECS Helpdesk

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EECS Helpdesk• Central point of contact for computer

support within the EECS department

• help@eecs• 642-7777• 395 Cory, 313 Soda

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EECS Helpdesk• Answer questions in person, by phone or

by email• Online documentation:

http://iris.eecs.berkeley.edu• Direct users to appropriate contacts• Recorded message at 642-7777 in the

event of any significant outages• Software loan library

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EECS Helpdesk• Fedora Core 5 for x86 • Mac Office 2004 • Mathematica 5.1 • Matlab R2006a: Unix/Mac PPC • Matlab R2006a: Windows • Office 2000 • Office 2003 • Office 2007 for Windows • T41 drivers for Windows • T60/X60 drivers for Windows • Visio 2003 Pro • Visual Studio.NET • Windows 2000 Professional • Windows 2003 Server Service Pack 1 • Windows Critical Patches (01/12/06) • Windows XP 64-bit Itanium • Windows XP Patched (01/12/2006) • Windows XP SP2: Simplified Chinese

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Tech support services for EECS instruction

Kevin Mullally <kevinm@eecs>Instructional Support Group (ISG)

EECS Instructional Support

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EECS Instructional Support Accounts

‘class’ accounts‘named’ accounts• Instructional accounts:

for access to Instructional computers, WEB sites, printers

• named accounts:login names are personalized (bbking, rcrumb, etc)default account used for many classesfor all EECS majors (ugrad & grad) as long as enrolledfor non-EECS majors who are in one of those classesget one by logging in as ‘newacct’

• class accounts:login names are generic (cs61a-xx, ee40-yy, etc)for classes that need special featuresexpire at the end of the semester; login names are reusedget one from the instructor in class

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EECS Instructional Support Labs & Servers

computers (ISG) electronics (ESG)

• Labs:105, 119, 125,140, 199, 204, 218, 353 Cory271, 273, 275, 277, 330, 349 SodaC10, C30, C50 Hearst Field Annex

• Login servers:cory, c119, pulsar, quasar (Solaris)nova, star, solar, h30, h50 (Solaris)torus, pentagon, cube, rhombus, sphere (Solaris)ilinux1, ilunux2, ilinux3 (Linux)iserver2, kramnik (Windows)

• Services:Email (http://imail.eecs)WEB (http://inst.eecs)Software (http://inst.eecs/software)E-Academy (http://msdnaa.eecs)

http://imail.eecs/

http://imail.eecs/

http://inst.eecs/

http://inst.eecs/software



http://msdnaa.eecs/

http://msdnaa.eecs/

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http://schedule.berkeley.edu http://courseweb.berkeley.edu



http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/education/courses.shtml

http://bspace.berkeley.edu

Course WEB sites onhttp://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu

• you can make a public WEB page on bSpace• consider archiving when deciding where to store WEB data

may be on a research WEB server

EECS Instructional Support Finding course WEB sites

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EECS Instructional Support campus servers for maillists & newsgroups

http://bearfacts.berkeley.edu

• Class email lists for instructors are on http://bearfacts.berkeley.edu• Google newsgroups are not in synch with news.berkeley.edu• from off-campus, WebNews is a simple news client that runs on our WEB server• or connect to authnews.berkeley.edu via Outlook, Thunderbird, etc

http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/webnews

http://lists.berkeley.edu

http://lists.berkeley.edu

http://bearfacts.berkeley.edu/

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EECS Instructional Support“research” and “instructional” resources

UNIX Domain

Research

UNIX Domain Instructional

”EECS”Windows Domain

Research & Instructional

Home dirs on coeusEmail on http://imap.eecsWEB on http://www.eecs

H:=coeus U:= fileserviceHome dirs on mamba

Email on http://imail.eecsWEB on http://inst.eecs

help@eecs inst@eecs

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Tech support services for EECS instruction:

computer accounts for coursework labs and login servers finding course WEB sites maillists and newsgroups

Comparing “research” and “instructional” resources:

password domains (Windows, instructional UNIX, research UNIX) home directories (U: vs H: in Windows) email addresses ([email protected] vs user@eecs) WEB pages (http://inst.eecs vs http://www.eecs) help (inst@eecs vs help@eecs)

EECS Instructional Support Summary

http://inst.eecs/

http://www.eecs/

http://www.eecs/

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EECS Networking

Key Updates Spring 07Fred Archibald <fred@eecs>



35

Phased Network Refresh Model

• 2006/2007 Core Network Upgrade• 2007/2008 Wireless Network

Upgrade• 2008/2009 Edge Network Switch

Upgrade– Closet Switches For Desktop Connections @

1 GB/Sec



36

Core Network

• Upgrade Core Switches in Cory and Soda to 10 Gig

• Upgrade EECS Firewalls to 10 Gig• Upgrade Campus Edge Switch to 10 Gig• Work Ongoing Now



37

1

2

3

4

5A

7

8

6B

9

10

MSM-G8X 41211

ERR

ENV

1000BASE-X

1 5 2 6 4 83 7

1

5 8

4

MSTR/DIAG

SYS/STATCOMPACT FLASH

ACONSOLE

D RMGMT

MSM-G8X 41211

ERR

ENV

1000BASE-X

1 5 2 6 4 83 7

1

5 8

4

MSTR/DIAG


ACONSOLE

D RMGMT

Dia

gS

tat

10GBASE-X1

10GBASE-ER

Tx Rx

3

10GBASE-ER

Tx Rx

2

10GBASE-ER

Tx Rx

4

10GBASE-ER

Tx Rx

10G4X 41611

Dia

gS

tat

1000BASE-X G24X 41541

1 13 2 14 4 163 15

1

13 16

4

5 17 6 18 8 207 19

5

17 20

8

9 21 10 22 12 2411 23

9

21 24

12

1

2

3

4

5A

7

8

6B

9

10

MSM-G8X 41211

ERR

ENV

1000BASE-X

1 5 2 6 4 83 7

1

5 8

4

MSTR/DIAG


ACONSOLE

D RMGMT

MSM-G8X 41211

ERR

ENV

1000BASE-X

1 5 2 6 4 83 7

1

5 8

4

MSTR/DIAG


ACONSOLE

D RMGMT

Dia

gS

tat

10GBASE-X1

10GBASE-ER

Tx Rx

3

10GBASE-ER

Tx Rx

2

10GBASE-ER

Tx Rx

4

10GBASE-ER

Tx Rx

10G4X 41611

Dia

gS

tat

1000BASE-X G24X 41541

1 13 2 14 4 163 15

1

13 16

4

5 17 6 18 8 207 19

5

17 20

8

9 21 10 22 12 2411 23

9

21 24

12

Cory 8810 Core

INR-202DOE-CEV

INR-201Evans

SD

C I S C O Y S T E M SS

SD

C I S C O Y S T E M SS

Campus Core + Internet

Dia

gS

tat

10GBASE-X1

10GBASE-ER

Tx Rx

3

10GBASE-ER

Tx Rx

2

10GBASE-ER

Tx Rx

4

10GBASE-ER

Tx Rx

10G4X 41611

1

2

3

4

5A

7

8

6B

9

10

MSM-G8X 41211

ERR

ENV

1000BASE-X

1 5 2 6 4 83 7

1

5 8

4

MSTR/DIAG


ACONSOLE

D RMGMT

MSM-G8X 41211

ERR

ENV

1000BASE-X

1 5 2 6 4 83 7

1

5 8

4

MSTR/DIAG


ACONSOLE

D RMGMT

Dia

gS

tat

10GBASE-X1

10GBASE-ER

Tx Rx

3

10GBASE-ER

Tx Rx

2

10GBASE-ER

Tx Rx

4

10GBASE-ER

Tx Rx

10G4X 41611

Dia

gS

tat

1000BASE-X G24X 41541

1 13 2 14 4 163 15

1

13 16

4

5 17 6 18 8 207 19

5

17 20

8

9 21 10 22 12 2411 23

9

21 24

12

CONSOLE

STACK NO

Solid ON = LINK

Blinking = Activity

Shared Ports

Extreme Netw orks Summit X450-24tR R

FAN

PSU-i

PSU-E

MGMT

25

26

UplinkPort

1x 2x 3x 4x 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 152 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 17 19 21 2318 20 22 24

Soda 290 Server 8810

1 Gig

10 Gig

Summit X45024 ports 10/100/1000 TX

10Gig Each Firewall

1

2

3

4

5A

7

8

6B

9

10

MSM-G8X 41211

ERR

ENV

1000BASE-X

1 5 2 6 4 83 7

1

5 8

4

MSTR/DIAG


ACONSOLE

D RMGMT

MSM-G8X 41211

ERR

ENV

1000BASE-X

1 5 2 6 4 83 7

1

5 8

4

MSTR/DIAG


ACONSOLE

D RMGMT

Dia

gS

tat

10GBASE-X1

10GBASE-ER

Tx Rx

3

10GBASE-ER

Tx Rx

2

10GBASE-ER

Tx Rx

4

10GBASE-ER

Tx Rx

10G4X 41611

Dia

gS

tat

10GBASE-X1

10GBASE-ER

Tx Rx

3

10GBASE-ER

Tx Rx

2

10GBASE-ER

Tx Rx

4

10GBASE-ER

Tx Rx

10G4X 41611

Soda 8810 Core

Soda 8810 Edge

EECS Core Network Upgrade



38

EECS Wireless• “Ubiquitous” 802.11a/b Coverage

– Ubiquitous Really Means 90-95%• Production EECS WLANs Now Inside Firewall

– SSIDs: “EECS and EECS-11a”– Use Of FireEye Appliance Allowed This– We Encourage Use Of EECS-11a

• We Are Investigating 802.11n– Standards Not Yet Finalized– Enterprise Use Not Likely Until Mid-Late 2008– EECS Will Likely Use 802.11n At 5.2 GHz Rather

Than 2.4 Ghz– 802.11n Requires Upgrade To Wired Network



39

FireEye Appliance

• FireEye Is An Anti-Malware Security Appliance– (Windows Only Today)

• Wireless Traffic Mirrored To Appliance• All Traffic Run Against Virtual Machines

– Approx 10-20 VMs Built Up And Torn Down On The Fly

• Info Re Compromised VMs Are Pushed To Wireless Controllers And Compromised Clients Contained



40

Overall Wireless Use

• Overall Weekday Peak Of 600 Simultaneous Users

• Mesh Weekday Peak 100 Users



42

UC Berkeley Mesh

• Experimental Pilot Program • Collaboration Between EECS/IST/Cisco• Primarily Outdoor Coverage• Client Support For 802.11b/g• Mesh Backhaul Uses 802.11a• Currently 2 WLANs supported

– EECS– AirBearsBeyond



43

RAP MAP

44

Cory Hall

• RAP Installation

45

Wheeler Hall

• MAP Installation

46



Infrastructure Development Support Group (IDSG)

Michael Bordua <mgbordua@eecs>

47

IDSG - Townhall

• EECS Survey Results• Other Info• Storage Refresh



48

EECS Survey Results• Spam Tagging

– Block 21%– Tag 57%– Pass 22%– White/Black Listing https://bc[1,2].eecs.berkeley.edu

• Virus Filtering– Block 25%– Virus Clean/Remove .51%

• Webmail Interface – Work in progress• Host Adding/Updating



49

Other Info

• SWW• Service Availability

– IMAP 99.9%– Storage 99.9%– Spam 99.9%– MX’s 99.9%



50

Storage Refresh

• Current Storage• New Storage• Benefits



51

Current Storage

• Direct Attached Storage• Doesn’t allow for easy growth• May duplicate resources• Less centralized management



52

Current Storage

coeus project imap Other server(s)



53

New Storage

• Storage Area Network (SAN) Backend• Fiber Channel Switch• NAS Frontend



54

Storage Solution 2007

San Arrays

NAS GatewaysIMAP Server

Other Server(s)

Fiber Channel Switch

55

Benefits• Expandability• No change in user experience• Flexibility• Integrate Storage Needs • Easier to maintain• Capability to use for Research needs.• Direct host access• Other Cost Models

– No Backups– Scratch– ???



56



Information Management Group (IMG)

Rob McNicholas <robm@eecs>

57

IMG Responsibilities

• Technical management of the department’s web server (www.eecs / www.cs) configuration / maintenance (not the content)

• Design and technical support of IRIS web site (iris.eecs).

• Research into new (mostly) web-based services.



http://www.eecs/

http://www.cs/

58



IMG Responsibilities (cont’d)

• IRIS Network request and query forms• IRIS User Account request forms plus

internal applications for creating/managing user accounts.

• Billing database for IRIS recharge activities• Other internal applications

Application development for IRIS, e.g.:

59



New Services!

• Mailing list manager – Sympa (https://lists.eecs.berkeley.edu/sympa)

• Instant Message server – Jabber / XMPP (jabber.eecs.berkeley.edu)

60



Sympa quick overview• Sympa is a modern open-source mailing list manager

(similar to Mailman) but oriented towards large organizations. (Originally developed at a European university)

• Ability to build lists from external data sources is very useful to department – starting to move department lists there.

• Anyone in department can create and manage their own mailing lists now!

• Sympa docs at www.sympa.org. Local docs coming soon to iris.eecs (search for ‘sympa’)

http://www.sympa.org/

61



Jabber quick overview

• Open protocol alternative to AOL IM or Yahoo Messenger

• Tied to existing EECS infrastructure – no need to create a separate account

• Compatible with Google Talk• For details, https://iris.eecs.berkeley.edu/

search for ‘jabber’

https://iris.eecs.berkeley.edu/

62



Future Plans…

• Bring up a new server to support server-side scripting for the masses

• Investigating other services that the department might want (e.g. Wikis, WebDAV, SourceForge, subversion server)

• Send your comments or requests to img@eecs

63



Open Discussion

64

IRIS Administrative Staff



IDSG Billings <[email protected]>

• Monthly• Computer Accounts: CIF, ICF, Guest Wireless• Disk Usage

• Annual• CalAgenda Account Renewal• Matlab License Renewal

CUSG Billings <[email protected]>

• Monthly• Time and Materials• Contract Changes

• Annual• Machine Contracts• Exchange Server Accounts

Forms for IDSG managed user accounts can be found under “Requests” at:

http://iris.eecs.berkeley.edu/roster/

http://iris.eecs.berkeley.edu/roster/

eecs it town hall meeting

Documents

iriselectrical engineering

eecs departments instructional

art computing

lars rohrbach user support

research goals

information services

eecs director of itfebruary

secret mission