Les Cottrell's ESCC Sep '95 Trip Report

• ESnet is running two WWW servers on DEC AXP 600s. They share the same files via AFS. They are also using the Harvest indexer to facilitate searches for information. The older WAIS indexer is to be retired.
• ESnet is using a new trouble ticket system based on the commercial Remedy Action Request System.
• The uncertainty of a possible move of NERSC/ESnet from LLNL to LBNL is affecting morale. Three people have already bailed from the ESnet group and have not been replaced. They went to Sun, Microsoft and a bike company and got substantial increases in salary.
• The take over of many regional networks such as BARRNET by commercial firms such as BBN is resulting in dramatic increases in connection costs. Apparently LBNL was quoted something over $200K/year. This could cause the labs with both ESnet and regional connections to drop the regional connections. This in turn could increase ESnet traffic and also degrade connections to the universities.
• For the future we (ESnet managers and users) need to worry about:
  • effective congestion control and traffic management
  • availability of good network management tools etc
  • untested and very complex emerging standards
  • how to "firewall" ATM access
  • appropriate usage policies.
• Chris Dorsey of ESnet reported on their network monitoring. It has many similarities to the SLAC system, though it is aimed at the wide area network routers in ESnet. Early on in their development, they visited SLAC and discussed with Connie Logg and me what we were doing. They are collecting the data (7GB/month) into an Oracle database, and using Wingz for the data presentation. They have put a lot of effort into ensuring the integrity of the data. For the future they are looking at how to monitor the ATM virtual circuits, making the procedures more automated, increasing the use of the reports for trouble shooting, and generating new reports.
• ESnet, BNL, and LANL and ORNL are all using Cabletron's Spectrum Network Monitoring Platform. Both ESnet and BNL are new converts. Though expensive, it is highly regarded; in particular, it appears to have some powerful thresholding analysis tools and distributed monitoring support.
• Sites are encouraged to upgrade to their WAN DECnet systems to tunnel DECnet over IP by April '96. The existing ESnet DECnet network should be maintained at its current level of service through April '96, and at its current level of connectivity through April '97. After April '97, there are no plans for continued ESnet DECnet support.
• The .gov domain will be reserved for Federal government agencies in the future. The labs are grandfathered in .gov. However, any new requests for domain names from the labs (e.g. for .lbnl.) will not be accepted into .gov. The most likely place to move to would be .org. SLAC is not affected since we chose to be under slac.stanford.edu. The impact of such a change (.gov --> .org) on converting all the mailing addresses, etc. would be large. A task force was created to identify the impact of such a change on both technical and functional areas.
• GSA is pushing a government wide e-mail system. This looks to be based on an X.400 system (DMS) developed for the defense program. It has lots of security and the developers included Microsoft and Novell. More information can be found elsewhere. It will interwork with SMTP/MIME mail through gateways. Even if we as labs, do not move to DMS we will need to interwork so the ESCC will look at getting the DMS people together with ESnet representatives to identify joint requirements for interworking.
• ORNL have developed a system, called FaME, to provide a Web interface to their legacy financial databases. It provides password and domain restrictions in an hierarchical tree.

DOE Updates

There is a Federal Network Internet Security Plan being worked on to provide guidelines for agencies on how to implement security. Look under the federal networking council's home page for more information. Apparently people like Netscape are looking at integrating Email with the Web, in order to provide a platform independent Email system. There appears to be a real need for a powerful (smart browser, keyword searches, filtering, identification of important vs junk, handles enclosures) client that is easy to use, runs on all platforms etc. The DCCC wants to create an Email requirements document.

There is concern about the duplicate wide area networks being built in DOE. DOE is putting together a departmental group to look at this. The charter is being worked on.

Distributed Informatic Collaborative Computing Environment (DICCE)

One topic not well represented in the DICCE proposals was for common Mac, PC and Unix MBONE conferencing tools.

DCCE Highlights

There is considerable interest in the electronic logbook. Some of the concerns are timestamping, and legal (e.g. Patent issues). Baylor has an X platform notebook. Deb Argarwal of LBL seems to have done quite a lot in this area. There was interest in a possible workshop to hammer out requirements for this broad, complex subject, plus a speaker for the next DCCC on this.

There is also interest in resource discovery, and a call for a workshop and speaker for this, maybe coordinated with something on CORBA.