We will shortly begin the process of upgrading the switches which form the core of the Informatics network in the Forum and Appleton Tower.  The network has enough resilience built into it that this can happen mostly transparently to users.  Where this is not possible, an announcement will be posted in advance, though actual downtime is expected to be only a few seconds while fibre is re-patched.

The switches which form the existing network core in the Forum date back to when we occupied the building, and those in the Appleton Tower core are nearly as old.  With the connection of the Informatics floors of the Bayes Centre to the Forum core, it was decided that the time had come to replace that core with more modern, powerful models, which also offer better possibilities for interaction with the new EdLAN which the University is currently procuring.  At the same time, HPE’s range and pricing structure made it advantageous to replace the AT core as part of the same process.

We’ll work through the six switches over the next few weeks, taking one down at a time, transferring cards from the old to the new switch where possible, racking up the new switch, and setting it up with (almost) the same configuration as the old one.  The process will, of course, be spread out to allow adequate testing of each replacement before moving on to the next one.

Technical documentation on the Informatics network can be found here.

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