Site Report Bristol University HEP group

21-22 March 2000Jean-Pierre Melot, Bristol2 The People 7 Academics Brian Foster, ZEUS spokesman Greg Heath, Norman McCubbin 4 R.A.s 2 Technicians Electronic, Mechanical 10 Postgraduates

21-22 March 2000Jean-Pierre Melot, Bristol3 The Experiments ZEUS Mature, data-taking, analysis BaBar Data-taking, preliminary analysis CMS Design: trigger, calorimeter LHCb, in infancy

21-22 March 2000Jean-Pierre Melot, Bristol4 The Machines Most analysis carried out at/from research centres (desy, cern, ral) Local systems: Sun Ultra Enterprise 450 (BaBar) 3 processors, 2Gb, 1Tb disk space DEC AlphaServer 1000 (Tru64 Unix) 1 266MHz processor, 256Mb, c. 100Gb

21-22 March 2000Jean-Pierre Melot, Bristol5 The Machines (cont’d) 4 DEC workstations AXP, , 1 AlphaStation 250 Aging equipment, no maintenance 25 PCs 20 Windows NT 4.0 workstations 1 Dell PowerEdge 2400 dual-processor NT server 3 Linux workstations 1 dual-processor Linux server

21-22 March 2000Jean-Pierre Melot, Bristol6 The Machines (finish) 10 Laptops! Win9x, NT, Win2K, Linux A number of home PCs

21-22 March 2000Jean-Pierre Melot, Bristol7 The Software LSF On MHZ NT w/s. Moderate use. Soon on Sun Enterprise 450 Interoperability: Not yet developed Samba on Unix, NFS Maestro on NT? Common authentication?

21-22 March 2000Jean-Pierre Melot, Bristol8 Windows 2000 Bristol participates in Microsoft’s “Insight” deployment program Physics is the junior partner Preliminary deployment at Easter Main deployment c. September All Undergraduate seats (>60) Some other systems, including HEP (40)

21-22 March 2000Jean-Pierre Melot, Bristol9 Changes DEC machinery nearly obsolete Only used in ZEUS, decreasingly Due for replacement in next rolling grant (October 2000) Replaced by Linux systems, including file/application server? Linux farms (CMS “grid”, general) Existing Linux farm experience: 23 dual 400MHz processor (Polymer/Theory)

21-22 March 2000Jean-Pierre Melot, Bristol10 Security 3 incidents in 1999! Scary: Old, rogue SunOS system Serious: 2 Slackware 4.2 (IMAPD exploit) “Linsniffer” password-grabber. 25 passwords found in logs! All change. Mild: 1 Redhat 6.1 (automount exploit?) Immediate lessons: Only trust a few users to look after systems Use network switch technology. Eliminate hubs!

21-22 March 2000Jean-Pierre Melot, Bristol11 Security (cont’d) Tighten on network hardware Router/switch to provide IP filtering MAC addresses bound to switch ports Use encryption SSL for secure mail and web access ssh clients and servers Other methods (SRP, Secure ftp, etc.)

21-22 March 2000Jean-Pierre Melot, Bristol12 Security (finish) No multi-boot systems! Updates can be pushed at any time Use other methods of cross-operation Less worldwide-accessible systems Less user-installed systems Researchers are not necessarily administrators RedHat distribution Security is an ongoing process

21-22 March 2000Jean-Pierre Melot, Bristol13 General Trends Move to server-centric environment Move back? Files, applications, services Easier to back up Appliance servers Dedicated Simple and maintainable Easily replaceable Important: Authentication, File, , Web

21-22 March 2000Jean-Pierre Melot, Bristol14 General Trends (concluded) Thin-ish clients Centrally administered Initial network installation (PXE) Update push or pull Advertising/publishing Tools: Windows 2000 Linux?