Difference between revisions of "LabNet News"

Latest revision as of 18:31, 19 April 2022

Please check https://www.labnet.mun.ca/ for the latest info on Labnet issues that may affect users, such as

- scheduled maintenance

- software upgrades

- equipment upgrades

- current system-wide issues

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-This page lists current and upcoming MUN LabNet projects that may affect users, such as
+Please check https://www.labnet.mun.ca/ for the latest info on Labnet issues that may affect users, such as
 - scheduled maintenance
@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 - current system-wide issues
---------------------�----Insert new reports below this line---------------------------------
-'''January 7, 2015'''
-) Set up the the classroom computers in EN1051, EN1052 and EN1054 so that they could
-avail of the new Ubuntu iSCSI boot image.  To use, simply reboot the computer and at the
-boot menu select the "Ubuntu Linux" menu item.  When the login screen comes up, login
-using your Labnet credentials.
-) Modified the configuration files for the apache server on stretch. The modifications direct
-apache to include files that will allow Dr. Byrne's students to be able to access course material
-from his GIT repository.
-'''Christmas Projects List 2014'''
-During the Christmas break a number Labnet of projects were undertaken.
-Many of these projects could not be performed during the semester due to
-their intrusive nature.  The following are brief descriptions of the projects
-arranged in more or less chronological order:
-)
-Configured the computers in the  Computer Science labs and the CP2003
-labs to boot the new iSCSI versions of the popular Ubuntu 14.0 distribution.
-This involved updating the image and pushing the image up to our master
-server and allowing it to update the various appplication servers.  The virtual
-images were then created on the SSD disks of the application servers and the
-database configurations were updated appropriately.  This will be used to
-support one of Dr. Byrne's courses.
-)
-Installed the server images for "isthmus" for the Math department.  This
-was necessary because the libparted.so was upgraded and the buildserver
-application no longer builds the partition tables properly.  It was necessary to manually
-build the partitions and then proceed with the install.  This project is stalled
-due to problems loading the boot sector.
-)
-The size of our newer disk drives now exceeds the capabilities of the old "msdos"
-partition tables.  The "GUID Partition Tables" or GPT will now be used in future server
-builds to support the larger disks.  To boot from GPT partitioned disks the use of grub2
-is under development.  In addition UEFI boot support is under investigation.  As servers
-are upgraded our server builds will be utilizing GPT and will be migrating to grub2 for
-booting.  When better support for UEFI booting becomes more mature, support
-for UEFI will be incorporated.  Currently there are a couple of servers that have been
-moved over to GPT partitions and the CS department is now booting with grub2.
-)
-One of our core Labnet daemons, "master_configd", responsible for managing the
-remote distribution of configuration services such as master file templates,
-certificates, printer account numbers etc. was becoming severely
-impacted by the shear number of requests that it received.  To ameliorate
-this problem one of the modules was rewritten to perform work asynchronous
-and thereby reduce the strain on the daemon.  The resulting code runs an
-order of magnitude faster and service requests are no longer creating backlogs.
-)
-Another service that was becoming bogged down was the user/system logging
-database that provides statistics on when and where students log into Labnet and
-what services they are requesting as well as the reboot logging of computers.  An
-analysis of the data queries was performed to isolate the culprits.  As
-it turned out the indices were not properly set up for several common queries and
-this turned out to be the culprit.  The indexing was altered and now the queries
-work 2 orders of magnitude faster.
-)
-Performed network performance analysis on the Commons client/server
-communications.  This was requested as a result of changes to the network
-infrastructure.  Recommendations have been forwarded to the networking
-group within C&C as well as the Commons.  It is hoped that this will be used
-to redesign the network layout to remove some of the bottlenecks.
-)
-The popular Ubuntu Linux 14.0 distribution was enabled for use in the Commons.  This
-upgrade is similar to the upgrade to CP2003 and the Computer Science Department
-computer labs.  This technology allows a client computer to mount a virtual disk over
-IP networks using the iSCSI protocol.  The virtual disk is located on an application server
-that can remotely support an entire lab.
-)
-One of the final components of the "Account Archival Project" is the PAM Labnet module that
-reenables an account when a student returns to university.  After the user's data has been collected and
-written to DVD's the home directory is removed and the LDAP entry is put in hibernation.  When
-an archived Labnet user attempts to login, the login credentail is restored and a new homedirectory
-is created.
-Wrote and debugged the PAM code that will be needed to reactivate user
-accounts after they have been archived.
-)
-To prepare for an up coming security, audit additions were made to the Labnet PAM module to allow for
-the seamless update of our remaining DES password hashes to the SHA1 hashes used by C&C.  This will
-provide greater protection of our password hashes in the event that our password hashes are exposed.
-The newer SHA1 hashes are much more resliant to brute force cracking than their DES counterparts..

Difference between revisions of "LabNet News"

Latest revision as of 18:31, 19 April 2022

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