Systems

DECS is expanding use of its virtualization servers to include more server functions.  This allows increased server redundancy, automatic failover capability, and a significantly improved environment for developing test servers that offer new features.

Engineering Research Complex/Jolly Road/Jolly Road Civil Infrastructure Lab-DECS will be installing new switches at the ERC, Jolly Road, and Jolly Road CIL locations. For the ERC this means more redundancy, a new router, provisions for 10 Gigabit, and faster Wi-Fi. Jolly Road and Jolly Road CIL will have a faster uplink connection and a faster Wi-Fi.

Engineering is housing researchers at the Trout Building located near the Engineering Building.  DECS installed Engineering switches, firewall, router, and 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi on the third floor. The network is in a stable state and accommodating new connections as more researchers move into this location.

The Engineering Building's network was upgraded with new switches that will provide Gigabit (1000 Mbps) to the desktop, faster Wi-Fi in densely used areas, future support for a 10 Gigabit backbone, and more  modern support of upcoming necessary protocols, like IPv6. These new switches were installed in the Engineering Building's central comm room and allow for complete redundancy in the server network to avoid problems caused by single component failures. The main Engineering network router is also being replaced which will permit a redundant ring topology.  It will provide faster communication links between servers to avoid bottlenecks.

EGR Wi-Fi was upgraded! DECS upgraded the wireless using access points (APs) supporting the 802.11a/b/g/n protocols on both 2.4 and 5 gigahertz in all Engineering facilities. This means better signal, faster speeds, and the ability to use WPA2 wireless encryption for higher security. It reduces the chance of interference in some situations, especially if using a more modern wireless client that supports 5 gigahertz.

To get the maximum benefit from the new EGR Wi-Fi, contact the DECS Support Office at support@egr.msu.edu or 517-353-8891 to find out if your device can support 5 gigahertz using 802.11n. WPA2-Personal encryption may also be used by using the "EGR Wi-Fi WPA2" SSID and the passphrase of "engineering."

DECS has completed installation for two redundant, load balanced Samba servers. The Samba servers provide file sharing access to College of Engineering computer systems. Using the engineering Virtual Private Network (VPN), these systems can be accessed anywhere on campus or off campus. The server software was upgraded to improve speed and reliability.

New servers were added to the Linux cluster! These additional servers will represent a 400% increase in processors and a 200% increase in memory which will allow for execution of larger computational jobs and represent a large increase to job capacity. The six servers which were added are Sun Fire x4150 Dual Quad Core 2.33 GHz Xeon systems.

More terabytes for everyone! The new NetApp cluster is up and running. Setup as a storage cluster, this configuration will ensure reliability and guarantee uptime, making any hardware failures more transparent and reducing visibility of maintenance upgrades. This new cluster will allow DECS to meet the storage needs of faculty, staff, students, and researchers. In addition, data is properly protected with many offline and online layers of protection. Migration is complete for all volumes. Progress continues by migrating traditional Unix NFS storage to the NetApp cluster to improve features, speed, and availability.

DECS is working to provide terminal services to its users which would make engineering applications and software available beyond the confines of the Engineering Building. Terminal services will make software available to faculty, staff, and students remotely.