Our Cloud is fully backed by AWS services. Airtame devices communicate with the Cloud via secure websockets. Usage of websockets results in a large number of active connections, usually around 10k. Websockets are used to synchronize settings between the Cloud and Airtames.

The size of the exchanged data is relatively high. Devices send pictures of dynamic dashboards, which are displayed while the Airtame device is not streaming.

If we gather all these facts we start to see that Cloud costs are related to the increasing number of users. This was a good starting point for us.

The problem

Our infrastructure hasn’t changed much over the last few months, the only change was the number of users – which is, of course, a great problem to have!

We discovered the problem quite quickly: we were running server instances in multiple availability zones (AZ) inside one region. From our billing information, we could see that we were transferring around 2200 GB per day. 1900 GB inside AZs and 300 GB to the internet. Prices for transferring to the internet are 10x higher than between AZs. Costs for transfer between AZs should be zero.

 

 

Finding a solution

We started exploring our internal Cloud network in AWS Console. As an entry point to our Cloud, we use Nginx public proxies. Only our public proxies are accessible from the Internet, and they purpose is simple: They serve static data and proxy API request to a backend instance. Public proxies were running in AZ 1b.

The backend does the heavy lifting and processes API requests. Unfortunately, the backend instances were hosted in AZ 1a. This means that all API requests were transferred between AZs.

To handle requests, the backend additionally connects to MySQL and Redis. And only to make things worse, MySQL and Redis were in AZ 1b, resulting in additional transfers to the first zone and then sending results back the same way requests came in.

Once we figured out the root cause of our problem, we came up with a plan to move everything to the same AZ. Moving so many servers between AZ wasn’t easy, and we caused only a few outages along the road.

We were able to move RDS from one AZ to another without downtime with this neat trick: First, we enabled multi-AZ deployment and then used reboot with failover to switch primary DBs. AWS guarantees that DBs in multi-AZ are consistent and can be used interchangeably.

We took advantage of an interesting side effect of a reboot with failover, which is primarily used for DB updates. It first switches primary RDS to failover DB and then performs a reboot, resulting in zero downtime.

dbtechno.blogspot.com

Now the real question: how did this happen? Terraform, our infrastructure as code software, is a good servant, but a bad master. Its defaults can be dangerous. We didn’t specify AZs in Terraform’s configuration and as a result, it has chosen random AZs. The easy fix was to define AZs for all resources.

We’ve successfully minimized costs of inter-AZ transfers to zero. This significantly reduced the cost of our Cloud network cost by 63%. This price reduction – not to mention the resource and time surplus – will be fed back into our production line; creating an even more sustainable Cloud environment for our growing user base. 

Watch this short video showing how the Airtame Cloud management works:

This piece was written by Peter, with additional writing from Raghav Karol and Jakob Bauers from the Airtame infrastructure team

The post How we reduced Cloud network infrastructure costs by 63% appeared first on Airtame.

The high school has followed Airtame journey since the early days and after some testing, they have recently chosen to roll out Airtames to all 40 classrooms.

The school prides itself on the quality of education they offer, including their dedication to providing the best in modern technology for their teachers and students.

By going wireless, teachers and students are free to get up from their desks and engage interactively during lessons. They no longer waste time connecting their laptops to the projector through a wire.

About Dronninglund Gymnasium

• 550 students
• 60 staff members
• 40 classrooms

Find out how Dronninglund Gymnasium uses Airtame to improve the educational experience.

Hidden from view, yet easy to access

From an IT administrator’s point of view, stability and easy administration are key factors in choosing a wireless HDMI solution for the school.

We had been looking for a wireless way to connect to our classroom projectors for a while and had tested a range of other solutions alongside Airtame. Recently, we decided to test Airtame out in 7 classrooms and both students and teachers reacted well to it. Some students even asked, why isn’t this in every classroom already?

Frank Olsen, IT Manager at Dronninglund Gymnasium

The high school in Dronninglund has installed the Airtames in their classroom projectors. The Airtame is hidden together with the rest of the power cables in the cable tray of the projector mount.

Airtame is cabled to the network via ethernet to ensure maximum stability and the lowest possible delay between the computer and the projector screen.

To manage the device, the IT administrators access the Airtame’s device management panel through the use of a web browser from the comfort of their office.

Priority on stability

At Airtame, our number one priority is streaming stability. As we talked about in a previous post, we put our software and firmware through various stages of testing.

By using early release testing in real life environments (as opposed to keeping the testing in-house), we manage to catch more bugs.

Airtame is a very stable product. Both the hardware and software have performed stably in all of our tests. Our experiences with other wireless solutions have meant that we sat down and tried to stress out the Airtame in order to see if it would hold up in our environment. I haven’t yet seen an Airtame that broke down which makes me comfortable with putting it out in all our classrooms.

Jacob Tranholm, IT Administrator at Dronninglund Gymnasium

User-friendly connection

There are two ways to connect to an Airtame from your computer or mobile device:

• Use WiFi discovery to pull up a list of available Airtames on your network
• Connect by typing in the Airtame’s unique IP address.

The second option is best practice in an educational environment like Dronninglund Gymnasium with multiple Airtames being shared by over 600 users. The IP connect function makes sure that no one streams to the wrong screen.

Dronninglund Gymnasium not only disables WiFi discovery on their school network, but also changes the IP addresses of each Airtame every night as an extra layer of security.

Read more about how to enable and disable the discovery feature in your organization here.

With fewer technical interruptions when connecting, teachers and students can focus on learning.

We haven’t had problems with people connecting to the wrong screens. It is easy to connect and disconnect. Both our students and teachers have quickly learned how to get their content on the screens using the Airtame.

Frank Olsen, IT Manager at Dronninglund Gymnasium

Best practices for a wireless campus

Display a ‘Get Started’ guide

Use the Dashboard feature to create an easy ‘Get Started’ guide.

Dronninglund uses the custom background functionality to add a custom background with easy instructions for new users to get started quickly:

Connect with IP instead of auto discovery

Dronninglund uses the Connect with IP functionality when streaming to Airtame. This way, students are sure to connect to the right screen. To add an extra layer of security, the IT department configured the network to assign a new name/IP address to each Airtame every night.

Dronninglund Gymnasium’s Airtame setup

• One VLAN for all devices
• Airtame connected via ethernet using an ethernet adapter.
• Airtame’s WiFi AP turned off to reduce interference and simplify info presented to users

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This is the set up that works for Dronninglund Gymnasium, but it is certainly not the only way to integrate Airtame into a campus setting.

Are you an educator looking for a stable and user-friendly wireless HDMI solution? Write to sales@airtame.com and we’ll help you go wireless!

The post Airtame for educational use appeared first on Airtame.