Connect communicate collaborate Design and Set Up of the New GÉANT NOC Toby Rodwell, DANTE TNC09, 9 June 2009

connect • communicate • collaborate

Design and Set Up of the New GÉANT NOC

Toby Rodwell, DANTE

TNC09, 9 June 2009


Agenda

Introduction to DANTE

Motivation for an in-house NOC

NOC set up

“DANTE Dashboard”


Background

DANTE established in 1993

Formed by European NRENs

Purpose: set up and run a European backbone data network

– EuropaNET

Initially DANTE only let and managed the contract

Later, DANTE designed then operated networks

But until 2009 (GN3 project), NOCs always outsourced


Outsourced NOCs

Advantages

Instant expertise

Fixed costs

Guaranteed service

Economies of scale

But inflexible

Difficult to walk away from

Difficult to re-task


NOC Project Plan

Set up …

In-house NOC, for network management and control

Outsource …

Service Desk, for routine tasks and communications

Procure …

Trouble Ticket System (existing TTS proprietary to GÉANT2 NOC)

Late summer 2008, contract awarded to Magdalene Ltd (UK)

For Tier 1 NOC (Service Desk) and Trouble Ticket System


Tier Responsibilities

Tier 1

First point of contact (new questions, requests, notifications)

Detect and report new network incidents

Tier 2

Investigate and repair basic network problems

Configure and upgrade network elements

Tier 3

Advanced trouble shooting and configuration


Network Control Centre

Staff

NOC Manager

Two Tier 3 engineers (IP and optical specialists)

Six Tier 2 engineers (two shifts of three)

System Administrator

Working hours

Monday – Friday 0500 – 2100 (UK local), inc Public Holidays (except Christmas and New Year’s Day)

On-call engineer out of hours

Located in Cambridge, UK (400m from main DANTE office)



NCC Engineers

NCC responsible for both Juniper backbone routers and Alcatel-Lucent transmission and switching equipment

Small number of engineers, so all engineers must be competent in both areas

Qualities sought

Enthusiasm for networking and ability to learn quickly

Good theoretical knowledge and a desire to understand concepts

NOC or similar experience important but not essential

Equipment experience desirable but not expected



DANTE Dashboard

Developed by DANTE staff (in-house and contractor)

Required to provide SD with clear, accurate and unambiguous information for new trouble tickets (SD assumed to operate without any knowledge of network topology)

Receives SNMP traps from e.g. Juniper routers, Alcatel Network Management System

Correlates received alarms and displays (or updates) single alarm on dashboard

Integration with DANTE Ops database for meaningful/friendly names


Questions?



SDE Features (i)

Calendar view for Planned Maintenance, to help NOC spot conflicting work


SDE Features (ii)

Configuration Item database populated (and updated from) DANTE’s ‘Ops Database’

Help DANTE track trends in poorly performing circuits and hardware

Help NOC engineers determine ‘affected services’ given a defective dark fibre, circuit or network element


GÉANT NOC - Requirements

24/7 operation

Reliable response to calls and e-mails

Prompt alerting of network faults

Devolvement of responsibilities

Flexibility in re-tasking

For GÉANT, EUMEDCONNECT and the End-to-End Coordination Unit (E2ECU)

NOC LOCATION (CAMBRIDGE, UK)


SDE ‘Self Service’

Basic web interface for users to add and view tickets

Updating tickets directly not supported (but e-mail can be sent to SD from the website)

Documents

Connect communicate collaborate Design and Set Up of the New GÉANT NOC Toby Rodwell, DANTE TNC09, 9 June 2009