| | 129 | * '''Topic: Swapping Slices Out''' |
| | 130 | - Emulab had a facility to "swap and experiment out" so that its resources could be reused by other experiments |
| | 131 | - Running applications/service in the experiment would be lost. |
| | 132 | - However, the experiment could be swapped back in at a later date. |
| | 133 | - After swapping in, all the resources and files would be restored to their pre-swap status. |
| | 134 | - You were not guaranteed to get the same resources again. |
| | 135 | - A similar facility would be nice for GENI slices |
| | 136 | - Swapping in/out is nice if the user is not working in their slice continually |
| | 137 | - Setting up an experiment is often time consuming. Being able to restore the state of a swapped experiment can save a lot of setup time. |
| | 138 | - GENI users are often frustrated (and surprised) by the fact that their slice expired and deleted all their resources (and files) |
| | 139 | - Issues: (While everyone saw the value of such a service, several issues were raised). |
| | 140 | - What entity is resposible for swapping the slice out? What entity is responsible for swapping a slice in? |
| | 141 | - Where will the state be stored while it is swapped out. |
| | 142 | - Many experiments require specific resources (or resources from specific aggregates). What happens if those resources are not available at swap in time? |
| | 143 | - How does the swap in process know how/where to restore state? |
| | 144 | - We can't restart processes that were running, can we? |
| | 145 | - To prevent a user from loosing state when their slice is about to expire, should the system automatically swap it out for them? |
| | 146 | - Alternatives: |
| | 147 | - Can the user just save their state away? Because running processes/services do not survive swap out/in, a GENI swap mechanism would only be saving the state which the user can do themselves. |
| | 148 | - Can we write scripts that save user state away for users? |
| | 149 | - Instead of swapping a user's experiment before it expires, why not just extend the expiration time? (This defeats the purpose of an expiration time). |
| | 150 | - No conclusions were reached and the topic was tabled for now. |
| | 151 | |
