Saturday 21 May 2011

Setting Up iLab Liberia


A Little Background

The idea of a setting up a tech center (iLab Liberia) in Liberia was brought forward by Kate and John, the two core team members of Ushahidi Liberia, as they thought of leaving a permanent mark on Liberia that should outlive the Ushahidi project that is meant to consummate after elections this year. Following discussions with stakeholders, of which I was a part, it was concluded that that was a project worth undertaking, although some thought that it was too ambitious.

Getting to Work

By March, this year I started working with Ushahidi as IT Director along with Carter (Deputy IT Director) and Luther (Training Director) under the supervision of John (Tech Lead) and Kate (Project Manager).

As expected, project number one was to setup the tech center with Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat desktop and server editions.

The Environment

Gratefully, we have a dedicated connection to the Internet via VSAT running at 384/128 kilobits per second (kbps) on C-band. This means that we can download files at speeds up to 48 kilobytes per second (KBps) and upload at up to 16KBps (conversion: 8 bits = 1 Byte). This is significant considering that that the average Internet connection speed in Liberia is 128/64 kilobits per second (i.e. 16/8 KBps) on a very shared mobile connection. Also, with annual rainfall in Liberia at over 200 inches under a familiarly cloudy sky, a KU-band satellite connection will only work for 1/3 of the year.

We also have a very beautiful view of the ocean and the city of Monrovia from our fourth floor office on 20th Street, Sinkor. We are neighbors to the largest hospital in the country, the John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital. We are geocoded at 6.287929,-10.775193 on the fourth floor of a twin building.

View from the iLab's back porch
Entrance to iLab Liberia building

Initially, we had limited electricity for about six hours a day but that is now completely 24/7 on diesel generator sets.

Beginning the Setup

Starting with three Dell Vostro desktops running Windows 7, eight desks, a projector and screen, and an N-band wireless router, the question of the physical layout naturally emerged. Following brainstorming sessions on this, Carter and I suggested connecting the desktop computers via wireless to avoid all the cable clutter and to allow for flexibility in rearranging desks to suit various needs. This wireless setup was approved and we went out to find compatible wireless cards for Linux.

iLab configuration


The Ups, Downs and Lessons Learned

Our next step was to download and install Ubuntu 10.10 on the initial 3 tech center computers. With the help of a download manager, we got the ISO of both desktop and server editions downloaded in about 9 hours over a span of two days, and installed them.

Getting a wireless card that was compatible with Linux on the Liberian market was not possible.  In the end, we settled for a D-Link DWA-525 compatible card which emphatically declares compatibility with Microsoft Windows 7 only. All the associated drivers and software were all Windows based.

With some work and research, we got the cards to work in Linux. The Ubuntu Forum is a very helpful place to go for both newbies and pros alike. These sites proved very helpful in getting around this problem:
1.     http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=571188 (General wireless setup)
2.     http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1559576 (Getting DWA-525 cards to work)

Since security is always an issue with wireless networks, we tightened our network with WPA2-AES-CCMP.

One desktop was set aside for a server running Ubuntu Server 10.10 edition. Making these cards work on the server edition without a GUI wasn't as enjoyable as the desktop edition.

To make the server easy to administer for the other staff, we had to download and install the GUI. Then we installed webmin which enables configuration of the server over a secured browser interface on the local area network. The plan was to configure LDAP and NFS on all client machines so that user accounts can be carried from computer to computer. Auto-mounting NFS file systems at start-up did not work well with the wireless cards, even with ndiswrapper.

During that time, Carter and I prepared the initial draft guidelines for the tech center as well as creating a name for the tech center. We configured FrontlineSMS on our computers and tested them with the Ushahidi platform.

Switching power damaged one of our APC UPSs and we had to get the battery replaced. At this time, we decided that getting more desktops was not the best option after all for many reasons. First, dependence on UPS’s that themselves needed protection from power surges was not an option. Second, the wireless cards were certainly not working well with NFS and we needed user files to be stored on the server. Thirdly, and probably most importantly, price was not in favor of desktops. The first three desktops we bought cost us US $1,200.00 a piece, which meant that we could not get as many computers as we needed for the lab. Their size, weight and clearing formalities would cost us more to ship some from the U. S. Laptops were the obvious choice, but which?

New Plans, New Implementations

Being a biased Thinkpad user, it was natural for me to recommend it as the laptop of choice. After much discussion, it was clear that Thinkpad laptops had a clear advantage with regard to reliability, compatibility with Linux, toughness, and they fit right into our purpose. For the price of one desktop, we could get two of these legendary brand machines plus security locks at a lower shipping cost.

Also, we needed to change our wireless router to provide guest access to our visitors and the wireless adapters in the desktops to natively supported cards in Linux.

The first step was to fully convince ourselves that Thinkpads were the way to go. So, we ordered a brand new Lenovo Thinkpad SL510 on TigerDirect for US $480.00 and a dual-lock from Amazon and had it brought to Liberia by Kate’s friend.

With the arrival of our first Thinkpad computer, we immediately tested it against all our requirements and found it fit for the purpose. Test results from the computer and lock convinced us to move ahead with our plans to buy the eight more laptops and four locks for the iLab setup.

The existing server was immediately downgraded to a regular desktop computer, whilst the new Thinkpad laptop replaced it as the new server—yes, a laptop server!

We patiently awaited the arrival of our newly purchased laptops that were then stuck at the airport awaiting duty-free privilege documents to be processed. Three days passed by with Carter and I unsuccessfully running between the office and the Ministry of Finance, to get the clearance documents for FedEx to release our packages. Using her special gift of dealing with TIA (This Is Africa) situations, Kate was able to get all documents processed, packages cleared and delivered in one day!

We immediately unpacked and began setting up the new Thinkpads. Their network adapters connected to wireless before we even started installing Ubuntu on them! NFS auto-mounting worked like a breeze over the N-band wireless network and we were all set and ready to go.

In about a week, our newly-bought Cisco Linksys E3200 arrived in Liberia. We configured it and tested it with the iLab computers. Being fully convinced that we had made the right choices, we replaced our old router with the new one and had all our iLab computers connect to it.

Ready to Conquer the World!

With all the technical aspects of the lab setup done, we shifted focus to documentation, web development, and finalizing the user guidelines. To enforce compliance, we configured our router to serve OpenDNS addresses to iLab computers and guests through which we can restrict our Internet connection.

We used Google Sites to rapidly deploy a website for iLab Liberia at http://www.ilabliberia.com/, where potential users can register for events, and keep up with developments around the lab. We also have a Twitter feed at @ilabliberia as well as a Facebook group named iLab Liberia (http://www.facebook.com/pages/iLab-Liberia/201149189929049).

After thorough testing of the iLab website, computers, and network infrastructure, we are ready to conquer the world!