Infrastructure Upgrade 2012

Overview

A major upgrade to our core infrastructure servers is planned for the Summer of 2012. This is going to be both a hardware and software upgrade. The hardware has already been received and installed. The hardware includes a new central storage unit based on a Dell Equallogic 6010e iSCSI SAN; 2x Dell Powerconnect 6224 gigabit switches; 6x Dell R610 server class machines. The software upgrade will include the CentOS 6.2 operating system. The software upgrade will require a complete reinstall of the operating system, and user data copied from the old storage system. See below for more details about the software upgrade. Storage space available for each service will upgraded across the board. Enabling IPv6 on most servers is planned, but may not get completed this Summer.

Note: I will try my absolute best to keep downtime to a minimum (usually less than a couple of hours per server). Due to the scale of the upgrade, some downtime for each server will be required because in-place upgrades are not possible. If you have concerns about downtime, email techstaff.

Completed

The following servers have been upgraded already.

• clipper.cs.vt.edu - Provides SLO login, LDAP, and DNS services for Knowledgeworks building. Hardware upgraded to Dell R410 server class machine. Software upgraded to Windows 2008 R2. Changes include running native 2008 R2 mode. IPv6 enabled, needs DNS update.
• earthquake.cs.vt.edu - Provides SLO login, LDAP, and DNS services for Knowledgeworks building. Hardware upgraded to Dell R410 server class machine. Software upgraded to Windows 2008 R2. Changes include running native 2008 R2 mode. IPv6 enabled, needs DNS update.
• tornado.cs.vt.edu - Provides SLO login, LDAP, and DNS services for McBryde and Torg. buildings. Hardware upgraded to Dell R410 server class machine. Software upgraded to Windows 2008 R2. Changes include running native 2008 R2 mode. IPv6 enabled, needs DNS update.

• ugrads-files.cs.vt.edu - Provides file services for undergraduate home directories, and internal shared storage. Hardware upgraded to Dell R510 server class machine. Software upgraded to CentOS 6.2. Changes include the latest version of NFS and Samba. Also, a different hashing method for undergraduate home directories -- before it was hashed based on the first letter of the pid, now it is hashed between "major" and "nonmajor." IPv6 enabled, needs DNS update.

• mail.cs.vt.edu - Upgraded on May 28 Sends/receives emails for cs.vt.edu addresses. Software upgraded to CentOS 6.2. Changes include running the latest verisons of postfix, dovecot, and mailman. Important: One major change will be to switch the LDA from maildrop to dovecot. This will impact the way that server-side mail filters and user forwards are handled -- will be using a completely new language called Sieve. The intranet tools to control the server-side mail filters will need to be re-written. Additionally, everyones' current mail filter script will need to be re-written -- should be mostly automated except for rare cases. Spam and virus scanning will no longer be done on mail.cs.vt.edu, and completely handled by antispam.cs.vt.edu, this will slightly change the way that spam headers are added to emails.

• antispam.cs.vt.edu - Upgraded on May 28 Mail relay to scan incoming email for spam and viruses. Software upgraded to CentOS 6.2. Changes include running the latest version of ASSP.

• staff-files.cs.vt.edu - Upgraded on June 14 Provides file services for faculty and staff home directories. Changes will include running the latest versions of NFS and Samba.

• grads-files.cs.vt.edu - Upgraded on June 14 Provides file services for graduate student home directories. The services provided by this server will be migrated to the same machine that services ugrads-files.cs.vt.edu. This will provide high-speed file access from rlogin.cs.vt.edu.

• database.cs.vt.edu - Upgraded on June 21 Shared MySQL server for faculty and graduate students. Services will be moved to the research.cs.vt.edu server.

• research.cs.vt.edu - Upgraded on June 28 Serves out research based websites. Software upgraded to CentOS 6.2. Changes will include running the latest version of Apache and PHP. Changes in PHP settings will be tested to improve security. Also, a MySQL database instance will be run locally to serve webpages.

• database2.cs.vt.edu - Upgraded on July 16 Internal MySQL server used by techstaff. Services will be moved to the webother server to help consolidate services.

• webother.cs.vt.edu - Upgraded on July 19 Serves out the eprints and webmail websites. Software upgraded to CentOS 6.2. Changes will include running the latest version of Apache and PHP. Changes in PHP settings will be tested to improve security. Also, some sites might be moved from hosting to this server. Also, a MySQL database instance will be run locally.

• software.cs.vt.edu - Upgraded on July 21 Serves out the software website which allows CS users to download available software. Also serves shared office staff files. Software upgraded to Windows 2008 R2.

• people.cs.vt.edu - Upgraded on July 23 Serves out personal webpages. Software upgraded to CentOS 6.2. Changes will include running the latest versions of Apache and PHP. Also, a MySQL database instance will be run locally to serve personal webpages. Changes in PHP settings are being tested to improve security.

• ap2.cs.vt.edu - Upgraded on July 23 Provides remote login for CS graduate students. Services provided by this server will be moved to the already updated rlogin cluster.

• courses.cs.vt.edu - Upgraded on Aug. 16 Serves out the courses and cvs websites. Software upgraded to CentOS 6.2. Changes will include running the latest version of Apache, PHP, and subversion. Changes in PHP settings will be tested to improve security. cvs will be moved to it's own virtual server.

• hosting.cs.vt.edu - Upgraded on Aug. 16 Serves out CS hosted websites. Software upgraded to CentOS 6.2. Changes will include running the latest version of Apache and PHP. Changes in PHP settings will be tested to improve security. Also, a MySQL database instance will be run locally to serve webpages.

• cvs.cs.vt.edu - Upgraded on Aug. 22 Serves out subversion CVS. Software upgraded to CentOS 6.2. Changes will include running the latest version of Apache and subversion. This website currently runs virtually under courses.cs.vt.edu. I will move it to its own virtual server.

• www.cs.vt.edu - Upgraded on Aug. 23 Serves out the main CS website and Intranet website. Software upgraded to CentOS 6.2. Changes will include running the latest apache and PHP. Also, a development version of the website will be additionally hosted on this server for testing and upgrading. Some of the Intranet tools will need to be re-written to reflect changes in the Infrastructure.

• share.cs.vt.edu - Upgraded on Oct. 11 Serves out the share website which provides shared file services for CS groups. Software upgraded to CentOS 6.2. Changes will include running the latest version of Apache and WebDAV.

In Testing

The following servers are being set up and tested. If you have questions or want to help test, send email to carnold.

• ap1.cs.vt.edu - Provides remote login for CS faculty and staff. Server will be moved to be a virtual server. Software will be upgraded to CentOS 6.2. Will test running Samba on this server to provide file sharing that is now handled by staff-files.

• Enable IPv6 - Enable IPv6 on all major services.

To be Upgraded

The following servers are planned to be upgraded, but not set up or testing yet.