perfSONAR User Q&A and Other Discussion

["Garnizov, Ivan (RRZE)" <>]

Hi George,

 

It seems to me you were misled by the questions I raised in my email.

I believe a very reasonable and easy solution lies in my response. It does not require you to have any sort of scripting or anything else apart from:

-          Ability to manage their measurements through mesh configuration.

-          Ability to access their MA service (most likely the local Esmond on the measurement points). Access to just one of the hosts would be sufficient even (same with OPPD – see below)

-          Optionally: Ability to configure your MaDDash service to retrieve the collected measurements.

 

 

Wrt “under the assumption that I will collect and archive the test data”: There is a feature request to be able to assign the pS MA for measurements defined through meshconfig. Unfortunately it is not foreseen for the upcoming release.

 

OPPD alternative:

Another option for you could be to make use of the OPPD service, which allows you to assign a custom MA for measurements(currently available for 3.5.x), but I would not recommend on relying on this feature, since there are compatibility issues foreseen with 4.0. Hence it will be disabled by default with the release.

There you can configure it to send the results to a custom MA and use the OPPD API to initiate the tests remotely and have the results elsewhere outside the local measurement hosts. This works totally independently from the rest of the pS services and configuration.

In fact GEANT is using it to collect the results from measurements initiated remotely between 2 servers using the pS UI. A service deployed on a central management server. There is no configuration required on pS UI to achieve the remote data collection. Meaning you could even use the public pS UI service with the appropriate credentials and initiate tests from the remote parties you are engaged with.

 

If there is interest in OPPD please seek further contact.

 

Regards,

Ivan Garnizov

 

GEANT SA1T2: pS deployments GN Operations

GEANT SA2T3: pS development team

GEANT SA3T5: eduPERT team

 

 

 

 

 

 

From: Uhl, George D. (GSFC-423.0)[SGT INC] [mailto:]
Sent: Donnerstag, 8. Dezember 2016 15:43
To: Garnizov, Ivan (RRZE); perfsonar-user
Subject: Re: [perfsonar-user] RE: getting perfsonar bwctl results between two 3rd party nodes into esmond

 

Ivan,

 

Thanks for the thoughtful reply.  In my case the two remote organizations have requested that I run throughput tests between their test points.   One of the organizations has the perfsonar tools bundle installed on an edge server limiting its role as that of a non-agent target participant in the mesh I manage.  The other party has an extensive publicly accessible perfsonar deployment used to monitor a major backbone network but they have requested that I conduct the tests using their test points under the assumption that I will collect and archive the test data.   Neither party is preventing me running scheduled throughput tests which I am currently doing from the CLI via a cron job.  What I’m looking for is a script that will archive the test results into esmond so that I can include that data in a dashboard that is used by the two organizations (plus my own) to troubleshoot ongoing intermittent network degradation issues.  

 

In my mind the easiest, least laborious way to do that would be to integrate 3rd party-to-3rd party tests into an existing perfsonar deployment and leverage the perfsonar software to archive the test results. Since that’s not possible, I’m looking for a script or set of scripts (if they exist) that can take throughput test data and archive them into esmond.   I was fishing around on the perfsonar user list to see if anyone had done this before embarking on a script development effort of my own.

 

As a final thought, IMHO, the notion of operating unrestricted, publicly accessible perfsonar nodes is to permit tests from potentially unknown clients.

 

Thanks,

George

 

From: <> on behalf of "Garnizov, Ivan (RRZE)" <>
Date: Thursday, December 8, 2016 at 3:42 AM
To: George Uhl <>, perfsonar-user <>
Subject: [perfsonar-user] RE: getting perfsonar bwctl results between two 3rd party nodes into esmond

 

Hi George,

 

Generally this is currently impossible. Still it is not even  clear, if that should at all be made possible.

From your explanation I understand, that you would like to initiate tests between 2 remote servers.

-          Have you ever asked yourself, if that would be acceptable for the remote parties?

-          Would you be happy that someone initiates tests from your systems on a regular basis?

 

I would like to propose another more considerate approach.

No one (as of my knowledge) brings a perfSONAR measurement point (regardless of the bundle) without collecting the results from scheduled measurements in a MA. With this in mind my suggestion to you is to seek a collaboration with the remote party to gain access to the MA, where the results are collected.

With organizations that rely on public funding that would mean, they can report and demonstrate the interest in the service they are supporting. Even with single deployments (say university tests), an expressed interest would support the effort of maintenance and possible development of the perfSONAR footprint.

Say there is no possible contact there….would you find this instance reliable?

 

Regards,

Ivan

 

 

 

From: [] On Behalf Of Uhl, George D. (GSFC-423.0)[SGT INC]
Sent: Mittwoch, 7. Dezember 2016 23:01
To: perfsonar-user
Subject: [perfsonar-user] getting perfsonar bwctl results between two 3rd party nodes into esmond

 

Hi,

 

I know this has been brought up in the past but I didn’t see a resolution.  Is there an *easy* way to to get exclusive 3rd party bwctl/iperf3 tests into esmond?  I’m looking at http://software.es.net/esmond/perfsonar_client_rest.html#publishing-data and  I don’t see a simple way to do this without applying some elbow grease.   Being the lazy guy that I am, I was hoping that someone has a readymade script to do this. :)

 

My motivation is to get throughput tests between two 3rd party pS nodes into my maddash dashboard.  I’m running these via an hourly cronjob and outputting the results into a text file.  I’d rather shoe horn 3rd party test results into esmond but I can’t find a way to integrate 3rd party tests into my pS environment via something I can edit – like a local mesh node regulartesting.conf file.  Perfsonar wants one of the test nodes to be an active participant in mesh or a toolkit node that I have access rights to.

 

Since I have no access rights to either 3rd party pS test node the only available option for me (that I see at the moment) is to run the tests outside the pS context (read CLI), massage the output and post it to esmond somehow. Has anybody been able to do this?

 

Thanks,

George