Los Nettos will be co-sponsoring a Translight/Pacificwave perfSONAR workshop, January 28-30, 2015, in the Los Angeles area. For more information on how to sign-up, contact admin@ln.net.
perfSONAR Deep Dive
January 28-30, 2014
Abstract
perfSONAR is a networking monitoring framework that assists with the discovery of soft network failures across end to end paths. perfSONAR version 3.4, an advancement from previous versions with support for many community requested features, was released in October of 2014.
perfSONAR is most useful when deployed on networks of interest: campus or laboratory networks that host scientific facilities or HPC resources, regional networks, backbone networks, and exchange points. Common barriers to adoption include:
• Complexity of deploying tools for common use cases
• Disconnect between availability of the tools, and how to use them for problem solving
• Questions regarding how well perfSONAR integrates into a modern IT environment (e.g. automation, security, impact on background traffic)
The perfSONAR Deep Dive was constructed to address these concerns with a mixture of education and hands-on deployment strategies.
Audience
The expected audience member is a network engineer that has previously deployed perfSONAR in a networking environment, but may never have dug into the underlying functionalities. The material is being designed to be intermediate in nature, and will touch on some advanced topics. Attendees will participate in the workshop actively: the end goal is to further perfSONAR deployment and use.
Preliminary Work
Participants are expected to complete some base tasks before arriving. Everyone must install perfSONAR Toolkit version 3.4 in the span of time before the workshop on resources they control. Advanced configuration is not needed, and the instructors will only assume the node or nodes will be remotely accessible to the participant. Only perfSONAR Toolkit 3.4 will be discussed; older versions of the software, as well as hand-built systems, are discouraged for this event.
Designating a regional champion will be discussed beforehand, and that person will help to coordinate the installation of the perfSONAR dashboard software on a virtual machine in a public location. This can be sponsored by one of the participating campuses, or a regional network. The goal of this machine will be to collected data from campus perfSONAR nodes that are initiating tests to each other, and display them for all interested parties in a public location.
Topics
The following topics are being discussed for this event. The goal will be to discuss, and then implement, each of these on the nodes that are located at each campus.
• Configuration of perfSONAR 3.4
• Mesh configuration strategies and the perfSONAR dashboard
• Integration with enterprise IT (NAGIOS, configuration management, log aggregation/analysis)
• Securing the perfSONAR Node
• Diagnostic use of perfSONAR
• Debugging end-to-end problems
Expected Outcomes
Every participate will leave with:
• A better understanding of how to configure and manage perfSONAR in an IT environment
• A completely functional perfSONAR node, participating in measurements to points of interest.
• A usable regional perfSONAR mesh that shows the results of tests between campuses, and to other points of interest
• Knowledge of the process needed to initiate multi-domain network debugging using perfSONAR
• An understanding of common network problems, and their respective signatures, as seen through perfSONAR tools