wiki:GENIExperimenter/Tutorials/jacks/GettingStarted_PartI/Procedure/DesignSetup

Version 87 (modified by Vic Thomas, 8 years ago) (diff)

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Lab Zero: A First Experiment Using GENI

Image Map

1. Design the Experiment

  1. In today's experiment you will use resources at the aggregate (a.k.a. site) listed on the worksheet. If you don't have a worksheet, use any aggregate with InstaGENI or ExoGENI in it's name.

2. Establish the Environment

2.1 Pre-work: Create a GENI account

  1. Go to https://portal.geni.net and press the Use GENI button
  2. Where prompted, begin typing your organization's name, and select it from the list. If you got an account through the GENI Identity Provider, type GENI Project Office.
    Tip Start typing the name of your institution and see the list become smaller.
  3. You will be transferred to the Login Page of your institution. Fill in your username and password.
  4. Complete the form that appears after you have successfully logged in and press Continue.
  5. You will be transferred to an Activation Page. Make sure both checkboxes are checked and then press Activate.
Use GENI
Figure 2-1 Logging into the GENI Experimenter Portal.

Congratulations, you have successfully created a GENI account.

2.2 Pre-work: Project lead adds you to a project

In order to use the portal to reserve resources, you must join a project. We have created a project for this tutorial.

  1. The tutorial organizers should have added you to the project for this tutorial. On the home page, you should see that you are a member of at least one project.
    Tip If you are not doing this exercise as part of an in-person tutorial please sign up for a GENI account and join a project.

2.3 Generate and Download SSH Keypair

Access to compute resources in GENI is provided through ssh key pairs and thus the portal needs a public key to upload to compute resources. For the purposes of the tutorial we will have the portal create an SSH key pair for you. (However, if you prefer to use your personal public key you can choose to upload it.)

  1. Once you are logged in, click on your name in the upper right hand corner and select SSH Keys from the pulldown menu.
  2. On the new page, select the generate and download an SSH keypair button.
  1. Enter the same passphrase twice, then press Generate SSH private key. Note: You will need to remember the passphrase later in the tutorial.
Download an SSH Key Pair
Figure 2-4 Download an SSH Key Pair.

Mac OS X/Linux

  1. Now, click the Download Private Key button.
  2. In a command line terminal, move your key to the appropriate location and ensure that it has the right permissions by typing (replacing ~/Downloads/ with actual location if necessary):
    mv ~/Downloads/id_geni_ssh_rsa ~/.ssh/.
    chmod 0600 ~/.ssh/id_geni_ssh_rsa
    
  3. (Mac and Linux only) Finally, add this key to the ssh agent by typing:
    ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_geni_ssh_rsa
    

Windows PuTTY

  1. Now, click the Download PuTTY Key button, and save the key to your computer.
  2. Later you will need to remember the location of the key.

Windows FireSSH

  1. Now, click the Download Private Key button, and save the key to your computer.
  2. Later you will need to remember the location of the key.

3. Obtain Resources

Now that you are a member of a project, you can create a slice and reserve resources.

3.1 Create a slice

  1. Go to the Home tab.
  2. Press the + New slice button.
  3. Ensure the correct project name is selected in the Project name field.
  4. As a slice name use the slice name on your worksheet. If you don't have a worksheet, use lab0<your initials>. You can leave the description empty and press Create Slice

3.2 (optional) Renew your slice

Slices and the resources within them are reserved until their individual expiration times. Renewing allows you to extend the expiration time of your slice and the resources in them.

Warning Slices and the resources within them have distinct expiration times. You must renew both the slice and the resources separately.
  1. You can renew your slice and resources both from the Home page and from the Slice page. From the Home page you can only renew slices once they have resources and only for a predetermined amount of time, i.e. 7 days. For this tutorial we are going to Slice page.
  2. On the Slice page, select Renew and then Renew slice only radio button.
  3. Click on the date to the right. In the calendar that pops up, select a date in the near future.
  4. Press Renew to renew the slice. Renewing the slice now allows the resources to have longer initial expiration times.
Renew slice
Figure 3-2 Renew the slice.

3.3 Reserve Two Virtual Machines at One Aggregate

The Portal is integrated with a tool, Jacks, which allows you to draw topologies of GENI resources and then reserve them.

  1. In the upper left hand corner of the Slice page, click the Add Resources button.
  2. Wait for Jacks to open in editing mode. Jacks should look like the picture to the right.
Jacks
Figure 3-3 Jacks after it has loaded.
  1. Click the black VM box and drag it onto the canvas. This icon represents a generic default-vm which the aggregate has a well known default for (for InstaGENI it is a Xen VM and for ExoGENI it is an ExoSmall).
  2. Repeat the above step. You should now see two VM boxes on the canvas.
  3. Now click near one of the VM boxes on the canvas, then click and drag towards the other VM. Release when you reach the other VM. You should now see a line and a box representing a link connecting the two VMs.
  4. The canvas should now look like the picture on the right.
Two VMs connected by a link.
Figure 3-4 Two VMs connected by a link.
  1. To edit the name of the VM, click the VM box.
  2. In the "Name" field at the top, replace "node-0" with "client".
  3. Repeat for the VM labeled node-1. In the "Name" field at the top, replace "node-1" with "server".
Relabel VM
Figure 3-5 Edit the name of the VM.
  1. Assign IP addresses to the interfaces. The easiest way to do this is to have the tool auto-assign IP addresses by clicking on the Auto IP button.
Auto IP
Figure 3-6 Assign IP addresses to the interfaces using Auto IP.
  1. Click the "Site 1" box and select from the pulldown menu the aggregate you wish to request these resources from. If completing this tutorial with a group, select the aggregate you've been assigned, otherwise select any aggregate with InstaGENI or ExoGENI in its name. Make note of whether or not your aggregate is an ExoGENI or InstaGENI aggregate. This information may be useful later when running the experiment. Also note that some aggregates may be more busy than others. If you experience difficulties, it is suggested that you repeat the steps with a new slice and select a different aggregate.
  2. The "Reserve Resources" button at the bottom of the pane should now be clickable, Click it.
Two VMs connected by a link
Figure 3-7 Binding the topology to an aggregate.

3.4 Check Whether Virtual Machines are Ready to be Used

  1. After clicking the "Reserve Resources" button, a new page will open giving "Status".
  2. Once the "Status" states "Finished", resources have been reserved. However, the nodes still need to come up which may take some time.
Status Finished
Figure 3-8 Reservation complete.
  1. Return to the Slice page.
  2. Wait until all of the nodes turn green. The page should now look like the picture on the right.
Status Finished
Figure 3-9 Nodes are ready to login.

Introduction

Next: Execute