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SA NREN Mconf Systems Hardware and Support Infrastructure Presented by Patrick Holahan TENET Senior Network Engineer patrickh@tenet.ac.za

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Covering? Hardware and remote management Software Monitoring Support procedures Notifications / Maintenance Access to the systems Mconfsa blog Summary Questions and Answers 2

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Hardware Physical Server 1x Dell R520 server 2x Intel Xeon E5-2440 CPUs running at 1.9Ghz 4x 1TB HDDs RAID10 64Gb RAM Dell iDRAC (integrated Dell Remote Access Control) Redundancy? None as of yet Plans for a 2 nd machine in JNB A VMware system, easy to backup/replicate 3

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Software Base machine ESXi 6.0 VMwares hypervisor engine VMware ESXi (formerly ESX) is an enterprise-class, type-1 hypervisor developed by VMware for deploying and serving virtual computers. As a type- 1 hypervisor, ESXi is not a software application that one installs in an operating system; instead, it includes and integrates vital OS components, such as a kernel. A hypervisor or virtual machine monitor (VMM) is a piece of computer software, firmware or hardware that creates and runs virtual machines. A computer on which a hypervisor is running one or more virtual machines is defined as a host machine. Each virtual machine is called a guest machine. 16

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VMware Machines 6x Ubuntu 14.04.2 machines 1x mconf web server https://mconf.sanren.ac.za https://mconf.sanren.ac.za 3x mconf live servers mconf-live-01.sanren.ac.za mconf-live-02.sanren.ac.za mconf-live.sanren.ac.za (Hosted at CSIR/SANReN) 1x mconf recording server mconf-rec-01.sanren.ac.za 1x SAML idP server idp-01.tenet.ac.za No defined architecture (part of the SA NREN contribution to mconf is updating this) 17

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Mconf network architecture 25

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Mconf web server Ubuntu latest stable (14.04.2) The web application that provides access to Mconf Allows users to register locally or via FID intergration Ruby (via Ruby Version Manager) Phusion Passenger (Ruby app server) Apache (can use nginx the live servers do) MySQL database SSL certificate 26

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Mconf live servers Ubuntu latest stable (14.04.2) 3x Mconf live servers 2 hosted at TENET mconf-live-01.sanren.ac.za mconf-live-02.sanren.ac.za 1 hosted at SANReN mconf-live.sanren.ac.za Based on BigBlueButton Open source web conferencing software Completely scalable, continually adding new live servers Accommodates usage peaks Geographically assigning the closest server Run on nginx Use ruby on rails JSON & Chef recipes for management and deployment Managed by mconf technologia 34

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Mconf recording server Ubuntu latest stable (14.04.2) 1x mconf recording server at present Recordings are processed once a meeting completes Pauses / stopping recording Still one file Pushed after processing to the recording server Available for download via the meeting space JSON & Chef recipes for management and deployment Managed by mconf technologia From a software/setup perspective Managed by TENET From a space/utilisation perspective/policy perspective (needs to be decided upon) 35

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Monitoring IRIS snmpd Process monitoring Mconf http://lb2.mconf.org http://lb2.mconf.org Dashboard See images 36

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IRIS 37

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Mconf Load Balancer Generic Stats 41

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Mconf Load Balancer Admin Section 50

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Support Procedures Ideal vs real world Ideally, we want a tiered structure Campus user reports to local IT department Local IT department logs a ticket with TENET TENET logs a ticket with Mconf Real world At present, this structure is not in place This launch is, to some, the first youre hearing of Mconf Unknown skillsets at the campus regarding Mconf Some systems in place, not finalised in terms of configuration Train the trainer sessions? 67

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Support Procedures Current support options Ticket logging Service Operations Centre soc@tenet.ac.za soc@tenet.ac.za Telephonic Helpdesk 24x7 call centre 021 763 7147 Who do tickets get assigned to? TENET Engineering team Specifically Patrick and Kasandra for now Escalation? TENET to escalate to Mconf Technologia via email & Skype 68

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Pro-active Support & Notifications Email alerts - Mailman mailing list IRIS Graphing and alerts Mconfsa blog 69

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Pro-active Support & Notifications Email alerts - Mailman mailing list alerts Maintenance or planned work/outages Specific to Mconf Not separate notifications from ren-news http://lists.tenet.ac.za/mailman/listinfo/ren-newshttp://lists.tenet.ac.za/mailman/listinfo/ren-news Subscribe - http://lists.tenet.ac.za/mailman/listinfo/mconfhttp://lists.tenet.ac.za/mailman/listinfo/mconf List is moderated and requires both confirmation and approval To be manually populated by TENET for the initial group FID users will need to subscribe manually as theyre not in the Mconf user database 70

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Pro-active Support & Notifications Graphing & Alerts IRIS The IRIS system generates alerts for all managed servers Emails to both IRIS and TENET when an event occurs Notifications to IRIS dashboard Graphs that are pro-actively monitored 75

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Mconfsa Blog The Mconfsa Blog http://mconfsa.wordpress.com http://mconfsa.wordpress.com Articles indicating status of the project, events, notifications Help guides for the use of the system Still being expanded Please feel free to add your input/suggestions 82

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Access to the systems? Registration on mconf web Requires a browser Firefox preferred (chrome not preferred) Requires a camera/microphone, unless you wish to just listen, like to a lecture/presentation Open registration for now Later, only available to FID members via SAFIRE (2016) Log a ticket for access soc@tenet.ac.za or the 24x7 helpdesk 021 763 7147soc@tenet.ac.za 86

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Review Hardware & Remote access Software Base machine and virtual machines Types of Mconf servers - web, live, and recording Monitoring, graphing, and Pro-active alerting MconfSA Blog How to access the systems Call/Ticket logging procedures 87

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Where to from here? Continue to enhance and establish the tiered support infrastructure Enhance the skillsets on campus and within TENET/SANReN Continue to build on the platform another VM in JNB for redundancy customising the design/colours to suit our branding See what the community has to offer Development skills, feature requests, etc 88

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In summary Currently 1 physical server, multiple VMs Still integrating the monitoring, alerting, and email notifications Need people to start using it to stress test and feedback Utilising a world class OSS web conferencing platform (based on BBB) Constantly being developed and enhanced by Mconf Technologia Feeding their enhancements back into BBB The SA NREN aim is to supply complementary systems that work together to enhance learning and collaboration for all our member institutions in a reliable and continously improving way. 89

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Questions? 90

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References Mconf network https://github.com/mconf/wiki/wiki/Mconf-Network https://github.com/mconf/wiki/wiki/Mconf-Network Mconf web https://github.com/mconf/mconf-web/wiki https://github.com/mconf/mconf-web/wiki Mconf live https://github.com/mconf/wiki/wiki/Mconf-Live & https://github.com/mconf/wiki/wiki/Mconf-Live https://github.com/mconf/wiki/wiki/Mconf-Network#requirements-for-the-mconf-live-server https://github.com/mconf/wiki/wiki/Mconf-Network#requirements-for-the-mconf-live-server Mconf blog https://mconfsa.wordpress.comhttps://mconfsa.wordpress.com ren-news & mconf mailinst lists http://lists.tenet.ac.za/mailman/listinfo/ http://lists.tenet.ac.za/mailman/listinfo/ General info about TENET and SANReN http://www.tenet.ac.za http://www.tenet.ac.za http://www.sanren.ac.za http://www.sanren.ac.za Graphing & monitoring page IRIS http://graphs.tenet.ac.za http://graphs.tenet.ac.za 91

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92 Contact Details. Service Operations Centre 24x7 email logging soc@tenet.ac.za. Service Desk 24x7 Call Logging 021 763 7147. Patrick Holahan patrickh@tenet.ac.za 079 523 5555soc@tenet.ac.zapatrickh@tenet.ac.za