running a class: account management
DESCRIPTION
Running a class: Account Management. Sarah Edwards GENI Project Office. Creating a GENI account. GENI Portal is at: https:// portal.geni.net Anyone with an account at a supported identity provider (usually your school or employer) can log in, but they will have no privileges - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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Running a class:Account Management
Sarah EdwardsGENI Project Office
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Creating a GENI account• GENI Portal is at:
https://portal.geni.net • Anyone with an account at a supported identity
provider (usually your school or employer) can log in, but they will have no privileges
• If you don’t have such an account, we will make you an account at the GPO Identity Provider
• You must be a member of a project to do anything interesting
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InCommon
For many experimenters:• no new passwords• familiar login screens
Leverage InCommon forsingle sign-on authentication
Experimenters from 304 educational and research institutions have InCommon accounts
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Gaining access to GENI
How will students login to the GENI Experimenter Portal?
1. If your institution is a member of InCommon and it releases the appropriate attributes … … then students can “just log in” using their institution username/password
2. If your school is a member of InCommon and it does not release the appropriate attributes (eg e-mail) …… then we can work with your campus IT to enable the R&S Category so students can “just log in”
3. If none of the above apply, students can get accounts via the GPO Identity Provider (IdP)
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Projects
Projects organize research in GENI
ProjectLead
Members
Slice
Projects contain both people and their experimentsA project is led by a single responsible individual:
the project lead
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Creating Projects• Only project leads can create projects.• Project names are public, unique and
permanent• A project may contain many experimenters;
an experimenter may be a member of many projects
• Projects have an optional expiration (e.g. for classes, tutorials)–For classes it is recommended to have
the project expire at the end of the class.
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Project Membership exampleProjects have 1 Lead and any number of Admins, Members, and Auditors
http://groups.geni.net/geni/wiki/GENIConcepts#Project
Typical Class
Expiration
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Slice Membership exampleSlices have 1 Lead and any number of Admins, Members, and AuditorsThe Slice Lead defaults to the person who created the sliceBy default, the Project Lead is added to all slices as a Slice Member
http://groups.geni.net/geni/wiki/GENIConcepts#Slice
Research AsstSlice Lead
Research AsstSlice Lead
Post-DocSlice Member
ProfessorSlice Admin
ProfessorSlice Admin
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Project and Slice RolesCreate project
Modify project & manage membership
Create slice View project
Project
Lead * ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔Admin * ✔ ✔ ✔Member ✔ ✔
Auditor ✔Manage slice membership
Act on slice View slice Account/ keys loaded on slice
Slice
Lead ** ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔Admin * ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔Member ✔ ✔ ✔Auditor ✔ ✔
* By default, Project Lead/Admins are added to all slices as a Slice Admin ** The Slice Lead defaults to the person who created the slice
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Join a projectTwo options for adding experimenters to a project
1. Member-initiated: Each experimenter requests to join the project and is approved one at a time • Typically used for Research projects
2. Admin-initiated: Project Lead or Admin bulk uploads experimenters en masse• Typically used for Classrooms or Tutorials
Member-initiated• On Home page,
Experimenter selects “Join a Project” button
• picks a project to join and • the Lead/Admin approves
the request
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Bulk Upload Members to a Project1. On the project page, the Lead or Admin clicks Bulk Add New
Members2. Then uploads a CSV file with one line for each studentCSV file format:
email, name, [optional: role = Admin, Member(Default), Auditor]
[email protected], Niky Riga, [email protected], Sarah [email protected], Vic Thomas
Admin-initiated bulk upload
Added to project immediatelyInvited to join project
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Running a class:Lab Management
Niky RigaGENI Project Office
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Exercises – Assignments Available Exercises Create your own Slice setup Notify resource providers
Student setup Debugging
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Available Exercises• List of sample assignments
and tutorials:– Use as they are– Modify to meet your needs
• Annotated:– Type – Purpose– Resources needed– Difficulty/Duration
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Available Exercises
• Each sample exercise has:– Handouts / Instructions for students– Further information about the instructors– For solutions email [email protected]
• Instruction format:– 3 Steps based on standard experiment
lifecycle
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Create your own
1. Figure out GENI Resources
2. Test your exercise
3. Adjust writeup
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Create your own: GENI Resources
• Compute resources:– Wired / Wireless– Are VMs ok?
• Networking requirements• Tools
– Flack, Omni, I&M
List per student/group:GENI resourcesTools
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Create your own: Test
• Run through the exercise
• Automate:– Install scripts (HowTo/WriteInstallScripts)– Custom Image
RSpec for exercise Install scriptsCustom image
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Create your own: WriteUp
• Decide what students should hand in:– Screenshots– Commands– Configuration
• Should they leave the slice up?– Login and test their environment
• Online template for instructions
Remember to include clean up!Send us your exercise!
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Slice Setup: Student Setup Slice
Research AsstSlice Lead Post-Doc
Slice MemberProfessor
Slice Admin
Need to provide:• RSpec:
– Students might create their own (e.g. LabZero)– URL, File, Upload it in Portal
• AMs for students to use• Preferred tool
– Flack, Omni, Portal
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Slice Setup: Premade slices
Lab Exercises: Resource reservation might take time
Assignments: Resource reservation is complicated/unique or out of scope
1. Create a slice per student/group2. Make the student(s) member of the slice
• Ensure they have keys (email us if needed)3. Reserve resources from the Portal
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Load Balance the students
• Split students/groups between equivalent resources (e.g. racks) to avoid resource contention
• If using scarce resources consider a rolling deadline
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Notify Resource GMOC
GMOC: GENI Meta-operation Center• Keeps track of outages• Notification system for resource reservation
http://groups.geni.net/geni/wiki/HowTo/PreReserveGENIResources
GMOC Google Calendar keeps track of reservations/outages
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Exercises – Assignments
Student setup Native Setup Setup using a VM How to chose
Debugging
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Native Setup: Student’s laptop
If students will use their personal computer, (e.g. laptop):• Make a list of all tool requirements (e.g. Flack
needs Flash installed)• Ensure that they can install/use all tools
needed for exercise (e.g. they can ssh)
Make sure they test it early in the class. LabZero is a good way to do this!
http://groups.geni.net/geni/wiki/GENIEducation/SampleAssignments/LabZero
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Native Setup: Lab Computers
If students will use lab computers:
• Install and test tools in the machines– Go through the exercises in the lab
• If there are specific times the lab is open, stress-test the resources or split students
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Setup using a VM
You can create a VM:• install all tools
– Go through the exercises from the VM• students use VirtualBox to load the VM
– You can use any Virtualization solution you want– http://groups.geni.net/geni/wiki/HowTo/CreateTutorialVM
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VM or not? How to chose
Use a VM if:Want to use Omni – coming soon windowsStudents are not very familiar with computer
admin (e.g. offering a cross-discipline course)This is a one-time tutorialUniform environment
Easier to help students Easier to write instructions
Use native setup if: Students will use GENI for research Students in class are future TAs
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Exercises – Assignments
Student setup
Debugging Slice access
Common problems
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Slice Access
Research AsstSlice Lead Post-Doc
Slice MemberProfessor
Slice Admin
Members of all slices:• Project Leads (Professor)• Project Admins (TAs, Graders) – coming soon!
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Slice AccessBeing a member of a slice means you can act on a slice:
– Add resources– Check status– Delete resources– Renew resources
With any tool!
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Slice Access: Logging in to resources
Slice membership does not guarantee ability to login to resources!
To ensure access in student’s resources:Option 1: Make resource reservation from Portal
• fix the membership of the slice• Use the add resource button in the portal
Option 2: Ensure common public key is loaded • distribute common public key to students• ask students to upload it in their profile• use corresponding private key to login
Ability to login can help in debugging!
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Hands On
• Test Slice access
• Test access to compute resources using both methods
First step when debugging students’ problems
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Common Problems
Problem: Can’t login to a node
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Can’t login to nodes: SSH
Login to all GENI compute resources using ssh keys – no password
If you are ever prompted for a password during login to GENI nodes something is wrong
Using key-pair to SSH:– Public key: is public to everyone, loaded to
nodes
Private key: kept private in your computer, provided to SSH to verify it matches the loaded public key
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SSH Challenges
• Students might not be familiar with CLI
• Students might not be familiar with public key cryptography– Hard to distinguish between private and public– Hard to distinguish between password and
passphrase
http://groups.geni.net/geni/wiki/HowTo/LoginToNodes
Consider a brief SSH tutorial/intro
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SSH from Windows
SSH with keys from Windows is non-trivial– No standard ssh client that support keys (like openSSH)
Possible Solutions
http://groups.geni.net/geni/wiki/HowTo/LoginToNodes
Need to address this early!
– Pay software – eg SecureCRT– Linux VM – make use of a slim OS– Lab machine/campus resources– cygwin– FireSSH – javascript plugin for Firefox– PuTTy (private key format different)
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Common ProblemsProblem: Can’t login to a nodePossible causes:
– Wrong username– Public key isn’t loaded, Private key is wrong or non-existing– Private key has wrong permissions (it should have 0600)– Slice/sliver expired– Technical issue with node
Debug strategy:– Try logging in to the node yourself
• If successful look for the student account – cd ..; ls
• Look for loaded keys – sudo cat <student_user_path>/.ssh/authorized_keys
– Ask them to use ‘-v’ option• ssh –v [email protected]
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Common Problems
Problem: Can’t access AMsPossible causes:
– Firewall issues– AM is down
Debug strategy:– Check the GMOC calendars for planned/unplanned outages
• http://globalnoc.iu.edu/gmoc/index/support/gmoc-operations-calendars.html
– Verify access from campus (check the wireless!)– Have the student try to telnet to the port:
• e.g. telnet www.emulab.net 12369• http://groups.geni.net/geni/wiki/KnownGENIPorts
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Common Problems
Problem: Slice did not come upPossible causes:
– Student did not wait long enough– Problem with rspec
Debug strategy:– Check slice/sliver status yourself– Ask students to tell you the exact steps and try to replicate it– Use rspeclint on your rspecs
• http://www.protogeni.net/wiki/RSpecDebugging
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Common Problems
Problem: Omni is not workingPossible causes:
– Computer is not connected to the internet/behind firewall– PATH/PYTHONPATH is not correct
• Python error
– omni is not configuredDebug strategy:
– Check their PATH and PYTHONPATH variables:• echo $PATH• echo $PYTHONPATH
– Verify connectivity to:• The internet (ping www.google.com)• To the AMs (telnet ch.geni.net 8443, telnet
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General debug advice• Ask students to be specific about what is not working
– Step-by-step run through usually helps• Ask for what they see:
– screenshots– omni output errors
• Gather as much information as you can– get slice name– tool they used– rspec
• Remember you have access to their slices, check for yourself!
• Contact [email protected] for help• Register for resource mailing lists
– Better that you contact resource owners and not the students
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Running a class:Timeline
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Timeline/ChecklistEarly, at least two weeks in advance of class 1. Notify [email protected] that you will be using GENI 2. Determine how your students will login to GENI 3. Create a project for the class
Professor requests project lead permission in the portal Professor creates a project in the portal
• Set project expiration time! Professor adds other instructors/TAs to project and makes them
Admins 4. Choose exercises and test them
Create GMOC ticket reserving resources 5. Decide what machine/software the students should use
http://groups.geni.net/geni/wiki/GENIEducation/Resources
1x
1x
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Timeline/Checklist
At least one week in advance of class 6. Email pre-work to students
Invite students to login to the portal• Students may need to request an account from the GENI IdP
Setup their machine for the exercise
Before first exercise 7. bulk add attendees to the project
Do exercise!
http://groups.geni.net/geni/wiki/GENIEducation/Resources
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Running a Class:Getting Help
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Answer [email protected]
Have a question?
Sarah Edwards Niky Riga Vic Thomas
which is an email list which only goes to members of the GPO including…
(However, the archive of the list is public)
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Considering using GENI in the classroom?
Reasons to let us know you are using GENI in the classroom…
… especially if this is your first time.
Accounts• Whether they access GENI using InCommon or the GENI IdP, we can
make sure students are able to login easily and quicklySign up for an account: http://groups.geni.net/geni/wiki/SignMeUp
Resources • We can help you select resources and reserve resources for your
exercises.
Always OK to just say "I'm thinking of teaching a class using GENI this semester”
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Ways to Get Help
• Email [email protected]• Use #geni IRC chatroom
• Sign up for mailing lists
http://groups.geni.net/geni/wiki/GENIExperimenter/GetHelp
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Wrap Up
Sarah EdwardsGENI Project Office
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Finding other resources
• GENI wiki– Pages for Instructors and Experimenters
http://groups.geni.net/geni/wiki
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Available Exercises and tutorials
• Assignments under the Instructors tab on the wiki
http://groups.geni.net/geni/wiki/GENIEducation/SampleAssignments
• Recommendation: Start with Lab Zero http://groups.geni.net/geni/wiki/GENIEducation/SampleAssignments/LabZero
• Second assignment: Understanding AM APIhttp://groups.geni.net/geni/wiki/GENIEducation/SampleAssignments/UnderstandAMAPI
• Get solutions by e-mailing [email protected]
• Tutorials under the Experimenters tab on the wiki
http://groups.geni.net/geni/wiki/GENIExperimenter/ExampleExperiments
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“How To” pages
• Listed under the “Experimenters” section
• Each “How To” is a short descriptions of how to do various tasks
• New entries being added all the time
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Ways to Learn More
• GENI Engineering Conference (GEC) 3x a year– GEC18 is at the end of Oct at NYU Poly in Brooklyn– “GENI in the Classroom” workshop on day before GEC18
• GREE Workshop in March 2013– Co-located with GEC19 at Georgia Tech in Atlanta– Submit papers using GENI
• GENI Summer Camp
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