20150122 perfSONAR Product Plan - Internet2€¦ · perfSONAR’ • perfSONAR’is’an’open’source’soHware’project thatenables’seamless’deploymentof’a network’monitoring’infrastructure.’

DRAFT: perfSONAR Product Plan

Presented by the perfSONAR Project h=p://www.perfsonar.net

January 22, 2015

perfSONAR

•  perfSONAR is an open source soHware project that enables seamless deployment of a network monitoring infrastructure.

•  perfSONAR is currently a successful small open source project with ~1,200 known deployed instances, on the cusp of transiMoning to a successful large open source project.

January 22, 2015 © 2014, h=p://www.perfsonar.net 2

perfSONAR Problem Statement •  The global Research & EducaMon (R&E) network ecosystem is comprised of hundreds of internaMonal, naMonal, regional and local-‐scale networks.

•  While these networks all interconnect, each network is owned and operated by separate organizaMons (called “domains”) with different policies, customers, funding models, hardware, bandwidth and configuraMons.

•  This complex, heterogeneous set of networks must operate seamlessly from “end to end” to support science and research collaboraMons that are distributed globally.


perfSONAR Partners

•  ESnet •  GEANT •  Indiana University •  Internet2

•  Commitment to fund 1.5 FTE / year, with at least 1.0 FTE of developer


Current Customer DefiniMon (1) •  Short-‐term targeted customers for perfSONAR in the R&E community: –  universiMes –  federal labs –  regional networks –  naMonal networks –  internaMonal connecMons –  virtual organizaMons (e.g. ATLAS, CMS, LIGO, ITER, ESGF, KBase, ALICE, LHC-‐B, and XSEDE).

•  Serving these customers represent the core mission of the perfSONAR partners.


Current Customer DefiniMon (2) •  The voice of the current, targeted customer base is split between three groups in the R&E

community (each represenMng a role within some or all R&E organizaMons): –  Network Owners –  Network Implementers –  Network Consumers.

•  Network Owners –  University CIOs, Regional Network Presidents, Federal Lab CIOs, and project leads for major virtual

organizaMons. •  Network Implementers

–  Lead network architects, senior network engineers, junior network engineers, compute center managers, and sysadmins.

•  Network Consumers –  ScienMsts, researchers, service providers, and virtual organizaMon leaders.

•  For each customer, success is defined by meeMng the needs the Network Owner, the Network Implementor(s), and the Network Consumer(s): –  perfSONAR needs to serve both the strategic needs of the Network Owner; –  perfSONAR needs to meet the day-‐to-‐day operaMonal needs of each Network Implementer, –  the network needs to meet the result-‐based needs of each Network Consumer.


Current Customer Assessment •  The perfSONAR framework is widely deployed throughout the R&E community, with nearly 1,200 deployments worldwide. That growth has conMnued at an escalaMng pace over the past few years, although the recent Shellshock vulnerability that affected Bash shells has introduced some reducMon in number.

•  perfSONAR has an acMve and engaged user base who regularly maintain and update their systems. For example, the release of perfSONAR 3.4 saw ~350 upgrades in the first two weeks aHer the release.



Current Business Model •  perfSONAR is an open source soHware project driven by

contribuMons of soHware architecture and soHware development Mme.

•  While it garners presMge to the contributors, it does not directly benefit the bo=om line.

•  perfSONAR partners include Internet2, ESnet, and Indiana University. Each perfSONAR partner is expending 1.5+ FTE / year. Total investment by the perfSONAR partners (not including external contribuMons) is ~$1,000,000 / year.

•  GEANT and the PUNDIT project are expending FTE effort as well.

•  ExciMng research projects expending FTE effort include Periscope, Narada Metrics, and others.


Current VulnerabiliMes

•  Weak branding and value proposiMon to Network Owners and Network Consumers (who ulMmately pay for development)

•  Inherits vulnerabiliMes of underlying open source products (e.g. Shellshock / BASH)

•  (PotenMal) evoluMon of compeMtors


Future Customer DefiniMon (1)

•  Proposed long-‐term target customers for perfSONAR include Commercial Network Providers (e.g. AT&T, Verizon) and large Cloud Providers (e.g.: Amazon, MicrosoH, Box).

•  PotenMal customers are non-‐core customers but worth considering for their potenMal benefit to the bo=om line of supporMng the core customers.


Future Customer DefiniMon (2)

Why is this worth pursuing? •  ValidaMon of methodology. (“Lighthouse” argument.)

•  Exit strategy. (Funding from commercial companies.)

•  Impact. (Validates leadership of R&E community.


Future Self-‐Sustaining Model (1)

Two basic approaches: •  Commercialize perfSONAR. •  Find long-‐term commercial support for perfSONAR. (Recommended)


Future Self-‐Sustaining Model (2) Why #2? •  Closer to the mission of conMnuing to focus on the needs of

the core customers •  Long-‐term commercial support for the perfSONAR open

source project is predicated on the observaMon that big commercial partners will “pitch in” to open source projects that meet their needs in a cost effecMve manner.

•  Making the compromises necessary to make that happen is required by the perfSONAR partners to provide an exit strategy from supporMng the project forever, given our limited resources and need to tackle other projects.


Proposed Business Model TransiMon •  Develop perfSONAR in a fashion that meets the needs of the core customers in the R&E

community. (1-‐2 years, 2-‐3 major releases) •  Market the value of perfSONAR to the commercial community through carefully selected

conferences (a mix of academic and trade shows such as NANOG over the next 1-‐2 years). •  Integrate perfSONAR with other popular open source projects (e.g. Nagios, Smokeping) to enhance

its visibility and viability. Consider integraMng funcMonality with one or more such projects. Consider making perfSONAR part of one of those projects or vica versa.

•  Contract with an Open Source expert (such as the consultant who presented at the recent ON.LAB meeMng) to provide advice on next steps. (See steps 5, 6, and 7.)

•  Meet with RedHat and the Apache FoundaMon over the next 12 months to see if one of those projects might be inclined to take on perfSONAR. Separately, determine the viability of making perfSONAR a standalone open source project with its own self-‐perpetuaMng governance.

•  Meet with Google, Verizon, Facebook, etc. to see if they might be willing to begin invesMng perfSONAR development in exchange for roles in governance.

•  Based on the strategy developed in the course of execuMng steps 5 and 6, transiMon perfSONAR to a standalone foundaMon, a larger foundaMon, or company (e.g. RedHat).


Product Goals •  We aim to grow perfSONAR to be the ubiquitous,

indispensible performance monitoring framework for R&E network customers that meets their needs in the long-‐term, supported in a self-‐sustaining way. (This secMon is focused on step 1 of the Future Self-‐Sustaining Model.)

•  We aim to transiMon perfSONAR from a small successful project to a big successful project that realizes a much larger set of ambiMons for our core R&E customers. We believe this transiMon is necessary both to create an environment in which perfSONAR can become self-‐sustaining and to meet the needs of ever-‐larger, more global, more virtual networks.


Project Metrics Progress towards these goals can be measured by the following metrics: •  Community AdopMon Trends.

–  Number of customer deployments –  Number of deployments per customer –  Number of trouble Mckets

•  Community Engagement Trends. –  ParMcipaMon in workshops. –  Number of unique customer interacMons per Mme period. –  Web page trends. –  References to the soHware in solicitaMons

•  Community ContribuMon Trends. –  Number of feature requests per Mme period. –  Number of community projects iniMated per Mme period.

•  Annual Surveys –  Trends on awareness among Network Owners –  EvoluMon of requests among Network Implementers

•  More trouble Mckets might imply more users (a good thing) or might imply decreased stability (a bad thing), so this metric needs to be taken with a grain of salt and perhaps refined.


Product Security Profile •  perfSONAR’s security profile is vulnerable to events outside of the

project’s control –  PotenMal vulnerability for Network Implementers and Network Operators. –  Limited resources mean we cannot test everything. –  Dependence other on open source projects opens the product up to security

vulnerabiliMes even when we do test. •  Implement a security incident management process.

–  Define a process for security incident management. We will conduct security post-‐mortems as needed.

–  Communicate security-‐related improvements to Network Implementers. •  Implement a security assessment review.

–  Assess the security profile of the product in consultaMon with security experts. –  PrioriMze changes to the perfSONAR code base and packaging to address any

discovered concerns .


Improving the Value ProposiMon (1) The perfSONAR project has a two-‐pronged strategy to strengthen the product value proposiMon. 1) Long-‐Term: Reshape the product value proposiMon to be=er suit the needs of the Network Owners and Network Consumers. Execute an annual Network Owner survey. Execute an annual Network Consumer survey. Retarget the roadmap to meet those needs as needed. 2) Short-‐Term: Make significant changes to the product offering in response to the needs idenMfied in an annual Network Implementer Survey. The needs shall be measured according to: Impact, Usability, Efficiency, and Advanced Networking.


Improving the Value ProposiMon (2) •  Impact: We aim to grow the installed base of perfSONAR nodes from

1,000+ nodes to 10,000+ nodes. This implies perfSONAR nodes must become commonplace and widespread on campuses across the globe .

•  Usability: We aim to revoluMonize the usability of the perfSONAR framework. This implies a wholesale reimagining and refactoring of the customer-‐facing interfaces targeted at ease-‐of-‐use and ease-‐of-‐problem-‐solving.

•  Efficiency: We aim to reduce the cost of maintaining and enhancing the perfSONAR soHware. This implies finding efficiencies in release management and soHware implementaMon.

•  Advanced Networking: We aim to advance the state of networking by maximizing the value of the informaMon contained in deployed perfSONAR frameworks. This implies creaMng a dynamic, flexible implementaMon that supports new advances in virtual networking and the integraMon of compute and storage into the network.


Product and Development Roadmap The enhanced Product Value ProposiMon idenMfies the following customer impacts for the perfSONAR v3.5 and v3.6 release. •  Accelerate the deployment of nodes within the campus. •  Reduce the total cost of ownership per node to customers. •  Improve the security profile of each node. •  Transform the user experience (ease-‐of-‐use, visual impact). •  Reduce the cost of NOC integraMon. In addiMon, the perfSONAR v3.5 release will include efficiency improvements. •  Reduce the cost of tesMng. •  Reduce the cost of planned feature implementaMon. The enhanced Product Value ProposiMon idenMfies the following customer impacts for the perfSONAR v3.7 release. •  Enable dynamically deployable perfSONAR meshes in real Mme for virtual networks. •  Enhance perfSONAR metrics, updates perfSONAR data collecMon to support the integraMon of

performance monitoring into cloud environments.



RelaMonship between Features and Themes

Development Phasing Strategy •  Candidate Release 3.5: June 2015 •  Final Release 3.5: August 2015 •  Candidate Release 3.6: December 2015 •  Final Release 3.6: February 2016 •  Candidate Release 3.7: June 2016 •  Final Release 3.7: August 2016

•  h=ps://www.perfsonar.net/project-‐informaMon/project-‐roadmap/


perfSONAR v3.5 Plan •  GUI ModernizaMon, Phase I (Mme-‐boxed to fit a June release candidate) •  MadDash 1.2 (minor visualizaMon enhancements) •  Central Management and Node Auto-‐ConfiguraMon •  Support for 1 inexpensive (~$200) node plavorm •  Developer preview of BWCTL replacement •  Integrated Build/Test Environment •  psUI update •  perfSONAR Security Audit compleMon •  Debian Support •  Lookup Service Scalability •  Plan for perfSONAR 3.7

–  Dynamically deployable perfSONAR meshes in real Mme for virtual networks. –  Enhanced perfSONAR metrics and updates to perfSONAR data collecMon to

support the integraMon of performance monitoring into cloud environments.


Low Cost Node Support •  Lots of effort in the community to operate perfSONAR services on low cost ($100-‐$1,000) hardware

•  High level of interest in community for low-‐ cost deployment opMons(wiring closets, network engineer’s backpacks, “give-‐away” nodes, etc.)

•  Want to provide a well supported and tested opMon for these users as part of pS-‐Toolkit

•  Survey: h=p://goo.gl/forms/O4R36WlO18

User Interface Refresh •  The toolkit provides an easy to use web interface targeted at users at a variety of levels of technical experMse.

� �

•  Phase 1 (v3.5): Improve easy of use, visual appeal, and integraMon of state of the art UI components to extend UI’s lifespan.

Central Management / Auto-‐Config •  Central ConfiguraMon and Auto-‐configuraMon opMons to manage large perfSONAR installaMons – Puppet Modules – Mesh ConfiguraMon UI – Central Logging ConfiguraMon – Deployment Guide – Node Auto-‐ConfiguraMon – Etc…

Improving Efficiency and Consistency

•  perfSONAR is a very acMve project, with a conMnuous development cycle.

•  We want to spend less Mme building and tesMng and more Mme developing cool new features while maintaining/enhancing quality of each release!

•  Enable this by focusing on: – Automated build and release management systems –  ConMnuous integraMon of code, including automated unit and system tesMng.

perfSONAR Security Assessment •  The perfSONAR toolkit is an integrated system, including

open source soHware from third parMes and soHware developed by the perfSONAR community.

•  We’ve weathered several storms recently, most notably the “Shellshock” Bash bug

•  We have a proacMve incident response strategy that works well.

•  Changes to security posture in light of these vulnerabiliMes. Example: auto-‐updates enabled by default in v3.4

•  We think now is a good /me to do a more formal assessment of the overall security posture of perfSONAR to iden/fy areas of strength and areas for poten/al security-‐related improvements.

perfSONAR v3.6 Plan •  GUI ModernizaMon, Phase 2(items not completed in iniMal Mme-‐box)

•  MadDash 2.0 (major visualizaMon and scale enhancements)

•  NDT replacement (?) •  BWCTL replacement •  Lookup Service Scalability •  Debian Support •  Support for addiMonal inexpensive node plavorms •  PotenMal security audit gap remediaMon


DRAFT: perfSONAR Product Plan

Presented by the perfSONAR Project h=p://www.perfsonar.net

January 22, 2015

Please send comments to [email protected]

Documents

20150122 perfSONAR Product Plan - Internet2€¦ · perfSONAR’ • perfSONAR’is’an’open’source’soHware’project thatenables’seamless’deploymentof’a network’monitoring’infrastructure.’