Henry E. SchafferCoordinator of Special IT Projects & Faculty Collaboration/OIT

Professor Emeritus of Genetics and Biomathematics

Sarah R. SteinVCL Academic Outreach and Collaboration/OIT

Associate 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 don’t 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 “NCSU’s

Virtual Computing Lab: A Cloud Computing Solution”

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Thank You!

NC State University• Henry Schaffer– hes@ncsu.edu

• Sarah Stein– sarah_stein@ncsu.edu

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