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Promoting Open Source Software Through Cloud Deployment: Library à la Carte, Heroku, and OSU Michael B. Klein Digital Applications Librarian michael.klein@oregonstate.edu michael.klein@oregonstate.edu Margaret Mellinger Engineering Librarian margaret.mellinger@oregonstate.edu
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Presentation Overview About Library à la Carte ◦What is Library à la Carte? ◦Distribution & Adoption Cloud Deployment ◦Why the Cloud? ◦Hosting Options ◦Challenges and Compromises ◦Pilot Project ◦Evaluation ◦Future Directions
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What is Library à la Carte? Custom content management system ◦Course assignment pages, subject guides, portal pages and tutorials Pages built around reusable modules ◦Text, images, media widgets, links, feeds Free & open-source Download, install, and start using Customizable and extensible
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Distribution 5 major releases since 2007 Scores of demo accounts requested Downloaded hundreds of times 20+ known installations
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Barriers to Adoption Lack of in-house technical expertise ◦Installing Ruby and dependencies ◦Setting permissions ◦Webserver configuration ◦Database administration ◦Running scripts from the command line ◦Hand-editing configuration files ◦Installing upgrades/applying patches ◦Diagnosing and reporting problems Unwillingness or inability to devote technical or human resources
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Why the Cloud? Pre-installed ◦Lower the barrier for adoption Dedicated ◦Provide libraries with their own installations where they can do real work Portable ◦Entire installation can be moved from the cloud to a local install or vice versa Elastic ◦Storage space and resources can be allocated on the fly
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Hosting Options Amazon Web Services ◦Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) ◦Controllable via console or API ◦Infrastructure as a Service (“Bare Metal”) ◦Small instance: 10¢/hr. = $72/mo. = $864/yr. ◦Boot volume and storage costs are extra ◦Refactoring required to take advantage of elasticity ◦Additional refactoring required to compensate for ephemeral server instances
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Hosting Options JumpBox ◦Portable virtual machine ◦Still “Bare Metal,” but host-agnostic ◦Requires acceptance by JumpBox team ◦Installation, maintenance, and upgrades may require vendor action ◦Still need to provide hardware or pay EC2 costs
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Hosting Options Eucalyptus ◦Open Source cloud platform ◦Based on Amazon cloud model and API ◦Software is free; infrastructure is not ◦We would have to provide hardware and additional support
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Hosting Options Heroku ◦Platform as a Service ◦Dedicated Ruby/Rack/Rails platform ◦Git-based deployment ◦Ruby API ◦Automatic, easy scaling and load balancing ◦Predictable costs ◦Over 2 dozen available add-ons ◦Smallest instance: FREE
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Hosting Options
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Challenges and Compromises No server-side file storage ◦Requires another solution such as Amazon S3 No dedicated configuration files Library à La Carte was written for MySQL Heroku uses PostgreSQL Developers aren’t necessarily thinking of the cloud when adding new features
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Deployment Application
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Pilot Project Single insitutional partner Deployed in January 2010 Goals: ◦Administer and monitor installation ◦Track usage, database size, bandwidth ◦Develop cost model based on likely usage scenarios ◦Gather feedback from partner
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Pilot Project – Librarian Evaluation Initial evaluation June 2010 Overall experience very positive Need to document differences between standalone and cloud-based app Users used to page creation had trouble adjusting to content management workflow
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Pilot Project – User Evaluation Faculty and students consider Library à la Carte to be a valuable resource Goal: “Collect all the necessary sources students need to use in their clinical year.” Students “thrilled with having one starting place.” Already receiving requests for additional content.
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Pilot Project – OSU Evaluation Administration & Maintenance ◦2 software updates in 6 months ◦30 minutes to install, including code review ◦Marginal time cost of updating additional hosted sites would be 2-3 minutes Support ◦Installation/configuration support eliminated ◦Some hand-holding still required
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Future Directions Revisit hosting model ◦Is Heroku working for us? ◦Would Amazon EC2 make more sense? Determine costs based on size and use Consider other partnerships ◦Hand hosting off to consortium?
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Library à La Carte in the Cloud: The Movie See it on YouTube!
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