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As part of the Scientific Facilities Initiative, a replacement program for all the beam line computers was initiated. After thorough evaluation of options, the choice was made to procure DEC Alpha computers and to replace the existing DSP CAMAC controllers with Kinetic Systems Grand Interconnect controllers. SSRL has purchased 14 computers and controllers in the first phase of this upgrade. Coupled to these purchases has been the development of a new low-level beam-line control and data acquisition software system. A staggered hardware and software implementation will take place at the beginning of the November 1997 run.
The decision was furthermore made to equip the beam lines with additional computer capability in the form of X-terminals, configured to enable access to a large number of computers labwide. Currently, 12 X-terminals have been installed on beamlines and in the new user computer area upstairs in Building 131. The new user computer area is also equipped with a PC running Windows NT 4.0 and a laser printer.
The Alphaserver 2100 (the new "SSRL" central computer) was fully commissioned in 1996, including database moves and application porting, getting RZ20 firmware upgraded, and setting up RAID sets for high reliability disk storage. As part of the conversion to the Alphaserver SSRL, SSRL01 and SSRL04 were clustered.
In response to a call from SSRLUO to make more of the user administrative process electronically based, SSRL's World Wide Web server was rehosted on the much-faster AlphaServer. Common Gateway Interface (CGI), a way to enhance World Wide Web communications, mail-to, and forms support have subsequently been implemented, allowing users to enter form responses over the net. Beamtime scheduling information was made automatically available over the WWW as well.
The Scientific Facilities Initiative, with additional funding from the DOE Office of Biological and Environmental Research, has also enabled a major upgrade of the SSRL lab wide computer network. The technical solution was defined, hardware procured and installation begun in 1996. The project will extend into 1998, but major milestones have already been achieved.
Cable Infrastructure. There were four major areas of improvements in the cable infrastructure; first 300 MHz CAT-5 cables and then fiber optics cables were installed throughout the SSRL area. The CAT-5 cables were terminated and certified to pass all 100 MHz certification tests. The fiber optics cables were installed by the network group, but were terminated by an outside company (All Systems). In preparation for the cable infrastructure, several wiring closets throughout the SSRL lab had to be created and refurbished. These closets were fitted with equipment racks, cable management devices and AC power. Several cable raceways were installed at various locations through the SSRL laboratory.
Equipment Installation. In the area of equipment improvements, the most important part was the installation of several Cisco Catalyst switches and 10BaseT hubs. The Catalyst switches were used to allocate single collision domains to devices that use network intensive applications, and to crate controllers that are critical to the operation of the accelerator. Providing each crate controller with its own switched port is necessary to avoid potential problems created by a faulty device in the same collision domain. The shared 10BaseT hubs were used to create small share domains in areas that do not have switched Ethernet resources.
The SSRL router was also connected to the SLAC FDDI ring, providing a fast communication link to the Wide Area Network (WAN).
In order to manage the switched networks, a software package called "Cisco Works for Windows" was installed. This package allows all areas of the switched network to be managed and configured. To manage the Legacy networks, a variety of Ether meters located at strategic areas of each shared LAN are being used.
The benefits of the above mentioned improvements can be appreciated and summarized as follows: Central wiring closets provide an easy way to troubleshoot problems, therefore allowing technicians to quickly attend to trouble calls and new installation requests. Ethernet traffic congestion areas have been alleviated by the installation of Catalyst switches, allowing the users and staff to transfer files at a fast rate with no restrictions regardless of time of day or size of the files. The SSRL networking group has a variety of spare parts and adapters to help the staff and users to connect their various computers and lap tops to the new upgraded network.
As part of the network upgrade we are working on purchasing a Cisco Catalyst 5500. This Network switch will replace the existing Network Backbone Switch Catalyst 5000. The Catalyst 5500 will allow us to accommodate for the growth of the SSRL network. It will also increase the switching Backbone engine's bandwidth from 1.2 Giga bps to 3.6 Giga bps. The Catalyst Switch 5500 will support various Network technologies such as Conventional Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, Ether channel and ATM.
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