perfSONAR User Q&A and Other Discussion

[Brian Tierney <>]

On Feb 1, 2011, at 9:17 PM, jim warner wrote:

> I'm not sure I understand exactly what the lookup service is _supposed_ to 
> do.

The Lookup Service is critical for network engineers doing troubleshooting to 
find services at your site in order to be able to run tests like bwctl or NDT 
to your site.

> 
>  I may have
> picked up the idea somewhere that the global directory displayed on the
> perfsonar page is not *the* lookup service and that if I really wanted to 
> know
> what what is the data base, I should start writing code.  I'm not sure 
> where I
> got that idea -- if there are supported example applications, I missed the 
> memo.

Our directory search tool:
https://stats1.es.net/perfSONAR/directorySearch.html

is an example application designed to make it easier/faster to find perfSONAR 
services.
It uses an index file that is built from querying all PS Lookup Services a 3 
times/day.

This link might clarify things too: 
http://www.internet2.edu/performance/pS-PS/lookup.html

> 
> Also, I have found that there are things listed under "Global Performance
> Services" that either aren't working or they aren't globally accessible.
> So it is a list of places you *might* find stuff rather than a directory of
> where stuff is.

Unfortunately there is currently no way to know what services are behind 
firewalls,
so there is no way to tell which services are actually available to you at a 
given site.