[tech] Switchesu

[David Manchester]

> On Wed, Sep 13, 2000 at 04:43:36PM +0800, David Manchester wrote:
> > > On Wed, Sep 13, 2000 at 03:40:31PM +0800, James Andrewartha wrote:
> > 
> > What is the system that we have earmarked for the router?
> > Would it be worth buying a cheap 5 PCI slot motherboard and a Celeron for
> > the task?
> 
> Well, there's a P100 we could use - but I think the motherboard only has 
> 3 PCI slots (from memory.) A decent router would let us do a lot more - 
> and having it on non-smelly hardware is a plus. I agree - we should buy 
> something like a slow Celeron and make it the router. I suppose it could 
> do more than just routing - or does it takes lots of CPU to do cool 
> stuff?

It depends how much routing we'll be doing... Linsux has the fast-switching
code too.. we could have mermaid or mooneye going back-to-back into the
router for mondo performance. That sort of thing would probably benefit
from better memory bandwidth afforded by a newer machine.

> We should definitely do RARP and better firewalling - that'd stop 
> anybody just plugging their machine in and doing stupid stuff on the 
> network. The router as a NIS slave sounds sensible. We could also do SMB.

Some modulus of RARP/BootP and DHCP with static ARP entries, I suspect.
Router as NIS slave OK if we firewall it off the outside interface.

> I suggest using FreeBSD or NetBSD. Linux 2.2 doesn't do as much cool 
> networking stuff as the stable BSD releases and Linux 2.4-test7 gave me an 
> OOPS in "fs.c" after about a day of use :)

IPfilter is cool, but maybe IPchains and Fast-switching might be the go.
Don't fuck with IPtables on an important box unless we HAVE to.

> If we can get switches at $200 we may as well get four. That'd free up the 
> big hub in the machine room for use in events whenever we network the loft. 
> We'd also have a faster network.

That would be nice.

> The rack discussion - I think the machine room does take far too much space.
> Late last year and this year we grew an awful lot of graphical terminals - 
> and almost all of them work reliably. We don't have enough bench space to 
> set all of them up. We'd free up an awful lot of space by getting lockable 
> racks and this is definitely worth looking at.

Yes, having enough bench space to be able to mouse happily is good.

> I can't see a downside - sure wheel would loose it's hidey-hole, but the 
> machines would be just as secure. In it's present state there are important 
> cables trailing across the machine room just asking to be tripped over. Perhaps 
> with racks and no machine room things would be tidier - just lined up against 
> the back wall.

Yes, and the UCC will get its "Ooooooooh, errr!" factor back.
i.e. walking in and seeing big UNIX machines going "Wom!" and flashing a plethora
of blinkenlights is something that will attract members, albeit somewhat
worrysome ones.

Cheers
/dave
-- 
/ David Manchester <mustang @ ucc.asn.au> (UCC Wheel and Committee person) \
|       If Life hands you lemons today, smile and give thanks.             |
|     Then, when Life isn't looking, give him a quick knee to the groin.   |
\                              That'll learn him.                          /