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Posted to user@vcl.apache.org by "Sanders, Arbin D" <as...@NCCU.EDU> on 2012/05/10 02:19:19 UTC
Other Uses for VCL
All,
I am apologize in advance for posting to both groups but I think each one has its own unique info and opinions. As NCCU goes into the new fiscal year, I am looking at acquiring more hardware and software for NCCU VCL project. Do any of you all have other uses for VCL other than HPC and Virtual Desktops?
Thanks in advance!
Arbin Darren Sanders
IT Manager - Academic Computing
North Carolina Central University
712 Cecil Street
Suite 3014
Durham, NC 27707
919.530.6307
919.530.5097 (Fax)
For the Latest ITS Updates and Tips Join Us Online [cid:image001.png@01CD2E20.44BC8890] <http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=66100342#!/pages/Durham-NC/NCCU-Eagle-Technical-Assistance-Center-ETAC/249508718552?v=info> [cid:image002.png@01CD2E20.44BC8890] <http://twitter.com/NCCUETAC>
CONFIDENTIALITY: This email (including any attachments) may contain confidential, proprietary and privileged information, and unauthorized disclosure or use is prohibited. If you received this email in error, please notify the sender and delete this e-mail from your system.
______________________________________________________________________
This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service.
For more information please visit http://www.symanteccloud.com
______________________________________________________________________
Re: Other Uses for VCL
Posted by Andy Kurth <an...@ncsu.edu>.
NCSU is seeing increasing interest in using VCL for day-to-day operational
IT tasks. We are currently investigating the feasibility of using VCL to
manage some of the university's ERP infrastructure. If things pan out, I
envision a future version of Apache VCL to include some seriously cool
configuration management features -- possibly some integration with Puppet,
Chef, etc.
The current version (2.2.1) and the upcoming 2.3 already include
functionality beyond HPC and VDI applications. One example... in the past
year, NCSU has used VCL to migrate the data in our legacy campus-wide
Groupwise email system to Google. We were supplied with a utility to
migrate accounts and data from Groupwise to Google. Running this
utility to migrate all of the data on a single computer or even a small
farm of servers would have taken several months if not years. Turns out
the main limiting factor was a throttle imposed by Google per IP address
for the computers doing the migration. Using VCL, we created an image
containing the utility and were able to easily load it on as many VMs as we
needed. We loaded up approximately 60 VMs to perform the migration, let it
run, and completed the migration in a fraction of the time it would have
taken otherwise. Since we usually run the most current code available in
production, we used the new server request feature in 2.3 to make the
reservations though normal reservations would have also worked.
Another project involves using Elluminate Live software (recently bought
out by blackboard). The software has a manager node and 1 or more server
nodes. We created a VCL image for the manager and one for the server. The
manager is loaded as a very long-term reservation. I wrote a daemon in
Perl which runs on the manager. It checks the number of upcoming sessions
that need to be hosted by the servers and uses the VCL XML-RPC API to
dynamically load additional servers as needed. It also ends server
reservations when demand is reduced.
Hope this helps,
Andy
On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 8:19 PM, Sanders, Arbin D <as...@nccu.edu> wrote:
> All,****
>
> ** **
>
> I am apologize in advance for posting to both groups but I think each one
> has its own unique info and opinions. As NCCU goes into the new fiscal
> year, I am looking at acquiring more hardware and software for NCCU VCL
> project. Do any of you all have other uses for VCL other than HPC and
> Virtual Desktops?****
>
> ** **
>
> Thanks in advance!****
>
> ** **
>
> *Arbin Darren Sanders*****
>
> ****
>
> IT Manager – Academic Computing****
>
> North Carolina Central University****
>
> 712 Cecil Street****
>
> Suite 3014****
>
> Durham, NC 27707****
>
> 919.530.6307****
>
> 919.530.5097 (Fax)****
>
> ** **
>
> *For the Latest ITS Updates and Tips Join Us Online** ** **[image:
> Description: Description: Description: Description:
> cid:image003.png@01CB6AD0.97665900]*<http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=66100342#!/pages/Durham-NC/NCCU-Eagle-Technical-Assistance-Center-ETAC/249508718552?v=info>
> * *[image: Description: Description: Description: Description:
> cid:image004.png@01CB6AD0.97665900] <http://twitter.com/NCCUETAC>****
>
> ****
>
> CONFIDENTIALITY: This email (including any attachments) may contain
> confidential, proprietary and privileged information, and unauthorized
> disclosure or use is prohibited. If you received this email in error,
> please notify the sender and delete this e-mail from your system.****
>
> ** **
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service.
> For more information please visit http://www.symanteccloud.com
> ______________________________________________________________________
>
RE: Other Uses for VCL
Posted by "Sanders, Arbin D" <as...@NCCU.EDU>.
Thank you Guys for all the info. This gives me something to think about and plan for our ever-growing
VCL cloud.
Arbin Darren Sanders
IT Manager - Academic Computing
North Carolina Central University
712 Cecil Street
Suite 3014
Durham, NC 27707
919.530.6307
919.530.5097 (Fax)
For the Latest ITS Updates and Tips Join Us Online
CONFIDENTIALITY: This email (including any attachments) may contain confidential, proprietary and privileged information, and unauthorized disclosure or use is prohibited. If you received this email in error, please notify the sender and delete this e-mail from your system.
-----Original Message-----
From: Henry Schaffer [mailto:hes@ncsu.edu]
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2012 10:46 AM
To: vcl-dev@incubator.apache.org
Cc: vcl-user@incubator.apache.org
Subject: Re: Other Uses for VCL
Andy mentioned the VCL running Elluminate Live in one context - we also are using the VCL with Elluminate in a Disaster Recovery mode in an interesting way.
If the campus is closed for any reason [insert any disaster scenario here] and it is desired to continue teaching face to face courses (which are the majority of all of our courses) this can be done online. That is, this can be done online if we have a sufficient number of synchronous meeting servers available (we've been using Elluminate, but it could be any such
software.)
How many servers? Dozens, hundreds? It makes no financial sense to buy and install them and keep them there "just in case". Here's where the VCL can take over and handle this - with one image of the server software in storage. When required, it can be loaded on any number of servers and the instructors and students can all be online from home and the courses continue.
Of course, this use would displace some other uses - and that has to be arranged - but most of the student use for homework and projects is somewhat flexible - and likely can be displaced into the 10pm-10am lower use half of the day. The degree to which some uses are displaced to make place for others is a policy issue, and the VCL can be used for this.
--henry
On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 8:19 PM, Sanders, Arbin D <as...@nccu.edu> wrote:
> All,****
>
> ** **
>
> I am apologize in advance for posting to both groups but I think each
> one has its own unique info and opinions. As NCCU goes into the new
> fiscal year, I am looking at acquiring more hardware and software for
> NCCU VCL project. Do any of you all have other uses for VCL other than
> HPC and Virtual Desktops?****
>
> ** **
>
> Thanks in advance!****
>
> ** **
>
> *Arbin Darren Sanders*
>
______________________________________________________________________
This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service.
For more information please visit http://www.symanteccloud.com ______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service.
For more information please visit http://www.symanteccloud.com
______________________________________________________________________
RE: Other Uses for VCL
Posted by "Sanders, Arbin D" <as...@NCCU.EDU>.
Thank you Guys for all the info. This gives me something to think about and plan for our ever-growing
VCL cloud.
Arbin Darren Sanders
IT Manager - Academic Computing
North Carolina Central University
712 Cecil Street
Suite 3014
Durham, NC 27707
919.530.6307
919.530.5097 (Fax)
For the Latest ITS Updates and Tips Join Us Online
CONFIDENTIALITY: This email (including any attachments) may contain confidential, proprietary and privileged information, and unauthorized disclosure or use is prohibited. If you received this email in error, please notify the sender and delete this e-mail from your system.
-----Original Message-----
From: Henry Schaffer [mailto:hes@ncsu.edu]
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2012 10:46 AM
To: vcl-dev@incubator.apache.org
Cc: vcl-user@incubator.apache.org
Subject: Re: Other Uses for VCL
Andy mentioned the VCL running Elluminate Live in one context - we also are using the VCL with Elluminate in a Disaster Recovery mode in an interesting way.
If the campus is closed for any reason [insert any disaster scenario here] and it is desired to continue teaching face to face courses (which are the majority of all of our courses) this can be done online. That is, this can be done online if we have a sufficient number of synchronous meeting servers available (we've been using Elluminate, but it could be any such
software.)
How many servers? Dozens, hundreds? It makes no financial sense to buy and install them and keep them there "just in case". Here's where the VCL can take over and handle this - with one image of the server software in storage. When required, it can be loaded on any number of servers and the instructors and students can all be online from home and the courses continue.
Of course, this use would displace some other uses - and that has to be arranged - but most of the student use for homework and projects is somewhat flexible - and likely can be displaced into the 10pm-10am lower use half of the day. The degree to which some uses are displaced to make place for others is a policy issue, and the VCL can be used for this.
--henry
On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 8:19 PM, Sanders, Arbin D <as...@nccu.edu> wrote:
> All,****
>
> ** **
>
> I am apologize in advance for posting to both groups but I think each
> one has its own unique info and opinions. As NCCU goes into the new
> fiscal year, I am looking at acquiring more hardware and software for
> NCCU VCL project. Do any of you all have other uses for VCL other than
> HPC and Virtual Desktops?****
>
> ** **
>
> Thanks in advance!****
>
> ** **
>
> *Arbin Darren Sanders*
>
______________________________________________________________________
This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service.
For more information please visit http://www.symanteccloud.com ______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service.
For more information please visit http://www.symanteccloud.com
______________________________________________________________________
Re: Other Uses for VCL
Posted by Henry Schaffer <he...@ncsu.edu>.
Andy mentioned the VCL running Elluminate Live in one context - we also are
using the VCL with Elluminate in a Disaster Recovery mode in an interesting
way.
If the campus is closed for any reason [insert any disaster scenario here]
and it is desired to continue teaching face to face courses (which are the
majority of all of our courses) this can be done online. That is, this can
be done online if we have a sufficient number of synchronous meeting
servers available (we've been using Elluminate, but it could be any such
software.)
How many servers? Dozens, hundreds? It makes no financial sense to buy and
install them and keep them there "just in case". Here's where the VCL can
take over and handle this - with one image of the server software in
storage. When required, it can be loaded on any number of servers and the
instructors and students can all be online from home and the courses
continue.
Of course, this use would displace some other uses - and that has to be
arranged - but most of the student use for homework and projects is
somewhat flexible - and likely can be displaced into the 10pm-10am lower
use half of the day. The degree to which some uses are displaced to make
place for others is a policy issue, and the VCL can be used for this.
--henry
On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 8:19 PM, Sanders, Arbin D <as...@nccu.edu> wrote:
> All,****
>
> ** **
>
> I am apologize in advance for posting to both groups but I think each one
> has its own unique info and opinions. As NCCU goes into the new fiscal
> year, I am looking at acquiring more hardware and software for NCCU VCL
> project. Do any of you all have other uses for VCL other than HPC and
> Virtual Desktops?****
>
> ** **
>
> Thanks in advance!****
>
> ** **
>
> *Arbin Darren Sanders*
>
Re: Other Uses for VCL
Posted by Mark Gardner <mk...@vt.edu>.
I am considering using it as a platform for custom portals for various
research and department projects.
Mark
On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 8:19 PM, Sanders, Arbin D <as...@nccu.edu> wrote:
> All,****
>
> ** **
>
> I am apologize in advance for posting to both groups but I think each one
> has its own unique info and opinions. As NCCU goes into the new fiscal
> year, I am looking at acquiring more hardware and software for NCCU VCL
> project. Do any of you all have other uses for VCL other than HPC and
> Virtual Desktops?****
>
> ** **
>
> Thanks in advance!****
>
> ** **
>
> *Arbin Darren Sanders*****
>
> ****
>
> IT Manager – Academic Computing****
>
> North Carolina Central University****
>
> 712 Cecil Street****
>
> Suite 3014****
>
> Durham, NC 27707****
>
> 919.530.6307****
>
> 919.530.5097 (Fax)****
>
> ** **
>
> *For the Latest ITS Updates and Tips Join Us Online** ** **[image:
> Description: Description: Description: Description:
> cid:image003.png@01CB6AD0.97665900]*<http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=66100342#!/pages/Durham-NC/NCCU-Eagle-Technical-Assistance-Center-ETAC/249508718552?v=info>
> * *[image: Description: Description: Description: Description:
> cid:image004.png@01CB6AD0.97665900] <http://twitter.com/NCCUETAC>****
>
> ****
>
> CONFIDENTIALITY: This email (including any attachments) may contain
> confidential, proprietary and privileged information, and unauthorized
> disclosure or use is prohibited. If you received this email in error,
> please notify the sender and delete this e-mail from your system.****
>
> ** **
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service.
> For more information please visit http://www.symanteccloud.com
> ______________________________________________________________________
>
--
Mark Gardner
--
Re: Other Uses for VCL
Posted by Art Vandenberg <av...@gsu.edu>.
Arbin,
Check out presentation at http://www.ibm.com/ibm/files/E214972Z89042V83/VandenbergSession2Paper2.pdf
.
If you like, I can send you a copy of the full paper on using VCL as a
way to have a SURAgrid VO Job-Submit client for accessing resources of
the Open Science Grid. But a basic premise is: VCL allows testing,
verification of software installs, etc.
Art
Art Vandenberg
Account Manager/Research Function
Customer Relations, IS&T
Information Systems & Technology
Georgia State University
avandenberg@gsu.edu
+1 404 413 4743
MS Information & Computer Science, Georgia Tech
MVA Painting & Drawing, Georgia State
http://www.gsu.edu/ist/research-computing/art-vandenberg.html
On May 9, 2012, at 8:19 PM, Sanders, Arbin D wrote:
> All,
>
> I am apologize in advance for posting to both groups but I think
> each one has its own unique info and opinions. As NCCU goes into the
> new fiscal year, I am looking at acquiring more hardware and
> software for NCCU VCL project. Do any of you all have other uses for
> VCL other than HPC and Virtual Desktops?
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> Arbin Darren Sanders
>
> IT Manager – Academic Computing
> North Carolina Central University
> 712 Cecil Street
> Suite 3014
> Durham, NC 27707
> 919.530.6307
> 919.530.5097 (Fax)
>
> For the Latest ITS Updates and Tips Join Us Online
>
> CONFIDENTIALITY: This email (including any attachments) may contain
> confidential, proprietary and privileged information, and
> unauthorized disclosure or use is prohibited. If you received this
> email in error, please notify the sender and delete this e-mail from
> your system.
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud
> service.
> For more information please visit http://www.symanteccloud.com
> ______________________________________________________________________
Art Vandenberg
Account Manager/Research Function
Customer Relations, IS&T
Information Systems & Technology
Georgia State University
avandenberg@gsu.edu
+1 404 413 4743
MS Information & Computer Science, Georgia Tech
MVA Painting & Drawing, Georgia State
http://www.gsu.edu/ist/research-computing/art-vandenberg.html
Re: Other Uses for VCL
Posted by Henry Schaffer <he...@ncsu.edu>.
Andy mentioned the VCL running Elluminate Live in one context - we also are
using the VCL with Elluminate in a Disaster Recovery mode in an interesting
way.
If the campus is closed for any reason [insert any disaster scenario here]
and it is desired to continue teaching face to face courses (which are the
majority of all of our courses) this can be done online. That is, this can
be done online if we have a sufficient number of synchronous meeting
servers available (we've been using Elluminate, but it could be any such
software.)
How many servers? Dozens, hundreds? It makes no financial sense to buy and
install them and keep them there "just in case". Here's where the VCL can
take over and handle this - with one image of the server software in
storage. When required, it can be loaded on any number of servers and the
instructors and students can all be online from home and the courses
continue.
Of course, this use would displace some other uses - and that has to be
arranged - but most of the student use for homework and projects is
somewhat flexible - and likely can be displaced into the 10pm-10am lower
use half of the day. The degree to which some uses are displaced to make
place for others is a policy issue, and the VCL can be used for this.
--henry
On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 8:19 PM, Sanders, Arbin D <as...@nccu.edu> wrote:
> All,****
>
> ** **
>
> I am apologize in advance for posting to both groups but I think each one
> has its own unique info and opinions. As NCCU goes into the new fiscal
> year, I am looking at acquiring more hardware and software for NCCU VCL
> project. Do any of you all have other uses for VCL other than HPC and
> Virtual Desktops?****
>
> ** **
>
> Thanks in advance!****
>
> ** **
>
> *Arbin Darren Sanders*
>
Re: Other Uses for VCL
Posted by Mark Gardner <mk...@vt.edu>.
I am considering using it as a platform for custom portals for various
research and department projects.
Mark
On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 8:19 PM, Sanders, Arbin D <as...@nccu.edu> wrote:
> All,****
>
> ** **
>
> I am apologize in advance for posting to both groups but I think each one
> has its own unique info and opinions. As NCCU goes into the new fiscal
> year, I am looking at acquiring more hardware and software for NCCU VCL
> project. Do any of you all have other uses for VCL other than HPC and
> Virtual Desktops?****
>
> ** **
>
> Thanks in advance!****
>
> ** **
>
> *Arbin Darren Sanders*****
>
> ****
>
> IT Manager – Academic Computing****
>
> North Carolina Central University****
>
> 712 Cecil Street****
>
> Suite 3014****
>
> Durham, NC 27707****
>
> 919.530.6307****
>
> 919.530.5097 (Fax)****
>
> ** **
>
> *For the Latest ITS Updates and Tips Join Us Online** ** **[image:
> Description: Description: Description: Description:
> cid:image003.png@01CB6AD0.97665900]*<http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=66100342#!/pages/Durham-NC/NCCU-Eagle-Technical-Assistance-Center-ETAC/249508718552?v=info>
> * *[image: Description: Description: Description: Description:
> cid:image004.png@01CB6AD0.97665900] <http://twitter.com/NCCUETAC>****
>
> ****
>
> CONFIDENTIALITY: This email (including any attachments) may contain
> confidential, proprietary and privileged information, and unauthorized
> disclosure or use is prohibited. If you received this email in error,
> please notify the sender and delete this e-mail from your system.****
>
> ** **
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service.
> For more information please visit http://www.symanteccloud.com
> ______________________________________________________________________
>
--
Mark Gardner
--
Re: Other Uses for VCL
Posted by Andy Kurth <an...@ncsu.edu>.
NCSU is seeing increasing interest in using VCL for day-to-day operational
IT tasks. We are currently investigating the feasibility of using VCL to
manage some of the university's ERP infrastructure. If things pan out, I
envision a future version of Apache VCL to include some seriously cool
configuration management features -- possibly some integration with Puppet,
Chef, etc.
The current version (2.2.1) and the upcoming 2.3 already include
functionality beyond HPC and VDI applications. One example... in the past
year, NCSU has used VCL to migrate the data in our legacy campus-wide
Groupwise email system to Google. We were supplied with a utility to
migrate accounts and data from Groupwise to Google. Running this
utility to migrate all of the data on a single computer or even a small
farm of servers would have taken several months if not years. Turns out
the main limiting factor was a throttle imposed by Google per IP address
for the computers doing the migration. Using VCL, we created an image
containing the utility and were able to easily load it on as many VMs as we
needed. We loaded up approximately 60 VMs to perform the migration, let it
run, and completed the migration in a fraction of the time it would have
taken otherwise. Since we usually run the most current code available in
production, we used the new server request feature in 2.3 to make the
reservations though normal reservations would have also worked.
Another project involves using Elluminate Live software (recently bought
out by blackboard). The software has a manager node and 1 or more server
nodes. We created a VCL image for the manager and one for the server. The
manager is loaded as a very long-term reservation. I wrote a daemon in
Perl which runs on the manager. It checks the number of upcoming sessions
that need to be hosted by the servers and uses the VCL XML-RPC API to
dynamically load additional servers as needed. It also ends server
reservations when demand is reduced.
Hope this helps,
Andy
On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 8:19 PM, Sanders, Arbin D <as...@nccu.edu> wrote:
> All,****
>
> ** **
>
> I am apologize in advance for posting to both groups but I think each one
> has its own unique info and opinions. As NCCU goes into the new fiscal
> year, I am looking at acquiring more hardware and software for NCCU VCL
> project. Do any of you all have other uses for VCL other than HPC and
> Virtual Desktops?****
>
> ** **
>
> Thanks in advance!****
>
> ** **
>
> *Arbin Darren Sanders*****
>
> ****
>
> IT Manager – Academic Computing****
>
> North Carolina Central University****
>
> 712 Cecil Street****
>
> Suite 3014****
>
> Durham, NC 27707****
>
> 919.530.6307****
>
> 919.530.5097 (Fax)****
>
> ** **
>
> *For the Latest ITS Updates and Tips Join Us Online** ** **[image:
> Description: Description: Description: Description:
> cid:image003.png@01CB6AD0.97665900]*<http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=66100342#!/pages/Durham-NC/NCCU-Eagle-Technical-Assistance-Center-ETAC/249508718552?v=info>
> * *[image: Description: Description: Description: Description:
> cid:image004.png@01CB6AD0.97665900] <http://twitter.com/NCCUETAC>****
>
> ****
>
> CONFIDENTIALITY: This email (including any attachments) may contain
> confidential, proprietary and privileged information, and unauthorized
> disclosure or use is prohibited. If you received this email in error,
> please notify the sender and delete this e-mail from your system.****
>
> ** **
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service.
> For more information please visit http://www.symanteccloud.com
> ______________________________________________________________________
>