perfSONAR User Q&A and Other Discussion

[Aaron Brown <>]

Hey Clarke,

On Oct 7, 2014, at 5:08 PM, Clarke Morledge 
<>
 wrote:

> The whole Bash shell-shock crisis has urged us to reconsider how we are 
> deploying the pS-Performance Toolkit.
> 
> The suite of tools have proven helpful over the years, but with the 
> apparent coming demise of Java as a general use platform, a lot of the ease 
> of use in troubleshooting problems for novice users has lost its luster. 
> Maintaining Java has become quite cumbersome and the iPhone restrictions 
> are pronounced, whereas in our experience, Flash, JavaScript and HTML5 
> appear to be thriving better.  Even with efforts to load up Java on those 
> systems that support it, the cut and paste capability has long since been 
> broken for statistics.
> 
> There was an update regarding the status of an HTML5 front-end for the 
> Network Diagnostic Tool back in July, but unless I am mistaken, I do not 
> see much movement on this.
> 
> Overall, I would like to know more about any plans to move the toolkit tool 
> set off of Java.  At least, it would be good to get an update on NDT.
> 
> Essentially, we are still looking for a web-based and relatively easy to 
> use utility that is fairly OS independent that any novice can use from a 
> desktop, laptop, or handheld device for running general purpose network 
> diagnostics.  Iperf, BWCTL, etc. all are great for powerusers, but I am 
> thinking more in terms of relatively simple tools for the non-geeks.

There is a flash-based web UI for NDT that’s planned for a soon-ish release 
candidate. The current stumbling block is more on the packaging side than 
anything else. The downside to the Flash-based interface is that it has some 
performance issues which can be exacerbated depending on the flash platform 
(e.g. windows vs. linux or chrome vs. firefox). There are some plans to try 
to improve its performance, but it may not work all that well for 1G 
connected hosts. 

In the medium or long term, the plan is to look into rewriting the NDT 
functionality to fix some of these underlying issues where possible. We’re 
having a meeting later this month where, among other topics, we’re going to 
discuss plans for the NDT rewrite.

Cheers,
Aaron

> 
> Thanks.
> 
> 
> Clarke Morledge
> College of William and Mary
> Information Technology - Network Engineering
> Jones Hall (Room 18)
> Williamsburg VA 23187