Administrative-Policies.md

-Most any legitimate research/experimental use is allowed, including use by
-companies. Of course, when demand exceeds supply we will have to assign
-priorities to projects, but the hardware base will be expanding. Due to
-limited resources and other issues, we currently allow only research use of
-the wide-area nodes; educational and development use are not permitted.
+This document summarizes the administrative policies that relate to the
+operation of the Utah Emulab network testbed (“Emulab”) by the Flux
+Research Group and its members who operate Emulab (“Emulab staff”).
+For a summary of who may use Emulab and what it may be used for, see the
+[Acceptable Use Policy](Acceptable use policy).
 
-### Allocation Priority
+## Resource Allocation Priority
 
-When the testbed become oversubscribed we will be allocating its resources
-based on some function-- currently vague but in roughly this order-- of
-perceived research value and broader impact, the testbed's uniqueness as a
-suitable platform for the research, novelty as a testbed application,
-resources required (typically: number of nodes), experimenters'
-contribution to testbed software development, experimenters' lack of access
-to other appropriate facilities, sponsorship by our primary sponsors
-(currently NSF and Cisco), educational value, affiliation with an academic
-institution, whether the project is funded/peer-reviewed, and for
-commercial users, their willingness to help defray costs, i.e., pay.
+The Emulab staff encourage users to plan ahead with respect to their
+experimentation needs; use Emulab's reservation system to schedule their
+activities, especially those that require large numbers of nodes; and to
+request only the resources that they need, only for as long as they need them.
 
-Many development-oriented commercial experiments and evaluations will be
-allowed, but with lower priority.
+Even if everyone follows these guidelines, there are times when the demand for
+resources exceeds the supply, and Emulab staff are required to exercise
+judgment in the current and future allocation of resources to users.  In
+general, priority is given to users and experiments that:
 
-### Reporting
+  * have communicated a specific and obtainable deadline to Emulab staff,
+    e.g., a conference paper submission deadline;
+  * have communicated and adequately justified a need for specific testbed
+    resources to Emulab staff, e.g., “I need this many nodes of type X
+    for this long because...”;
+  * have a demonstrated history of effectively using the resources that they
+    have allocated, e.g., by not letting resources sit idle;
+  * are performing experiments as part of preparing a publication that will be
+    peer-reviewed;
+  * are contributing to the advancement or awareness of Emulab itself, e.g., a
+    scheduled tutorial;
+  * have limited resource requirements, i.e., “small requests”;
+  * are associated with an academic institution;
+  * lack access to other suitable facilities for experimentation;
+  * are supported by the sponsors of Emulab itself (currently, NSF).
 
-In order to assess the testbed's impact and report to our sponsors, we
-simply require notice of all publications or patents to which the testbed
-contributed. Formal acknowledgement in such publications is required as
-well, by citing the following paper:
+Emulab staff are eager to help researchers and educators use the resources of
+the testbed as effectively as possible.  Key to this is communication between
+Emulab staff and users.  If you have specific requirements or questions about
+using Emulab, please send email to Emulab support:
+[testbed-ops@flux.utah.edu](mailto:testbed-ops@flux.utah.edu).
 
-[An Integrated Experimental Environment for Distributed Systems and Networks](http://www.cs.utah.edu/flux/papers/netbed-osdi02-base.html), by White, Lepreau, Stoller, Ricci, Guruprasad, Newbold, Hibler, Barb, and Joglekar, appeared at [OSDI 2002](http://www.usenix.org/events/osdi02/), December 2002.
+## Acknowledgment
 
-You can use this **[BibTex entry](http://www.cs.utah.edu/flux/papers/netbed-osdi02.bib)** to
-cite Netbed/Emulab. Finally, we will be soliciting feedback and suggestions
-from our users.
+To help assess the testbed's impact and report to sponsors, the Flux Research
+Group requires notice of all publications or patents to which the testbed
+contributed.
 
-### Governance
+Formal acknowledgment in such publications is required as well.  Acknowledgment
+may be given by citing the following paper:
 
-An administrative board, including representatives from our major sponsors,
-will be involved in setting broad policy and have review
-authority. Typically, a small executive committee composed of members from
-the University of Utah Flux research group will decide most resource
-allocation issues.
+> Brian White, Jay Lepreau, Leigh Stoller, Robert Ricci, Shashi Guruprasad, Mac
+> Newbold, Mike Hibler, Chad Barb, and Abhijeet Joglekar.  An Integrated
+> Experimental Environment for Distributed Systems and Networks.  In
+> _Proceedings of the 5th Symposium on Operating Systems Design and
+> Implementation (OSDI)_, pages 255–270, December 2002.
+> https://www.usenix.org/legacy/event/osdi02/tech/white.html
 
-A Technical Advisory Board is also being formed, containing distinguished
-members of the network and distributed systems research communities.
+The following BibTeX record may be useful to you:
 
-### Disclaimer
+```
+@inproceedings{emulab,
+  author =       "Brian White and Jay Lepreau and Leigh Stoller and
+                  Robert Ricci and Shashi Guruprasad and Mac Newbold and
+                  Mike Hibler and Chad Barb and Abhijeet Joglekar",
+  title =        "An Integrated Experimental Environment for Distributed
+                  Systems and Networks",
+  booktitle =    "Proceedings of the 5th Symposium on Operating Systems Design
+                  and Implementation (OSDI)",
+  month =        dec,
+  year =         2002,
+  pages =        "255--270",
+  url =          "https://www.usenix.org/legacy/event/osdi02/tech/white.html"
+}
+```
 
-We are providing broad access to the testbed in the hopes that it will be
-useful, but we do so **WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY**; without even the implied
+## Disclaimer
+
+The Flux Research Group provides broad access to Emulab in the hope that it
+will be useful, but does so **WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY**; without even the implied
 warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
 
-**WE DISCLAIM ALL LIABILITY** from errors in results or security breaches
-resulting from emulab's use. The system has been in production use for over
-a year, but is constantly undergoing rapid development, so significant
-amounts of code are always new. We make an effort to provide inter-project
-security, but users must realize that high security is unlikely in i) such
-a new and rapidly evolving system, ii) where users have such complete
-control over hardware and software resources, and iii) in such a public
-facility that will attract attack.
+**THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH, THE FLUX RESEARCH GROUP, AND ITS MEMBERS DISCLAIM ALL
+LIABILITY** from errors in results or security breaches resulting from Emulab's
+use.  The system has been in production use since 2000, but is constantly
+undergoing rapid development, so significant amounts of code are always new.
+Emulab development and operations staff make efforts to provide inter-project
+security, but users must realize that perfect security is unlikely (1) in such
+a new and rapidly evolving system, (2) where users have such complete control
+over hardware and software resources, and (3) in such an Internet-accessible,
+public facility that is subject to continual threats.