Club History
This club was founded at the dormitory at Jedlíkova 9 with the goal of building a computer network connected to the internet. Among those who contributed most to the construction of this network were Patrik Ostrihoň (pa3k), Ján Ondrej (Sal), Ľuboš Vítek (Fanatik), Marcel Klein (Emsi), Marek Ondrej, Monika Farkašová, and Stano Kušnír; as well as members of the Student Council led by its president, Karol Horanský, known as Ariston.
The first network was installed in some rooms of Block A of the dormitory at Jedlíkova 9. However, this network did not comply with fire safety regulations and networking standards. For this reason, it was renovated and expanded in 1997 following the establishment of the PC Club. Outlets were installed in the rooms, new wiring was laid, and the cabling was divided into fixed and movable lines. However, this network was limited to one, and later two or more, hubs.
By the year 2000, the network consisted of approximately 550 computers. The dormitories at Jedlíkova 13 and Jedlíkova 5 were connected. There were 16 switches at the Jedlíkova 9 dormitory, one at Jedlíkova 13, and six at Jedlíkova 5. Of course, as the network developed, the servers were also upgraded accordingly. Initially, there was one server (Alpha) and a firewall; in 1999, a second server (Bravo) was added. While the first is a user server where students have accounts, the second is a system server. The original connection to the school was provided by a 33.6 kbps modem. Later, it was increased to 64 kbps, and as better modems became available, the speed gradually increased. Later, the speed reached 512 kbps, which is beyond the guaranteed quality limits of the line; nevertheless, this speed was maintained most of the time.
By the year 2000, the network consisted of approximately 550 computers. The dormitories at Jedlíkova 13 and Jedlíkova 5 were connected. There were 16 switches at the Jedlíkova 9 dormitory, one at Jedlíkova 13, and six at Jedlíkova 5. Of course, as the network developed, the servers were also upgraded accordingly. Initially, there was one server (Alpha) and a firewall; in 1999, a second server (Bravo) was added. While the first is a user server where students have accounts, the second is a system server. The original connection to the school was provided by a 33.6 kbps modem. Later, it was increased to 64 kbps, and as better modems became available, the speed gradually increased. Later, the speed reached 512 kbps, which is beyond the guaranteed quality limits of the line; nevertheless, this speed was maintained most of the time.
Launch of a new network line
After a long battle with bureaucracy, we managed to launch a new line to the school with a transmission capacity of approximately 3.5 Mbps, consisting of two parts: The first part was a link between our dormitory and the Faculty of Medicine, located in the university hospital building, using a wireless radio link – approx. 2.7 km. The second part consisted of an existing fiber-optic route between the medical faculty and the University of Technology (UVT) in Košice via the University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik (UPJŠ) in Košice. This new link replaced the leased analog circuit from Slovak Telecommunications. To launch this link, it was necessary to install a wireless point-to-point connection on our roof and the hospital’s roof and set up two routers, one at the Faculty of Medicine and the other at the University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik’s IT Center.
In December 2002, we successfully launched a 100 Mbps fiber-optic connection to the school, and in October 2004, we upgraded the connection to 1 Gbit/s. The number of connected computers exceeded 1,000. By the end of 2004, there were already 4 active connections in every room at the Jedlíková 9 dormitory.
Adding dormitories
At the beginning of the year, the Božena Němcová and Ferko Urbánek dormitories were connected. In April, all connections at Jedlíkova 9 were tested, and new outlets were installed in the club and server room. A new video and statistics server was also purchased. In May, multicast broadcasting was launched thanks to the purchase of a Cisco Catalyst 3750 Switch-Router. At the end of the year, we assisted with expanding the network to Block B of the Jedlíkova 5 dormitory.
In the summer of 2006, the terminal room was renovated, and later in November, it was the server room’s turn, along with the APs. The servers were also upgraded with the purchase of two 1U IBM rack servers. In total, nearly 1,800 computers were already connected to the network.
In January 2007, the dormitories of the Faculty of Aviation (Rampová 7) joined our network. Two 1U IBM servers were put into full operation. We switched to a centralized data storage system (MySQL database). A new information system for logging into the network was launched. All connections at the Jedlíkova 9 dormitory were retested. In March, Wi-Fi service was launched in blocks A and B. The mail server was also upgraded from a Compaq Proliant to a 1U IBM server. In April, fiber-optic cabling was installed in block C of the J9 dormitory.
After a very long time, we’ve finally found the time to update the changelog. Over the past period, several significant changes and infrastructure upgrades have taken place.
We transitioned to RADIUS authentication and implemented a TACACS+ server for access management. At the same time, we set up monitoring using Check_MK and established a mirror repository for Debian, which speeds up and simplifies system updates.
Significant changes also occurred in the network infrastructure. The dormitories on Budovateľská Street in Prešov were connected to the dormitory network, and HP switches were replaced with Cisco equipment at this location. At UVT, the link was upgraded to 20 Gbit, and the switch was replaced with a Cisco 6500. The network was gradually modernized—10 Gbit connectivity was deployed to each building, and the site at Jedlíkova 13 was upgraded to 10 Gbit. The virtualization servers at Jedlíkova 9 were also connected to the 10 Gbit network.
A large part of the work involved the server rooms. The server room at Jedlíkova 9 was renovated, including a free-cooling project. At the same time, a new server room was built at Jedlíkova 13. The dormitories at Jedlíkova 9 also underwent renovation, where new Cat6A cabling was installed in preparation for 1 Gbit connectivity.
Improving network performance
A new firewall was also deployed, and the original Cisco ASA VPN infrastructure was decommissioned. The FU dormitory switched to TACACS+ authentication, and the switch management systems at Božena Němcová were integrated into the dormitory network.
The server infrastructure was also modernized. The VMware virtualization platform was updated to version 6.5, and the servers were updated to supported system versions. A new backup server was deployed, and the disk array was replaced with a Huawei OceanStor.
Several new servers were also added.
Overall, these changes resulted in a significant increase in network performance, modernization of the server infrastructure, improved access management, more reliable backup, and network readiness for higher transmission speeds.
Recently, the server and network infrastructure has undergone significant modernization. A batch of Cisco C220 servers (4 units) was purchased, along with 2 Cisco C9300 servers, enabling the transition to 10 Gbit network connectivity for the Cisco servers. At the same time, the old HP servers were decommissioned.
In the network area, new gateways with quota accounting and TTL filtering were deployed, and the connection to TUKE was expanded to 2× 10 Gbit. The BN1 and FU1 dormitories also switched to 10 Gbit connections, which significantly increased connection speed and reliability.
At the software level, the VALA and UserPanel systems were modified, RADIUS servers were reinstalled, and a web portal was created for Filmárik and Seriálik, while the renovation of the J5 server room allowed for the installation of Seriálik. The virtualization platform was updated to VMware ESXi 6.7.
Renovation of Block D has also begun, including the modernization of the dormitory network and preparations for 1 Gbit connections in individual rooms.
In the storage area, a new Huawei Dorado 2020 disk system was deployed, significantly increasing the capacity and performance of the data infrastructure. To ensure network reliability, a transition was made to a redundant 40 Gbps connection to the firewall at UVT.
A Kubernetes container infrastructure was prepared for future projects, which will enable more efficient application deployment. At the same time, the PCKlub room at Jedlikova 9, which suffered damage after a massive flood, was renovated.
In the network area, core switches were modernized—stacked Catalyst C9300X switches were deployed at Jedlikova 9 and UVT, and access switches were replaced with Catalyst C1000 switches, thereby improving network stability and management.
Internal systems and databases were optimized, and the IS server was reinstalled, while an HP DL380 G9 server was purchased for network management at UVT.
To increase the mobility and performance of the wireless network, C9115AX Wi-Fi 6 access points with extended coverage were deployed at Jedlikova 9.
At the same time, a new 2× HP DL360 G10 server cluster was created at Jedlikova 9, thereby strengthening the virtualization infrastructure and the availability of critical services.