perfSONAR User Q&A and Other Discussion

[Warren Matthews <>]

Hi Loukik

Our site license for RHEL does not include the application server
channel. It is an additional $999/machine/year. I don't have the budget
for that.

We have installed FC5 on a machine just so we can get passed this
hurdle. However, I will not be able to put it into production.



On Thu, 2006-08-17 at 13:46 +0100, Loukik Kudarimoti wrote:
> Hi Warren,
> 
> Warren Matthews wrote:
> > Hi All
> >
> > I hate to whine but Eric and Jeff say I should call it feedback and 
> > send it to the list.
> >
> > We've had a terrible time with perfSONAR. I want to give up. Actually 
> > we haven't even made it to trying to install perfSONAR. We haven't 
> > even got the prerequisites installed yet.
> >
> > The real problem is we have no java expertise. I'm trying to get 
> > another student but that'll be at least a few more weeks. The other 
> > problem is we have to run RHEL. It is mandated by our director; 
> > Unfortunately our site license does not include the application server 
> > channel, so we don't get tomcat. Frankly, we're also not really 
> > interested in understanding the packages and being experts on various 
> > server software tools. We're network support staff, we want to measure 
> > and trouble-shoot the network. Trying to get perfSONAR set up has been 
> > a real pain.
> >
> > Perhaps you will say we should wait for better documentation. But we 
> > would like to be an early adopter because we need to offer monitoring 
> > services for our global campus. I would like to use perfSONAR so in 
> > future we can use data from other networks. Furthermore I claim most 
> > network admins are not going to try as hard as we did. If it doesn't 
> > just work they won't use it.
> >
> Many thanks for your feedback. As Szymon, Eric and Jeff have mentioned 
> before, it is extremely important that we receive feedback so that we 
> can improve the quality of what we produce.
> 
> To understand your situation and to try to help you in solving it, I 
> have some questions and comments below.
> 
> * Understanding Java
> As Szymon mentioned, perfSONAR 1.0 does not expect the user to be aware 
> of Java. In fact, perfSONAR installation scripts are written in perl and 
> that is what the installer/admin will be using. Of course, Java (JDK) 
> installation is required but all software applications require the 
> installation of some compiler/interpreter. So, there is not much 
> difference with perfSONAR.
> 
> Are you having problems installing Java?
> Since you are using RHEL, Java installation (if not already 
> pre-installed) should be fairly trivial I thought. Please correct me if 
> I am wrong. Nevertheless, I thought installing Java has been made fairly 
> simple by Sun and most system administrators/users shouldn't have a 
> problem with it.
> 
> * Application server
> Is installing Tomcat the problem or is it true of all Application Servers?
> 
> An application server capable of handing Java applications is a 
> necessity in order to use perfSONAR as perfSONAR provides a Web Service 
> Interface. Apache Tomcat is one of the most famous Application Servers 
> and hence we have decided to use it for now and our default installation 
> guide assumes that you would use Tomcat.  If you cannot install tomcat 
> but can install some other Application Server (such as Jetty),  it 
> should be still be possible to user perfSONAR. If so, please let us know 
> and we can help you as some of us have experience with such servers as well.
> 
> But if RHEL is stopping you from installing any application server, 
> can't you install it as a user (and not root)?
> 
> * Documentation
> While the installation documentation being provided has greatly 
> improved, I can understand that sometimes somethings can still be 
> difficult. If you found such sections in our installation documentation, 
> please let us know and we will try to improve it.
> 
> If you are talking about other documentation (such as developer), I 
> agree. But this shouldn't stop you from installing perfSONAR right?
> 
> * perfSONAR is hard to use
> As Szymon mentioned, it would be very helpful to us if you specify which 
> part/s were/are hard to use. Is it the installation of pre-requisites or 
> is it the configuration?
> 
> We really like early adopters and we want to make sure nothing 
> discourages them from installing perfSONAR. :)
> 
> Regards,
> Loukik.
> 
> >
> > Warren Matthews, International Research Network Initiatives,
> > Georgia Institute of Technology.
> >
> > Adventure is a sign of incompetence. If you have an adventure, you're
> > doing something wrong. If you really plan things out then you don't have
> > adventures - The great polar explorer Vilhjalmur Stefanson.
> >
>