1 / 26

Cross University Open-Source Collaboration

Cross University Open-Source Collaboration. Offer rationale for open collaboration and share experiences. Goal. I will be asking questions of you throughout!. Overview of Presentation. Why open source software (OSS)? Rescomp's Environment and Experience Your Environment and Experience

Download Presentation

Cross University Open-Source Collaboration

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Cross University Open-Source Collaboration

  2. Offer rationale for open collaboration and share experiences Goal I will be asking questions of you throughout!

  3. Overview of Presentation • Why open source software (OSS)? • Rescomp's Environment and Experience • Your Environment and Experience • Moving forward • Discussion

  4. Open vs Closed • Open • Dependent on community rather than vendor • Can customize as needed • Potentially larger support base • Closed • Vulnerable to vendor's business decisions • Staff aren't necessarily needed for modifications http://www.edtechmag.com/higher/may-june-2007/focus.html

  5. Must we be open? • Public funding – public goods • Student staff may learn more from OSS • It's not obvious either way. • However, 'should' or 'can'...it's fun!

  6. Observations • Residential Networks within Universities have a number of shared “problem domains”. • Not all Residential Networks have the same problem domains or resources. • Resnet provides a coordination point for those who could benefit from working together.

  7. Example Projects • Kuali – Core systems infrastructure and apps • Sakai – Educational Collaboration • Tillikum – Housing Info Managment • NetReg – Network Access Control • VT WSUS – Windows Patch Management • And many more...how will we know what's available?!

  8. Rescomp's Environment • Approximately 50 staff members • 8000 node network • Customer support for ~7000 residents • 30 *nix or BSD servers • 8 student staff working on software • Oversight by peer review and several career staff

  9. Rescomp's Experience • Bugzilla – 6 years of use • TWiki – 1.5 years of use • Mailman – 1 instance for more than 6 years • PostgreSQL – several instances for most of site for 6 years • Request Tracker – in development Have not opened in-house applications but have participated in wider OSS community through various uses.

  10. Issue Tracking • In-House • We have an integrated helpdesk that frontline support staff use. • Also a web-based computer lab issue tracker • OSS • Bugzilla – for use internally for both software and non-software requests • Request Tracker – replacement for simple Mailman lists

  11. Bugzilla • Business Need • Issue Tracking • Procurement • Technical Challenges • Requires management of LAMP stack • Results • Met small group needs over 6 years • Awkward for non-software issues

  12. Documentation/Collaboration • In-House • Docbook SGML wrapper • OSS • Twiki – Used for team coordination, meeting minutes, one-off issue tracking • Mailman archives for searching • Subversion hooks into Bugzilla

  13. TWiki • Business Need • Centralized site-wide documentation • Technical Challenge • Maintenance • Performance • Results • Increased and more useful documentation • Additions through plugins were very useful

  14. User Management • In-House • Sync scripts in cron written in perl • OSS • OpenLDAP – Used for several purposes as well as user management • Samba – Used in combination with OpenLDAP for Windows integration • Jxplorer – Manipulation of LDAP directory • PostgreSQL – Long term reliable storage of user data for use in web apps

  15. PostgreSQL • Business Need • Storage of user information • Technical Challenge • Requires tuning • Results • Received fantastic support through community mailing lists, IRC, and documentation.

  16. Server Management • In-House • ConfMan – Configuration management • Misc scripts in crons • OSS • Nagios – Monitoring and issue tracking with Bugzilla • FreeBSD – Our OS of choice • NFS, PAM, LDAP – Technologies we used to provide a consistent working environment

  17. FreeBSD Operating System • Business Need • Support for windows workstations • Technical Challenges • Managing many server configurations with small part-time staff. • Results • Easily manageable lightweight server infrastructure • Great support from mailing lists and documentation

  18. Our In-House Software • Current Applications • NAC • Helpdesk • Web-based Computer Lab Management • Hour tracking for front-line support staff • Security Case Handler

  19. Q/A and Info Gathering • What is your environment like? • What has been your experience with OSS? • What have you written in-house?

  20. Possible Approaches • Rewrite applications together • Release what we have and let others modify • Sanitize & Generalize • Agree on standards that allow interoperation and then divide and conquer

  21. Challenges for Opening Up • Would require a high degree of customizations • Ontology and Business Logic specific to departmental groups, i.e. alphabet soups. • IP Conflicts with University

  22. Will opening up work for you? • We've heard about a few environments. • We've seen some challenges and approaches. • How can we find out?

  23. What have people tried? • Who has: • ...tried incorporating someone's work? • ...released their in-house software?

  24. What could be next? • Community Portal - Sakai? • Standards Group - Kuali? • Sharing what we have: • Software Registry, e.g. Sourceforge • Mailing lists • BoF – Tuesday 11:30am in IR/PS

  25. Discussion • Will Open Source work for ResNet? • Is Kuali enough? • How can we avoid “design by committee”? • What can we do now?

  26. Evaluations • Go to “Presentation Evaluations” at: http://resnetsymposium.org/resnet2007

More Related