EVALUATING AND USING CLOUD COMPUTING FOR ONLINE HANDS-ON LEARNING *

Transcription

1 EVALUATING AND USING CLOUD COMPUTING FOR ONLINE HANDS-ON LEARNING * Dongqing Yuan, Brandon Cross Information Technology Management University of Wisconsin-Stout {yuanh; crossb}@uwstout.edu ABSTRACT In an IT learning environment hands-on learning is central to one s learning. For many years traditional IT program instructors have been able to integrate hands-on approaches into the classroom. Although hands-on laboratory exercises are integral to a successful IT program, e-learning students in IT do not have the same laboratory experience as onsite students. Consequentially, there is a problem with e-learning IT students not acquiring all the essential hands-on skills with equipment used in the IT industry. In this paper, we present a solution which is based on private cloud computing and can be used to build a laboratory and learning environment for online hands-on IT courses. Students, as cloud clients, can access the server by web access through VPN connection. 1. INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND Hands-on learning is a well-known practice allowing a learner to apply concepts taught in class. Blooms Taxonomy, Kolb s theory of experiential learning, and numerous other studies all support the need for learners to learn in a hands-on environment. Although hands-on laboratory exercises are integral to a successful IT program, e-learning students in IT do not have the same laboratory experience as onsite students (Leitner & Cane, 2005). Consequentially, there is a problem with e-learning IT students not acquiring all the essential hands-on skills with equipment used in the IT industry. In a traditional IT program a hands-on approach generally requires the students to work on * Copyright 2014 by the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges. Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial advantage, the CCSC copyright notice and the title of the publication and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges. To copy otherwise, or to republish, requires a fee and/or specific permission. 191

2 JCSC 29, 4 (April 2014) lab equipment, the equipment typically being identical to devices used in the industry. The lab equipment is almost always isolated from internet denoting it is impossible for an e-learning student to remotely access the lab. A few workarounds do exist including the use of simulation software, to require students to use their own equipment, or to procure specialized lab equipment that can be remotely accessed, each workaround having its own advantages, problems, and limitations (Leitner & Cane, 2005). This paper investigated several IT technologies that can improve an IT e-learner s opportunity to experience quality hands-on learning. Then we present a solution which is based on private cloud computing and can be used to build a laboratory and learning environment for online hands-on IT courses. 2. IT LABORATORY TECHNOLOGY There are several laboratory options for IT learners to include onsite laboratories, remote laboratories, and simulation laboratories, each having its own advantages, problems, and limitations. 2.1 Onsite IT laboratory To begin with, onsite IT laboratories commonly contain similar or identical equipment that is used in the IT industry (Li, Toderick, Li, Mohammed, & Lunsford, 2008). Routers, switches, servers, and network cabling are all common equipment seen in IT laboratories. A fundamental lab setup for an onsite IT laboratory can be seen in figure 1. Figure 1. The figure illustrates a typical onsite IT laboratory. A fundamental setup typically consists of multiple routers, multiple local area network (LAN) switches, lab computers, and a server(s). Some advantages of onsite IT laboratories include students get to interact with the actual physical equipment, permitting them to explore the exact technology employed in the IT field. In consequence, IT learners receive realistic training and can use their newly acquired skills immediately in the workplace. Two major disadvantages of onsite IT laboratories include the cost of purchasing the laboratory equipment and the inflexibility of when the equipment can be used. Equally, in many instances an onsite lab is only available for use between certain hours and may require a lab worker be available during those hours. 192

3 CCSC: Southwestern Conference 2.2 Remote IT laboratory Remote IT laboratories, IT laboratories that can be accessed from distant locations, are setup similar to onsite IT laboratories but have a few key differences. In particular, remote IT laboratories must be connected to a network such as the Internet which opens an array of security issues. A general lab setup for a remote IT laboratory can be seen in figure 2. Figure 2. The figure illustrates a typical IT Remote Laboratory. A general lab setup for a remote lab typically includes a connection to the internet, a firewall which performs basic security functions, and an access control server which allows the remainder of the laboratory equipment to be accessed remotely. The key advantages of remote IT laboratories are the laboratory equipment can be remotely access, beneficial to distance e-learning students, and the laboratory generally is accessible at any time. Similar to onsite IT laboratories remote IT laboratories have cost disadvantages. Not only does the typical IT laboratory equipment need to be purchased but specialized hardware needs to purchase for the remote access aspect of the laboratory, adding substantial cost to build a remote IT laboratory and for this reason making it not an option for many organizations. Furthermore, remote IT laboratories do not allow for the IT students to be physically involved in the cabling of the equipment as this step must be completed onsite. 2.3 Simulation software Simulation software is another IT laboratory technology that currently is used to support IT learners hands-on experiences (Pickard, Spence, & Lunsford, 2012). 193

4 JCSC 29, 4 (April 2014) Simulation software in IT generally imitates certain functions of real equipment. Some common simulation software IT students use includes Cisco s Packet Tracer, Graphic Network Simulator 3 (GNS3), and IOS on Unix (IOU). 2.4 Cloud Computing Cloud based computing is a recent technology that has become popular over the past few years. Cloud computing allows computer networks to be engineered in such a way that computer processing resources can be shared and optimized among multiple applications as well as allows for flexible expansion of network resources. If designed well remote IT laboratories, using cloud computing concepts, can be an advantageous opportunity compared to the other laboratory technologies (Doelitzscher, Sulistio, Reich, Kuijs, & Wolf, 2010). Information technology e-learning programs can employ cloud computing techniques by virtualizing laboratory equipment such as PC s (Lai, & Chiang, 2011). Virtualization allows software such as Windows 7 to operate in a cloud environment. For example, computing resources can be allocated from a cloud and be used to run multiple virtual instances of window 7, each instance being similar to a standalone PC with Windows 7 installed. Not only can IT e-learning programs take advantage of virtualizing computer software but also network infrastructure devices such as routers and switches. As a result, IT e-learning programs can virtualize all the basic components to an IT laboratory. As seen in figure 3 an entire IT laboratory can be virtualized using cloud computing infrastructure. Figure 3. The figure illustrates a typical Cloud IT Laboratory Within the cloud a number of basic IT laboratory components can be virtualized to include routers, switches, personal computers, firewalls, and servers. The major advantages of building a virtualized IT laboratory is it is cost-effective as minimal hardware is required, the environment provides IT learners hands-on experience with real world IT industry equipment, and can easily be accessed remotely (Yuan, Lewandowski,& Zhong, 2011). Additionally, cloud computing is going to be more prevalent in the future, making it an ideal technology for an IT learner to use. 194

5 CCSC: Southwestern Conference A big concern about cloud computing is security. Security is a significant concern of cloud computing as the physical infrastructure commonly is not owned by the organization or person whom is utilizing it (Armbrust, Griffith, Katz, Lee, Patterson, Rabkin, &Stoica, et al, 2009; Kim, McDermott, & Kang, 2010). However, recently many security innovations have been developed to protect cloud computing resources such as Cisco s adaptive security appliance (ASA) 1000V cloud firewall, a virtual firewall that has identical functions as Cisco s hardware ASA firewall yet can be directly integrated into the cloud. The implementation of cloud computing in an IT elearning environment can be accomplished in a variety of ways, (one) by creating a private cloud, a cloud that is owned solely by an organization, (two) by utilizing public cloud computing resources such as Amazon web service, and (three) by using a hybrid cloud, a cloud that utilizes both public and private cloud computing. Once a cloud method is chosen an organization will then need to procure the required equipment if a private cloud or hybrid cloud is the selected method or procure cloud computing resources from a public cloud entity. After the necessary cloud computing resources are obtained virtual laboratory equipment can be created based on a required IT laboratory design. 3. METHDOLODGY In this paper we present a solution that is based on private cloud computing and can be used for building a laboratory and learning environment for online IT courses. The solution we propose is a private cloud computing system providing SaaS. Students, as cloud clients, can access the Servers by web access anywhere in the world. The virtual infrastructure can automatically adapt to the changes of the service load. The infrastructure is centrally managed. This reduces costs by reducing licensing, space requirements, management, energy consumption, and cooling. Three clusters of virtual machines have been integrated into a single architecture. With the virtualization, we are able to reduce the power consumption, improve CPU utilization, reduce the number of physical servers, support failover, and have more centralized delivery of services. The lab currently supports two online courses: Microsoft Server Application and Administration and IP Telephony Design and Implementation. The topology of the laboratory is illustrated in Figure

6 JCSC 29, 4 (April 2014) Figure 4: Lab Topology Three clusters of virtual machines are installed over a campus network. Students can freely connect to any of the virtual machines remotely through School s VPN connection. The call manager cluster includes one physical server running eight virtualized call manager servers. The Windows server cluster has sixty-four virtual machines with two nested layers. The Domain Controller and Unified Communication cluster has eight domain controller servers, eight unified communication servers such as Unity connection servers and presence servers. The virtual cluster resembles a typical small corporate network, which consists of routers, firewalls, web servers, DNS, DHCP servers, domain controllers, etc. The following hardware is used to develop the lab environment: HP DL380 G6 Sever, 8 TB of Hard Disk Space, 2 6-Core Intel Xeon 3.4GHz processors and 48 GB of RAM. VMware ESXi was used to install the VMs because it can provide all of the services and features required for the class including virtualization within itself. ESXi provided the opportunity to install ESXi on the physical server and then install eight more nested instances within the one instance. This provided the class the opportunity to utilize and share the same hardware while remaining independent. Nesting ESXi also provided the opportunity for the instructor and lab manager to manage the class s servers easily by utilizing snapshots and other features built into the ESXi. Students are provided with access through school s VPN connection to their own ESXi installation and given complete control of the servers within the virtualized platform. Students can configure network services and change settings on the virtual machines based on the lab instruction. Figures 5 displays the environments and controls the students have in the Microsoft Server lab environment. The whole point of this architecture is to make large pools of servers act and feel as if they were a single, consistent, virtual system. 196

7 CCSC: Southwestern Conference Figure 5: Microsoft Virtual Networking Topology The topology of the IP Telephony laboratory is illustrated in Figure 6. There are four onboard switch ports connecting to the aggregation switch, and the aggregation switch connects to eight routers in each group. Students can get access to the call manager application with 24/7 availability from any location with web access. The entire system is perceived as a whole rather than as a collection of independent components. Figure 6: IP Telephony Laboratory Topology 4. CONCLUSIONS In this paper, we present a solution which is based on private cloud computing and can be used to build a laboratory and learning environment for online hands-on IT 197

8 JCSC 29, 4 (April 2014) courses. Although hands-on laboratory exercises are integral to a successful IT program, online students do not have the same laboratory experience as onsite students. To address the above issues, the solution we propose is private cloud computing providing SaaS. Students, as cloud clients, can access the server by web access through VPN connection. Three clusters of virtual machines were created and the virtual infrastructure can automatically adapt to the change of the service load. Our experience demonstrated that the private cloud computing provide online students valuable hands-on experience. 5. REFERENCES [1] Leitner, L., & Cane, J. (2005). A virtual laboratory environment for online it education. SIGITE [2] Li, C., Toderick, L., Li, P., Mohammed, T., & Lunsford, P. (2008). Networking lab simulation using virtual technologies. American Society for Engineering Education. [3] Lunt, B., Ekstrom, J., Gorka, S., Hislop, G., Kamali, R., Lawson, E., LeBlanc, R., & Reichgelt, H. (2008). Curriculum guidelines for undergraduate degree programs in information technology. Association for Computing Machinery IEEE Computer Society. [4] Pickard, J., Spence, J., & Lunsford, P. (2012). IPv6 certification and course development. SIGITE [5] Doelitzscher, F., Sulistio, A., Reich, C., Kuijs, H., & Wolf, D. (2010). Private cloud for collaboration and e-learning services: from IaaS to SaaS. Computing, 91(1), doi: /s z. [6] Yuan, D., Lewandowski, C., & Zhong (2011). Developing IP telephony laboratory and curriculum with private cloud computing. SIGITE Conference 2011, [7] Armbrust, A., Griffith, A., Katz, A., Lee, D., Patterson, A., & Rabkin, I. (2009). Above the clouds: A Berkeley view of cloud computing. University of California, Berkeley, Tech. 198