Report on Remote Security Laboratory Cloud system (June 2014)

The Remote Security Laboratory system has been planned to be a cloud system based on OpenStack and deployed at member universities. Teachers and students will use this laboratory for the teaching and studying processes once it will be ready to use.

The development, deployment, training and other related activities for this system have a whole separate work package (further called – the cloud system) done by the designated group (further called – the cloud group) in the ENGENSEC project.

During the Sweden meeting the core of the cloud group was identified: Leo Truksans (group lead) and Martins Balodis from the University of Latvia, Johan Zackrisson and Oscar Hjelm from the BTH. The group had several workshop meetings to discuss the vision, functionality and effective implementation details of the cloud system.

The group workshops were productive and led to a brief plan of the system, it was outlined in a presentation that was presented by Leo to all attending members of the workshop. It was accompanied by a discussion with other members and some issues were clarified.

During the March-May 2014 period the group had 2 roles:
1. Leo and Martins were developing the cloud Panel on their own OpenStack installation in UL.
2. Oscar did cluster preparation for the prototype in BTH.
The Panel has been developed and so far we have a working new interface. It uses the OpenStack database and has all the planned functions in the interface with empty stubs for OpenStack/VPN integration: users and groups management, easy group migration to a new course; admin/user roles; lab management.

The cloud group plans to have a better understanding of the best suitable hardware for the cloud system when it has been tested in the prototype phase. The technical procurement details for the partners will be specified in autumn 2014. After that the procurement of equipment can start.

The Panel integration will be developed and preliminary tested in UL. That will produce the Alpha version of the Panel component. As soon as the Panel will be done into an Alpha version, it will be deployed in the BTH cluster for operations in the prototype mode.