Henry E. Schaffer Coordinator of Special IT Projects

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Henry E. SchafferCoordinator of Special IT
Projects Faculty Collaboration/OITProfessor
Emeritus of Genetics and BiomathematicsSarah R.
SteinVCL Academic Outreach and
Collaboration/OITAssociate Professor of
Communication

• NC State University

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Origins

• Problems we faced at NC State
• Timely inclusion of new software in lab image
  relationships between instructors and lab staff
• Conflicts between 50 apps in lab image (".dll
  wars")
• Resulting effort ? delays (sometimes months)

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Problems

• Costs to students of high-end apps - making them
  dependent on labs
• Assumption students don't all have the newest,
  most powerful personally owned computers
• Reality students (nearly) all own or have access
  to some computer
• Reality many different models/configurations/ages
  /capabilities of student computers

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Problems

• Access at night - 24 hour access - safety issues
• Distance students can't get to the campus labs
  (actually we didn't think of that at first.
• Why not? -)
• New software versions - instructors affected by
  move/don't-move decisions
• Early adopters vs. caution

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Problems

• Installation differs due to non-uniformity of lab
  computers
• Additional work for staff
• Instructors expect uniformity

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Considerations

• very low project budget ? maximize use of Open
  Source software
• write "glue code" in LAMP environment
• remember important engineering principle KISS
• had IBM Blade Center in use for HPC
• CapEx vs. OpEx
• CapEx amortization - i.e. lifetime

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Considerations

• had expertise in Engineering - Computer Science
  and central IT
• Team includes Sam Averitt, Mikhail Bugaev, Marc
  Hoit, Andy Kurth, Aaron Peeler, Henry Schaffer,
  Sarah Stein, Eric Sills, Josh Thompson, Mladen
  Vouk - but only 3 FTE

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Overview of the VCL (the Virtual Computer-Lab)
Solution

• bring the lab to the student - over the internet
  ("virtually")
• Anytime, anywhere
• From any user computer - Windows/Mac/Linux
• focus on high end software - works well with
  almost any software
• make an image with one major app - always works!
  -)

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Overview

• extra privileges - incl. root / Administrator,
  with extra security
• http//vcl.ncsu.edu/

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Architecture - an overview
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Architecture
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Architecture - Uses
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Architecture - Flexibility
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What is the Result?

• Students get
• Anytime, anywhere
• Regardless of user platform
• Same app for all
• Choice of apps
• Can use both networked and local storage

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What is the Result?

• Instructor gets
• Uniform platform for all students
• Multiple version availability
• Quick changes/updates/customization
• Instructor can do it herself

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What is the result?

• Staff gets
• Smoother operation
• Fewer compatibility problems
• More satisfied instructors
• Fewer customization requests
• Good or better security with fewer restrictions

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What is the result?

• Campus gets
• Support for on campus and distance learning
• Longer life cycle
• Lower TCO
• Economies of Scale
• More effective license administration
• Greater Flexibility
• Open Source benefits
• Cloud Computing in 2004

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Advantages

• How/Why we get improved service at lower cost
  (costs include personnel, hardware, software)
• Self-service to faculty - very low training need
• Responsiveness to faculty/class needs
• With minimal staff load
• 7x24x365

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Advantages

• Sharing infrastructure (and costs) with HPC (out
  of phase use!)
• Operations and Maintenance experience - economies
  of scale!
• Multiple software version availability
• Availability of root/Administrator
• Additional features - clusters, semester long
  reservations, etc. (opens new pedagogical
  opportunities)

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Limitations

• Network latency/speed video
• Video editing is not a good fit
• Some applications require specialized computer
  hardware (e.g. graphics cards)
• Cultural acceptance of remote shared provision
  (more below)
• (Offsetting this are opportunities for IT to move
  up "the food chain", partnership in pedagogy)
• Open Source support

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Barriers - especially Cultural Barriers

• Adoption of the new
• Cloud - can't touch it, feel it, see it
• Changes relationships with instructors and users
• Need to let go of the traditional
• Traditional methods are comfortable
• Moving to the new, but dont get the economies if
  keep all the traditional

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Opportunity for a Walk-Through

• http//vcl.ncsu.edu/
• FAQ on left
• The Info Corner lower right
• See it as a user
• Select login with non-NCSU account
• Create an account
• Make a Reservation, etc.
• Instructor View has more options

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VCL Screen Grabs Home Page
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New Reservation Page
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Reservation Page Image Menu
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Conclusions

• Economical, affordable, scalable, shareable
• Broadly useful not a panacea
• Open Source - Apache
• http//vcl.ncsu.edu/apache-vcl/
• Production status plus many pilots moving to
  production
• NC State - Spring Semester 2009 61,862
  reservations - 107,139 hours - 6,336 unique users

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Conclusions

• You are welcome to try!
• Get involved in the Apache VCL Community!
• http//cwiki.apache.org/VCL/
• VCL Home Page http//vcl.ncsu.edu/
• IEEE Computer July 2009 pp 94-97 NCSUs Virtual
  Computing Lab A Cloud Computing Solution

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Thank You!

• NC State University
• Henry Schaffer
• hes_at_ncsu.edu
• Sarah Stein
• sarah_stein_at_ncsu.edu