Experiment Precis

Warning

Precis is no longer supported on the testbed!

Introduction

Chameleon records experiment setup (OpenStack) events that users performed on the testbed, such as creating leases, creating instances, and setting up networks. Users can request their experiment records from Chameleon using their Chameleon credentials. A report on those experiment records is known as the Experiment Precis. An Experiment Precis is bounded to a lease. Chameleon defines an experiment as a series of testbed setup (OpenStack) events a user performed under a lease of a project. Using Experiment Precis, users will be able to analyze, understand and even replay their experiments.

Currently, Experiment Precis is provided in JSON format. The following contents are included:

{
    "experiment_precis_name": "The name of the experiment precis",
    "experiment_precis_id":  "The id of the experiment precis",
    "site": "Which Chameleon site the experiment was performed",
    "testbed_version": "The testbed version at the time the experiment started",
    "report_time_in_utc": "The datetime when the experiment precis was requested (in UTC)",
    "report_time_in_ct": "The datetime when the experiment precis was requested (in CT)",
    "events": "A list of events performed",
    "event_page": "The page number of the events",
    "event_page_size": "The page size of the events",
    "hardware": "Hardwares that were used during the experiment",
    "hardware_page": "The page number of the hardwares",
    "hardware_page_size": "The page size of the harwareds",
    "metric": "Metrics saved in Gnocchi",
    "metric_page": "The page number of the metrics",
    "metric_page_size": "The page size of the metrics"
}

Installation

To request your experiment precis from Chameleon, you need to install the Chameleon Experiment Precis (cep) Client. To install cepclient on your local machine, run the following command:

pip install cepclient

To test if cepclient is properly installed, run:

cep --help

Setting up cep client

Before using the cep client, you must configure the authentication-related environment variables via source the OpenStack RC script or provide the authentication values as command parameters. If you choose to pass command parameters, use cep --help and look for Authentication Options for more information.

Note

When using rc script for setting up cep client, please download and use the v3 file.

List experiment precis

You can use list command to find all the experiments you have run.

cep list

The output looks like the following:

+---------------------+---------------------+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| created_at          | updated_at          | id                                   | name                                 | lease_id                             |
+---------------------+---------------------+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| 2018-10-18 09:21:02 | 2018-10-18 09:21:02 | 0fa88391-6b14-465d-a62c-91ad8f6eb920 | 0fa88391-6b14-465d-a62c-91ad8f6eb920 | 972b70aa-33ca-42fc-9d4e-e07b2b9df3c3 |
| 2018-10-18 10:05:50 | 2018-10-18 10:05:50 | 93ffbb79-e732-4046-a49d-b223ff8f1bd5 | 93ffbb79-e732-4046-a49d-b223ff8f1bd5 | 9f91c7ac-212b-4d46-8f88-1e9db341f41a |
+---------------------+---------------------+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+

The Experiment Precis will be listed in the reverse order of creation datetime, i.e. the latest Experiment Precis is listed the first.

For more information, run:

cep list --help

Rename experiment precis

Initially, Chameleon sets the name of an Experiment Precis the same as its id. However, you can rename it for the convenience of future retrieving. To rename an Experiment Precis, run the following command:

cep rename --name <new_name> <ep_id or ep_name>

Tip

Renaming your experiment precis to a meaningful name will help you 1) mark your special experiment; 2) understand what the experiment is about; 3) retrieve your experiment precis.

For more information, run:

cep rename --help