GIR4.1_OnTimeMeasuraments: Feedback-20120215.txt

Subject: Re: OnTimeMeasure Software and Documentation Testing
From: Luisa Nevers <lnevers@bbn.com>
Date: 2/15/2012 5:06 PM
To: Prasad Calyam <pcalyam@osc.edu>
CC: Yingxiao Xu <yxu@osc.edu>, Arun Selvadhurai <aselvadhurai@oar.net>, "vthomas@bbn.com" <vthomas@bbn.com>, "hmussman@bbn.com" <hmussman@bbn.com>, Heidi Picher Dempsey <hpd@bbn.com>, Luisa Nevers <lnevers@bbn.com>

On 2/13/2012 5:06 PM, Prasad Calyam wrote:
> Wiki-1: http://groups.geni.net/geni/wiki/OnTimeMeasureTutorial
> A step-by-step tutorial for experimenters to learn about the main I&M capabilities of OnTimeMeasure software/service  that can be used in an integrated manner with  Flack/ProtoGENI, INSTOOLS, Gush, OMNI and PlanetLab

Hello,

This is my feedback on OnTimeMeasure Tutorial, Wiki-1: http://groups.geni.net/geni/wiki/OnTimeMeasureTutorial
I have gone through the tutorial as a first-time-user, and captured any items that could be confusing
for a new user as I executed the instructions.  I plan to follow up on the other pages separately.

1. I really like the initial diagram which provides a valuable overview of the workflow
    for using the tools as well as the tutorial.

2. Should spell out "I&M " on the first instance.

3. Minor enhancement, would be helpful when instructing user to jump to a section, or to chose an
    approach for the tutorial (i.e from scratch, or import rpsec) to actually include a link to
    that section in the text describing the choice.

    For example replace '...jump to "2.4 Confirmation" ' with
   '... jump to the [wiki:OnTimeMeasureTutorial#a2.4Confirmation Confirmation] section'

4. The section '2.4 Confirmation' tells the user that they have to connect to a port on the Root Beacon.
     Should provide an URL Root Beacon example (http://pc355.emulab.net:17291). I realize that it
     is also shown in the capture, but it is very small text and hard to read.

  5. I worked through the tutorial using the import-rspec-path first and found the first mention
      of a Root beacon, in the "Confirmation" sections.  If I had not know about the project, and the
      tutorial was my starting point, I may have been confused by the term, which is not defined
     for me up to now.
     Suggestion:
     There should be a description for each system type (root beacon and node beacon) and
     their role in the introduction to the tutorial.

7.  In section 2.3.1, a short overview of what is being defined by the rspec that is imported would
     be useful,  and it should provide the user the same level of information regardless of the path
    they choose through in the tutorial.

8. I found that any operations that modified any files in /opt/OnTimeMeasure/OnTimeControl
     failed due to privileges, the owner of the /opt/OnTimeMeasure/OnTimeControl directory is
     1007:1007.  When I loginas lnevers into the beacons to execute instructions, all operations
     requiring write privilege fail. Can the permissions be set for the user that owns the slice?
     Or should all operations be carried out via sudo?

9. Is it possible to use hostnames in the config.yaml?  I am asking because once the slice
     and sliver are started,  the information in flack and in beacon portals is for hostnames,
     so it takes extra effort to go figure out the IP addresses, which are not readily shown in
     web pages.

10. The section 3.2 is duplicated later in section 3.5. Remove Section 3.5?

11. Section 3.3. Would be nice to have some links in the introduction to measurement configuration
     files instructions.

12. Section 2.6 tells the user to "wait a while" and "wait time depends on how you configure
      measurement.yaml" .    If the intended tutorial audience is new OTM users, they will have
     no insight into this.  Should provide an expected time, (ex. 5 minutes)

13.  The URL page name is "Supervisor Status" for all Root and Node Beacons. If user has
        multiple pages open, the tabs all have the same name. Also book mark do not ID the
        Root vs the Nodes.

14. Section 5.1. should user be instructed to "cd /opt/OnTimeMeasure/OnTimeControl"
      before downloading the custom metrics files.

15. Syntax error in Section 7.6, the "connect connect pc355.emulab.net:61601" should have one of the
    *two* connects removed.

16. Section 7.6 instruction are confusing, user has to generate a table that maps NodeType to Hostname to IP Address:

        Root Beacon - hostname - ipaddress
        Node 1 - hostname - ipaddress
        Node 2 - hostname - ipaddress
        Node 3 - hostname - ipaddress

     Again, the user must find the IP addresses, which requires lookup, neither flack, nor supervisor pages, nor
      instools show addresses, readily.

17.  Section 7.6 " Invoke the following Gush command to configure OnTimeMeasure."
        The user must generate a table that maps NodeType to Hostname to IP Address and then map his/her table
        to the NodeType to Hostname to IP Address in the tutorial, in order to be able to edit the "sed" command
        instructions provided.  This is too much to expect from a user in a tutorial. It took me about 10 minutes to get
        this done.  Can this be scripted?

18.  Is the editing above required if the user has gone through the tutorial and already modified config.yaml?

19.  I could not get GUSH to connect to Root Beacon, after many attempts gave up.

20. Section 7.7 should instructions be executed while in the /opt/OnTimeMeasure/OnTimeControl directory?

21.  The general duration of the tutorial is expected to take about 1 hour.  I find this estimate a little
       hard to believe. Should consider revising estimate to longer run time expectations.

Please let me know if any items are not clear.

Regards,
Luisa