Combining a Virtual Grid Testbed and eLearning Courseware Kathryn Cassidy, Jason McCandless, Stephen Childs, John Walsh, Brian Coghlan, Declan Dagger Department of Computer Science, Trinity College, Dublin

Introduction Why eLearning ? –Refresher courses for existing users –Self-paced learning for new users –Independent learning for everyone –Reduced demands on training staff

Introduction Why eLearning ? –Refresher courses for existing users –Self-paced learning for new users –Independent learning for everyone –Reduced demands on training staff Why integrate an eLearning testbed ? –Practicals driven by eLearning tools –Self-paced hands-on practicals –Could grade users from practical work

EL Testbed Requirements Dedicate resources to guarantee QoS Isolate training testbed for security Simulate the real infrastructure Integrate eLearning & Grid environment Make easy to use and configure Follow best-practice for eLearning

Our Solution - Overview

Virtualisation Xen Virtual Machines Significantly reduces hardware requirements Good performance compared to reference grid install on physical machines

Network Infrastructure ELGrid machines have same IP addresses as production machines Routing redirects packets to the ELGrid machines as needed Firewalling so internal traffic is not accidentally sent to production net Identical network config to production Grid: only MAC addresses are different

GridBuilder VM images for different node types Copy-on-write image for each node Simple web-based front-end Quattor then used to apply the individual configuration

Configuration & Management Quattor Fabric Management system Preconfigured templates for Grid nodes available, e.g. LCG, gLite Identical templates used to configure the production and ELGrid sites Configuration stored centrally Autonomous nodes pull configuration and update themselves

Deployment Transactional Deployment tool –Push-button deployment Production Grid TransDeploy instance –Pushes Quattor templates, etc, out to the install servers in each production site ELGrid TransDeploy instance –Pushes Quattor templates, etc, out to the virtual install servers in ELGrid Quattor then completes node config

APeLS & ACCT Toolset Adaptive Personalised eLearning Service Adaptive Course Construction Toolkit Web services based Personalised courses for each user Tracks user progress

How Requirements are Met APeLS and ACCTFollow eLearning best-practice GridBuilder, TransDeploy, QuattorMake easy to use and configure APeLS using GridSiteIntegrate eLearning with Grid environment Xen, Network Configuration, Quattor, TransDeploy, GridBuilder Simulate the real infrastructure Xen, Network ConfigurationIsolate training testbed Xen, Network Configuration, Quattor, TransDeploy, GridBuilder Dedicate resources to guarantee QoS Met byRequirement

Future work Complete Deployment –Remaining replica Grid-Ireland sites –ApeLS and GridSite integration –Online ELGrid CA/RA (only valid in ELGrid) User Evaluation