[tech] Fwd: ITS HAZARD: Ongoing Hazardous Condition - UWA Network

[David Adam]

FYI.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:52:58 +0800 (WST)
From: ITS Notices <ithelp-its at uwa.edu.au>
Subject: ITS HAZARD: Ongoing Hazardous Condition - UWA Network


ITS is aware that for much of 2009 the University's core network
equipment has experienced difficulties with some types of network
traffic and the growth in load we are experiencing. As a result of this
the following issues exist:

- Core network stability: infrequently, one or twice a day, we are
observing intermittent dropouts of up to 30 seconds of network
connectivity within the UWA network. We believe this issue is a result
of the network growth exceeding the capacity of a group of devices and
are looking at ways of isolating the impact of this to a minimal number
of users. We are currently testing replacement equipment, which we plan
to deploy during May to largely mitigate this.

- Core network load: the core of the UWA network is experiencing
difficulties dealing with the network traffic load at peak periods. This
also causes intermittent dropouts of network connectivity. This
equipment is past its productive lifecycle and will be replaced during
May.

We believe the above issues, on a daily basis, will directly impact very
few users - however it will require significant downtime for the whole
UWA network to be able install the replacement equipment during May.

Further details of these planned outages will be provided as they are
scheduled.