With the summer term bringing with it MSc and undergraduate projects, some improvements have been made:
RStudio server on apollo: the Rstudio server on the Stats MSc compute server apollo was upgraded to the latest available version on Thursday June 23rd to resolve a bug where the R plot() function produced no output.
Huxley server room expansion: it has been clear for some time now that space is running out in the Huxley 616 server room owing to the continual influx of more systems, many of which are larger power-hungry units that create yet more heat in the room. All 5 racks are pretty much full now, with the two sets of shelving bays full of tower and micro-tower servers. We are looking at ways of either expanding the room or possibly establishing a second server room nearby containing 2 or even 3 racks.
Huxley 616 network management improvements: although capable of remote network management, most of the older network switches on the internal LANs (local area networks) in Huxley 616 are not actually attached to any management network. This because for security reasons it is undesirable to mix a management subnet with user subnets that may be carrying sensitive or confidential data over the LANs they are installed on. We are now gradually replacing these older switches with newer ones whose firmware allows the switch management interfaces to be configured to attach to a specific VLAN (virtual LAN) instead of globally on the default VLAN used by all ports. Using this feature, one port on the switch can be dedicated to use this specific VLAN only, effectively isolating it from all the other ports and their associated networks, with this port be connected to the Huxley 616 management LAN. To date, all but two switches have been upgraded with the older units being redeployed to the management network itself where isolation between switch management and the connected network is not required.