codify | tech•ed backstage

Posts Tagged ‘codify’

auteched + apc 2011 Network Design

Date: 2011.08.20 | Category: Australian Partner Conference 2011, tech•ed 2011 | Response: 1

People often ask me for more information about the network design and implementation for tech•ed and APC.

I finished off the physical design for the MDF and IDFs a while ago and thought I would take the time to post these in case you wanted to build your own 3000 person corporate conference at home. I am only covering off the network side of things below – there is a massive HP + Microsoft private cloud solution going in at the event that will need post(s) in its own right.

In terms of fast Internets
- 1000 mbps of Internet connectivity provided by Telstra Internet Direct. This is a high performance e-line service back to Telstra Internet Direct in the Charlotte St exchange (i.e. it is a wholesale/service-provider quality service, uncontended back to their core).
- An additional 500 mbps of Internet connectivity from Over The Wire as a redundancy option.
- BGP routing under our own AS9984 to make the best use of the combined link.
- IPv4 and IPv6.
In terms of WiFi
- Cisco 5508 WLC
- 50 x Cisco Aironet 1252 access points
- Each AP has 2 x radio interfaces (2.4 and 5GHz) for a total of 100 radios supporting 802.11a, b, g, and n
In terms of physical infrastructure
- 2 x Brocade CER units for core routing
- 2 gbps LACP core trunking between the routers, core switches and wireless LAN controller
- 1 gbps distribution network
- 77 switches deploying 2000+ ports of connectivity
IDF Physical Design

MDF Physical Design

Also available as a PDF export of the original VSD:

Project 3031 – Tech·Ed 2011 Network Design and Implementation (Microsoft Pty Ltd) – Network Design

If you have any questions then post them below.
When I said 16 percent I meant … 16 percent

Date: 2009.08.26 | Category: networking, tech•ed 2009, wireless | Response: 3

You will recall our earlier posts regarding the performance problems with the Cisco WLC at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre. If you’ve not seen them catch up here:
Insufficient Traction Error

We had been working extensively with a number of suppliers to get the WLC issues resolved. To be honest, I reached the end of my tether some time ago as every call seemed to revolve around either co-channel interference (so much so that is now the standard butt of jokes on the tech team … car won’t start? co-channel inteference :\), or some discussion of why there were methodological defects in the reports we’d written rather than just focusing on the obvious @#(*&@ issue. Read the rest of this entry »
Update on the Internets

Date: 2009.08.25 | Category: funny, networking, planning, tech•ed 2009 | Response: 3

Tomorrow is my first day on site at the venue (I don’t get to leave again until the 11th of September). I was supposed to be down there today but some lingering issues with the 2140 imaging procedures and timings delayed my trip to the convention centre by a day. David Haysom sent me an empty e-mail today with the subject of “Techops no turning back” and this image attached:

TechOps (or will be) - This is the room from which we will run all technology related technical activities during APC and tech•ed 2009!

Read the rest of this entry »
Ensuring IP address allocation integrity with DHCP snooping

Date: 2009.08.19 | Category: Uncategorized, networking, planning, tech•ed 2009 | Response: 0

Nearly every IP network you use allocates IP addresses to clients via DHCP. There is a lot you can do with DHCP and it is a fairly well thought out and extensible successor to BOOTP.

This post briefly explores the sorts of issues we have with DHCP on a large scale temporary network, and the sorts of things that go wrong.

Read the rest of this entry »
Internet Connectivity… plan A to F, plus a few more

Date: 2009.08.17 | Category: Uncategorized, networking, planning, tech•ed 2009 | Response: 4

I’ve not forgotten to post – I’ve just been busy undebacling a debacle.

Everyone loves fast Internets. Providing really fast Internets at tech•ed this year has provide to be a complete pain in the proverbial.

Read the rest of this entry »
Resolving a hunch – wifi performance @ GCCEC

Date: 2009.07.22 | Category: tech•ed 2009, wireless | Response: 7

Previously you will recall we talked about the methodology we used to diagnose why the RF utilisation at GCCEC was so stratospherically high in relation to the actual wifi network utilisation and number of associated clients. In the last moments of that day on site we did observe a few anomalies with regards to real-world network performance. Given that the wireless infrastructure is state of the art and was one of the first “enterprise” deployments of 802.11n in Australia 12 months ago – this was odd and definitely warranted further investigation before the event even if to find there wasn’t a problem at all.

We left Brisbane bright and early on Thursday the 16th of July to spend a day with the guys from GCCEC to get to the bottom of this latest issue.

Read the rest of this entry »
site visit for tech•ed AND APC

Date: 2009.07.14 | Category: Australian Partner Conference 2009, food, tech•ed 2009, wireless | Response: 6

This year we are lucky enough to be using the GCCEC for two large Microsoft events, that are a week apart; the Australian Partner Conference (APC) and tech•ed and as you can guess this gives us a huge amount of efficiency on how we run the event with benefits in shared infrastructure and environments. We’ll have a huge breakdown later in this blogs life talking about how we utilise this shared environment and assign the costs, but that’s not for this post. Read the rest of this entry »
TECH•ED backstage

Date: 2009.07.12 | Category: Uncategorized, tech•ed 2009 | Response: 5

Welcome to the start of tech•ed Backstage. This blog is designed to give the world the view of what goes on in the background of running the tech•ed Australia 2009 conference from all the people the work in the Technology team and those that we interact with in developing the production.

We’re going to give the warts and all view of what’s involved in doing this focusing around the pragmatic approach of logistic and planning for this event and those related such as:
- Products and technology used for the event
- How the logistical planning is done
- How to you build a network for such and event and all the prep work.
- Tons of other information in mind numbing detail!
Plus of course lots of statistics and prediction that all go into delivering this kind of technology for the event.

So first of all some introductions for the core delivery team;

Jorke Odolphi – Microsoft – Infrastructure Architecture Evangelist / tech•ed Technology Guy – responsible for the delivery of the infrastructure technology and ensuring and enabling that Microsoft has the best technology on show.

Other duties include attending long meetings and staying awake, breaking down barriers in delivery, helping the business understand the logistics and food/wine tasting.

(source: flickr.com/photos/heroeshappen)

Codify – International Men of Mystery – These guys actually DO the delivery of all the core infrastructure to tech•ed such as network connectivity, Wireless Networks, building machines for speaker rooms and connecting everyone to the internet. Simply put if you’re going to be putting anything on the network at tech•ed these guys are involved in some form. As a result they’re slaves to the network for the event!

To protect their identity (and they’re camera shy) the picture on the right is an artists rendition.. (source wikipedia.org)

Jomablue – International Men of Mystery – again another group of camera shy individuals. These guys are the core of the logistics for the event. When any piece of technology is placed in a location in the event these are the guys bumping it in, plugging it in and making sure the the power is right and in fact everything is right.

To protect their identity (and they’re camera shy) the picture on the left is an artists rendition.. (source wikipedia.org)

Of course we’re only scraping the surface of what we all do, and we can’t forget all the other people we interact with such as the tech•ed core team, Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre staff and if course all the awesome staging staff. We’ll be hearing from all those people leading up to the event, so sit back take it in and tell us what you’d love to hear from the bluelit parts of teched.

- jorke