What follows is a status report for the OSAF Hosted Service (named
osaf.us). It's a copy of a report sent to the service-dev list,
re-distributed to the design list here.
The idea is that the design issues for the Hosted Service have
interdependencies with the design issues of both Chandler and Cosmo,
the big OSAF projects. So increasing the background awareness of the
Hosted Service status can help with the overall ecosystem's design.
As the goal is to promote general knowledge of the work, questions and
comments are warmly welcomed.
*Recent progress* for the OSAF hosted service includes:
* MySQL-backed Cosmo network operations is in-use and well-tested
* "Synchronization too slow for big calendars" issue resolved
because of increased performance of Cosmo 0.5
* Quantitative scaling model prepared, helping to estimate expected
traffic load
* Target capacity at Preview proposed at 10k
* Multiple app servers and multiple db server features removed from
Preview "must-have" features; plan is to go with two big servers
(app+db) at launch
* Bugzilla keyword created for "hosted-service" and many related
bugs opened for tracking purposes
* Early Chandler+osaf.us instance usage and migration reports coming
in positive; no current blockers to osaf.us+Cosmo 0.5 general
availability
*Near-term progress* on the hosted service will include:
* osaf.us service will be wiped and updated to Cosmo 0.5 final
* osaf.us will become the default account in Cosmo 0.7a5
* Consensus on proposal to target Preview server capacity for 10k users
* osaf.us web presence/wrapper will be polished for general usage
* Starter metrics dashboard page for the hosted service will be put up
* A captial budget for Preview launch will be set offline
The *areas of work* for the hosted service include:
* Service web presence
* Customer support
* Network operations
* Scaling of capacity
* Metrics
* Email integration
* OSAF product integration
*Upcoming pre-Preview* areas of work include:
* Terms of service; community/social contract
* Preview launch countdown punchlist
* Service web presence polish
*Upcoming post-Preview* areas of work may include:
* Functional
* Alerts integration (email, messaging)
* Mobile support, integration, and gateways
* Own-your-data features, personal backups
* Optional public home pages for service users
* Document management enhancements (WebDAV)
* Quotas
* Support
* Enhanced customer support, web forums
* Cosmo clustering (multiple app server and multiple db server support)
* Server infrastructure growth
* 24x7 network operations
* Support staff (customer and network operations)
* Sustainability
* Revenue model, revenue preparation, advertising infrastructure, AdSense
* Differentiated for-pay services
The detailed status of the major work areas follows.
Service web presence
Status:
Placeholder site available for osaf.us
Issues:
- Risks of confusing overlap between Cosmo web presence and
service-specific web presence "wrapper"
- Final naming/branding likely to be delievered later than ideal
- osaf.us web presence is at prototype-level only; needs at least
some polish before public mention
Upcoming:
- (2007-Jan) Finalize name and marks for hosted service
- Acquire and configure the domain name used for the Preview hosted service
- Prepare backend and maintenance mechanism for "status of the service" page
- Finalization of formal terms of service
- Preparation of usage documentation, customer FAQs, etc
- Good-enough art direction, graphical design, and copywriting for
all osaf.us-specific web content
Customer support
Status:
Prepping simple email-based support mechanism, then waiting for
user growth to determine best customer support mechanisms.
Planning for customer self-service mechanisms.
Issues:
- Consensus on "wait-and-see" approach
- Proper mechanisms for reporting service issues not clear to
customers, devs, or management
Upcoming:
- Setup of [EMAIL PROTECTED] customer support contact mechanism (routed
through Barracuda for greater spam protection)
- Write substantial copy for service end-user FAQs, etc
- Route emergency contact address through Barracuda for better
spam protection of IT paging
- Repetition of emergency and regular customer support procedures
- Web form to submit support requests
Network operations
Status:
Running all alpha services on single virtualized server. Support
split between OSAF and KEI IT. Planning Preview load-balancing as
1 big app server, 1 modest db server, 1 SSL-offload/proxy box, and
1 admin/analysis/testing box.
Issues:
- Some admin features not getting bundled with Cosmo. Currently
needing to track patches, or use a vendor branch. Right
packaging and labor division under discussion.
- Procedures for migration of users and data from cosmo-demo
(Cosmo 0.4) to osaf.us (Cosmo 0.5) are somewhat unclear
Upcoming:
- Expansion of available colocation space
- Budgetting and procurement of final production hardware
- Monitoring and alerting of systems backending hosted service
- Regular nightly backups of Cosmo data for production instance
- Implement infrastructure for JMX monitoring of Cosmo
- Track Cosmo feature for "disable user access"
- Track Cosmo feature for "disk space usage reports"
- Drive Java admin features into server bundle if not Cosmo itself
Scaling of capacity
Status:
Cosmo 0.5 has been tested to a simulated real-world capacity of
5,000 users. It's believed that Preview target of 10k users can
be achieved on a single (expensive) server.
Issues:
- Integration of performance testing framework with QA's and Tbox
codebases/workflows
Upcoming:
- Refinement of testing mix and accuracy (using real-world data);
present to general audiences for OSAF feedback as well
- Testing of capacity using SSL (vs non-SSL)
- Experimental testing of clustering via multiple app servers:
* Tomcat session replication
* Sticky sessions via external load balancer (using "pound" software)
Metrics
Status:
Simple daily statistics derived from cosmo-demo HTTP access logs available
Issues:
- Development should be further along
Upcoming:
- Further research of user-agent breakdowns and platforms
- Define specific community metrics available at Preview
- Definition and implementation of retention metrics
- Implementation of backend to support sub-day and real-time metrics
- Backend development for product management dashboard
Email integration
Status:
Planning experimental submit item to collection by Preview.
Expected to use "mashup" style of implementation requiring no
formal Cosmo support.
Issues:
- Development blocked on Cosmo support for sharing format for items
- Design likely to be experimental-only, not finely-tuned in the
Preview timeframe
- People aren't widely sold on the idea; in stealth mode
Upcoming:
- Specification of submission function
- Set up virtual machines for email prototyping
- Configure mail server to operate against MySQL table for recipients
- Code/test email gateway/robot submission system
- Code/test osaf.us web UI to change submission settings
OSAF product integration
Status:
Chandler 0.7a4-pre is in significant use against Cosmo 0.4 at
cosmo-demo. Some initial Chandler 0.7a4-pre and Cosmo 0.5 has
been performed, and the combinations certified by QA.
Upcoming:
- Well-tested integration of Chandler 0.7a4, Cosmo 0.5, and
osaf.us instance
- Chandler, Cosmo, and Cosmo UI support item versions so as to
avoid data reversion in the event of server backup. (Blocked on
confirmation that Hibernate item version is settable and
protocol specification)
- Betteer dev support for service-debugging features including
packet traces, logs, and other admin functions available through
osaf.us web UI
- osaf.us info to become default sharing account in Chandler trunk
before 0.7a5
- Upgrade to interim and final releases of all Cosmo and
service-specific codebases
- (2007-Mar) Hosted Service announced as generally available to the public
- Chandler background synchronization rate is server-throttled
--
Jared Rhine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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