perfSONAR User Q&A and Other Discussion

[Andrew Lake <>]

Hi Chad,

Just to supplement what Aaron sent, this document also has some details on 
specifically using MaDDash with the mesh configuration software: 
http://code.google.com/p/perfsonar-ps/wiki/MaDDashInstall#Advanced_Topic:_Using_the_perfSONAR_Mesh_Configuration_Software

One thing we will likely need to add is some smarts to the mesh config to add 
on the "-p" option to check_throughput.pl so it only grabs udp tests, but 
that's an easy change. We may also need to add an option to filter based on 
the UDP bandwidth rate, but that is also a relatively trivial addition. I 
think as long as we have a fine-grained enough set of filters, you can get 
away without explicitly setting a test ID. 

Thanks,
Andy



On Jun 11, 2014, at 11:23 AM, Chad Kotil 
<>
 wrote:

> OK Great. I've actually used this before, but never in creating my own.
> I will give it a shot and let you know how it goes.
> It does look like I can define multiple meshes with different parameters
> for defining UDP tests.
> 
> Thanks,
> --Chad
> 
> 
> On 6/11/14, 11:20 AM, Aaron Brown wrote:
>> Hey Chad,
>> 
>> The plan is to replace the owmesh configuration with the mesh 
>> configuration stuff. You can get a (broad) overview of it at 
>> https://code.google.com/p/perfsonar-ps/wiki/MeshConfiguration along with a 
>> pointer an example configuration. If there’s some property in your current 
>> meshes that isn’t easily translatable into the new mesh configuration, we 
>> may be able to make some changes to better support it.
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> Aaron
>> 
>> On Jun 11, 2014, at 10:47 AM, Chad Kotil 
>> <>
>>  wrote:
>> 
>>> Ah good to know about the fate of owmesh.conf.
>> 
>>> 
>>> The reason we have multiple meshes are because of the UDP tests mainly.
>>> So that we can define slower speed UDP tests for some hosts. Some of our
>>> hosts have a fast backbone connection and others are very slow. To avoid
>>> causing congestion on the backbones we chose to create these separate
>>> meshes with new testspecs. How can I accomplish this without the use of
>>> owmesh.conf and unique testspecs?
>>> 
>>> Another complicating issue im seeing in maddash with my current setup is
>>> that there is overlap where a host exist in multiple meshes. Since
>>> maddash and the checks are unaware of the tspec_id data can now come
>>> from any of the meshes.
>>> 
>>> --Chad
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On 6/11/14, 9:49 AM, Andrew Lake wrote:
>>>> Hi Chad,
>>>> 
>>>> There are no plans to add testspec_id to maddash because the owmesh.conf 
>>>> file (and thus the spec id) is going away completely in 3.4. You can 
>>>> already define multiple maddash "checks" that filter on different test 
>>>> parameters though. For example, for throughput you could have two grids 
>>>> with the exact same hosts but one is for UDP tests and another is for 
>>>> TCP tests. In the maddash check definition you'd just need to define a 
>>>> "command" option in one that has "-p tcp" in one and "-p udp". Likewise 
>>>> you would need to update the graph URL with whatever extra options it 
>>>> needs to grab the different results (iirc, bandwidthBraph.cgi has a 
>>>> "protocol=udp/tcp" GET parameter you could set in this example). I think 
>>>> another way to ask the question is what types of test parameters do you 
>>>> want to distinguish between tests and are they all supported as 
>>>> parameters to the graphs and underlying tools? 
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Andy
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On Jun 11, 2014, at 9:22 AM, Chad Kotil 
>>>> <>
>>>>  wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> Hello perfsonar-users,
>>>>> Is there a way to add multiple meshes to maddash with hosts that are a
>>>>> member of multiple testspec's?
>>>>> 
>>>>> I am trying to have maddash display multiple meshes which rely on
>>>>> different testspec's as defined in my owmesh.conf. It doesnt look like
>>>>> you can specify a testpec_id however in maddash right out of the box.
>>>>> The old bwplot.cgi handles this case just fine , as it accepts a
>>>>> testspec via the name parameter.
>>>>> 
>>>>> I've done some digging and found that the service check command, the
>>>>> graphUrl and metaDataKeyLookup in maddash.yaml do not seem to accept a
>>>>> testspec_id. However I was able to modify the service check command,
>>>>> check_throughput.pl to accept a testspec and modified the query to match
>>>>> on the testspec, so that part does seem to be working. However without
>>>>> metaKeyReq.cgi and delayGraph.cgi accepting a testspec_id I think I am
>>>>> stuck.
>>>>> 
>>>>> The only thing I can even think to do is use a unique MA, but that is
>>>>> not ideal.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Are there any other options available for what I am trying to do? And
>>>>> are there any plans to add support for multiple meshes and testspecs
>>>>> into maddash?
>>>>> 
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>> --Chad
>>>>> 
>>> 
>