Trovi Support for Complex Appliances

Overview

Chameleon has historically enabled researchers to orchestrate complex appliances—large, multi-node clusters configured via OpenStack Heat—to conduct advanced experiments. Meanwhile, Trovi has emerged as a service for sharing reproducible artifacts. This project aims to bridge the two by adding support in Trovi for importing, discovering, and launching complex appliances. By integrating these capabilities, researchers will be able to one-click deploy complex appliances directly from the Trovi dashboard, archive them for future reference, and reproduce experiments on demand.

Key Outcomes

  • Extended Trovi API: Enable the import and management of complex appliances as artifacts.
  • Streamlined One-Click Launch: Integrate with Chameleon’s existing provisioning workflows so users can launch multi-node clusters directly from Trovi.
  • Enhanced Dashboard Experience: Provide UI assistance for discovering, reviewing, and customizing complex appliance artifacts.
  • Improved Artifact Reproducibility: Automate the process of exporting CC-snapshot images and other resources to ensure everything is preserved across sites (UC, TACC), highlighting any parameters that need user attention for cross-site portability.

Topics: Reproducible Research, Cloud Computing & Orchestration, OpenStack Heat, UI/UX & Web Development

Skills

  • Python & APIs: Familiarity with REST APIs (e.g., Trovi), scripting, and possibly the python-chi library.
  • Cloud Orchestration: Experience in using OpenStack Heat or Terraform-like tools.
  • Frontend / Dashboard Development: Understanding of modern web technologies (HTML/CSS/JavaScript) for improving Trovi’s UI.
  • DevOps & Automation: Ability to script and automate multi-site testing, ensuring consistent environment setups.

Difficulty: Moderate to Hard

Size: Medium to Large (suitable for a semester project or summer internship)

Mentors: Mark Powers (markpowers@uchicago.edu)

Mark Powers is a research software engineer at the University of Chicago, and is the DevOps lead for the Chameleon Cloud testbed. His research interests focus on cloud and edge computing, system design, and reproducibility. Since 2021, he has assisted in mentoring several student interns each summer.

Potential Tasks & Deliverables

  • Extensions to the Trovi API
      • Add support for importing complex appliances as artifacts (including Heat templates, metadata, and associated disk images).
      • Develop methods for tagging, versioning, and categorizing these appliances, making them easier to discover.
  • One-Click Launch of Complex Appliances
      • Integrate with Chameleon’s orchestration engine, enabling single-click cluster deployments from the Trovi UI.
      • Validate correct configuration and resource availability through automated checks.
  • Trovi Dashboard Enhancements
      • Update the front-end to provide intuitive controls for customizing or parameterizing complex appliances before launching.
      • Offer a clear workflow for reviewing dependencies, resource requirements, and usage instructions.
  • Automated Export & Multi-Site Testing
    • Streamline the export of snapshots or images into Trovi as part of the appliance import process.
    • Optionally re-run the imported appliances at multiple sites (UC, TACC), detecting any unparameterized settings or missing dependencies.