May 18th, 2001 by Dana Roode
For over 10 years NACS Distributed Computing Support (DCS) Group has provided professional system administration services to the UCI campus for UNIX (and to a lesser extent Windows).
Computer system administration generally refers to the maintenance of a reliable and secure computing environment. DCS has recruited, trained, and maintained a dedicated support staff alleviating individuals and workgroups of this burden and some of the associated costs.
DCS relies heavily on the use of automation and standard client hardware configurations. DCS is also responsible for maintaining DCSLib, an extensive software library.
DCS currently supports 300 systems in virtually every academic school and department, but the heaviest demand comes from the School of Physical Sciences, the College of Medicine, and the Henry Samueli School of Engineering. Over the past 5 years the number of DCS contracts has increased approximately 6 % per year.
More information on DCS services can be found at http://www.nacs.uci.edu/support/unix.html. If you would like to discuss support of your system, please contact NACS.
September 29th, 2000 by Isaac Straley
NACS Distributed Computing Support has developed software to improve campus computer security.
In the same way a night watchman proceeds through a building, turning doorknobs to check that they’re locked, hackers scan the network looking for open ports on computers. The new NACS system collects and analyzes information from UCI Unix and Linux computers to check for activity indicative of possible misuse or attempted misuse.
This system is modeled on security features integral to Linux, and delivered to other Unix systems on campus through NACS’s autoinstall software. It depends on modified network applications (such as telnet and ftp) which are often used for compromising system security. These modified applications report to NACS’s logging system whenever they are used. Certain patterns of use are clues that a particular system may need attention.
Intrusion efforts which can be caught by this system range from the simple-minded (probing for improperly secured network ports) to some very sophisticated kinds of attacks (e.g., “buffer overflow” exploits). While the only way to guarantee a computer is safe from network-based attacks is to remove it from the network, this new system represents another way NACS is making it harder to cause harm to UCI computers.
August 17th, 2000 by Dana Roode
NACS/DCS provides Unix and Linux system administration services to the campus on a contractual basis. DCS uses a Unix/Linux system administration technique called “autoinstalling” to help keep quality high and costs low relative to the industry norm.
While autoinstalling requires system administrators to spend a little more time planning and executing initial system configuration, many later tasks become much easier, such as operating system updates (including security patches). Autoinstalling also preserves a lot of information about how customers prefer their machines to be configured.
The most recent versions of Unix/Linux currently configured for use with DCS’s autoinstall procedures are Solaris 8, Redhat 6.2, Irix 6.5.6, and Tru64 4.0g.
If you would like to evaluate contract support with DCS for a Unix or Linux machine, please contact dcs@uci.edu or call 824-6854. Additional information is available on line at http://www.nacs.uci.edu/support/dcs/sysadmin.html
April 30th, 1999 by Dana Roode
UCI System Administrators have been busy getting ready for year 2000 (Y2K) and the associated software “bugs” we have all been hearing about in the media. NACS’ Distributed Computing Support (DCS) group is no exception.
DCS has reviewed the 260+ UNIX systems and servers it supports and has identified those that are not considered “Y2K compliant” by their Operating System (OS) vendors. Approximately one-third of DCS-supported systems still require an OS upgrade to make them Y2K compliant (about 30 others have been upgraded in recent months). It is hard to say whether or not an upgrade of a given system is absolutely required, as some Y2K problems have limited impact and may not affect a work-group’s particular use. However, vendors make no promises unless compliant software versions are installed.
Systems running Digital UNIX (DU) 4.0d, DU 4.0e, Irix 6.5.3, Red Hat Intel Linux 5.1, Solaris 2.6, or Solaris 7 are compliant. DU 4.0d and Solaris 2.6 are compliant with the patches that DCS has already applied. DCS is working on upgrading systems running other OS versions, but it is a large task that DCS will be busy with for the rest of the year or longer. If you are the owner of a system that needs to be upgraded, you may contact DCS to review your upgrade schedule.
In addition to Y2K issues in operating systems, application software that is important to end-users must be checked for Y2K compliance. Contact your software vendor for more information, or DCS for general advice.
For more information on Y2K efforts, contact DCS (DCS@UCI.EDU), or see:
http://www.nacs.uci.edu/support/sysadmin/Y2K/