Creating a Private Cloud with Pydio

In my previous post I talked about FreeNAS, the open-source Network Attached Storage solution. We used it to create a large storage pool for our faculty, staff, and students. Creating a storage pool is just one part of the challenge. The other, more important part, is how do you make all of that storage easily available?

A couple of years ago a member of another IT group at the university talked about Pydio (known then as Ajaxplorer). I started investigating and found that it could do many of the things we wanted, but there were some issues with how it handled authentication in one of its features. Our university uses Active Directory for authentication, and although Pydio supported AD, one particular feature of Pydio that we wanted to use did not. This meant users would have to create a separate, non-AD password to use that feature.

Fortunately Pydio is also open-source, so I set out to modify it to work the way we needed it to. The changes I submitted have now been integrated into Pydio, so it works very well in our AD environment.

Pydio (Put Your Data In Orbit) is a private cloud storage solution that uses PHP and MySQL. From an admin perspective, it is very easy to get up and running. On the user side, it features a web-based drag-and-drop interface with multiple file and folder sharing options. Users can share with other internal users, setting per-user access permissions. They can also share with external users by URL (web link), optionally with a password.

There are free Pydio apps for iOS and Android, and it even supports the WebDAV protocol (used by various apps and allows for desktop network share folders).

Once we had Pydio up and running, we started rolling it out to small test groups to make sure it would work as expected. One of the first "signs of success" we had was that the users in the test groups were encouraging other users to start using Pydio. We were very happy that our users wanted to use Pydio.

Pydio is in active development, and continues to get better. The combination of Pydio and FreeNAS is a great, inexpensive way to create a private cloud storage solution.

FreeNAS with the Supermicro SuperServer 6027R-72RF

It seems there's never enough storage. To address growing storage needs within our faculty, we looked at various storage solutions. FreeNAS, an open-source solution, stood out because our unit works with a razor thin budget. We ordered our first FreeNAS system last year.

This year we looked at building another FreeNAS system for our satellite campus to use as an off site backup of the primary system. FreeNAS uses the ZFS file system and can easily replicate one system to another. The off site system provides a good level of protection and redundancy. Should the main server fail, the secondary server can take over.

The first step was to spec and build the hardware. We looked at brand name systems, but the prices all quickly scaled beyond our budget once we added the RAM and storage space we desired. FreeNAS recommends 1GB of RAM for each terabyte of storage, and we wanted lots of storage. The configurations we looked at all ended up being over $8,000, with some of the high-storage options going over $10,000.

We decided to look at building our own system.

After a little shopping, I came across the Supermicro 6027R-72RF 2U barebones server. It has 8 SAS/SATA III hot-swap drive bays, SCSI SAS controller with SAS expander backplane, a dual socket Xeon motherboard, redundant power supply, CPU heatsinks, fans, and integrated video. Pretty much everything you need other than CPU, RAM, and hard drives. This nearly complete system was just under $1,600!

We added in a 6-core/12-thread Xeon processor, 32GB of ECC RAM, and 8 4TB Western Digital RE (RAID Edition) hard drives, and the grand total was just under $5,800 CDN (before tax). It would have almost been possible to order two of these systems for the same price as a similarly spec'ed brand name server.

Putting all of the parts together was a breeze. The whole system was assembled and booting up FreeNAS in just a few hours.

Of course, things weren't going to be perfect. :)

The support from FreeNAS of the integrated SCSI chip was pretty much non-existent. The recommendation from the FreeNAS forums was to purchase another SCSI card. Despite the information in the forums, I had no trouble running the drives in the proper JBOD mode. The biggest challenge seemed to be FreeNAS' lack of integrated support for monitoring the health of the hard drives. From what I could tell, this support is in the mfip.ko module in FreeBSD (the OS FreeNAS is based on), but that module isn't in FreeNAS.

FreeNAS does include the MegaCli utility which can be used to read a lot of information from the drives, including the SMART values. FreeNAS also has an alert system based on Python scripts. It was relatively easy to write a custom script to monitor the health of the hard drives and use FreeNAS' integrated alert system.

The system has been up and running solidly for a few months now. The next topic will describe how we're letting our users take advantage of the extra space.

Ergotron Tablet Management Cart

When we first acquired a set of iPads for use in our program, we re-purposed a laptop cart to hold and charge the iPads. The cart was quite large and heavy. There were two built-in power bars, and a total of 28 outlets. Unfortunately, we had 30 iPads. To make matters worse, the iPads had to be individually unplugged and connected to a computer for syncing, then plugged back into a power bar for charging. I also had to make sure I unplugged or plugged in both power bar cords whenever I moved the cart. Charging and managing the iPads was very time consuming and needed to be done regularly.

I discovered Ergotron at a conference where they were demonstrating their tablet management cart. They described that the cart integrated a USB hub and could be used for charging and syncing.

We decided to order a 2-cabinet "ISI" model of the cart. There are a few different models of the cart. There are carts with either 2 or 3 cabinets, and each cabinet holds up to 16 tablets. The ISI models have individual status indicators; LEDs that show the status of each tablet. There is one LED per slot. The LED will be off if no tablet is plugged in, orange if the tablet is connected and charging, and green if the device is charged. This simple feature is very useful for making sure all tablets are charged and ready for the school day.

The cart is very compact considering the number of tablets it can hold. There is a shelf on the bottom (only on the 2-cabinet model), and the top is well suited for placing a laptop on. We secured a Macbook to the top that is both for syncing the iPads and for general classroom use. We use a rubber tub on the bottom for holding cables and other accessories like the hand straps for our iPad cases.

The slots that hold the iPads are large enough to accommodate the iPads in their cases, but not with the hand straps attached (we use the Sleeve360 iPad cases). The design is clearly meant for tablets, and will not hold larger devices like Chromebooks.

Prior to use, the cart needs to be "cabled up" with the syncing cables. This process was a bit of a hassle, but not difficult. Two screws secure each USB hub (one hub per cabinet) to the cabinet. You then pull the hub forward until you can disconnect the data and power plug from the back. The back of the hub has standard USB ports for the sync cables, and brackets for wrapping extra cord length around. There is a model that is pre-cabled with Lightning connectors that costs $400 extra. If you can use the cables that came with your iPads, save yourself the $400 and do the cabling yourself. If you need spare cables, $400 is actually a pretty good deal.

The USB hubs integrated in the cart provide enough power to charge all connected tablets. What is more impressive is that when the USB plug from the cart is connected to a computer, the hubs switch to sync mode allowing all connected iPads to sync with iTunes or Apple Configurator. The hubs work in tandem, so there is just a single USB plug from the cart to the the computer. This feature is what makes this a "management cart" rather than just a storage cart. It has made it significantly easier to manage the iPads, and has saved me a considerable amount of time.

There is no question that you will need something to store and transport your tablets in. If you have 10 or fewer tablets, it is worth looking at something like the Copernicus Tech Tub. If you are using a full class set of tablets, the Ergotron cart is a much better solution. The purchase price might initially seem high, but the cost per device is as low as $75 for the 32 tablet cart with ISI. When considering the value of the time the cart will save in deploying and managing iPads, the decision should be fairly easy to make. We purchased another Ergotron 32 tablet management cart to have one at both of our campuses.

Copernicus Dewey Document Camera Stand

Many people have learned how to use their tablet as a document camera in the classroom. In fact, there are many advantages to using a tablet rather than a dedicated document camera.

If you already have a laptop connected to a projector in your classroom, check out Reflector or Airserver. They will let you mirror your iPad screen to your computer wirelessly using AirPlay. To make it a document camera, just fire up the camera app. Better yet, use an app that lets you take a picture with the iPad's camera then mark it up with drawings and shapes. Document cameras often have SD card slots for transferring pictures to a computer, but if you use an iPad you can store pictures on it and share them in any number of ways. The only issue with using your iPad as a document camera is having to hold it.

The Copernicus Dewey document camera stand is designed to let you use your iPad as a document camera, hands-free. It is a metal stand with a fairly wide base, so it is very sturdy but light enough to move around a classroom easily. It has three adjustable height settings. I wish the height adjustment was more flexible and didn't require both hands, but that is a very minor complaint. The mount holding the iPad will hold an iPad with or without a case. The mount rotates and pivots, so it makes a great iPad stand to use for viewing notes or to use with Skype, Hangouts, or FaceTime. I took a quick video of it.

Perhaps the biggest drawback to the Dewey is that it is designed for the larger iPads. It will not hold smaller tablets like the iPad Mini.

The Dewey is less than $100, so if you already have an iPad 2 or newer, a stand like this makes more sense than a dedicated document camera.

Copernicus Tech Tub

Copernicus was kind enough to send me a Tech Tub to evaluate. I have liked the idea of the Tech Tub from the moment I first saw it. It is a basically an improved version of what some teachers have already done to manage small sets of devices. I have seen milk crates and dish drainers used in various combinations, and I'm sure there have been more unusual solutions too.

The Tech Tub keeps the spirit of these implementations, but improves on them in a few ways.

The Tech Tub is very light and easy to carry. I was actually a little surprised at how light it was when I first unpacked it and picked it up. Despite its light weight, it still feels durable. Obviously any tub or carrier is going to be heavier once loaded with devices, so there are cart options for the Tech Tub. The Tub has a lid that can be locked closed with a padlock, but it is well ventilated for devices that might get a little warm when charging. There is even a lockable metal bar that slides through the bottom of the tub. This is used either to secure the Tub to an optional cart, or to secure it to brackets on a table to prevent theft or accidents.

Overall, the Tech Tub is well designed, but I think there's still room for improvement.

I tested out the Tub with a set of iPads. There is plenty of room for the iPads, but it is almost too much room. They would "flop around" a little inside the Tub. Obviously the benefit to all that space is that the Tub is suitable for devices larger than iPads (such as Chromebooks). Not all sides that the devices come in contact with are padded, so there is a concern about impact damage if the Tub is dropped or roughly transported.

The Premium version of the tub comes with a power bar, but if you want to sync multiple devices via USB, you have to unplug them from the adapters and plug them into a USB hub (not included).

There are carts designed for 1, 2, or 4 Tubs. The Tubs open from the top, so the carts for multiple Tubs are all "double-wide". It is unfortunate that there isn't a single-wide, double-tall cart because storage space is often limited in schools with respect to square footage. I do understand the challenge in design here. The Tub opens from the top so you wouldn't be able to open the bottom Tub if stacked.

When it comes to price, I believe the Tech Tub is a pretty good deal for classrooms with 10 or fewer devices. When looking at the size and price of the 4 Tub cart ($1600), I think there are better options if all the devices are regularly used together as a class set. If sharing 20 devices among multiple classrooms, having four Tech Tubs on a cart is a good solution. The only downside is the inconvenience mentioned earlier about having to unplug the devices from power and into a USB hub to sync.

Tegra Note - Evernote

I am still searching for a good Android app that is comparable to the iOS-exclusive Notability. I would love to have such an app to use with the Tegra Note, a low cost Android tablet with a well implemented stylus.

Evernote is an extremely popular note-taking platform, with clients available for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. In a recent update for the Android client, Evernote added handwriting support, including the ability to search handwritten text in documents. The following is taken from the Evernote blog entry.

"Our realization was that a fluid handwriting experience would be one that lets you easily move from writing to typing to taking photos and back all within a single note."

This description sounded like Evernote would be able to work much like Notability. I eagerly updated Evernote on the Tegra Note, but it wasn't quite what I was hoping for.

In Notability, pages are very much like actual blank pages. I can add images, text, and written notes anywhere on a page. Once added, I can select and move any of those objects anywhere within the note. In Evernote, I can indeed add handwriting, but it is placed in vertical order with other "objects". So, I can type some text, then write notes beneath that text (not next to it, or over top of it). Once I had completed the handwriting, I could not find a way to move the writing "object" to another location in the note.

As for the handwriting itself, the Tegra Note worked well, but Evernote did not support the variable widths of the stylus. The pen thickness had to be manually selected from a menu. I was impressed with the text searching. It seemed to find my printed text easily, but did not find results in my cursive writing. That isn't much of a surprise. My cursive writing is quite bad, even on real paper.

Evernote is a platform and service. You can use some of the service for free, and your notes are synchronized to the Evernote cloud service. To get additional storage and features, Evernote is $5 per month or $45 per year. While not terribly expensive, it is not a cheap service, especially in light of Google's recent price changes for Drive ($2 per month for 100GB of storage). Notability is a one-time $3 purchase, and will sync with Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, and even WebDAV.

My search for a good alternative to Notability continues...

Tegra Note - iAnnotate PDF

A general note on stylus accuracy

While using various apps on the Tegra Note 7, I would try simple drawings (like a 3D box). I found it easy enough to place the pen tip at intended points while drawing. I am not an artist, but I at least know that a proper drawing app that lets you zoom in and out for fine detail is still going to be essential. When writing text, I had no trouble "dotting my 'i's and crossing my 't's". In both drawing and writing, I had far more success than I ever do when using a stylus with Notability on the iPad. I just wish Notability was available for Android.

iAnnotate PDF

If you work with PDF files regularly, iAnnotate PDF is a great app for marking up, highlighting, commenting, and bookmarking. The controls are very simple. Two pull-tab interfaces can be hidden and revealed from the left and right as needed. The left pull-tab exposes page controls, including PDF chapters/headings, user annotations, and searching.

The right pull-tab exposes the various annotation tools.

There is a pencil for free-hand marking up of the document. Unfortunately this tool does not support the stylus-width control of the Tegra Note. To be fair to the Note, iAnnotate doesn't seem to support pencil widths at all, so I doubt a tablet with an active stylus would have an advantage.

Next is the annotation button. Touch the button, then touch a point on the PDF document and you can type in an annotation. These are the annotations that can be navigated through using the tool in the left pull-tab.

There is a highlighter for highlighting text. Note that this will only highlight text and cannot be used freehand like the pencil tool. The advantage to this is it is very easy to accurately highlight text. The disadvantage is that some PDF files are scanned without the use of OCR, so the PDF is actually just a "picture" of text.

There are a couple of buttons for scroll-lock and fit-width, and the last button on the toolbar is a toolbox button. The toolbox button exposes even more tools. In the toolbox you will find strikeout and underline tools that operate much like the highlighter. There are tools for adding, and navigating through, bookmarks. It also has buttons for emailing the PDF, the PDF with annotations, or just the annotations.

If you regularly work with non-PDF documents, iAnnotate PDF won't be of much use. Also, you cannot use iAnnotate to add or remove pages within a PDF. The interface does require some accurate touches, so in this regard the Tegra Note was tremendously useful. The fine tip of the stylus made highlighting, drawing, and placing bookmarks and annotations much easier than depending on finger touches or constantly zooming in and out.

iAnnotate will stay installed on the Tegra Note for now, but I will keep looking for a good Notability alternative.