Central Network Management in the University Environment alias Ballad on One University Network Administration Milan Šorm, Petr Dadák, Hana Netrefová Institute of Informatics, Faculty of Business and Economics Mendel University Brno, Czech Republic EUNIS 2005 Manchester, June 21 – 24, 2005

June 21-24, 2005EUNIS 2005, Manchester2 Motivation Speedy development of ICT doubled IT equipment connected to university network in the past few years Since the role of the technology is only to support other university staff and not to yield profit which could be used to finance administration, it is impossible to staff the central offices for IT administration at the same speed

June 21-24, 2005EUNIS 2005, Manchester3 Problem definition We need decrease number of network administrators to minimum but administer increasing number of tools in many geographically varied regions Three intuitive theses to help this (unify logging in and working environment, minimize changes in the network topology and self-monitoring of installed technologies)

June 21-24, 2005EUNIS 2005, Manchester4 Use only one login per user To effectuate the unified system of logging in and working conditions for all users, we designed a central LDAP system, which distribute the users’ accounts in the computer network according to the rules set in the university IS LDAP tree contains information about all users of the network as well as authorization of individual users to enter certain systems or servers

June 21-24, 2005EUNIS 2005, Manchester6

June 21-24, 2005EUNIS 2005, Manchester7

June 21-24, 2005EUNIS 2005, Manchester8 Standard working environment Standard working conditions for all users have been provided by central file server (or more servers at individual faculties) whose home volumes are connected at the place of the users’ registration Home volumes assist in distributing the user’s profile so the working environment and the set-up of all applications is the same for offices as well as for classrooms

June 21-24, 2005EUNIS 2005, Manchester9 Disallow changing of network topology Need to guarantee minimum of changes in the network topology without previous notice to the administrators Problem solved by progressive transition of the computer network to Cisco switches New UIS module for configuring port security by Cisco IOS in whole network End users can’t change the connection of their workstations and create discrepancies between the documentation and the reality

June 21-24, 2005EUNIS 2005, Manchester10

June 21-24, 2005EUNIS 2005, Manchester11

June 21-24, 2005EUNIS 2005, Manchester12 Disallow changing of network topology We also generate DNS, DHCP, WINS, firewall rules etc. A thoroughly administered topology helps to locate the problem user quickly, ensures his rapid disconnection or implementing limited net services for computer laboratory (a teacher can permit or forbid his students to access the Internet at his lectures through UIS, etc.)

June 21-24, 2005EUNIS 2005, Manchester13 Self monitoring tools Tools which monitor whole ICT non-stop and supervise all active elements and servers at the university Their function is also going to be to notify the supervising systems, s and mobile phones of problems and in case of increasing number of problems to report to the head officers

June 21-24, 2005EUNIS 2005, Manchester14 Self monitoring tools These tools process thousands of data every minute, analyse them and require the help of the administrators only in case of error or non-standard operation (syslog, logcheck, nagios) Next we use tools for automatic upgrade, backing-up and synchronization of all servers Result: the number of administrators reduced to 5 despite the 3,000 connected devices

June 21-24, 2005EUNIS 2005, Manchester15 Conclusions Central user database with distributed working environment (LDAP, samba) Disallow network changes (Cisco IOS) Self monitoring tools (logcheck, nagios) Standardize of operations (guides, principles) Result: 1 network administrator, 4 technicians, 3,000 devices, 10,000 users

June 21-24, 2005EUNIS 2005, Manchester16 Thank you for your attention Milan Šorm: Petr Dadák: Hana Netrefová: