The upgrade of iPlanet messaging server to version 5.2p1 in MEMO is necessary is order to stay current with product fixes and to provide new or improved functionality. This is a major upgrade involving changing the Mail Transport Agent (MTA) from UNIX SMTP to one similar to PMDF.

New functionality includes the “true forwarding”, personal address books for Web MEMO, and better SSL integration.

Project Timeframe: November 2002 – March 2003

Project Manager: Tracy Holt (holt@gmu.edu)

PBX Upgrade

The PBX at the Fairfax campus was upgraded in December 2002, over the holiday break. The purpose of the major upgrade was to provide expansion capacity to allow for future growth on the campus including Innovation Hall and Housing V, and to upgrade the internal transport media from 25 pair cable to fiber optics. Due to the complexity of this upgrade, the entire phone system was inoperable for a period of time during the holiday break.

Project Managers: Planning for alternative communications services for critical units during the outage period was handled by Doris Rollins (drollins@gmu.edu) and technical planning was handled jointly by Doris Rollins and John Hanks (jhanks@gmu.edu).

Mason Cluster Upgrade

During the holiday break, the mason cluster, consisting of a Compaq 4100 Alpha Server (osf1) and a Compaq 2100 Alpha Server (mason2) were replaced with a new more capable Compaq (HP) ES45 Alpha Server. The computational capacity of the new server is four (4) times that of the two older servers combined. In addition to improved performance, the university will realize significant cost savings in support maintenance by retiring the two older servers.

Project Timeframe: Summer 2002 – January 2003

Project Manager: Richard Jackson (rjackson@gmu.edu)

Octel Upgrade and Move

The Octel voice mail system underwent a major upgrade from analog technology, to digital technology in November 2002. The purpose of this upgrade was so that the university could take advantage of more reliable technology and put in place a platform that can take advantage of enhancements not available with the old analog technology. Over the Thanksgiving break in November 2002, the system was physically relocated from Thompson Hall to Harris Theatre, collocating this system with the PBX. Because the systems are close together, we were able to discontinue the use of the modems that had connected the Octel with the PBX in the past.

Project Manager: Carolyn Combs (ccombs1@gmu.edu)

Current Projects

WebCT Server/Application Upgrade

WebCT, our course management and online delivery tool, changed its licensing structure, and Mason had to upgrade to Campus Edition 3.8 in order to continue receiving technical support from WebCT. This software upgrade necessitated a server upgrade to handle the new version. A Sun Solaris server was purchased, and the license agreement for the new version has been negotiated. Version 3.8 CE will be ready for testing and use in May, with a full rollout planned for the Fall semester. New training materials will be purchased in part from WebCT and produced in part by staff and students in the IRC. Faculty using WebCT have been alerted to the change, and an intensive workshop series to reorient faculty is planned for mid- to late-July, with additional workshops offered during BYTE Week. The ITU team involved in the project: Jerry Drake (IRC coordinator of WebCT), Richard Jackson (TSD Systems Engineer), Stephen Maltman (TSD Application Integration), and Ron Hull (ASD Procurement).

Project Manager: Jerry Drake (gdrake@gmu.edu).

Alumni Mail Forwarding Application

The business objective of this project is to offer alumni the capability to create a “GMU” e-mail account and have that e-mail forwarded to a service provider of their choice. This feature is intended to facilitate and retain links from the University to alumni and build affinity for the University over time through the use of a “GMU” e-mail account.

Technically, the functionality will be contained in the existing “Alumni Directory” application. The current application is a Cold Fusion application which will be modified to allow registered alumni to create their own e-mail aliases. The project is estimated to take approximately 3 months to complete and is scheduled to commence in July.

Project Timeframe:  Available August 2003

Project Manager:  John Creuziger   (jcreuzig@gmu.edu)

Installation and implementation of the new database server for the Banner Administrative System

The Technology Systems Division is currently implementing a new technology database server that will eventually host the production Banner ERP system including Finance, Human Resources, and the Student Information System.

The system consists of a Sun Fire 6800 Mid-Frame processor with 12 CPUs (1.05 GHz processor speed), 48 GB of memory, 4-436 GB storage arrays using RAID 0+1 technology, a robotic tape library system, Oracle 9i DBMS, and SCT Banner applications software. The system is scalable to 24 CPUs and 192 GB of memory.

Project Timeframe: February – April 2003

Project Manager: Bob Peraino (peraino@gmu.edu)

Installation of new LISTSERV application

LISTSERV allows users to create and maintain e-mail lists. Newsletters, moderated and non-moderated discussion groups are supported. List sizes can range from a few participants in a discussion group to several million in a newsletter. LISTSERV will replace our current mailing list application called LISTPROC.

LISTSERV^® Facts and Features

	Customizable Web Interface: Fully customizable Web interface for site administrators, list owners and list subscribers.
	Virus Protection: The integrated F-Secure Anti-Virus system effectively shields lists from harmful computer viruses.
	Personalization: Allows targeted, personalized e-mail messaging when combined with our LSMTP^® product.
	Database Connectivity: Connects with ODBC-compliant (Windows 2000/NT) databases; Microsoft SQL Server; IBM DB2 databases on the AIX operating system; and ORACLE^® via the OCI interface.
	Moderation: Supports discussion groups with different levels of moderation. The moderation interface allows editors to view messages and any attachments in the browser window before approving delivery.
	Attachments: Allows list owners to determine which types of attachments should be allowed, filtered and denied.
	Content Filter: Can be configured by the list owner to automatically reject messages with certain unwanted or inappropriate content from getting posted to a list.
	Searchable Web Archives: Comprehensive archives of postings. The improved engine can search multiple list archives simultaneously. Subscriber access can be restricted and protected by password.
	Bounce Handling: Automatically takes care of all undeliverable e-mail messages or bounces.
	Security: Comprehensive list security options. Lists can be completely open to the public or closed so that only the list owner can add subscribers.
	Spam Filter: Shields LISTSERV lists from unsolicited bulk e-mail.
	Message Format: Supports both HTML and text format.
	Subscriptions: Automatic opt-in or double opt-in subscription options. Automatic subscription confirmation and welcome messages.
	Subscription Modes: Supports Digest/Index/NOMAIL subscription modes.

Project Timeframe: February – April 2003

Project Manager: Tracy Holt (holt@gmu.edu)

Projects Planned for Summer/Fall:

Network Projects

Commerce LAN Upgrade

The Commerce I and II buildings in downtown Fairfax are being equipped with some of the latest network switching equipment, to boost the performance of their local area network. Most workstations in the buildings are currently connected to shared 10BaseT hubs; the upgrade will convert them to dedicated 10Mbit switched connections, with up to 100Mbit capacity available for server ports.

Project Timeframe: June 2003.

Project Manager: Dan Veloce (dveloce@gmu.edu)

Commerce MAN Connection Upgrade

The Commerce buildings connect to the main campus via three T1’s, for a total available bandwidth of 4.5Mbits per second. These lines are slated to be replaced with a “Transparent LAN Service” (TLS) from Verizon. This will increase the available capacity to 10Mbits per second in both directions.

Project Timeframe: July 2003.

Project Manager: Randy Anderson (randers4@gmu.edu)

Housing V “Liberty Square”

The new residence halls being built next to President’s Park require data, voice, and video connections to the rest of the campus. ITU Network Engineering is working with the contractors to make sure the circuits are properly designed, installed and tested prior to the scheduled opening.

Project Timeframe: August 2003

Project Manager (interim): John Hanks (jhanks@gmu.edu)

Residence Network Internet Upgrade

The student residence halls are wired as a separate network, tied into Mason’s campus core through a controlled connection. Since the students consume a substantial portion of the University’s total Internet bandwidth (approximately 30 to 40 percent), NET is planning to move the dorm network to a separate dedicated Internet circuit before the students return this Fall. Though we will keep bandwidth limits in place, the total capacity available to the students will more than double. This will free up additional resources on the main campus link, providing better availability to campus business servers and enabling us to allocate more capacity to Internet2 and other research networks.

Project Timeframe: August 2003.

Project Manager (interim): R. Anderson (randers4@gmu.edu)

MESA Enterprise Server Core Security

The Mason Enterprise Security Architecture (MESA) project involves several ITU departments. Network Engineering and Technology is working closely with DOIT LAN/Desktop Support and TSD Enterprise Servers and Operations to design and install a secure, highly available network core to protect the University’s critical administrative servers. One component of this project is the installation of Mason’s second enterprise firewall system, approximately one year after the installation of the Banner firewall. Expected completion date has not yet been established, but the first phase is targeted to be operational in June 2003.

Project Timeframe: June 2003

Project Manager: J. Hanks (jhanks@gmu.edu)

Wireless Network Management System

The Gartner Group is predicting that the number of wireless LAN users will increase by more than seven times over the next four years. A few departments at Mason have installed their own wireless access points, but to date the only ITU-supported wireless access is in the Johnson Center. Network Engineering and Technology is evaluating three competing Gateway products that would enable us to support secure, convenient “Wi-Fi” access at multiple locations. Our goal is to select a product that is easy to manage, and can help to secure public DHCP-enabled jacks as well as wireless access points. Users would authenticate with the same user id and password they use for the primary Mason systems. Initial deployment will be at Innovation Hall.

Project Timeframe: August 2003.

Project Manager (interim): R. Anderson (randers4@gmu.edu)

Data Center Projects

Server Consolidation (mail01 & portal)

The objectives of this project are as follows:

Retirement of the server ‘portal’, which is at the end of its lifecycle
Consolidation of servers and associated applications

Move mail stores from ‘mail01’ and distribute them on ‘mail02’ or ‘mail03’.
Move ‘portal’ functions including mail routing (alias), primary Domain Name Service (DNS), Network Time Protocol (NTP), and NEWS to server ‘mail01’.
Retire LISTPROC (replace with LISTSERV)
Move LISTSERV application from server ‘mail04’ to server ‘mail01’
Server ‘mail01’ will continue to support the primary directory (LDAP) and the enterprise calendar server.

Project Timeframe: May – August 2003

Project Manager: Richard Jackson (rjackson@gmu.edu)

Remote Disaster Recovery Site

This is a long-term project aimed at providing an off-site disaster recovery facility, which will initially house servers supporting critical Banner administrative functions. The off-site facility will be located in room 354 of the Prince William IIIa building, which is scheduled for occupancy in the spring of 2004. A short-term off-site disaster recovery facility may be located in Science & Tech I or Innovation Hall.

The concept of operation is as follows:

Proposed server hardware includes a Sun Fire V880 database server, Sun Fire 280R web server (self-service), and a Dell 2650 server for Internet Native Banner and eprint access.
Asynchronous and/or synchronous replication of the Banner Production ORACLE Database for Finance, Human Resources, and the Student Information System.
Gigabit network connectivity

Project Timeframe: on-going

Project Manager: Ron Secrest (rsecrest@gmu.edu)

Production Data Mart Server for Banner

This project involves the acquisition, installation, and implementation of a new, robust, scalable Data Mart Server for Banner Finance, Human Resources, and Student. The server will likely be a Sun Fire V880 with internal “Fibre” Channel disk storage, and an external storage array. The Data Mart will use an Oracle DBMS.

Project Timeframe: Summer/Fall 2003

Project Manager: Not assigned

Innovation Hall Projects

Innovation Hall Network Core

ITU NET will be installing a new Fairfax campus networking core in Innovation Hall next month. This equipment will act as a central voice and data connection point for Innovation Hall and future buildings planned for the SouthWest quadrant of the main campus. A substantial amount of planning, equipment reconfiguration, and fiber path construction was required to expand our core network architecture to incorporate the new facility, but once it is operational it should improve overall data network availability due to the addition of several redundant paths. (Details to be shown in the Network Evolution presentation.)

Project Timeframe: June 1, 2003.

Project Manager: J. Hanks (jhanks@gmu.edu)

Moving DoIT to Innovation Hall

Many of the DoIT functional areas are moving to Innovation Hall this year. The planning for the move, which includes moving the DoIT Executive Director, Client Services (Telecom Admin and the ITU Support Center), Classroom Technologies (Electronic Classrooms), Learning Support Services (Instructional Resource Center), and GMU-TV, has been underway since November 2002. The purpose for the move committee is to organize, coordinate and see through the successful move of staff and facilities to Innovation Hall, with minimal disruption to our customers. The Innovation Hall Move Planning Committee is comprised of three sub groups; Communications/Administrative, Logistics/Physical, and Technical groups. The Communications/Admin group is handling publicizing the move, arranging building tours, changes to the telephone directories, business cards, mail stop changes, and so on. The Logistics/Physical group is coordinating the move schedule for the units going in to Innovation Hall, working with Facilities Planning, Space Management, Physical Plant and other university departments to ensure all details of the move are coordinated. The Technical group is focused on the hardware and infrastructure issues with the building. The move is tentatively scheduled to start towards the end of May 2003, with all of all of the areas moved in by early August. Classes are scheduled for Fall 2003. More information is available through the Innovation Hall web site (itu.gmu.edu/innovationhall/)

Project Timeframe: Fall 2003

Project Manager: Ann Genovese (agenoves@gmu.edu)

New Video Conferencing Systems

With the start of the Fall 2003 semester, George Mason will dramatically increase its video conferencing and distance education capabilities with the completion of two projects. At the Fairfax Campus, Innovation Hall will contain four Tandberg video conferencing systems that will be integrated into rooms 103, 131, 132 and 133. These systems will be controlled through the Crestron touch panels and will require a minimum of effort on the part of the instructor. The support staff will be able to manage the systems through a high-speed video network, decreasing the amount of onsite support required for conferences.

Additionally, the ITU is upgrading 4 existing videoconferencing facilities across the University. Identical Tandberg systems will be installed in a room outside Innovation Hall at the Fairfax Campus, as well as 2 rooms at the Prince William Campus and one room at the Arlington Campus. Together, these 8 new systems will allow additional distance education opportunities, as well as the ability to conduct meetings across campuses. One example of this usage would be the monthly Telecom Coordinator’s meeting, Coordinators at the Prince William and Arlington Campuses will be able to participate remotely. We expect this equipment to be fully operational by the end of the summer.

Project Timeframe: End of summer

Project Manager: Kathy Bohnstedt

Other Projects

Upgrade PBX with ANI/Caller ID

The resident students have requested the caller ID feature for their phones in the residence halls for many years. The purpose of Caller ID is to allow the resident students to see the phone number that is calling, through a visual display on the student’s phone set. This summer, we will be installing Automatic Number Identification (ANI – caller ID) software in the PBX, which will provide caller ID functionality to the resident hall phones.

Project Manager: Doris Rollins (drollins@gmu.edu)

DocuShare Upgrade

The purpose behind the upgrade of the DocuShare product is to take advantage of financial incentives offered by the vendor, Xerox, and to provide our users with the latest features and facilities offer within the product. With the vendor planning to drop maintenance support for our current release in March, 2004, they offered us a 70% discount on the product upgrade price, $13,500 in additional features, and a reduction in our first year maintenance contact as incentives to upgrade now. Our total savings in this effort amount to $28,802. Couple that with the $13,500 in additional features and our total savings amount to $42,300.00. In addition to the savings, the new release provides us better web access, eliminates the need for any client software, and provides us with document routing and workflow capability. Also include in the new release is support for LDAP authentication. Although we will not use this immediately, this feature lays the ground work for meeting our long term goal of using LDAP authentication within the new GMU LAN architecture.

Project Manager: Charlie Hofmann (chofmann@gmu.edu)

Future Projects

Moving to SecureShell on osf1 (a.k.a Mason cluster)

Removal of Telnet and FTP from the osf1 server, to ensure remote access is conducted via an encrypted link, is slated for January 2004. SSH Secure Shell (which includes Secure FTP) is a replacement for both Telnet and FTP. SSH provides for an encrypted link between client and server computers, and should be used anytime data is transferred, especially when it is of a sensitive nature. Many Universities are making the move to finally replace Telnet and FTP. Windows desktop users can download SecureShell client for free from the ITU Support website. MacIntosh Users: OSX uses Secure Shell (SSH) transactions by default for incoming remote access. For outgoing use, Classic and OSX Macusers can download MacSSH and MacSFTP for free.

Project Timeframe: Target January 2004 to turn off the telnet and ftp services.

Project Manager: Cathy Hubbs (chubbs@gmu.edu)

For information please contact:

Walt Sevon, wsevon@gmu.edu

(703) 993-3548

For updates please contact:

Ginnie Mahoney, vmahoney@gmu.edu

(703) 993-3401