Sponsor: Peter M. Siegel, Vice Provost for Information and Educational Technology

Status

• VPN service has been up and running since October 1.  The number of concurrent VPN users remains under 100. This figure is below the historical maximum use of the Library proxy server.  The Library and IET will continue to promote migration from the proxy server to the new VPN service.
• The VPN provides seemless access to over 31,650 electronic journals and 435 electronic databases. Presently, we are aware of two online reference sites which are not accessible via the VPN and one reference site for which PDFs do not open properly via a VPN connection. The Library maintains a list of known VPN connection issues at http://www.lib.ucdavis.edu/ul/services/connect/vpn/faq.php#knownissues.
• Access VPN login and information/instructions from the University Library home page (http://library.ucdavis.edu/) .  Direct access to the VPN is available at http://vpn.lib.ucdavis.edu.
• The School of Law has begun using the VPN for remote staff and faculty access to departmental file servers. This is the first production demonstration of the campus VPN virtualization option.  The Law School VPN service is being monitored and will guide future extension of central VPN services to other campus units.

Background

Students, staff and faculty increasingly connect to the UC Davis network from off campus. For remote users, access to some licensed online material (e.g., library journals) and other university resources (e.g., departmental and personal files) is limited to systems assigned a campus IP address.

Description

A virtual private network (VPN) gives individuals working remotely a secure way to access the organization’s network. A UC Davis VPN service would allow authenticated users to access restricted campus resources and materials from outside of campus and would encrypt the information sent to and from the network.

Implementation Approach

Based on the workgroup's report, IET proposes to:

• Pursue the establishment of a virtual private network for the UC Davis community
• Prepare a Request for Proposal (RFP) to identify solutions that will allow a phased implementation of a campus VPN
• Partner with the University Library and Law Library for an initial VPN pilot to access online library resources
• Incrementally expand the pilot to allow remote access to other campus online resources. Funding for the initial phase of the campus VPN implementation will be provided by IET, with partnership from the University Library and Law Library.

Benefits of Establishing a UC Davis Virtual Private Network

• Enable individuals off campus to securely access UC Davis library resources, including licensed or restricted materials
• Eliminate the need for duplicate log-ins that are imposed for remote access to licensed online resources
• Enable individuals off campus to securely access departmental servers and personal files
• Ensure that information passed to and from off-campus users, including login IDs and passwords, is secure via an encrypted channel.
• Integrate with existing campus authentication procedure.
• Provide a cost-effective solution.

Points for Consideration

• Acknowledgement of the value of the campus benefits afforded by VPN service, and support for IET’s plan to implement a campus VPN service through a phased approach, starting with a pilot involving the University and Law libraries.
• Comments may be sent to Bob Ono at raono@ucdavis.edu.

See http://security.ucdavis.edu/vpn.cfm for more information.