| 1 | [[PageOutline]] |
| 2 | |
| 3 | = GENI Desktop Project Status Report = |
| 4 | |
| 5 | Period: Post GEC 19 Report |
| 6 | |
| 7 | == I. Major accomplishments == |
| 8 | |
| 9 | The following highlights our accomplishments during the last reporting period. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | === A. Milestones achieved === |
| 12 | |
| 13 | * Integrate the GENI Desktop more tightly with the GENI portal, Flack and OMNI. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | * At GEC19, demonstrate the use of GENI Desktop and access to GENI infrastructure. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | === B. Deliverables made === |
| 18 | |
| 19 | * We developed several enhancements to the GENI Desktop -- many supporting what were GENI Portal functions -- and have posted the code |
| 20 | |
| 21 | * We continued to enhanced the GENI Desktop's interoperability with OMNI, ExoGENI, InstaGENI, and the iRods service |
| 22 | |
| 23 | == II. Description of work performed during last quarter == |
| 24 | |
| 25 | The following provides a description of the progress made during the last reporting period. |
| 26 | |
| 27 | === A. Activities and findings === |
| 28 | |
| 29 | Our activities this past reporting period have been focused on adding new |
| 30 | features to the GENI Desktop that enable it to better manage slices and to |
| 31 | better interoperate with Insta and Exo GENI racks. |
| 32 | |
| 33 | The biggest changes came in the form of enhancements to the slice list page |
| 34 | in the GENI Desktop. We made significant changes to its look and feel in |
| 35 | order to make it easier for users to interact with, and control, their |
| 36 | slices. |
| 37 | |
| 38 | The first change was to allow the user to determine which slices appear on |
| 39 | the page. Because users are often members of multiple projects, the system |
| 40 | allows them to view only slices belonging to a particular project. A |
| 41 | related change that we made was to limit the number of slices |
| 42 | that are displayed within a project. Because some users were members of |
| 43 | projects with many slices (sometimes numbering into the hundreds of slices), |
| 44 | we now allow users to select which slices from the project will be shown or |
| 45 | hidden. This allows users to easily focus on the slices that they are |
| 46 | working with at the moment. |
| 47 | |
| 48 | A second important change was the addition of slice operations that allow |
| 49 | users to perform slice operations that otherwise would have had to have been |
| 50 | performed on the GENI portal or in Flack. In particular, users can now create a |
| 51 | slice, assign an RSPEC to a slice (more on that later), and allocate the necessary |
| 52 | resources all from within the GENI Desktop. When a user is done with a |
| 53 | slice, the GENI Desktop can be used to delete the resources associated with a |
| 54 | slice. These operations are performed through the newly designed slice |
| 55 | description page. Each field on the page is "clickable" so that it can be |
| 56 | viewed in more detail and/or edited. New fields include an image |
| 57 | of the topology, an RSPEC field, an aggregate manager field, and an auto-renew |
| 58 | field. The slice status field and the next action field have also been |
| 59 | enhanced to better reflect the slice's current context/status. |
| 60 | |
| 61 | Users are now able to assign an RSPEC to a slice and have the GENI Desktop |
| 62 | instantiate the resources (sliver) specified by the RSPEC. Users can |
| 63 | contribute RSPECs to a public RSPEC list (available for anyone to use), or to |
| 64 | their own private list. When creating an RSPEC to be (re)used in the future, |
| 65 | the user can create a thumbnail image of the topology that will be displayed |
| 66 | along with the slice or while selecting and RSPEC to assign to a slice. This |
| 67 | gives users a visual representation of what the topology looks like so that |
| 68 | the user does not have to mentally parse the textual RSPEC to discover the |
| 69 | topology. To assign and RSPEC to a topology, users simply select from a list |
| 70 | of RSPECS, and can hover over any item in the list to find more information |
| 71 | about the RSPEC (e.g., the number of nodes in the RSPEC, a description of its |
| 72 | purpose/use/topology, information about its creator (if they choose to reveal |
| 73 | their identity), and the aggregate managers that are bound to the RSPEC. In |
| 74 | addition, users can search the lists for RSPECs containing a particular |
| 75 | search string. Another handy feature is the ability to "rebind" and RSPEC to |
| 76 | a different topology. For example if an RSPEC used resources at the |
| 77 | University of Utah, and we wanted to reuse the same RSPEC at the University |
| 78 | of Kentucky, then we would have the GENI Desktop "rebind" the RSPEC to the new |
| 79 | aggregate manager. |
| 80 | |
| 81 | A common problem experienced by users was slices unexpectedly expiring and |
| 82 | being deleted. To address this problem we added the ability for the GENI |
| 83 | Desktop to auto-renew a slice on a user's behalf as long as the GENI Desktop |
| 84 | window remained open. This ensures that slices will not time out as long as |
| 85 | they are working with them. It is particularly helpful with slices that have |
| 86 | short expiration times. |
| 87 | |
| 88 | We also made changes to the way logging is done and shown. There are now |
| 89 | logging windows for sliver creation results/logs and for instrumentation |
| 90 | results/logs. |
| 91 | |
| 92 | We continued to work with the control frameworks and adjust our code to work |
| 93 | with the latest changes in InstaGENI and ExoGENI racks. We also revised our |
| 94 | code to interoperate better with iRods via the GENI Desktop's archival functions. |
| 95 | We added a feedback/bug report link to send email to the GENI Desktop team, |
| 96 | as well as a FAQ to help people with common problems. |
| 97 | |
| 98 | === B. Project participants === |
| 99 | |
| 100 | The following individuals are involved with the project in one way or |
| 101 | another: |
| 102 | * Jim Griffioen - Project PI (Kentucky) |
| 103 | * Zongming Fei - Project Co-PI (Kentucky) |
| 104 | * Hussamuddin Nasir - Technician/Programmer (Kentucky) |
| 105 | * Charles Carpenter - Technician/Programmer (Kentucky) |
| 106 | * Xiongqi Wu - Ph.D. Student |
| 107 | * Jeremy Reed - Ph.D. Student |
| 108 | |
| 109 | === C. Publications (individual and organizational) === |
| 110 | |
| 111 | === D. Outreach activities === |
| 112 | |
| 113 | * We presented during the instrumentation and measurement meetings and |
| 114 | during the demo session at GEC 19 showing the enhancements |
| 115 | made to the GENI Desktop. |
| 116 | |
| 117 | === E. Collaborations === |
| 118 | |
| 119 | Most of our collaborations have been between the Kentucky team and the |
| 120 | Indiana team. We also continue to work with the GPO Portal team. |
| 121 | |
| 122 | === F. Other Contributions === |