[tech] New UWA network interface options

Matt Johnston matt at ucc.asn.au
Mon Oct 17 21:35:25 WST 2011


Can we get someone cheaper to install it? 

Matt

On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 09:34:06PM +0800, Bob Adamson wrote:
> It seems to me that if the copper link doesn't support gigabit, then this 
> whole endeavour is pointless because we'll still have the 100mb bottleneck 
> that we've been trying so hard to get around. I say test the link, if it 
> doesn't do the speed, then we look at getting it replaced.
> 
> Andrew Adamson
> UCC President
> bob at ucc.asn.au
> 
> |"The faster you move, the slower time passes, the longer you live."     |
> | ---Peter's Laws                                                        |
> 
> On Mon, 17 Oct 2011, David Adam wrote:
> 
> > UWA is getting an exciting new core network, which promises to be 
> > highly-buzzword compliant. UCC is one of the test groups for the new core 
> > network, mostly because apparently we're one of the few groups on campus 
> > doing actual service over IPv6.
> > 
> > To interface with the new network (which will be gigabit fibre to the 
> > Cameron Hall comms room), we need to upgrade our current uplink equipment 
> > in the Cameron Hall comms room, which is currently simply a 100mbit fibre 
> > convertor.
> > 
> > There are two options immediately available:
> > 
> > - Install sesame, a Cisco Catalyst 3508G XL donated by [AHC] and 
> >   refurbished by me; this has 8 GBIC slots and is currently configured for 
> >   dual 1000baseLX (single-mode fibre) and 1000baseTX (copper).
> > 
> > - Install palm, a Cisco Catalyst 2948G-GE-TX with 48 10/100/1000baseTX
> >   ports and 4 SFP slots (the Uni will lend us SFPs on a long-term basis).
> > 
> > The problem with the first option, which I discovered with a trill of gay 
> > laughter after having spent many hours trying to get it working, is that 
> > you can't connected any 100 megabit devices to a copper GBIC. However, I'm 
> > not convinced that our uplink copper cable will support gigabit traffic. 
> > Also I will ask the club for $50 to recoup part of the cost of new fans 
> > and GBICs. [*]
> > 
> > The problem with the second option is that it takes what is currently our 
> > LAN switch out of commission and wastes 44 perfectly good copper ports. 
> > However, with the new giant Cisco 4507R installed in the rack, we might be 
> > migrating off coconut (same model as palm) sometime soon anyway, which 
> > would negate this.
> > 
> > Alternatively, if we can talk [AHC] into selling or donating the Cisco 
> > 2948G living in the machine room (which has 48 10/100 ports but two GBIC 
> > slots), we could use that if our uplink doesn't support Gigabit speeds.
> > 
> > Opinions and other alternatives welcome. UWA IS (nee ITS nee UCS) has 
> > stipulated against the use of media converters and is very keen to have 
> > everything that interfaces with the core network from the Cisco line. 
> > Replacing the uplink copper to the Cameron Hall comms room is apparently 
> > prohibitively expensive.
> > 
> > David Adam
> > UCC Wheel Member
> > zanchey at ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au
> > 
> > [*]: it also doesn't support PAgP/LACP or load-balancing over aggregation 
> > groups using anything other than level 2 addresses. We only have two level 
> > 2 address doing any real work on that link, but that's largely irrelevant 
> > because our bottleneck is the piece of copper between the Cameron Hall 
> > comms room and the UCC machine room.
> > 


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