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June 08, 2006
ASU AppleTalk Decommission Update
The following information was provided by Denise Hutchinson:
In case there are folks that haven't heard the news from their UNCEL representative, the University Technology Office (UTO) is planning on decommissioning the routing of the AppleTalk protocol at ASU on July 1st, 2006. The plans, support and impacts of this project were presented at the last UNCEL meeting held on May 17th. For your reference, the text of this document is included at the bottom of this note.
What does this mean to Macintosh users at ASU? This doesn't mean that Macintoshes won't work at ASU. Newer Macintoshes and newer Macintosh services no longer use the AppleTalk protocol for file services or printing; they use TCP/IP and have for many years. Macintoshes running anything newer than Mac OS 8.1 will function as they always have. Macintosh services running on servers such as W2K or greater, Mac OS X, AppleShare IP and Novell 6 or greater will continue to function without issue.
What does it break? Macintosh clients using Mac OS 7.5 or earlier will lose their ability to communicate beyond the building they are housed in as they can only use the AppleTalk protocol. Macintosh services provided by NT or AppleShare 4 or older won't publish beyond their own building but will continue to function internally to the building. Old printers solely using AppleTalk, won't be accessible to others outside of the building, but again, will continue to function for the Macintoshes internal to each building.
To generalize, after AppleTalk routing is disabled, older services based on AppleTalk for client, server or printer usage, are still in business but only internally to the building they are housed in. Newer services such as Mac OS X or W2K will not be impacted and will continue to have the same cross building access.
If you have specific devices or services that you are unsure of it's AppleTalk requirements, please contact your department tech support and/or UTO representative to help you determine and/or resolve any issues that may arise with this change.
Below is the information shared with UNCEL by UTO's Data Comm division.
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End of Support for Appletalk on the ASU Network
The University Technology Office plans to discontinue support for the Appletalk routing protocol on ASU network routers as of July 1, 2006
Rationale: It is costing ASU several thousand dollars per year for special network routing software and flash memory on ASU’s core network routers to support Appletalk on the ASU network. Alternatives have been available for several years which allow Apple networks to function using the IP protocol. UTO will assist any remaining Appletalk users in the ASU community with preparing for the elimination of Appletalk Support.
Issues:
- The router operating system software (IOS) necessary to support Appletalk costs $10,000 per router. The IOS necessary to support IP only comes standard on the router (zero cost).
- There are no dynamic tools available to monitor and decode Appletalk packets in order to identify AppleTalk security violations.
- The size of the current Cisco IOS which includes support for AppleTalk has outgrown the hardware flash currently available on ASU network routers. Eliminating Appletalk support will preclude the need for the purchase of several hundred dollars worth of flash cards to accommodate the size of the IOS.
- Booting from flash cards increases the exposure of failure during router reloads.
- Proficiency and documentation necessary to troubleshoot and route this legacy protocol are scarce. Appletalk routing courses are no longer available.
Considerations:
- AppleShare servers older than version 5.x require AppleTalk to publish services. Therefore, any AppleShare servers older than version 5.x will require upgrade
- NT servers providing Macintosh Services require AppleTalk to publish Macintosh accessible shares. Therefore, an alternative to this method of publishing Macintosh accessible shares must be determined
- Novell servers older than version 5.x (maybe 4.x) providing Macintosh Services require AppleTalk to publish Macintosh accessible shares. Therefore, any Novell servers older than version 5.x must be upgraded
- Macintosh clients back as far as Mac OS 7.6 (with a retrofitted AppleShare client 3.8.3) will be able to function in an IP only world
- Macintosh clients back as far as Mac OS 8.1 will function in an IP only world out of the box
- The Macintosh to AFS file translators provided by UTO currently require AppleTalk. Therefore, if these translators are to be kept beyond AppleTalk decommissioning, they will have to be upgraded to remain functional.
Posted by tsokol at June 8, 2006 09:02 PM
