Re: Multiple TTboxes in the same network

[Henk Uijterwaal <]

Hi Antoine,

> First of all, best wishes for this new year to each of you.
Thanks and the same to you.

> We currently have one TTbox running and we use it from time to time to 
> check the
> status of our network.  Now, we'd like to know if it is possible and 
> advisable
> to place a total of about 15 TTboxes in our network, each box on a different
> part of it.
>
> If such a setup is possible, we'd then use these probes to calculate and 
> report
> SLA measurements (inside and outside our network) to our users, by the 
> mean of
> some software (still to be written) using the ROOT data of these 
> boxes.  These
> measurements would be interesting to us because of high accuracy and being
> performed by a 3rd party.  However, we are aware that adding 15 boxes in a
> single network is not a big gain for the community.  So, would this be
> acceptable and welcome?
Yes, absolutely.

Our software allows you to partition the TB network.  Suppose you have
a box at the Belgium Internet Exchange (Bruxelles), and in all Belgium
cities (Antwerpen, Gent, Liege, ...).  It is then possible to configure
the measurements such that the box in Bruxelles measures to both the
boxes elsewhere in the world, plus the boxes in Antwerpen, Gent, Liege.
The boxes in the other cities only measure to each other.   A variation
on this theme would be to measure with a low rate between the 4 Belgium
cities and the rest of the world, plus a high rate inside Belgium.

It is also possible to split the results over 2 websites.  On the public
website (www.ripe.net), you'd only see the results between a box at your
major interconnect with the outside world. On a second website, you'd see
the results of _all_ measurements.

More variations on this theme are possible.  We'd also be interested
to collaborate with you writing the software to monitor your SLA's.


> Another question on the same issue, what happens in case of hardware 
> failure of a TTbox when the warranty period is over.  I guess the RIPE NCC 
> doesn't provide any service for this and that the solution is to buy a new 
> one or to get the current one being repaired by ourselves.
TB come with (at least) 1 year warranty, after that period is over, it is
the responsibility of the TB owner to repair or replace any broken hardware.
During the warranty, the service has been outsourced to Dell, if a box
fails, we contact the Dell support organization in your country and they
come and fix the box.  After the warranty is over, we are still happy to
contact Dell and have the box fixed, but you will have to pay for it.  Of
course, you can also fix the box yourself.

In practice, the warranty is longer.  Dell gives a 3 year warranty period
starting on the day the box is delivered here, boxes are typically in stock
for 6 months.  If a box fails within 3 years after they left the factory,
the warranty is still valid and we, nor Dell, won't charge anything to fix
it.


> In this last case, for example after a disk failure, would the
> reinstallation of the system be performed by the RIPE NCC?
Yes, it would.  After a disk replacement, you can download a boot floppy
from the net and boot the machine with it.  This floppy formats the new
disk, then starts listening to an ssh port.  We can then upload the
software and the box will be operational again.

Let me know if this answers your questions,

Henk


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Henk Uijterwaal                           Email: henk.uijterwaal(at)ripe.net
RIPE Network Coordination Centre          http://www.amsterdamned.org/~henk
P.O.Box 10096          Singel 258         Phone: +31.20.5354414
1001 EB Amsterdam      1016 AB Amsterdam  Fax: +31.20.5354445
The Netherlands        The Netherlands    Mobile: +31.6.55861746
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