The Identity Management Team will perform a planned upgrade to equipment that front ends our services (the enterprise directory, authentication systems, phonebook, etc).  This is a security upgrade and will be done at 4pm, Friday March 13. The outage window is 30 minutes or less.  Anyone already logged into a lab system will not be impacted.

From approximately 7:30am through 9:00am March 5, a problem at Google resulted in authentication failures when Lab users attempted to use any of our Marketplace Apps (Lucidchart, Smartsheet, GQueues . etc).

This issue is resolved.

Prior details:

Smartsheet is currently experiencing an issue which prevents users from logging in.  More at:

http://status.smartsheet.com/

Working at the ALS generates huge amounts of data, and for many years this has caused users to have to carry hard drives and USB drives between the ALS and their home institutions for acquisition and analysis of experimental data. To avoid the physical transport of data and to make real-time analysis possible, staff at the ALS, ESnet, and Berkeley Lab's IT  Division have collaborated to implement several best practices that allow the fast and secure transfer of data over the network to a users home institution. A case study, performed by ESNet, highlights the work of IT Division staff, Susan James, Yong Qin, and Karen Fernsler to build the Data Transfer Node and 10GBE network, integrate it with the data acquisition system and implement the Globus Online data transfer tools. The end result shows the improved  workflow and data export for the x-ray tomography beamline.

Setting Up and Implementing Network Data Transfer

For researchers planning to use network data transfer, the following resources are available for assistance in setting up and implementing the workflow:

• To speak with a beamline scientist who has implemented the tools described below, contact Dula Parkinson.
• To obtain and use the best equipment to build a Data Transfer Node (DTN) or for software tools such as Globus Online, contact the High Performance Computing Services Group by sending email to [email protected]
• To connect your beamline to the Lab’s fast ScienceDMZ network, or to debug networking issues at LBNL, contact [email protected]
• To debug national network issues, or to find contact information for offsite campus or IT groups, contact [email protected]

 To Achieve Faster Data Transfer

There are three main points for users and system administrators to consider:

1) Using the right file transfer tools

 Instead of FTP or scp, use tools that have been designed specifically for high-speed data transfer. We recommendGridFTP or Globus Online. GridFTP is good if you want to automate transfers, but requires significant setup. Globus Online has a graphical user interface and is easy to use. Using a fast transfer tool is the simplest thing you can do to increase data transfer speeds. LBNL extensively uses both of these transfer tools and provides an overview from the 2014 LabTech workshop, with information on how to get additional help.

 2) Using capable file transfer servers

 Data can only be transferred as fast as it can be read from the source disk and written to the destination disk. Most systems aren’t tuned for high speed data transfer out of the box. Systems tuned for high speed data transfer are called Data Transfer Nodes (DTNs). Beamline 8.3.2 has recently implemented such a DTN based on the reference specification provided by ESnet, which, along with a new network designed by ESnet and LBLnet, has resulted in a more than 10-fold improvement in data transfer speeds.

 3) Ensuring that the end-to-end network isn’t the bottleneck

 If you are using fast data transfer tools between two fast data transfer nodes, the final thing to ensure is that the end-to-end network is not impeding the transfer. This becomes even more important over long distances. The need to resend just a small amount of data can dramatically increase transfer times. Unfortunately, this can also be the most complicated area to understand and correct. There are three main areas to consider:

Use capable network switches
For big, long distance data transfers, packet loss is a significant problem. Network switches (sometimes called hubs) are a notorious cause of retransmitted data. This can happen when there are several network connections on one side of the switch that share a single connection on the other side. In this case it’s important to have switches with enough memory to store packets from one connection long enough to allow the packets from other connections to move through the switch.  LBNL or home institution networking professionals can recommend good switches for your environment and scientific application.

 Avoid firewalls

Firewalls are a common device used to secure networks. Because they generally look at every packet that flows through them, they can create bottlenecks for big science data transfers. There is a secure, alternate approach to using firewalls commonly referred as the ScienceDMZ. It works by establishing a fast, dedicated, but secure path around the firewall. You’ll generally need one at both facilities you are transferring data between. LBNL personnel can help you use the lab’s ScienceDMZ. ESnet personnel may also be able to provide some help implementing a ScienceDMZ at your home institution. See the help contacts above.

Use a "healthy" network path
It is extremely difficult to know which network path your data is taking between LBNL and your home institution and/or whether that path is "healthy." This issue is best left to the networking professionals (see above) after ensuring that all of the critical items above are not the problem (good data transfer tools and nodes, good switches and no firewalls). While network debugging is beyond the scope of this brief article, one of the tools ESnet finds indispensable in network path analysis is perfSONAR.

Involve Your Local Experts!

 If Network Data Transfer would significantly increase your productivity but you don't run your data servers yourself, please get your system and network administrators involved in the process.

Unscheduled outage resulting from power-related problem on Feb 27, 2015 beginning at 3:48 PM.  As of 4:50 PM most services are now operational.  More at status.lbl.gov

As reported in a January article, the IT Division is moving forward with a plan to offer an Enterprise Directory self service password reset service.  The next step in the process is to allow existing lab users to register secondary contact information (a non LBL email address or a mobile phone number for text notifications).  Note:  all new employees and affiliates have experienced this as part of their initial account activation process since January 29, 2015.  

Our soft launch of the registration process will include primarily IT employees, but we may reach out to groups we frequently work with to get feedback on the new process.    Feedback gathered from this effort will dictate when we launch this capability for the entire lab.  In April, we will start to use the new Password Change Page followed by the self service reset capability soon after.

Initial Launch Point

For those of you who also use our Windows Active Directory, the initial launch point also includes an option to reset this password, as shown below.

Our Account Management FAQ has additional details on these tools.

Register and join us for some exciting training opportunities provided by LBNL-IT! 

Are you interested in learning how to write programs to get and share scientific data over the web?  Looking to learn how to get started quickly with Arduino for a new project?  Need to create a pivot table but don’t know how?  Over the next several months the IT Division will offer a unique training schedule we hope best meets your training needs. 

For more information on our course offerings see below details or visit us at:

https://commons.lbl.gov/display/itdivision/Training+and+Awareness

Don’t see a class in our course offerings and would like to suggest one, or two.  Feel free to drop us a note at:

it-communications.lbl.gov

We’d also love to hear how we’re doing so do share with us!

WWW, Today, and Newscenter will be under scheduled maintenance beginning at 8PM on February 2, 2015 for 4 hours and will be unavailable.   All other wordpress hosted sites will also be under maintenance.   No redirection will be in place.  No other services will be impacted.  Directory services will still be available at phonebook.lbl.gov

Additional information will available on status.lbl.gov if the maintenace window changes during the outage.  

Update: Outage completed normally at ~9:10PM

Are you running out of space in your office?  Are you moving to a new office?  Is the size of your office being reduced?  Are you responsible for dealing with the records of retiring (or already retired) scientists?  Are you wondering what to do with all the files you are responsible for–which ones need to be kept, which can be archived, and which can be disposed of, all in compliance with Lab and DOE regulations?  You can get the answers to these and other questions by attending a 1.5 hour workshop being put on by the Archives and Records Office.  

The class is scheduled for Thusday, January 29 from 1:30 PM-3:00 PM in 50A-5132.

Go here to register:  https://hris.lbl.gov/self_service/training/

Select: ITD0508 | Archiving Files & Records

The Enterprise Directory (LDAP) service is changing in January 2015.  We are modifying the look of the central login page (view this link for a preview after authenticating to the web site).  This new look will provide some anti-phishing advice as part of the effort and will be deployed on Thursday January 8.

We are also planning a move to a self service password reset capability modeled off successful approaches used by other institutions.  This will involve pre-registration of  alternate contacts (SMS text message or secondary non-lbl email address).    We will  be introducing this to all new affiliates and employees starting January 29 in cooperation with partners in HR.   In  February we will  implement a soft launch within the IT Division in order to test the new registration capability before  the lab wide deployment.  In April, the new Password reset page (with the option of registering these alternate contacts) will be made available to anyone at the lab.  This is a prerequisite for the self service approach we will be deploying in February.

At the time you are notified that your enterprise directory password will expire, you can change it as you do now.  In April, if you have taken the time to register alternative contact methods, you can request a self service password reset.  A one time activation password will be sent to you via an alternate method and you can use it to change your enterprise directory password.  

This effort is expected to greatly improve our service - since it extends the PW reset capability beyond the Help Desk normal working hours of 8am to 5pm (and best effort staffing from 7am to 8am and 5pm to 6pm).

It's cold and rainy outside, but the reading lounge has something new to warm you up.  Come check out our new energy efficient led "fire"place along with our selection of curated books, magazines, and journals.  

To support testing of recently repaired emergency power off (EPO) equipment, a full network outage is scheduled on December 26 from 8:00AM-3:30PM.  We expect some services to be restored before 3:30PM.   All Laboratory network connectivity, most IT services, and some telephone services will be unavailable.

Impacted Services: Numerous, representative major services include:

1. All Laboratory Network Connectivity (except nersc.gov and es.net), but including JGI.  Access to and from LBL to the internet and between subnets will be unavailable.  

2. All Laboratory Websites excluding those hosted outside LBL.  Since there will be no network connectivity to LBL, all websites hosted at LBL will be unavailable.  However, www.lbl.gov, today.lbl.gov, and newscenter.lbl.gov will be available as they are hosted outside the Laboratory.

3. All remote access to LBL.  Again, since there will no network connectivity, remote access will not be possible.

4. Google Services including Email (partial): During the outage, incoming and outgoing email will be queued and delivered when connectivity is restored.  Users with active authenticated sessions to Google services including gmail will be able to use these services during the outage, but new authentications to Google will not be available.   Access to email via IMAP will also be available, but again, outgoing and incoming email will not be delivered until after the outage.

5. All Authentication:  No authentications using LDAP or login.lbl.gov (Shibboleth) will be possible during the outage.

6. All business systems will be unavailable, as there will be no network connectivity.

7. All Voicemail

8. Phone service in buildings 46, 71 and 76

Selected Services Anticipated to be Available:

• www.lbl.gov, today.lbl.gov, newscenter.lbl.gov, status.lbl.gov

• Google Sites that do not require authentication

• Some partial google services (see #4 above)

• Nersc.gov, es.net

IT Division's triennial user survey kicked off this morning. A statistically valid sample of the laboratory population has been selected by the survey firm retained by IT Division (MOR Associates) and those users received email this morning asking for them to participate in the survey.  IT wants to thank those of you selected in advance for your participation in the survey.  The survey is one of the most critical tools we have in charting our near and medium-term priorities and investments, as well our performance.  

If you have questions about the survey, please contact [email protected]

You can also view the results of our 2011 Survey.