Everlab: A Production Platform for Research in Network Experimentation and Computation

We have pioneered the deployment of EverLab, a production level private PlanetLab system using high-end clusters spread over Europe. EverLab supports both experimentation and computational work, incorporating many of the features found on Grid systems. This paper describes the decision process that led us to choose PlanetLab and the challenges that we faced during our implementation and production phases. We detail the monitoring systems that were deployed on EverLab and their impact on our management policies. The paper concludes with suggestions for future work on private PlanetLabs and federated systems.