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Technical experiences of adopting Sakai at Umeå University

Technical experiences of adopting Sakai at Umeå University. Daniel Lind, Umeå University Daniel.Lind@umdac.umu.se 2nd European Sakai Conference Stockholm, 2009-05-06. Agenda. Background Project Surrounding infrastructure Archiving and porting Problems encountered Improvements

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Technical experiences of adopting Sakai at Umeå University

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  1. Technical experiences of adopting Sakai at Umeå University Daniel Lind, Umeå University Daniel.Lind@umdac.umu.se 2nd European Sakai Conference Stockholm, 2009-05-06

  2. Agenda • Background • Project • Surrounding infrastructure • Archiving and porting • Problems encountered • Improvements • Maintenance • Database • Management model Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  3. Umeå University • Founded in 1965 • 4 faculties • 50 departments • 29000 students • 4000 employees • www.umu.se Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  4. Background • 2001 • LMS system in Ping Pong • Spring 2008 • CLE review by Göran Landgren • June 2008 • Vice Chancellor decided to replace Ping Pong with Sakai • Autumn 2008 • Vanilla Sakai pilot • December 2009 • First release of Sakai at UmU Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  5. Project • Goal: • Adopt Sakai • Integrate to the web complex • Adjust to the IT Infrastructure • Import extra tools • SiteStats, Melete • Skin • Phase out Ping Pong • Plan porting of data to Sakai • Archiving of data in Ping Pong Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  6. Project setup sep 2008 • System owner • IT Office • Workgroup • 6 persons with key positions • Project • Project manager • Project group • ~7 persons • Budget of 200 000 euro Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  7. Project estimation • Total of 2200 hours • Sep 2008 – Dec 2009 • Jump start thanks to Stockholm • Code • Experience • Key tasks not yet fully finished: • CM • Intermediate external site creation • Phase out Ping Pong Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  8. IT infrastructure at UmU • LDAP • Employee and student info • Course info • Organisation info • CAS • SSO • Shibboleth / SimpleSAMLphp • SAML for federated SSO • Other Swedish Universities Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  9. IT infrastructure cont. • uPortal • Student portal • Entry to course sites • Share data storage with MyWorkspace • InfoGlue • CMS • Plain HTML pages • Help pages… Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  10. Sakai installation • Cambro • Contest • Virtual complement to class room, conference room etc • MySQL • RedHat 5 • Production • 4 servers (Quad-core, 8GB RAM) • 1 load balancer and SAML • 2 Tomcat servers • 1 database/file server • 24x7 monitoring, diesel power backup • Test - 1 server (virtual) Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  11. Development enviroment • Development server • Same as production servers • Windows and Linux client laptops • Samba from server • Individual network port ranges • 8000+, 9000+, 10000+… • Problem with incoming mail • Eclipse remote debugging Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  12. Archiving and porting • 300GB data in Ping Pong • Problems • What medium for “eternity” archiving: • Paper, DVD, Tape, HD • What about taped lectures, chats, etc? • No national guidelines yet! • A preview from National archive • Ping Pong as a black box • Exporting the whole db • What formats can Ping Pong export into? • What formats do Sakai accept? Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  13. Porting cont. • Problems cont: • “We want to continue to use it” • Strategy for Sakai archiving • All paper? • We don’t care – but not in Sakai? • Guidelines first! Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  14. Porting cont. Lessons learned porting/archiving: • Importance of standards • Time and money • Declare how archiving is done early • Open systems • No access to db===“bad” • The archive has to be indexed and searchable by regulations Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  15. Tuning • Tuning is necessary already from the start: • MySQL • Tomcat • Sakai • JVM • Real life examples • Missing in the installation guide? Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  16. Open Source • Users interpretation of Open Source: • “We can do what we want with it because we got the code.” • Approx. 30 items on wish list! • From “Version control” to “tool naming”. • What about a commercial system? • “When will the system support personal site layouts?” • All about investment revenue! Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  17. Cooperation • Code from Stockholm • What to cooperate about? • Specific tools, manuals, upgrades • Requirements, code, test, bug tracking, support • Possibly a national se-sakai level, but: • No new Sakai community! • Session later today Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  18. Problems encountered • Data quality in campus system • Never used before • MyISAM vs InnoDB • Switch took 2 minutes • Sakai didn’t complain about no transaction support • Site sections • Missed both settings in sakai.properties and insert to CM_SEC_CATEGORY_T table • Performance • Tuning DB • Test & quizzes tool Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  19. Problems cont. • Help • Google • Web, Sakai Jira … • Sakai-dev list • History at gmane.org • Doc in code folders… • Contacting teachers • Maintenance time slots – how to inform except MOTD • Forcing site owners to a special site. • Opt-outs • Statistics • What’s the usage of Sakai? • Are the sites active? Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  20. Problems cont. • Language • Swedish vs. English: • Either swedish correct or english or none • ”Kurs website” instead of ”course website” • Mostly minor problems but users are annoyed. • Site data porting from pilot to production: • Compress and download • Fortunately only a handful sites Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  21. Improvements • Documentation • Database doc • Usage doc /Help • Code • Single Sing-On support • Technical overall Sakai system doc • ”Sakai for dummies” • Videos are great! Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  22. Improvements cont. • System • “A site for site owners” • Native multi languages support • Version control in resources tool • Statistics on system level • Open but password protected sites Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  23. Database maintenance Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  24. Database maintenance cont. • 304 tables • 2197 columns • If a change is necessary – what is affected? • How to change? • How to use the tables? Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  25. Database maintenance cont. • Documentation: • What is the purpose of this table? • What data is stored? • What are expected value ranges? • Table owner • Table changes • Notification: • “Owner” • Via Sakai-dev? Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  26. Database maintenance cont. • Conventions • Naming, views, triggers, etc. • What about integration with external systems? • Web services… • New column, larger column, new table • No problem • Datatype change, column removal • Probably problems! Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  27. Database growing • Problem:A table change affecting many tools • No changes will be done if to much work to fix trunk • Will leed to new tables… Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  28. Database maintenance cont. • One way: • Database refactoring • Improve database without changing the whole system at the same time • Data up-to-date through triggers, views etc. • Mark the old table as deprecated and phased out to a certain release. • Let many help each other make code changes between releases. • www.infoq.com/presentations/ambler-database-refactoring • Track changes! • Homogeneous database layers Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  29. Maintenance • Three lines of support: • 1st line • Authentication, user information, firewalls, etc. • 2nd line • Full Sakai usage support • 3rd line • >Troubleshooting, bug reporting, fixes Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  30. Maintenance management model • Why? • Maintenance involve several different parties • Business department, IT department, economy department, … • Base organization not suited for such coordination • A mainteance organization is needed • Compare to project organization • Persistent Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  31. pm3 • maintenance management model • Swedish model (only?) • Same on all central systems at UmU • Tool for clarifying responsibilities between business and IT parties • Consists of four central components: Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  32. Pm3 component 1 • Well defined maintenance assignments • Maintenance plan • What to-do during the year with the system • Renewed yearly • All parties must agree upon it Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  33. pm3 component 2 • Efficient maintenance object • Declare what is being maintained and where the boundaries are. • May contain several IT solutions and business solutions • Business perspective (not IT) Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  34. Pm3 component 3 • Described, understood and accepted maintenance processes. • Process for problem based support • Process for change management • Process for management by objectives • Process for operational problem management Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  35. pm3 component 4 • Businesslike maintenance organizations • Project like-form:Based on persons from the ordinary organization • Permanent • One-to-one mapping to maintenance object. Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  36. Maintenance organization Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  37. Maintenance workflow Development proposals steering committee Projects Maintenance management group Fixes Developed components Suggestions for fixes and new functionality Adjusted components Reference groups Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  38. Usage • Spring 2009 (now) • 115 active course sites • 381 project sites • Autumn 2009 • 800+ active course sites • Spring 2010 • 1000+ active course sites Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  39. Usage cont. • No central regulations at UmU about CLE systems yet. • Up to each and everyone • The departments are porting or planning to do so • Costs • Automation of adminstration • Maintenance Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  40. Usage cont. • Pleasant but not so common problem: • Does too many wants to use it?! • Advertising: • Not planned yet. • Killer apps does not need advertising... • Probably late 2009 • Depends on the usage progress Daniel Lind, Umeå University

  41. Questions! Daniel Lind, Umeå University

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