1. Advanced Computing and Information Systems laboratory Virtual Appliances and Education using Clouds Dr. Renato Figueiredo ACIS Lab - University of Florida

2. Advanced Computing and Information Systems laboratory Background Traditional ways of delivering hands-on training and education in parallel/distributed computing have non-trivial dependences on the environment Difficult to replicate same environment on different resources (e.g. HPC clusters, desktops) Difficult to cope with changes in the environment (e.g. software upgrades) Virtualization technologies Remove key software dependences Allow packaging and replication of hands-on, executable educational environments Can be deployed, managed with cloud technologies 2

3. Advanced Computing and Information Systems laboratory Overview Virtual appliances Virtual networking Grid appliances and FutureGrid Support for classes in FutureGrid Demo 3

4. Advanced Computing and Information Systems laboratory Guiding principles Fidelity: activities should use full-fledged, executable software: education/training modules Learn using the proper tools Reproducibility: Creators of content should be able to install, configure, and test their modules once, and be assured of the same functional behavior regardless of where the module is deployed Incentive to invest effort in developing, testing and documenting new modules 4

5. Advanced Computing and Information Systems laboratory Guiding principles Deployability: Students and users should be able to deploy modules in a simple manner, and in a variety of resources Reduce barriers to entry; avoid dependences upon a particular infrastructure Interactive use Community-oriented: Modules should be simple to share, discover, reuse, and expand Create conditions for viral growth 5

6. Advanced Computing and Information Systems laboratory Role of clouds and portal Executable modules – virtual appliances Deployable on FutureGrid resources Deployable on other cloud platforms, as well as virtualized desktops Community sharing – Web 2.0 portal, appliance image repositories An aggregation hub for executable modules and documentation 6

7. Advanced Computing and Information Systems laboratory 7 What is an appliance? Hardware/software appliances TV receiver + computer + hard disk + Linux + user interface Computer + network interfaces + FreeBSD + user interface

8. Advanced Computing and Information Systems laboratory 8 Virtual appliance example Linux + Apache + MySQL + PHP copy instantiate LAMP image A web server Another Web server Repeat… Virtualization Layer

9. Advanced Computing and Information Systems laboratory Educational appliances A flexible, extensible platform for hands-on, lab-oriented education on FutureGrid Support clustering of resources Virtual machines + virtual networking to create sandboxed modules Virtual Grid appliances: self-contained, pre-packaged execution environments Group VPNs: simple management of virtual clusters by students and educators 9

10. Advanced Computing and Information Systems laboratory Virtual Networking A single appliance encapsulates software and configuration Cluster/Grid/Cloud computing Middleware expects a collection of machines, typically on a LAN (Local Area Network) Appliances need to communicate and coordinate with each other Each worker needs an IP address, uses TCP/IP sockets 10

11. Advanced Computing and Information Systems laboratory 11 Virtual cluster appliances Virtual appliance + virtual network copy instantiate Hadoop + Virtual Network A Hadoop worker Another Hadoop worker Repeat… Virtual machine Virtual network

12. Advanced Computing and Information Systems laboratory 12 Grid appliance in a nutshell Plug-and-play clusters with a pre- configured software environment Linux + (Hadoop, Condor, MPI, …) Scripts for zero-configuration Hands-on examples, bootstrap infrastructure, and zero-configuration software – youre off to a quick start

13. Advanced Computing and Information Systems laboratory 13 Virtual Network - GroupVPN Setting up and managing typical VPNs can be daunting VPN server(s), key distribution, NAT traversal GroupVPN makes it simple for users to create and manage virtual cluster VPNs Key insights: Web 2.0 interface: create/manage user groups All the complexity of setting up and managing VPN links is automated

14. Advanced Computing and Information Systems laboratory 14 Deploying virtual clusters Same image, different VPNs copy instantiate Hadoop + Virtual Network A Hadoop worker Another Hadoop worker Repeat… Virtual machine Group VPN GroupVPN Credentials (from Web site) Virtual IP - DHCP 10.10.1.1 Virtual IP - DHCP 10.10.1.2

15. Advanced Computing and Information Systems laboratory Support for classes on FutureGrid Classes are setup and managed using the FutureGrid portal Project proposal: can be a class, workshop, short course, tutorial Needs to be approved by FutureGrid project to become active Users can be added to a project Users create accounts using the portal Project leaders can authorize them to gain access to resources Students can then interactively use FG resources (e.g. to start VMs) 15

16. Advanced Computing and Information Systems laboratory Use of FutureGrid in classes Cloud computing/distributed systems classes U.of Florida, U. Central Florida, U. of Puerto Rico, Univ. of Piemonte Orientale (Italy), Univ. of Mostar (Croatia) Distributed scientific computing Louisiana State University Tutorials, workshops: Big Data for Science summer school A cloudy view on computing SC11 tutorial – Clouds for science Science Cloud Summer School (this month) 16

17. Advanced Computing and Information Systems laboratory Cloud computing classes Massimo Canonico, U. Piemonte Orientale Difficulties to overcome: Hardware issues: find enough free physical machines able to host virtual machines Software issues: time to install/configure as many as possible different cloud platforms University was not able to provide me the necessary hardware and software support Students started to play with FutureGrid After attending few lessons, they were able to start/stop virtual instance with several Cloud Computing platforms 17

18. Advanced Computing and Information Systems laboratory Cloud computing classes Students used Eucalyptus, OpenStack and Nimbus Half were not computer scientists. As FutureGrid freely shares their physical machines and their cloud platforms, decided to freely share all materials of my class. Hands-out, configuration files and link to useful documentation are available https://portal.futuregrid.org/contrib/cloud- computing-class 18

19. Advanced Computing and Information Systems laboratory Cloud computing classes Graduate-level Cloud computing for Data-Intensive Sciences (Judy Qiu, Fall 2010) Virtualization technologies and tools Infrastructure as a service Parallel programming (MPI, Hadoop) FutureGrid provided a set of software options that made it possible for students to work on different projects along the system stack. 19

20. Advanced Computing and Information Systems laboratory Cloud Storage #8 Cloud Storage Survey (Xiaoming, Nixiaogang) Cloud Storage #8 Cloud Storage Survey (Xiaoming, Nixiaogang) Iterative MapReduce #3 LDA (Changsi, Yang) #4 MemCache (Saliya, Yiming,Jerome) #5 Avro (Yuduo, Yuan, patanachai) #6 PageRank (Shuo-Huan,Parag) Iterative MapReduce #3 LDA (Changsi, Yang) #4 MemCache (Saliya, Yiming,Jerome) #5 Avro (Yuduo, Yuan, patanachai) #6 PageRank (Shuo-Huan,Parag) Virtualization #9 Hypervisor Performance Analysis Project (James, Andrew) Virtualization #9 Hypervisor Performance Analysis Project (James, Andrew) Cloud Platform Cloud Infrastructu re Cloud Infrastructure #7 Nimbus, Eucalyptus (Stephen, Sonali, Shakeela) Cloud Infrastructure #7 Nimbus, Eucalyptus (Stephen, Sonali, Shakeela) Hypervisor/ Virtualizatio n Dryad/DryadLINQ #1 Matrix Multiplication (Swapnil,Amit,Pradnay) #2 PhyloD (Ratul,Adrija,Chengming) Dryad/DryadLINQ #1 Matrix Multiplication (Swapnil,Amit,Pradnay) #2 PhyloD (Ratul,Adrija,Chengming) Higher Level Languages Term Projects (Slide courtesy of Judy Qiu)

21. Advanced Computing and Information Systems laboratory University of Arkansas Indiana University University of California at Los Angeles Penn State Iowa State Univ.Illinois at Chicago University of Minnesota Michigan State Notre Dame University of Texas at El Paso IBM Almaden Research Center Washington University San Diego Supercomputer Center University of Florida Johns Hopkins July 26-30, 2010 NCSA Summer School Workshop http://salsahpc.indiana.edu/tutorial 300+ Students (200 on sites from 10 institutes; 100 online) IU MapReduce and UF Virtual Appliance technologies are supported by FutureGrid. (Slide courtesy of Judy Qiu) Big Data for Science

22. Advanced Computing and Information Systems laboratory 22 Demonstration Deploying virtual appliance node on FutureGrid (Nimbus @ Alamo) Connecting to virtual machine Virtual networking Running sample job

23. Advanced Computing and Information Systems laboratory 23 Demonstration Pre-instantiated VM to save us time: cloud-client.sh --conf alamo.conf --run --name grid-appliance-2.05.03.gz --hours 24 Connect to VM ssh root@VMip Check virtual network interface ifconfig Ping other VMs in the virtual cluster Submit Condor job

24. Advanced Computing and Information Systems laboratory 24 Uploading and sharing images APIs available to upload images, customize, save, and share images Community education pages are available FutureGrid Web portal allows users to publish their own content Tutorials, presentations on Web portal; VMs on image repositories

25. Advanced Computing and Information Systems laboratory 25 Where to go from here? Tutorials on FutureGrid and Grid appliance Web sites for various middleware stacks Condor, MPI, Hadoop A community resource for educational virtual appliances Success hinges on users effectively getting involved If you are happy with the system, let others know! Contribute with your own content – virtual appliance images, tutorials, etc

26. Advanced Computing and Information Systems laboratory 26 Questions? More information: BOF: tomorrow 4:45pm, Burnham (8 th floor) http://www.futuregrid.org http://grid-appliance.org This document was developed with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. 0910812 to Indiana University for "FutureGrid: An Experimental, High-Performance Grid Test-bed." Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF