VLEAD’s Ongoing Activities of Phase-1
From Virtual Labs Community
- Mirror sources and backups to IIT-D:
- Set up nightly sync of lab sources to IIT-Delhi’s remote server.
- Set up nightly sync of Virtual Machine (VM)s and Container backup to IIT-Delhi’s remote server.
- Raise Integration Level(IL) of 31 labs from level 1 to level 5:
- Create lab automation scripts for all 31 IIIT Hyderabad labs and redeploy them using the scripts.
- Also create the server-side scripts that would take the automation scripts and deploy these labs.
- Deploy 15 labs on cloud:
- Identify 15 labs to host on cloud.
- Move the labs to cloud.
- Compare user traffic and other statistics after movement.
- Release new version of UI-Kit:
- Create a lean version of the current UI-Kit.
- Convert a few labs to this new version.
- Study a few popular UI libraries and design a new “responsive” UI.
- Make the new UIKit retargetable by choosing at least two different libraries for responsive design.
- Port 10 labs to Aakash:
- Identify 8 simple labs with minimal technical requirements and minimum network dependency.
- Also identify two other not so simple labs (labs with medium and complex requirements)
- Port these labs to Android. Their UI will be based on the the new responsive UIKit.
- Collect source code for 97 labs:
- Verify the status of the 97 labs for which sources have not been collected (status as in: deployed on vlab, deployed on virtual-labs, under development, abandoned, name changed etc)
- Identify the lab developers who are willing to use VLEAD version control service. Work with such lab developers to upload their sources.
- Work with the remaining lab developers to create version control server in their institute.
- Perform audits of version control server in other institutes.
- Provide Virtual Machines for hosting 97 labs:
- Explore mechanisms for lab developers to access VLEAD’s VMs.
- Establish the lab source hosting process.
- Contact lab developers for their feedback on the hosting process.
- Work with lab developers to start hosting.
- Enhance developer portal:
- Update developer portal to latest Redmine version.
- Fix bugs in developer portal.
- Implement faster lab release for same repo release
- Implement one-vm-per-lab feature.
- Maintain existing systems:
- Shift to STPI ISP.
- Migrate VMs and containers from base4 to base3 machine.
- Move each VLEAD-created app to its own bzr branch.
- Keep server-side software up-to-date (mediawiki, wordpress, drupal, etc.)
- Monitor systems for any issues (Nagios, etc.)
- Collect User Analytics
- Collect user analytics of all labs hosted with VLEAD using both script method (google analytics) as well as log analysis (awstats).
- User analytics through script method must be available at two levels: lab level and overall project level.
- In addition, collect user analytics of all customer-facing applications. Customers include lab developers and students. Some of the customer-facing applications include developer portal, community wiki, feedback application, feedback-reports application, VLEAD blog, etc.
- Collect resource utilization & other stats
- Collect stats of network, CPU, memory and other resources utilization by VLEAD hosted labs on an ongoing basis.
- Perform sampling of load scenarios (10 users) and collect the stats.
- Collect and maintain up-to-date information of all labs
- Explore mechanism to consolidate labs meta-data to one system (labs dashboard).
- Set up a new labs dashboard system and integrate it with LDAP.
- Update labs dashboard with available information.
- Publish labs dashboard application to lab developers.
- Rollout UI redesign to virtual-labs.ac.in
- Identify open items in the current version of UI2.
- Close all major issues in the current version.
- Deploy UI2.
- Develop frameworks/ APIs
- Create Authentication, Lab Progress, Ratings, Quiz, Persistence and Slot booking frameworks.
- Integrate frameworks with UI-Kit.
- Roll-out updated UI-Kit to 2 simpler labs.
- Create two “ideal” labs:
- Explore ideas for “ideal” labs.
- Identify 2 labs for “ideal” labs.
- Create the ideal labs for the identified labs.
- Improve the internal wiki content:
- Improve the quality of internal wiki content.
- Also, have additional technical content.
- Convert labs to a lean UI-Kit:
- Create a lean version of UIKit where most of the assets such as CSS, js, images etc are hosted on a server (versus being shipped with UIKit).
- Modify labs using existing UI-Kit to use the lean UI-Kit.
- Communication and outreach
- Maintaining and updating VLEAD blog, VLEAD Facebook page and VLEAD LinkedInpage.
- Sending monthly reports to IIT Delhi.
- Sending User Analytics and monthly reports to lab developers of all participating Institutions.
- Internal team building
- Conduct weekly tech talks.
- Conduct recruitment drives to acquire new talents for the team.
- Project management:
- Prepare project schedule, planning, tracking and reporting.
- Improve aesthetics in all areas
- Define a lightweight technical review process across VLEAD