University of California, RiversideInformation Technology Leadership Council

September 2002

ACADEMIC COMPUTING AND COMPUTING SUPPORT SERVICES HIGHLIGHTS

Blackboard Usage (Campus Learning Management System) Continues to Increase

During the summer, all enrolled students had at least one class in Blackboard (the increase in courses with sites rose from four in 2001 to 71 in 2002, during the second summer session). Computer Science has also committed that all Fall Quarter CS courses will have Blackboard sites. Finally, C&C is upgrading its Blackboard server to a 4 processor SUN 480 with 16 GBs of RAM.

Webmail for Students now Deployed

C&C has deployed a new webmail service for students. The system is currently in production. The following notes pertain to the new service:

  1. The webmail product is fully functional (spell check, folders, filters, signature, etc.) and has an intuitive, easy to use interface.
  2. Students will received 25 MBs of disk space for mail (most internet providers -e.g., Hotmail- provide 2 MBs).
  3. The system has SERVER side virus checking (mail is checked for viruses BEFORE delivery to the desktop).
  4. The system will enable first.last capability for students (for example, a student could receive mail at john.smith@email.ucr.edu).
  5. The service will be offered to the campus within the next 12 months.
Please visit webmail.ucr.edu to view the UCR webmail login page.
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COMMUNICATIONS HIGHLIGHTS

UCR's Communications Worker Rate Methodology Implemented and in Production.

Based on the UCSD Communications Worker model, UCR has implemented a Communications Worker fee to recover network operations and renewal & replacement costs. C&C's Communications Worker fee (unlike UCSD's) does NOT recover costs associated with traditional voice services (dial tone, instruments, etc.). C&C has posted two journals to the general ledger and revenue is currently tracking to projections. The narrative supporting the methodology is posted at http://cnc.ucr.edu/communications/comm_narrative.pdf. Background, rates, and other information can be found at http://cnc.ucr.edu/communications/recharge_program.htm.

Packeteer Traffic Shaping System Installed; Cisco VPN Implementation Pending.

C&C has acquired and installed a Packeeter Traffic Shaping box. Please visit http://www.packeteer.com/. The unit will be used exclusively for dorm traffic and will help C&C appropriately allocate and manage bandwidth for some 5,000 student housing ports. C&C has also acquired (and will install shortly) a VPN server for campus-wide deployment. The unit will not only be utilized for off-campus (remote) secure connectivity, but for wireless authentication and security as well.

Go to Packeteer Traffic Shaping System

Alcatel Phone Switch Operational and Implementation Nearing Completion.

UCR's new Alcatel phone switch is now operational. C&C is supporting a mix of Alcatel digital phones, Mitel and Merlin "legacy" multi-line phones, and about 6,000 analog devices. C&C will upgrade the remaining campus voice infrastructure during the next four years with a mix of technologies depending on the emergence of computer telephony, IP video conferencing, etc. Currently, C&C and Alcatel (and Verizon, the implementation partner) are negotiating concerning final implementation issues and the reconciliation of "items delivered" versus "items bid". This was a huge, very difficult undertaking for C&C, Alcatel, and Verizon.

Intel Based Firewall Development Completed and Product Deployed.

C&C has completed development of an Intel / Linux firewall and has deployed it into UCR's production network. The firewall is designed to protect specific campus subnets with particularly important data / systems. C&C has also submitted a plan to Academic Planning and Budget that would allow C&C to hire an analyst on a fee-for-service basis to support the distributed firewall.

The department firewall hardware is a single-board computer in a rack-mount enclosure (850MHz. Intel CPU, 256Mb of memory, and four 10/100 interfaces). The hardware is using FreeBSD 4.6 as an OS, and is set up to be a bridging firewall. In this mode one ethernet interface is designated as unprotected, and another is the protected, or inside interface, and the two are joined by kernel code that looks at each incoming packet and compares it to rules that determined whether the packet is to be allowed through or not.

The rules are part of a package called IP filter, and provide much flexibility in constructing rules to meet the needs of individual departments. In general it is envisioned that all traffic will be allowed from a department out (to UCR's LAN or the internet), but much tighter restrictions will be used to examine and restrict incoming traffic.

The systems will also be built to be easy to manage and maintain. Methods will be in place to make rules easy to change and implement (with a way to quickly change back to the previous ruleset in case of disaster), and a change control system will track rule modifications. The operating system itself will also be tracked, so that security updates or significant OS releases can be easily implemented. Finally, there will be a way to monitor the firewalls to see number of packets dropped and other metrics so that baseline characteristics of each department firewall can be plotted.

New Residence Hall now On-Line.

The Pentland II Residence Hall is now On-Line. C&C has added an additional 700 10/100 ports. The total number of student 10/100 ports supported by C&C is now over 6,200.

Recruitment Underway for Network Security Analyst.

C&C is recruiting for a network security analyst. This position is in addition to the firewall analyst that will be hired on a fee-for-service basis.

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CENTER FOR VISUAL COMPUTING HIGHLIGHTS

CVC Completes Evaluation and Pilot Project for Content Management using Common Spot by Paperthin

C&C was unfortunately unable to obtain funding for a comprehensive, campus wide Content Management / Portal system. However, to support the campus "pilot" user communities (CHASS, VCA) C&C hopes to deploy the Common Spot system by PaperThin.

Go to Center for Visual Computing

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ADMINISTRATIVE COMPUTING HIGHLIGHTS

Planning Effort Continues: Options for SIS Upgrade / Replacement

C&C is co-chairing a group that will produce a document containing campus options for upgrading / replacing its Student Information System. A web page documenting this effort can be found at http://www.cnc.ucr.edu/sis/. The report is due to the Vice Chancellor of Student Affaires by January 31st, 2003.

Go to SIS Upgrade

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CLIENT SERVER COMPUTING HIGHLIGHTS

COEUS Project Underway

Development of UCR's Extramural Funds Management System is officially underway. A steering committee that will guide the project has been formed (with representation from Academic Planning and Budget, Accounting, the Office of Research Affaires, and C&C). The Office of Sponsored Projects is hosting a website relating to the project. Please visit http://www.ora.ucr.edu/coeus/default.htm. UCR's system will be built on the COEUS system developed at MIT.

Go to COEUS Project

PeopleSoft Month End Reports Available via the Web and Data Warehouse

Campus PeopleSoft users have always been able to run ANY financial system report (at any time) using the PeopleSoft desktop client application. C&C now runs selected "month end" reports and populates a web page with these reports. Since some of these reports can take a substantial amount of time to run, populating a web page with this output has proven to be extremely popular. The reports are available via the native PeopleSoft viewer or via PDF. The PDF output is produced via the SQR product (owned by BRIO). The pages themselves are created and populated by C&C code.

Planning Continues for a PeopleSoft 8.4 Deployment

Planning continues for the upgrade of the campus financial system to PeopleSoft 8.4. This will represent a huge change for the campus (and C&C) since the 8.4 product is completely web enabled and C&C has some 400 users of various C&C developed PeopleSoft fat client applications.

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MEDIA RESOURCES HIGHLIGHTS

C&C Completes Third Year of Classroom Technology Upgrade Project

C&C has completed the third year of the campus Classroom Technology Upgrade effort. Faculty response to this effort has been positive. C&C plans to implement a faculty survey to measure the project's success. The survey will help determine if the classroom technology upgrade is enhancing instructional effectiveness and whether or not UCR's faculty are using the technology on "self service" basis.

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MICROCOMPUTER SUPPORT GROUP

C&C to Emphasize Mobile, Distributed Video Conferencing

Due to many factors, including the loss of funding, C&C is attempting to de-emphasize the use of the campus central video teleconferencing facility. Instead, C&C will be promoting mobile, IP based video conferencing. Several faculty will conduct "in office" video conferences (using Polycom units) during the fall quarter.

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STUDENT COMPUTING SUPPORT GROUP

Computing and Communications to Receive Funding for Public Microcomputer Facilities

C&C has been awarded $320,000 over four years to renew and replace hardware and software in the campus public microcomputer facilities. Please visit http://scs.ucr.edu/ for an overview of UCR's public microcomputer facilities.

Go to Student Computing Services

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