wiki:Proto-GENI-2Q10-status

Version 2 (modified by Vic Thomas, 14 years ago) (diff)

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ProtoGENI/PGAugmentation/PGTools Project Status Reports

Period: April 2010 - June 2010

Note: This is a "comprehensive" report for the three GENI subcontracts held by the University of Utah. For concrete accomplishments, milestones, etc. I have marked major items in this report with P (for ProtoGENI), A, (for PGAugmentation), or T (for PGTools) to make it clear which activities were conducted under which subcontract.

I. Major accomplishments

A. Milestones achieved

P ProtoGENI.S2.f: Improved interfaces for viewing operational state, history, and usage

Administrators of Emulab sites that have enabled ProtoGENI support now have two new views available to them on the web interface.

The first is "GENI Slices", which shows the GENI slices that are currently active at the local CM, SA, and Clearinghouse. Examining each slice gives the administrator the ability to view the creator, dates when the slice was created and expires, and the manifest for the slice. The slice page also allows the administrator to delete slivers on their local CM.

The second view is "GENI History", which presents historical information about slices that are not currently active. It includes the history of tickets issued by the CM, along with the dates they were active and the slice and user that the ticket was issued to.

P ProtoGENI.S2.g: GENI Software Integration Release 2

Though there does not seem to have been a formal "GENI Software Integration Release", we released a snapshot of the ProtoGENI code on June 14 via our source code repository. The repository is available here: http://users.emulab.net/trac/emulab/wiki/GitRepository .

A PGINTEGRN: S2.d Experimenters guide

We released a tutorial for ProtoGENI experimenters, which can be found at https://users.emulab.net/trac/protogeni/wiki/Tutorial.

T PGTools: S2.d Demonstration of v1.1 ProtoGENI experimenter tools at GEC

We gave a demonstration of the ProtoGENI experimenter tools at GEC7 during the demo session. A video recording of part of this demonstration can be found here: http://groups.geni.net/geni/wiki/GEC7DemoSummary

T PGTools: S2.e Updated user guide Second version of user guide for ProtoGENI experimenter tools

Our tutorial for the Emulab frontend to ProtoGENI is available here: http://www.protogeni.net/trac/protogeni/wiki/CookedMode

T PGTools: S2.f V1.2 release of experimenter tools

This was released as part of the software snapshot detailed above.

B. Deliverables made

  • Software releases: P, T snapshots detailed above
  • Documentation: P, A, T in addition to the documentation listed above, we have documented many of our APIs, data structures, and design decisions at http://www.protogeni.net
  • Example code and RSpecs: A, T In addition to the main source snapshots and documentation listed above, we have released sample code, RSpecs, NS files, and more on http://www.protogeni.net

II. Description of work performed during last quarter

A. Activities and findings

Much of our work this quarter has been focused on getting the APIs and their implementations "solid" enough for users. So, in addition to the milestones listed above, we have spent significant time fixing bugs, clarifying the behavior of corner cases, and finding usability issues. This work was driven by the many early users of ProtoGENI - at last count, 70 users had created over 2,000 slices (many of which have been for testing and debugging.) We have had interactions with many of these users, primarily though email, helping them to get started. We also conducted a "user feedback" session during a cluster meeting at GEC7, and will conduct another at GEC8.

A major project that we participated in this quarter is the "GENI AM API". BBN is leading a project to provide a common Aggregate Manager interface that crosses multiple control frameworks, including ProtoGENI. We have participated in this effort by meeting with GPO staff, providing assistance with the ProtoGENI software, and contributing to the design. The GPO code is now included in standard ProtoGENI software releases, and is enabled on the Utah site.

We also did a significant amount of work on ProtoGENI under funding directly from the NSF. That work is detailed in our NSF annual report rather than this report.

B. Project participants

The following personnel from Utah worked on these projects:

  • Robert Ricci (Research Assistant Professor)
  • Leigh Stoller (Research Staff)
  • Jon Duerig (Research Staff)
  • Gary Wong (Research Staff)
  • David Johnson (Research Staff)
  • Dan Reading (System Administrator)
  • Srikanth Chikkulapelly (Masters Student)

Others participated in ProtoGENI under direct funding from NSF.

C. Publications (individual and organizational)

No publications were funded by these projects during this time period.

D. Outreach activities

  • Robert Ricci and Jon Duerig gave a tutorial at the "GENI Experimenters Workshop" in Princeton, NJ, the goal of which was to attract new users to GENI
  • Robert Ricci participated in a "Federation Workshop" in Princeton, NJ which included discussion of federation of GENI-like facilities from Europe and Asia
  • Robert Ricci served on the organizing committee for the Quilt GENI workshop, to be help in conjunction with GEC8, which aims to get regional networks involved with GENI
  • Robert Ricci serves on the 'GENI Alpha' committee, which is recruiting and organizing demos of GENI users for GEC9
  • We have been in contact with groups in Korea (KISTI) and Taiwan (TWISC) which are not currently part of GENI, but which are considering joining the ProtoGENI federation
  • Matt Strum (who works on ProtoGENI-related activities funded by other sources) gave a talk about ProtoGENI at KISTI in Daejon, Korea

E. Collaborations

We have worked extensively with other projects, both within our cluster and with other clusters as well. A significant amount of our work, particularly for the PGAugmentation contract, has involved coordinating with cluster members, projects outside of the cluster, and users.

Interaction within the cluster has taken place in the following ways:

  • Bi-weekly cluster conference calls, which we lead with the help of our GPO system engineer, Vic Thomas
  • The geni-users@emulab.net and geni-dev@emulab.net mailing lists, which are used for cluster-wide coordination and development discussions
  • Cluster meetings at GECs
  • Occasional email exchanges and phone calls with cluster members

Our interactions with GENI projects outside of our cluster have included:

  • Collaborating on a draft "SFA 2.0" document
  • Providing projects outside of the cluster (SPP, MAX, GpENI) with access to the Internet2-donated bandwidth that is accessed through ProtoGENI switches
  • Advising other projects that are considering using or implementing ProtoGENI APIs

F. Other Contributions

  • Robert Ricci is currently serving as co-chair of the Control Framework Working Group
  • Robert Ricci contributed to a draft article that will be submitted to CACM