Prague, Silicon Hill
Quick Info
| University | Czech Technical University in Prague | . |
|---|---|---|
| Location of university | Prague | |
| Website | http://www.siliconhill.cz | |
| Members | \~ 3500 | |
| Members in residental home | FIXME | |
| Staff members | \~ 400 | |
| Technic | FIXME | |
| Member fees | Membership | Fee (CZK) |
| Basic | 200 / semester | |
| Network | 600 / semester | |
| Sports | 1000 / semester | |
| Photo studio | 500 / semester | |
| Music studio | 500 / semester | |
| Autodesk - beginner | 500 / course | |
| Dancing course - single | 400 / course | |
| Autodesk - advanced | 1000 / course | |
| Dancing course - pair | 800 / course | |
| admin@siliconhill.cz,snt18@siliconhill.cz | ||
| Year of foundation | 1998 |
About Silicon Hill
Silicon Hill club is a part of the Student Union of CTU. As a dormitory club, it is based in the largest CTU dormitory at Strahov, Prague. As the biggest student club in Czechia we have around 4500 members.
Network Infrastructure
History
The very first computer network was set up during 1993. There was only one (Novell) server. Two years later first few networks were connected to the Czech Technical University network. At the end of 1996 there were 300 computers (three times more than a year before) in five buildings. Every floor had separate 10 Mbps coaxial cable segment connected to the main building server. Those servers were connected by fibre to the central CISCO router and from there by SkyWalker 2 x 4 Mbps microwave link to the CVUT network.
During years 1996 and 1997 there were already 10 buildings connected, the speed was increased and the whole student organization was being formed. The first InstallFest conference was held during 1999. During 2001 we started another conference - OpenWeekend and developed our information system - DUSPS - we used it for 10 years. Structured cabling was also deployed in first two blocks.
The year 2006 was very dark as we started Microsoft conference and a own restaurant so both of those intentions went very bad and didn't survive for a long time. The only success was that we gained a hall - we call it "the teaching center" since there are two halls as well as two classrooms. We were testing some hardware for HP and got a powerful cluster on which the Czech Academy of Sciences was working with us.
Around 2010 there was already AutoCAD academy, C academy, Matlab academy and CISCO academy. The project weather.sh.cvut.cz was started - check it out! :) In 2012 was in two months developed and started our current information system - is.sh.cvut.cz - it is based on Ruby on Rails the the main improvement was the speed. We tested HP and Juniper hardware against current CISCO switches, then bought first CISCO Nexus box and started the upgrade of our access switches from 100MBps to 1GBps. That was also the first year of SUT - one IT-related talk every Tuesday during the academic year.
A year after we renovated our main server room - new electricity cabling, new AC units, second Nexus. The first year of "Summer with the club" was held as the long-term activity for people working for the club and enjoying several BBQs as the reward. We did complete IPv6 security so we're sure which client has which address. We also tested several WIFI vendors.
During 2014 the second server housing was started. First WIFI covered block! We started to backup everything to CESNET - the connectivity is good and they've tape storage. During 2015 we started ftp.sh.cvut.cz - second iteration of our OSS mirror. Another three blocks covered by WIFI. A year later we bought new UPS, 4k cameras, and our own Apiary,
Present
Today, the network follows the Core-Distribution-Access model with the following topology. We have 10Gbps fibre connectivity form Czech Technical University and 100 Mbps backup from commercial provider. We're connected to CESNET, the academical network in Czechia and from there to GÈANT as well.
The core of our network is currently CISCO 6509E, the distribution is made up by two CISCO Nexus 5596UP. We connect twelve dormitory buildings, six floors each, every floor has two twitches fibre connected with both Nexuses. Every tenant has 1GBps metallic connection, its own public IPv4 and IPv6 address. We managed to cover every building with Aruba wireless solution.
We've separate Admins and NetAdmins sections. Every block has its own NetAdmin. There're also registrators to handle the load of people every September. Every member and every device is stored in our information system. From there our switches are configured and the configuration for DNS, DHCP and LDAP is generated. If we receive an abuse we deal with it properly so every member takes also the responsibility for himself.
In 2018, the main server room is planned to be relocated and renovated. Virtualization Switched from Xen to OpenNebula, we also got our first Blade chassis with several blade servers and three top-of-rack Juniper switches.
Projects
In addition to the network, we do some other activities including operating gyms (one at every dormitory block + one main), AudioVisual Center, Bastler's lab, academy (Autodesk, Linux and programming courses). For those different purposes we maintain several "Projects".
- Admins: Infrastructure administrators - Monitoring, backups,
- Netadmins: Network administrators -
- AVC: Audio-Visual Centrum - video & sound & lights ... conferences, concerts
- MacGyver: Bastlers - IoT, 3D printing,
- IS: Our information system - It handles users, network configuration, payments
- Fitcentrum Silicon Gym
- SHerna, project focused on playing computer games
- EDU, evening courses
Events
About Student union of CTU
The CTU Student Union consists of clubs based on dormitories and on interests. It has its own structure and it also does its own activities such as music festivals, student fairs and so on. Members from the Student union are also representing us within the academic senate.
About Strahov dormitory
We are located on the Petřín hill, pretty near to the Petřín tower. There're several buses connecting us with two underground and several tram lines as well as with the airport. We have twelve dormitory buildings each six floor tall and we have one hall as well. There's small market, plus minus six pubs, cafeteria and several sport fields. The cable car is available within ten minutes but since it is very touristy we recommend to walk down the hill and enjoy the beauty of Kinský garden - it's still fifteen minutes but the park is actually very big so you can definitely spend more time in there, especially as a couple. On the other side of our area there's the biggest Czech stadium - build during the communist times it's so big nobody knows how to use it nowadays - it's less romantic but can be more adventurous especially at night. Very nearby is also a park called Ladronka, it's suitable for jogging and skating. Within the park there's also an old homestead used as cultural center, gallery, roller skates rental, restaurant, as well as fast-food joint.