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SnapGear products trusted to support critical path remote data transfer and analysis
The first known successful use of a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to transmit an entire ECT (Eddy Current Test) inspection of Steam Generators during a regularly scheduled Nuclear Plant Outage using the Internet was recently completed using a Snap Gear appliance. Large file binary Steam Generator inspection data was transmitted from New Brunswick Power’s Point Lepreau Nuclear Power Station in Canada to a specialized data analysis team located in the small town of Snoqualmie, WA USA.
The implementation of this new technology represents a landmark step in security, remote access, ease of use, and cost-effectiveness towards meeting the requirements of this routine yet critical process. Traditionally, transfer of ECT data for remote analysis would have been facilitated through the use of an expensive Point-to-Point (P-P) dedicated T1 connection set-up specifically for the duration of the inspection process (typically lasting from 2 to 6 weeks). However, with the use of Snap Gear’s PRO+ VPN router, the connection was securely linked via the existing internet backbone at a fraction of the cost and unlike the P-P T1 solution remained available for continued use to support the inspection and analysis of the plant.s auxiliary systems or for less critical special analytics scheduled to be performed after re-start of the power plant.
The on-site inspection processes were performed by Babcock & Wilcox, Canada. The large file binary format inspection data produced from the Eddy Current, a non-destructive testing technique, was spooled via Snap Gear’s VPN Firewall Appliance through the internet to Snoqualmie, Washington for specialized data analysis. After the data was evaluated by industry certified analysts at Verner & James, Inc. (www.v-and-j.com), the results were then transmitted back to B&W Canada at the Point Lepreau Power Station site via the same secure VPN circuit.
“We are extremely pleased with the performance of the VPN and our decision to use it,” said Mary Addario, the inspection Project Manager for Babcock & Wilcox, Canada. Mary was an early proponent of using the VPN to transmit inspection data as a solution to increase flexibility while saving inspection cost for her customers. As a result of the successful Pt. Lepreau experience Ms. Addario has seen her vision come true.
Doug Calender, co-founder of Verner & James, Inc. said “We knew there had to be a way to use the internet backbone as a medium to securely transfer Eddy Current data and save our customers money. Remote data analysis depends upon a high bandwidth, reliable, secure and seamless connection to the site facility. Snap Gear’s hardware provided exactly what we needed.”
Patrick Oliver, site Project Manager for Babcock & Wilcox wrote:
“I am pleased to announce that the first time attempt at remote data analysis using VPN (Virtual Private Networking) technology has been a total success. In the past, the standard procedure for transferring ECT data to a remote site was to use a “point to point” T-1 line. This requires purchasing dedicated bandwidth from one or many telecommunication companies to complete the link. This was an expensive configuration that also required a long lead-time to initiate.”
“For the 2002 outage, Verner and James proposed that we use VPN to transfer the ECT data from Pt. Lepreau for primary and secondary analysis. The advantage to VPN over the T-1 is that typically, a dedicated T-1 link is not required. In fact, VPN can utilize the site’s existing high bandwidth Internet connection. The VPN then uses the internet cloud for transferring its encrypted data, therefore saving the utility the expense of purchasing a T-1 that would, in this case, span the entire continent.
Originally, our plan was to utilize Pt. Lepreau.s internal network to access the Internet. Unfortunately, we discovered that our crew trailers were too far away from the Administration building to connect the site’s network. Therefore, we were required to purchase a dedicated T-1 which connected us directly to the Internet. Verner and James utilized their existing internal network and Internet as they have ample bandwidth to support it. The purchase of the T-1 at Pt. Lepreau did add an extra expense that we weren’t expecting but the cost overall was still a fraction of what a point-to-point T-1 would have cost.
Under the above-mentioned configuration, the VPN performed flawlessly. We only had one isolated incident when the data slowed to an unacceptable level. It was determined that the cause was a brief loss of service (the actual Internet connection) which caused the VPN Router’s buffer to reach capacity. A simple reboot of the router which took a couple of seconds corrected the problem and everything was back to normal.”
About the Pt Lepreau Reactor
The reactor at Pt Lepreau on the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick, Canada is a 640-700MegaWatt facility that achieved initial criticality in July 1982 with commercial operation commencing in February 1983.
The reactor is a CANDU (CANadian Deuterium Uranium) model which is a unique design, the CANDU system uses deuterium oxide (heavy water) as moderator and natural uranium as fuel.
The core of the nuclear steam supply system of a CANDU 6 power plant is a large cylindrical vessel called the calandria. This vessel is filled with cool, low-pressure heavy water. The vessel houses 380 horizontal tubes, loaded with natural uranium fuel bundles.
With the uranium fuel surrounded by heavy water, chain reaction fission takes place, releasing energy in the form of heat. The heat is transferred to a second heavy water system pumped at high pressure through the tubes to steam generators. There its heat is transferred to ordinary water which boils to become the steam that drives the turbine generator.
“
This free event, sponsored in part by Penguin Computing and
Linux Journal, will be taking place on Saturday, August 17th, just
after the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo.
All members of the Linux community are invited and encouraged to
bring their friends and family. Picn*x11 is organized as a family
event, so pack the kids in the minivan and head on over.
As with last year’s “Linux10” barbecue, Picn*x11 will be held at the
Sunnyvale Baylands Park, which has a great play area, full restroom
facilities, nature trails, and plenty of lush, grassy fields for
soccer, frisbee, bocce, horseshoes…
Free food will be served until 3:30pm. Donations are accepted, or
purchase a Picn*x11 T-Shirt –
proceeds go to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
For details, and to RSVP, visit:
www.LinuxPicnic.org“
The group that drafted the controversial UCITA legislation has approved a handful of changes designed to address concerns raised by Open Source advocates, but those changes may not go far enough to win the approval of Red Hat’s lawyer.
The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws approved several changes to its Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act, which is supposed to be a model for state legislatures to consider.
Among the changes approved by the NCCUSL last week were some that addressed concerns voiced by the Open Source and Free Software communities:
But that last change doesn’t go far enough, says Carol Kunze, a lawyer working for Red Hat on UCITA issues. Before the commission’s meeting, Kunze wrote a letter asking the group to kill UCITA altogether. Red Hat and other Open Source companies have long objected to UCITA’s requirement that Open Source software provide warranties to customers.
Kunze says the new changes stop short of exempting Open Source software a customer has purchased from carrying a warranty. And software distributed for free would still be required under UCITA to carry a warranty if there’s a charge for installation services or an accompanying maintenance contract.
The bottom line, says Kunze, is that any Open Source programmers trying to make money from their software would have to carry up-front warranty disclaimers saying there are no implied warranties beyond those that are granted, like proprietary companies do in their click-wrap agreements. “Open Source/Free Software would have to adopt the proprietary practice of having an upfront agreement with the user, something that many Open Source/Free Software programmers don’t want to do, if only to disclaim the implied warranties,” Kunze says.
Kunze also worries about the combination of UCITA with the laws in several states that prohibit warranty disclaimers. “Should a state adopt UCITA, but amend it by disallowing warranty disclaimers for consumers, Open Source/free software may be forced to carry mandatory warranties,” she says. “I am reminded of Bruce Perens’ statement in Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution (1999): ‘If free-software authors lose the right to disclaim all warranties and find themselves getting sued over the performance of the programs they’ve written, they’ll stop contributing free software to the world.'”
Commission officials say some of the changes in the UCITA model bill were prompted by the many concerns expressed by Open Source and Free Software advocates. But Carlyle “Connie” Ring, chairman of the UCITA drafting committee, says the changes are a good compromise for the Open Source community. “No one comes out at 100%,” Ring says. “We all give a little bit.”
Ring clarifies that the new UCITA would exempt from warranty an Open Source product that was sold for the cost of the media it was on, such as a $3 Linux CD set. But a Red Hat boxed set selling at Wal-Mart for $60 would fall under UCITA’s warranty provisions.
“If you’re packaging that as a commercial product, then you’re in the business that every other software purveyor is in,” Ring says. In Ring’s way of thinking, you then should abide by the same warranty rules as the rest of the industry.
Ring predicts the software warranty debate could go two ways: through state legislatures working on legislation such as the commission has recommended, or through the U.S. Congress. Ring doubts that Congress would exempt commercial software from carrying warranty disclaimers.
Acknowledgment of GPL, reverse engineering
Kunze is also interested in a couple of other changes to the UCITA model legislation. One is an acknowledgment that a notice license — such as the GPL or BSD
licenses — is not governed by UCITA, as opposed to contractual licenses. She says while this acknowledgment doesn’t really change the existing law, it may be useful in helping people understand licenses such as the GPL.
Kunze is more concerned about the reverse engineering provision in UCITA, which, like the warranty change, may not be of much help to Free Software programmers. The change to allow reverse engineering for interoperability purposes basically follows the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s language, she says, in requiring that reverse-engineered information must not have been “readily available” to the programmer.
So what’s that mean? “‘Readily available’ may mean that an attempt must first be made to obtain a license for the information,” she says. “What’s more, it’s not clear whether conditions on the information, such as payment, may be imposed. Given that Open Source/Free Software does not generate license income, any required payment may put this option out of reach. Any benefit from this reverse engineering clause may prove elusive.”
What’s next?
The original UCITA model legislation was the first proposed by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws that the American Bar Association threatened to oppose, says John McCabe, legislative director for the NCCUSL. The changes to UCITA will now go back to the ABA for approval in mid-2003.
Meanwhile, the NCCUSL will pitch the new UCITA language to state legislatures across the United States, including to the two states that have already passed UCITA laws, Maryland and Virginia. Ring says his group will recommend that the two states adopt the changes they haven’t already addressed.
But Red Hat’s Kunze predicts UCITA will continue to be opposed by consumer groups in states where it’s considered. “Given that the recent changes still do not satisfy its opponents, it’s not clear whether UCITA will now be successful in getting adopted in other states, particularly with the added charge that it would force Open Source/Free Software to adopt proprietary practices in having agreements with users,” she says.
Anyone receiving the distributed software would be required to click on
“I AGREE” before the software is downloaded or installed. This
expression of assent would satisfy the requirement of the law that a
contracting party must agree to a contract before it can be asserted
against him. As to whether the notice is provided before download or
before install, that is at the discretion of the distributor.
If any fee is charged for the software, then a mechanism must also be
provided for a refund if the user decides not to agree. I have not
otherwise described the “I DO NOT AGREE” button or procedure.
The objective here is to provide a simple mechanism that does not unduly
burden either users or distributors. We have responded to concerns that
the distributer of a complex package would possibly have to implement
multiple click-wrap assents before the entire package could be
installed. That is clearly not what we want. The proposed mechanism
involves merely one click for the entire distribution.
There are a couple of places in the Open Source Click-Wrap Notice below
that are optional. To that extent, this notice is a template. First,
if the source code is available at a website, the notice can be used to
point to that location. Second, if the distributor is providing a
warranty (other than the AS-IS warranty disclaimer in most licenses),
there is a place for those warranty terms to be stated or linked-to.
Finally, for those distributors who want to provide an automatic way for
the user to read and review the licenses, a one-click method is
identified.
Please note that the use of the Open Source Click-Wrap Notice remains
optional unless a licensor includes a requirement for an express assent
in his or her license, in which case the distribution of that software
must be made according to the licensor’s terms. Each distributor should
consult with his or her attorney about whether to use this Notice.
Please send your comments and suggestions to license-discuss.
/Larry Rosen
*************************
OPEN SOURCE CLICK-WRAP NOTICE
By clicking on “I AGREE” below, you indicate
your acceptance of the software programs
included on this distribution under the terms
and conditions of the licenses applicable to
each of them. You will be permitted to install and
use the software programs included on this
distribution only if you click “I AGREE” below.
The software programs on this distribution are
protected by copyright in the United States
and other countries, and by international treaty,
or by one or more patents. You understand and agree
that the installation, use, copying, modification,
and distribution of this software may be prohibited
by law unless you agree to the applicable licenses.
You acknowledge that some or all of this software
is being distributed under open source licenses
that allow you to copy the software, create
modifications to it, and distribute those copies
and modifications, and that some or all of those
licenses may also require that you publish the
source code of any copies or modifications that
you distribute. Source code for all open source
software included on this distribution is included
with the distribution or is available from the
distributor[ at www.xxxxxx.com].
YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT SOME OR ALL OF THESE SOFTWARE
PROGRAMS ARE PROVIDED BY THE LICENSOR AS-IS, WITHOUT
ANY WARRANTY, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT,
AS STATED IN THE APPLICABLE LICENSES.
[YOU FURTHER ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE DISTRIBUTOR IS
PROVIDING THIS DISTRIBUTION AS-IS, WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY,
INCLUDE THE WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.]
[THE DISTRIBUTOR’S WARRANTY TERMS FOR THIS DISTRIBUTION
ARE SPECIFIED AT www.xxxxxx.com.]
The name of each software program on this distribution
and its applicable license is listed on the file
LICENSE.TXT included with this distribution[, which you
can read by clicking on “REVIEW THE LICENSES” below].
—
license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3
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LOS ANGELES – August 6, 2002 – DataDirect Networks, the leading provider of the world’s highest performance storage networking appliances, has announced that Linux NetworX will be using a Silicon Storage Appliance as part of their new Linux-based supercomputer to be deployed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. DataDirect’s S2A 6000 will manage the terabytes of metadata resulting from the 962 node Evolocity ™ clustered supercomputer.
Lawrence Livermore has selected Linux NetworX, a recognized leader in the Linux clustering industry, to design, integrate and deliver what will be the most powerful Linux supercomputer by Fall 2002, and when delivered, the Intel-based cluster is expected to be one of the five fastest supercomputers in the world. DataDirect has strong track record supporting Lawrence Livermore supercomputing programs, with fifteen S2A 6000 Silicon Storage Appliances currently in mission-critical production environments at the facility.
“In creating a 962 node supercomputing system that involves a variety of top tier hardware, software and integration, management issues become extremely important in development and after deployment,” Clark Roundy, vice president of marketing, Linux NetworX, said. “DataDirect’s Silicon Storage Appliance brings us an enterprise-class high performance SAN solution for file system metadata management.”
“Silicon Storage Appliances make it easy for the IT professionals to deploy and scale open system, high performance storage area network infrastructures in a cost-effective, modular approach,” Brad Winett, vice president, business development, DataDirect Networks, said. “DataDirect’s groundbreaking storage networking technology helps enable the Linux NetworX Evolocity cluster to provide high-performance computing organizations faster results with lower total cost of ownership than competing supercomputing systems, and we see a tremendous opportunity for our two technologies to serve researchers in this market.”
Bringing a simple and straightforward approach to supporting supercomputing uses in visualization, simulation and research, Silicon Storage Appliances provide high performance computing centers a way to accelerate application productivity, providing data at least three times faster than existing Storage Area Networking (SAN) solutions and ten times faster than Network Attached Storage (NAS) technology. The acceleration of data to applications and users — simply and easily — allows DataDirect Networks’ customers to consolidate and share their storage; Silicon Storage Appliances also bring management advantages to IT professionals tasked with implementing 24/7/365 storage networking foundations.
With the ability to supply an aggregate bandwidth of 800 megabytes per second and support up to 512 servers and 180 Terabytes of storage, the S2A 6000 Silicon Storage Appliance brings performance and scalability benefits to scientific and commercial supercomputing centers. By using DataDirect’s S2A 6000 Silicon Storage Appliances in a modular fashion to cluster nodes and create larger computational grids, IT professionals can begin to create highly scalable, easy-to manage terascale supercomputing systems for a wide range of scientific, industrial and government supercomputing applications.
Based on DataDirect Networks’ proven Silicon Storage Appliance technology, S2A 3000 Silicon Storage Appliances supply an aggregate bandwidth up to 800 megabytes per second to workgroups typically consisting of one to twenty-four Linux, Unix, Windows NT/2000, Sun, AIX, Macintosh and SGI compute nodes. The S2A 3000 can easily manage storage network environments ranging in capacity from 500 GB to 14 Terabytes.
Customers using DataDirect’s Silicon Storage Appliances include Sandia National Laboratories, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, NASA, NCSA, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, NOAA Forecast Systems Lab, U.S. Army Research Lab, White Sands Missile Range, National Century Financial Enterprises, Time Warner Cable, E! Networks, CineGroupe, RTL Television, CardioNow, Loudeye, Star TV, Sonic Foundry, among others. DataDirect SAN partnerships include industry leaders VERITAS Software, Seagate, Emulex and QLogic, among others.
About DataDirect Networks, Inc.
DataDirect Networks is the leader in the rapidly growing market for intelligent storage networking appliances. Serving IT professionals in the government, defense, life sciences, broadcasting, digital production and oil and gas industries, DataDirect Networks’ Silicon Storage Appliances make it easy, simple and trouble-free to accelerate and manage applications, dramatically reducing TCO and increasing ROI. For more information, contact DataDirect Networks at (818) 700-7600 or visit www.datadirectnet.com.
Segment One- The News. We will cover THE HOT NEWS of the last few weeks tonight. In particular, we will talk about the massive theft at the Justice Department, over 775 missing firearms plus 400 laptops. That 400 laptops could represent carelessness or the massive leak of top secret information. Plus, more silly digital rights nonsense as building owners sue the creators of Spiderman (the Movie) for altering building and billboards on buildings.
Segment Two- Lycoris Desktop/lx A distro product review
Tonight we do the first in a series of Linux Distribution product reviews with a review of Lycoris desktop/lx. And too our surprise, it is pretty damn good. Is Lycoris the first “granny proof” linux distro?
But we still have plenty of questions. So, we will pull apart the OS and software and give it a review
Lycoris is the former Redmond Linux, that was recently called the Friendly Linux Alternative to Wondows. We will see, won’t we.
Do not forget the:
Tell Ten Friends Campaign
We ask that you tell 10 of your friends and associates about the AOTC and GeekPAC and the need to contribute to BOTH organizations. Also ask them to Tell Ten Friends of their own. This will make the AOTC nd GeekPAC grow like an organic entity, like a political virus.
It is important that people contribute to both organzations, if they can legally do so. ONLY US voters may contribute to GeekPAC. Anyone may contribute to the AOTC, even our friens from around the world. Donation forms are located at http://www.aotc.info/joinhelp/joinform.html for the AOTC, and http://www.geekpac.com/joinhelp/joinform.html for GeekPAC.
If you are in a band or represent an artist, please contact us asap to be added to our play list.
Please join us on the show, and check our IRC Chat(irc.thelinuxshow.com
#linuxshow).
Remember tune in at 6pm pt, 7pm mt, 8pm ct, and 9pm et. NOTE: we are now on
Daylight Saving Time in the US.
Catch the Linux show at www.thelinuxshow.com“.
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