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IRIS

Instructional & Research Information Systems

Blocking LDAP connections beginning March 14

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Currently, the EECS LDAP servers (ldap.eecs.berkeley.edu) are accessible from any IP address in the world. In order to improve privacy for our users, we will begin blocking LDAP connections on ports 389 and 636 from any off-campus IP address beginning March 14, 2018 at 8am.

Those who wish to use the EECS LDAP servers from off-campus (for example, to use it for address book lookups in their mail program) can still access it by first running [the campus VPN](https://technology.berkeley.edu/services/accounts-and-access/remote-access-vpn).

This is not a general block on ports 389 / 636, but only applies to connections to ldap.eecs.berkeley.edu.

Please direct any questions to the IRIS helpdesk at help@eecs.berkeley.edu.
[Read more…] about Blocking LDAP connections beginning March 14

Network Interruption Expected, 2/23/18 12-1PM

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We will be performing an experiment which will briefly interrupt the department’s connection to the internet. We understand this is disruptive but the experiment is necessary to determine the cause of the last week’s outages and ensure they do not recur unexpectedly.

Our window for performing the test is 12-1PM, however the actual test will last for 10 minutes or less and the interruption should be brief.
[Read more…] about Network Interruption Expected, 2/23/18 12-1PM

Intermittent Network Outage Redux, 2/21/18

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We are experiencing a repeat of last week’s network border issues. We are working with local system administrators to fully remove all problematic devices from the network.

The network will remain mostly stable during this time but there will be a few brief outages as we attempt to verify whether all interferers have been removed.
[Read more…] about Intermittent Network Outage Redux, 2/21/18

EECS Network Border Malfunctioning, 2/15/18

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We are currently experiencing an issue at the EECS network border which is causing intermittent outages. The connection affected is between EECS and the outside world.

This means that communication within the EECS network should be unaffected, and connectivity to campus or the Internet is intermittently unavailable.

Impact to the research computing cluster in Soda Hall is currently undetermined.

Network staff are coming onsite to better diagnose the issue, and an update will be posted here when we have more detail or an ETA.

Update 11:54 AM:

We are troubleshooting an issue where OSPF control traffic is intermittently dropped between our core and edge router, causing all data traffic to stop.

Traffic is affected between:
* EECS network and campus/Internet
* EECS network and Soda research compute network

Traffic is not affected:
* within the EECS network
* between Soda research compute and campus/Internet (except during certain troubleshooting procedures)
[Read more…] about EECS Network Border Malfunctioning, 2/15/18

Brief outages to a few IRIS services, Feb 14, 6pm

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Routine Red Hat Linux operating system patches have been released which require system reboots. Starting at 6pm Wednesday, February 14th, IDSG will be patching and rebooting affected servers. The following services will experience brief outages of 10 minutes or less between 6pm and 7pm.

* Department mailing list services (lists.eecs.berkeley.edu)
* Department ftp server (ftp.eecs / ftp.cs.berkeley.edu)


Resolved as of 2018-02-14 18:08:00

Using Remote Desktop from Off-Campus

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Both the campus firewall and our EECS firewall block commonly-vulnerable Microsoft ports from the outside world, but we are not blocking access to port 3389, Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). This leaves RDP open to brute force attacks, and is responsible for many EECS Windows account lockouts. It is considered poor security practice to expose RDP to the internet.

Beginning February 20, we will be blocking RDP connections from off-campus at the EECS border; RDP connections to devices on the IRIS networks from campus networks, including the campus VPN, will not be blocked. So, if you wish to make a Remote Desktop connection to a machine on the IRIS networks, then you should first establish a campus VPN connection.

An exception to the RDP block will be the department Windows Terminal Server, winterm.eecs — Remote Desktop connections to winterm.eecs will not be blocked, so no VPN connection is necessary. Software on winterm.eecs will help mitigate brute force attacks.

To summarize, as of February 20:
* VPN users will still have the same access to their remote desktops.
* Access to winterm.eecs will not change.
* Users who use RDP to other devices on our network from off-campus will need to use VPN first.

See also:
* The campus VPN service