RESUME / CONTACT

RESEARCH

TEACHING

RESIDENCE LIFE

STUDENT ORGS.

HOBBIES & INTERESTS

PROJECTS
. . Small Lab Server
. . Kitchen Floor Tiling
. . Odyssey of the Mind

PROF. SOCIETIES,
AFFILIATIONS
& LINKS

DOWNLOADS

DOCUMENT INDEX

WHAT'S NEW?

As with any reasearch organization, the creation, analysis, and sharing of data is critical to successful operations. In 1998, data recorded and analyzed--along with papers and presentations--was stored on individual computers and disks in my research lab. Running on a Pentium II, the first "server" was a collection of 10-15 shared folders (with random passwords) running on Wondows98. This setup, implemented around 2000, was fundamentally not very secure and was prone to problems, even though it functioned only as a simple file server. Continuous service periods (known as "uptimes") were okay (for us), but seldom longer than 5 weeks.

The first "server" was quickly being outgrown in both size, and user-handling capabilities. With the growth of Linux and a project called "SAMBA", an alternative presented itself. A unix-like server could be built which would be far more secure and stable, and probably easier to administrate. Inital server and policy setup and testing took many months (most during 2002, simultaneoulsy with my Ph.D.), requiring independant study of Linux, Samba, and security policy as I went along. My best friends during this time were many web resources, "How-to"s, and a couple hardcopy references.

In late 2002 the new server went live and by February 2003, all users and their research projects had been transferred to the new server. These efforts yielded a very reliable, stable, and secure system which runs for months without hardware or software issue. (User issues are slightly less infrequent, though.)

The hardware for the Micro-Chemical Systems and Chemical Vapor Deposition lab server is an older Proliant 6500 system with 4 200MHz PentiumPro processors. The operating system is Redhat Linux/GNU 9, with SAMBA running as the Primary Domain Controller (PDC) and file server. All user/project data is stored on a hardware RAID 5 array in an external drive cage. All system hardware and facets are either duplicated or fault tolerant. The only weakness is the building power, failure of which would create much higher priority issues.