News for and about the Internet2 community

[Lauren Rotman <>]

Newly Enhanced pS-Performance Toolkit Version Released

Easy To Install Suite of Tools Provides Performance Metrics,  
Monitoring and Diagnostics To Significantly Improve Users’ Network  
Experience

Indianapolis, IN - July 21, 2009 – The perfSONAR-PS development team  
today announced at the ESCC/Internet2 Joint Techs Workshop, the  
release of an enhanced version of the pS-Performance Toolkit. The pS- 
Performance Toolkit (formerly called the pS-Network Performance  
Toolkit) is available as a live CD download, which can be burned to  
disc and used to turn any Intel-based computer into an active network  
performance node. Based on feedback from early adopters, the latest  
release bundles the suite of recommended network performance tools in  
an easier-to-use package with new functionality. With these tools,  
researchers and network engineers can not only monitor and debug their  
own networks, but access information from external networks.

The latest pS-Performance Toolkit release aligns with the project’s  
roadmap toward greater ease of use and more graphical displays. Users  
will immediately notice a more streamlined startup process, and will  
be able to use the Toolkit’s functionality even before it is  
configured and customized. The tools are available as soon as the CD  
boots up, but the configuration process lets users register their  
performance node with the global perfSONAR infrastructure and locate  
and share information with other registered performance nodes. It also  
allows users to set up appropriate access and use policies to ensure  
the Performance Node (created using the pS-Performance Toolkit) only  
consumes the amount of network resources and shares the information  
the administrator deems appropriate.  The configuration process is now  
driven by a wizard-like interface rather than command-line prompts,  
and typically takes under 30 minutes to complete.

The Toolkit interface has more graphical displays and new  
administration screens which make it easier to fine-tune configuration  
settings. Beyond the interface enhancements, significant  
functionalities have also been added. The most important is OWAMP  
support, added within perfSONAR-BUOY, which enables regular one-way  
latency monitoring, a long-standing request from the network research  
community. Driver enhancements have also been added in response to  
user requests, so setup is smoother, with more equipment brands  
supported out of the box and less troubleshooting required.

"The pS-Performance Toolkit provides an easy means for sites to deploy  
and configure perfSONAR monitoring and measurement tools," said Phil  
DeMar, head of wide-area networking at Fermi National Accelerator  
Laboratory (Fermilab).  "We expect the Toolkit's ease-of-use factor to  
facilitate rapid development of a cross-domain monitoring  
infrastructure in support of our collaborations."

Developed through a collaboration and integration of tools from ESnet,  
Fermilab, Georgia Institute of Technology, Indiana University,  
Internet2, the University of Delaware, Pittsburgh Supercomputing  
Center and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the perfSONAR-enabled  
Toolkit was first introduced in the summer of 2008 at the ESCC/ 
Internet2 Joint Techs Workshop and has quickly become a key enabler of  
several high-profile science projects that depend on high-performance,  
distributed computing.

Research and Education Data Depot Network (REDDnet), a National  
Science Foundation-funded infrastructure project, provides distributed  
storage for data-intensive collaboration among U.S. researchers and  
educators in a wide variety of application areas, including the Large  
Hadron Collider (LHC) project. Scientists involved in the LHC CMS or  
ATLAS experiments use REDDnet “depots” to access their LHC data. In  
collaboration with Internet2, REDDnet deployed tools from the pS- 
Performance Toolkit at several of its depots, enabling the diagnosis  
of sub-optimal network performance problems and the establishment of a  
long-term monitoring and analysis infrastructure to help guarantee  
future performance.

Paul Sheldon, physicist with Vanderbilt University and principal  
investigator for REDDnet, noted the importance of constantly  
monitoring and debugging network performance to and from the data  
depots: “The tools in the pS-Performance Toolkit have been extremely  
valuable in our work. By leveraging these performance technologies, we  
have been able to better isolate problems on the network and resolve  
them quickly resulting in better data throughput and better use of our  
network capacity investments to support our scientific research.”

Telepresence initiatives represent another application area especially  
dependent on optimal network performance. Tools from the pS- 
Performance Toolkit were used to support a telehealth demonstration  
leveraging telepresence technology at Internet2’s recent Spring Member  
Meeting. Tools such as perfSONAR-BUOY and BWCTL – both available via  
the Toolkit - showed network engineers the “big picture” of network  
performance over the long-haul network route, and also helped them  
isolate network segments that did not meet the service’s demanding  
jitter and latency requirements. The demonstration underlined why the  
pS-Performance Toolkit will be a critical part of the Internet2  
community’s implementation plan for telepresence services.

Another major pS-Performance Toolkit release is anticipated by the end  
of the last quarter, 2009, with even more streamlined user interface  
and further enhanced graphic visualizations. Additional functionality  
will be included, and the Toolkit will be installable directly from  
network accessible software repositories.

To download the pS-Performance Toolkit version 3.1rc1 visit: 
http://www.internet2.edu/performance/toolkit/

Questions and feedback on the pS-Performance Toolkit can be directed  
to the  email list. Feedback is  
encouraged from both inside and outside the performance measurement  
community.

About perfSONAR

perfSONAR is developed through a global collaboration consortium led  
by ESnet, GÉANT, Internet2 and RNP, and in the U.S. via partnerships  
between ESnet, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Georgia  
Institute of Technology, Indiana University, Internet2, the University  
of Delaware and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory with support from  
the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Institutes of Health, and  
the National Science Foundation. To find out what’s ahead on  
perfSONAR’s development roadmap, visit perfsonar.net. For more on  
Internet2 performance tools and the pS-Performance Toolkit, visit  
internet2.edu/performance.



Contact:

Lauren Rotman

+1-202-331-5345