pS-Performance Node

Internet users currently face a difficult problem: they are often unable to quickly identify the source of application performance problems that cross multiple domains. pS-Performance Nodes make it easy for everyone to participate, at the appropriate level, in this debugging process. The suite of tools built into a pS-Performance Node can be used to isolate a faulty network component or identify poorly configured hosts. The suite of services used by a pS-Performance Node make it easy to locate remote peer nodes, allowing an authorized user to examine performance data from, and between, peer networks. Deploying one, or more, pS-Performance Nodes in your network makes you part of this global network diagnostic community.

Purpose

A pS-Performance Node may host one, or more, active measurement tools that may act as either the target or source of these tests. Individual tools perform specific tasks including measuring throughput between a source node and target node, measuring the delay – round trip or one-way – between two sites, or diagnosing desktop/laptop computers attached to the network. A pS-Performance Node automatically registers its existence, physical location, and the specific tools it supports in a global directory. Using this information, it becomes possible to locate peer nodes of interest allowing the creation of regularly scheduled throughput or delay measurements with those peers. It is also possible to visualize and analyze results instantly or at a later time, depending on data storage capabilities enabled on the node.

A pS-Performance Node may also support one, or more, of the perfSONAR services allowing this node to participate in a global measurement infrastructure. A measurement archive node will store test results received from a specific measurement tool. The existence of this data, and information on how it was generated, is then available for retrieval by authorized users. Using available topology information, a pS-Performance Node can provide authorized users with details about which measurements would be useful when analyzing a specific network path. These powerful discovery services make the generation and retrieval of useful measurement data a trivial task. perfSONAR services are a major step forward over traditional discovery methods, such as searching the web, calling your colleagues in a peer network, or using a well known domain name for a server.

Ease-of-Use

The pS-Performance Node is a set of performance tools and services; this includes diagnostic interfaces that can access the performance metrics and diagnostic tools of local and remote domains. Common use cases for the pS-Performance Node include:

  • Quickly identifying the faulty component or computer in an end-to-end path.
  • Creating and archiving a series of regularly scheduled tests between your site and peer sites of interest.
  • Standing up a new server to debug a specific problem; the Node will advertise its existence as it becomes available.

Deployment

A common barrier to the adoption of measurement tools is the ease with which they can be installed, configured, and, ultimately, used. Performance measurement tools are no exception, particularly when they rely on complex components such as external time sources, operating system modifications, or long lists of pre-requisites.

The Internet2 community is currently working on a variety of deployment mechanisms for the software components that make up the pS-Performance Node. At the present time, Internet2 provides an ISO image of the pS-Performance Toolkit package as a very easy way to deploy a single instance of a pS-Performance Node.

Tools & Services

The main feature is a Web100-enhanced Linux 2.6.23-9 kernel that facilitates the use of several network tools without the need to configure and compile this advanced component:

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