Late last year the Federal Government introduced the Student Amenities Fee that universities could levy on students to offset some of the costs incurred by the universities to provide various amenities.
Library Building Stage II
Student Administration and IT Enterprise Systems staff worked together to implement the new policy. The first phase of the project has completed and already generated over $3 million in additional revenue to the University.
New broadband high speed network links to Liverpool and Bankstown Hospitals have been provisioned as part of the state of the art medical and nursing education network for south western Sydney grant with the Faculty of Medicine (South Western Sydney Clinical School). It enables experiential education with campus-based resources and a high definition videoconferencing service at eighteen sites across the network.
The Liverpool Hospital is a crucial site, being the largest hospital in Australia and the southern hemisphere, and within 6 months it will grow to be the third largest UNSW network site.
CSI
222 Pitt Street is the new site for the Centre for Social Impact (CSI). The move enables CSI to work collaboratively with innovative thought leading organisations.
Communication Services are working with Optus and Facilities Management to resolve the limited mobile coverage experienced in this building. This is an important initiative as many international students will use the facilities in L5 as their first experience at UNSW.
https://www.it.unsw.edu.au/staff/telephony/optus.html
Late last year Greg Sawyer ran a session to provide an update on all things related to the IT Communication Services Department. Greg has kindly provided a copy of the presentation so that I can share it online.
It is a somewhat lengthy presentation, but there is a wealth of information here for those that are interested.
click to download
After the resolution of a number of interesting teething problems (thanks Darryl!), we now have enough confidence in the service to release Maple TA into production. I’m hopeful that the new features and improvements in version 6 will see a continued uptake of this service.
The vendor describes the software as:
Maple T.A. is an easy-to-use web-based system for creating tests and assignments, and automatically assessing student responses and performance. It supports complex, free-form entry of mathematical equations and intelligent evaluation of responses, making it ideal for mathematics, science, or any course that requires mathematics.
http://www.maplesoft.com/products/mapleta/
Currently the School of Mathematics and Statistic is the primary user of Maple TA but it is also used by some areas of the Faculty of Engineering and it could be used by other areas within the University with mathematical testing and assessment needs.
If you are interested in learning more about the Maple TA service, or if you would like to use it, please contact the IT Service Centre on x51333 or email servicedesk@unsw.edu.au.
Maple TA version 6 went into production in late October 2010.
Despite moving on from the University, Charles has come through with a follow-up article with further details of the UNSW data centre. Thanks Charles!
Charles writes:
Last blog we covered “Switching”, The new UNSW R1 data centre is designed as a modern 2nd generation High Density data centre. This article covers the components that make up a High Density data centre, and its capabilities within UNSW.
2.) HIGH DENSITY (power in kW as a measure):
The data centre is designed for High Density – between 7.5-30kw per rack. The first stage is 7.5kW average per rack, with an overall capability of 1500kW from the substation in Stage One West Hall. The R1 data centre is designed to grow to 3000mW with the addition of a second power feed of 1500kW from the existing campus substation.The data centre contains two APC “PODs” and 10 free-standing racks per hall. Each POD is a self-contained cooling and racking system(of 30 racks each), with connections back to the electrical supply and chillers outside.
With higher density rack servers, (say 6x6U quad CPU 12-core servers)a rack can be handling over 10kW of load however, with blade chassis (with 4xchassis x 8 blade quad-cpu 12-core takes us to 16-20 kW in a rack. High Performance Computing (HPC) servers for faculty research go up to 30kW per rack.
Storage density has also increased with a terabyte in a rack, weighing around 1 tonne bring not only power considerations but also weight issues. Another reason for not having false floors in the data centre – holding all that weight is better spread directly to a ground floor slab such as in UNSW’s new R1 data centre.
With the increasing density within the data centre, (numbers of servers/rack and power requirements), we need to manage the cooling, electrical supply, POD configuration as well as the server, storage and switching configuration. Rather than increase gradually across the entire data centre, the aim is to target highest density per rack from Day One, and then to spread the numbers of racks. To get rack density higher (and therefore power/cooling load)we need to alter the configuration of the In-Row Coolers, and/or we can later expand into the East hall and add another 70 racks.
The common theme around the modern high density data centre is that everything is connected and interdependent. Its not just a matter of square metres – the “Kennards Storage” approach. We take into account the server configuration, power usage, cooling configuration, switching and cabling density before making an integrated decision. This central theme will continue throughout the blog, as is part of our UNSW Data Centre Strategy, and incorporated into our new Data centre designs.
Next blog, we will look at “Cooling” and how the APC In-Row cooling units give us the capability to cool up to 30kW in a rack, and why our design is based upon cooling the rack and not the room. We say “cool the refrigerator not the kitchen”.
Until next time,
Charles
Charles Nolan
Ex-IT Consultant for UNSW
IT portfolio management entails the business management of an organisation’s key business information systems & infrastructures from strategic planning through to the disposal of that system. In the case of enterprise class systems and infrastructure, the useful life of these assets might be 10 to 15years, whilst a non-enterprise class asset life might only be a few years.
Common portfolio practices include strategic planning, managed procurement, change management, operational support, risk minimisation, asset redeployment and disposal management. A key component is ensuring continuity exists between the business owners of information assets and service providers charged with the development, management, support and disposal across the life of the asset.
Portfolio management at UNSW works equally with the business owners of key enterprise class assets and IT at UNSW to assure that these assets support the needs of the University community by providing information services for strategic, tactical, operational and learning and teaching requirements requirements.
To find out more about IT Portfolio Management or to meet with a Portfolio Manager, please contact those people listed as PMs below on this blog page.
Since my last update on the new R1 data centre, Charles Nolan has unfortunately left UNSW for greener pastures. Fortunately, Charles did leave me with a copy of his presentation on the data centre that I have posted for your viewing pleasure. Download a copy here but be warned, it is large! (17MB)
The University has recently commissioned a new data centre on the Randwick campus called the R1 data centre (R1 refers to the number of the building on the Randwick Campus). This data centre will become the primary data centre for the University, with the current data centre on level 14 of the Library building becoming secondary.
Charles Nolan is the Project Manager responsible for the commissioning of the new data centre and the migration of services from the AGSM data centre.
Charles has provided the following information on the R1-DC project.
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This is the beginning of a series of articles on the new R1 Data centre, and will include articles on:
1. Switching
2. Density
3. Cooling
4. Environment
5. Servers
6. Cabling
7. ElectricalIntroduction:
The new UNSW R1 Data Centre is now operational. UNSW now has arguably the best modern data centre in Australia, incorporating all the strategic aspects, of Consolidation, Virtualization, Density, Switching, Cabling, Cooling and Environmentals, into an energy efficient and cost effective facility that will take University of New South Wales beyond 2020.1.) SWITCHING:
Designed for High Density (10-30kW per rack) computing, the new R1 Data Centre sets new standards for both UNSW and Australia in integrated data centre design. This includes the integration of state-of-the-art Cisco Data centre switching with our Fibre dense cabling, and High density servers utilizing 10GB on-board switches.The Data and Storage Network specific elements include:
DATA CENTRE
Core switching – Cisco Nexus 7000
Distributed switching – Cisco Nexus 5020
Rack switching – Cisco Nexus 2248 Fabric Extender(FEX)
SERVERS
Blade Server switching – DELL/Cisco 3130G in each DELL M1000E blade chassis
STORAGE
Cisco 9513 SAN Directors- controlling Fibre Channel storageThe key to the Cisco design is not only its integration with the platforms, (from Core through Servers to Storage), but also its future path that can take our storage network from fibre channel through FCOE to IP networking in stages. Cisco participated with DELL and UNSW in our early integrated design platforms when we selected the servers and switches, and continue to participate in our integrated storage and network switching discussions, especially as UNSW heads down the road to network based (IP) storage.
UNSW will benefit well into the future on our up-to-date unified network design, as we continue to develop further computing capability for faculties, divisions and students.
Next week will see us discuss Density and its effects on servers, design, cooling and energy usage.
