HEP System Administration

traceroute voracluster01.usatlas.bnl.gov
traceroute to voracluster01.usatlas.bnl.gov (192.12.15.12), 30 hops max, 38 byte packets
1  10.1.1.241 (10.1.1.241)  0.375 ms  0.225 ms  0.206 ms
2  b07-147-200-v624.uchicago.edu (128.135.158.217)  1.421 ms  0.991 ms  0.939 ms
3  10.4.247.73 (10.4.247.73)  1.081 ms  1.026 ms  1.019 ms
4  * mren-iwire-10g-router.uchicago.edu (128.135.247.122)  5.579 ms  2.546 ms
5  chi-gev124-mren.es.net (198.125.140.93)  1.607 ms  1.649 ms  1.621 ms
6  chiccr1-starcr1.es.net (134.55.207.33)  1.870 ms  1.889 ms  2.360 ms
7  clevcr1-ip-chiccr1.es.net (134.55.217.53)  10.919 ms  47.541 ms  11.852 ms
8  washcr1-ip-clevcr1.es.net (134.55.222.58)  18.798 ms  18.514 ms  18.593 ms
9  aofacr2-washcr1.es.net (134.55.218.78)  23.727 ms  23.679 ms  23.752 ms
10  bnlmr1-aoacr1.es.net (134.55.217.57)  26.173 ms  25.634 ms  25.645 ms
11  * bnlsite-bnlmr1.es.net (198.124.216.178)  26.187 ms !X *
12  *

the !X indicates an administrative block

Our ntp settings got screwed up (though it’s more accurate to say that I screwed up our ntp settings.) To determine what the current settings are:

$ ntpq -p
     remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset  jitter
==============================================================================
+ns1.uchicago.ed darkcity.cerias  2 u    4   64  377    3.372   -2.833   1.466
*ns4.uchicago.ed tick.uh.edu      2 u  123  128  377    0.389   -4.102   0.163
+ns5.uchicago.ed tick.uh.edu      2 u    -   64  377    0.459   -4.140   0.082

Note that if above it shows 0.0.0.0 as the refid, the system is NOT communicating with the ntp server.

I just returned from a four day networking class. The old Ethereal software has been replaced with Wireshark. So, I have installed the latest version on my Mac and am now just watching broadcast traffic, to get a feel for what is going on with our network.

First thing I found is that some of our printers were broadcasting Novell (IPX) stuff. We’re not running any Novell stuff, so I turned this off. Next, I found a bunch of packets that looked like this:

234 0.07334 65369.1 0.255 ZIP GetNetInfo Request

I now know that these are Appletalk packets and we don’t need to be broadcasting them. After I while, I found that the offending device was an old Netgear print server. I logged into the print server, but couldn’t find a way to turn off Appletalk. So, when I get some time, I’ll just attach the printer directly to the user’s computer and take it off the network. I don’t think that it’s necessary for this printer to be networked.