Surgient Success

We are eager to advance to Saba Centra ver. 7.6 so we can take advantage of the features and capabilities offered by the Virtual Labs product. I was in attendance at the Saba Summit last week in San Fran and took the opportunity to see a brief product demonstration.  From what I gleaned persons are placed into nothing less than their own virtual lab space within which instructors can monitor, step into, take over (in a good way ;o) ), and support student learning.

A few questions:

1. What are the system requirements to include recommended bandwidth
2. What is the screen refresh rate? I am wondering about visuals such as 3D graphics.
3. This is good for MS Office and I believe I saw Photoshop; but what about computationally intensive applications such as Maple, Matlab, etc.?
4. Why was VMWare selected fro the backend over the alternatives?

Thank you, HiEdTechie 

Hi all,

We here at Raymond James also use Centra\Saba for our Distance Learning app.  We also are standing up a VQMS environment.  Could the functions of VTMS be combined in our VQMS setup?  Would we be able to use VQMS with some additional add ons for training with our Centra\Saba application or are the two completely separate entities.  Thanks

Klaus

Unfortunately, you cannot do this as is.  Centra/Saba built the integration based on a set of APIs specifically for the VTMS product.  Behind the scenes, VTMS has some different concepts then VQMS because things are handled in terms of classes with instructors and students.  However, with that said, I think that it would be possible to decide what you want to do and then work with Centra/Saba and Surgient and accomplish this.  Centra already has some hooksin place and things can be tailored to your environment to utilize the best of both products.

 Hope this helps!

 Jackie.

The RemoteAccessTraining.pdf file can be found at http://www.surgient.com/pubs/53/base/. 

 Thanks!

I've now read the Virtual Labs user guide as well as the Remote Access Testing document.  All good stuff.

The User Readiness Test (URT) tests for acceptable network performance.  As described in the Remote Testing Guide there is little mention of what levels of latency are considered acceptable.  Are the URT threshholds customizable for each customer?  For example, we may wish to have a higher minimum bandwidth requirement than what is set by default. i.e. if the URT may pass a connection with 512 Kbps with 92 ms latency but we may wish to require 784 Kbps with 70 ms latency. 

From the Classroom Readiness Test (CRT) I specifically note the differentiation between an intensive graphics lab and a minimal graphics lab. As implied, I assume there are different system requirements for bandwidth and latency based upon each scenario.  What are these?

In the higher education distance learning market our end users will come to class with a Baskin Robbins assortment of computer models and will connect via an array of ISPs via the commodity internet.  So it is therefore necessary to establish and publish a minimum set of technical requirements based upon expected needs.  I assume that since each application is different, the requirement then is identify what would be the most computationally and network traffic intensive application and thus gear the specifications to target that title.   Would you agree with that logic?

Which tool would best fit a virtual lab environment wich is geographically distributed with end users accessing the Internet via ISPs?

I am including some snippets from our URT help.  This should give you the requirements for an end user, as well as the Bandwidth information. 

CRT is primarily for classroom environments - it is intended to test a scenario where you will have a bunch of users at the same time doing the same thing.  URT is generally sufficient for dispersed users.  The minimum and preferred bandwidths are customizable.

Prerequisites

The following requirements are necessary for a successful Surgient experience:

• One of the following browsers:

• Internet Explorer 6.0 on Windows 2000 Professional or later

• Mozilla Firefox 1.5 on Red Hat Linux 9.0 or on Windows 2000 Professional or later

• Browser support for frames

• Enabled pop-ups and cookies

• Enabled }}-->JavaScript}}--> and }}-->VB}}--> Script

• Enabled Java }}-->Applets}}--> and/or Microsoft's ActiveX controls

• Java 2 Platform Standard Edition (J2SE) version 1.4.2_02 - 1.5 (available from http://}}-->www.java.com}}-->) for Internet Explorer 6.0

• Java 2 Platform Standard Edition (J2SE) version 1.4.2_06 - 1.5 (available from http://}}-->www.java.com}}-->) for Mozilla Firefox 1.5 with Windows 2000 Professional or later

• Java 2 Platform Standard Edition (J2SE) version 1.5 (available from http://}}-->www.java.com}}-->) for Mozilla Firefox 1.5 with Red Hat Linux 9.0

• Network bandwidth exceeds 80 }}-->kb}}-->/s per machine

Connection

The connection test uses different remote-access methods to determine whether ActiveX or Java is the connection type better suited for your computer and Internet connection.

During this test, your Web browser will download several pieces of embedded content. These pieces are safe and cannot interfere with any part of your computer or browser. You will need to read and accept two security notifications during this process.

If your connection test fails and network restrictions prevent you from downloading the requisite ActiveX control or Java applet, you will be unable to access the application. Contact your administrator to obtain permission to download either the ActiveX control or the Java applet.

Bandwidth

The bandwidth test measures the amount of data that can be transmitted within a set amount of time. A high bandwidth indicates a fast connection, which helps create a more satisfying user experience. A low bandwidth, however, indicates a slow connection that can result in a sluggish performance, delays, and a frustrating overall experience. A minimum bandwidth value of 25 }}-->kb}}-->/sec is required to successfully pass the test.

Test results indicate Slow, Acceptable, or Preferred bandwidth. The ranges are as follows:

• Minimum Bandwidth = 25 }}-->kb}}-->/sec

• Acceptable Bandwidth = 26 - 99 }}-->kb}}-->/sec

• Preferred Bandwidth = 100 }}-->kb}}-->/sec and above

If the bandwidth test fails because your connection is slow, use a different computer, Web browser, or network to connect to the Internet. After you successfully establish a connection, access the URT test page and run the test again.

Java Platform

Surgient solutions support Java 2 Platform Standard Edition (J2SE) version 1.4.2_02 - 1.5 for Internet Explorer and version 1.4.2_06 - 1.5 for Mozilla Firefox. 

The document I sourced from [http://www.surgient.com/pubs/53/base/  ] does not have the last three sections.  Is the source of that information above available as well?

It is terrific to read that the bandwidth levels within the URT is customizable; but is this true for hosted (ASP) solutions as well?  Too often I hear that since a server is 'shared' that such serttings are true to the entire server as opposed to a specific hosted domain.  But since you all are the kings (and queens) of virtualization I assume you have that flexibility?  ;o)

Which three sections are you referring to?  And no, the source is not available, I apologize. 

Each of our hosted customers has their own environment, so we can customize this as needed, although I don't know that we've had a request to change these particular parameters.  If we had multiple customers sharing the same application server, we couldn't be as flexible :-).

Jackie.

Sorry, I was referring to Connection, Bandwidth, and Java Platform.  I see now that it has come from the URT support web page.

I would envision a possible need to modify the bandwidth thresholds if a customer were to have very intersive graphics and wishes to set a higher level of performance to ensure expectations are met.

Best, HiEdTechie

Thanks Jackie for your response.  So essentially, we have to maintain two Surgient platforms then.  We decided to go the VQMS route first, and have our training virtual on hold.  (Currently we are running Centra on straight hardware).  If we need both Surgient VQMS and VTMS platforms to meet our needs of QA testing and virtual training labs, do you know if they can at least share the same hardware, meaning host machines? Can the virtuals of both VQMS and VTMS share the same host pools or do we need separate host farms also.  Thanks

Klaus

You could conceivably run both products on the same server within the same VCS and use the same pools. I think though, that before you did that, we would want to talk about your overall goals and potential resource contention and ultimately guide you towards an architecture that will meet your needs. For example, one thing to consider: if your training is external or revenue based, you want to protect those resources from getting used up by internal testers and do a better job of guaranteeing them for your customers.

I will also tell you that, depending on the type of training you want to do, you may be able to use VQMS to do it. If you are looking at independent student training and not a classroom based thing, you may still be able to accomplish this with your VQMS system, possibly even out of the box. However, if you are looking specifically for the Centra integration, then yes, you will either have to go the VTMS route or have something customized for the VQMS solution.

Happy Testing!

Jackie.

Thanks Jackie,

When we get to that crossroads, we will have to decide if we can run training via VQMS or integrate Centra with VTMS.  Thank you